Sunday To Society

About Sunday To Society

"From the Pew to the Public Square" Sunday to Society is a weekly podcast exploring today’s world through the lens of a Christian worldview. Hosted solo with occasional guests, each episode challenges listeners to move beyond passive faith and engage culture with clarity, conviction, and Christ at the center. Whether unpacking current events, cultural trends, or theological questions, this podcast invites you to think biblically and live boldly—every day of the week.

Publisher

Riley Reno

Category

religion & spirituality · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

5 May 2025

Latest episode

9 Nov 2026

Latest episodes

82 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   9 Nov 2026

   What the Pilgrims Actually Meant by Thanksgiving | Thanksgiving Series Part 1

   On March 24, 1621, Elizabeth Winslow died at Plymouth. She was about 27, and she was the last person to die that first winter. A few weeks earlier, Susanna White had buried her husband William, leaving her with a five-year-old son and a baby born aboard the Mayflower. In May, Susanna married Elizabeth’s widower, Edward Winslow, in the first wedding in the colony. That autumn Susanna was one of only four adult women still alive at the harvest gathering we now call the “first Thanksgiving.” Her new husband wrote the only eyewitness account of it. But here’s the surprise: the Pilgrims didn’t think of that harvest meal as their thanksgiving. When they used the word, they meant a day set apart for worship, and it usually came after a day of humiliation and prayer. This is Part 1 of a three-part Thanksgiving series on Sunday to Society. In this episode we cover: Who Elizabeth Winslow and Susanna White were, and what the first winter cost Plymouth What we actually know about the 1621 harvest gathering, which rests on only two primary sources The drought of 1623, the day of humiliation and prayer, and the rain that followed Why the Pilgrims put humiliation before thanksgiving, and what that order still teaches We also acknowledge that many Native people observe Thanksgiving Day as a National Day of Mourning, and we encourage listeners to seek out Wampanoag voices on this history. Parts 2 and 3 air the next two Mondays before Thanksgiving: the Revolution and the first presidential proclamation, then Lincoln and the long campaign that made Thanksgiving a national holiday. Scripture: Psalm 100:4, Philippians 4:6, 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (KJV) Sources referenced in this episode: The “First Thanksgiving” (Pilgrim Hall Museum): https://www.pilgrimhall.org/thanksgiving-national-day-of-mourning/the-first-thanksgiving/ (https://www.pilgrimhall.org/thanksgiving-national-day-of-mourning/the-first-thanksgiving/) Primary sources for the 1621 gathering (Pilgrim Hall Museum, PDF): https://mail.pilgrimhall.org/pdf/Primary_Sources_Thanksgiving.pdf (https://mail.pilgrimhall.org/pdf/Primary_Sources_Thanksgiving.pdf) Eyewitness account of the 1621 harvest celebration (Plimoth Patuxet Museums): https://plimoth.org/yath/unit-4/eye-witness-account-of-the-1621-harvest-celebration (https://plimoth.org/yath/unit-4/eye-witness-account-of-the-1621-harvest-celebration) Fast and Thanksgiving Days of Plymouth Colony: https://www.gospelherald.com/news/fast-and-thanksgiving-days-of-plymouth-colony (https://www.gospelherald.com/news/fast-and-thanksgiving-days-of-plymouth-colony) Susanna White Winslow (Pilgrim Hall Museum): https://www.pilgrimhall.org/?p=1859 (https://www.pilgrimhall.org/?p=1859) Susanna White Winslow, 17th-century documents (Pilgrim Hall, PDF): https://mail.pilgrimhall.org/pdf/Susanna_White_Winslow_17th_Century_Documents.pdf (https://mail.pilgrimhall.org/pdf/Susanna_White_Winslow_17th_Century_Documents.pdf) Women of the Mayflower (The Mayflower Society): https://themayflowersociety.org/?p=4004 (https://themayflowersociety.org/?p=4004) The deaths of the first winter (American Ancestors): https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2020/05/the-grim-reaper (https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2020/05/the-grim-reaper) Further reading: William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation; Edward Winslow, Good Newes from New England (1624) Sunday to Society is a Christian podcast exploring how men and women of faith lived out their convictions in the public square, and what their stories mean for ours. New episodes weekly. Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.

2. 

   2 Nov 2026

   The Real Eric Liddell: What Chariots of Fire Left Out

   On Sunday, July 6, 1924, the 100-metre heats were run at the Paris Olympics without Britain’s fastest sprinter. Eric Liddell was at church. He had known the schedule for months, and he had already decided. Most people know the next part from Chariots of Fire: the folded note before the 400-metre final, the gold medal, the world-record time. But the film ends with the stadium. Liddell’s real story keeps going for another twenty years. In 1925, at the height of his fame, he left Britain for North China, the country where he was born to missionary parents. He taught at a school in Tientsin, was ordained in 1932, and later served in a rural mission station in a war zone. In 1941 his wife and daughters were evacuated to Canada while Eric stayed behind. In 1943 he was interned at Weihsien camp, where about 2,000 prisoners lived under Japanese guard. Inside the barbed wire, the most famous athlete in the world became “Uncle Eric.” He taught the children, led Bible studies, and organized games. He died on February 21, 1945, of a brain tumor, at 43, five months before the camp was freed. A fellow prisoner said he came as close to a saint as anyone he had known. This is the story the film left out. In this episode we trace three threads through Liddell’s life: the stand he took in Paris, the quiet years in China, and the camp where his convictions were tested hardest. And we ask what it means to settle your convictions before the pressure arrives. Scripture: 1 Samuel 2:30, Romans 12:1, Philippians 2:4 (KJV) Sources referenced in this episode: Eric Liddell Papers (SOAS University of London): https://digital.soas.ac.uk/elp/about (https://digital.soas.ac.uk/elp/about) Eric Liddell timeline (ericliddell.org): https://ericliddell.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Timeline.pdf (https://ericliddell.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Timeline.pdf) Eric Liddell (University of Edinburgh alumni history): https://alumni.ed.ac.uk/services/notable-alumni/alumni-in-history/eric-liddell (https://alumni.ed.ac.uk/services/notable-alumni/alumni-in-history/eric-liddell) Eric Liddell (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Liddell (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Liddell) Eric Liddell’s death at Weihsien (History Scotland): https://www.historyscotland.com/history/olympic-athlete-eric-liddell-died-in-a-japanese-internment-camp-on/ (https://www.historyscotland.com/history/olympic-athlete-eric-liddell-died-in-a-japanese-internment-camp-on/) Further reading: Duncan Hamilton, For the Glory (2016); Norman Cliff, Prisoners of the Samurai (1998); Langdon Gilkey, Shantung Compound (1966) Sunday to Society is a Christian history podcast exploring how men and women of faith lived out their convictions in the public square, and what their stories mean for ours. New episodes weekly. Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.

3. 

   26 Oct 2026

   What Really Happened on October 31, 1517 | Martin Luther and the 95 Theses

   On October 31, 1517, a 33-year-old monk and university professor sat down in Wittenberg and wrote to his archbishop. Attached to the letter were 95 propositions about indulgences, written in Latin and meant for academic debate. Martin Luther wasn’t trying to start a revolution. He was asking a question. The famous picture of Luther swinging a hammer at the church door comes to us from later accounts. What the evidence documents is a letter. It was addressed to Archbishop Albert of Mainz, the very man who profited from the indulgence sales Luther was questioning. Within weeks, printers across Germany had copied the Theses and spread them far beyond the university. In this episode we trace how a scholar’s question escalated into the most consequential confrontation in church history: The indulgence system and why a pastor like Luther couldn’t stay silent What the Theses actually say, including Thesis 1, a call to a whole life of repentance The escalation: Augsburg in 1518, the Leipzig Debate in 1519, the papal bull of 1520 that Luther burned, and his excommunication in 1521 A short look ahead to Worms, where Luther refused to recant unless convinced by Scripture It’s also a Reformation Day callback. Exactly 102 years after Jan Huss was burned at Constance, the question he died for was back on the table. Scripture: Matthew 4:17, Romans 1:17, Ephesians 2:8-9 (KJV) Primary sources referenced in this episode: Luther, Ninety-Five Theses, 1517 Nuremberg printing (Library of Congress): https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_07497/ (https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_07497/) The 95 Theses in English (World History Encyclopedia): https://worldhistory.org/article/1891 (https://worldhistory.org/article/1891) Luther’s cover letter to Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz, October 31, 1517 (Project Wittenberg): https://www.projectwittenberg.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/nine5-albrecht.txt (https://www.projectwittenberg.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/nine5-albrecht.txt) Luther’s letter to the Archbishop of Mainz (Internet Medieval Sourcebook): https://webhome.auburn.edu/~zuwiyzd/civluther.htm (https://webhome.auburn.edu/~zuwiyzd/civluther.htm) Further reading: Roland Bainton, Here I Stand (1950); Martin Brecht, Martin Luther: His Road to Reformation (1985) Sunday to Society is a Christian podcast exploring how men and women of faith lived out their convictions in the public square, and what their stories mean for ours. New episodes weekly. Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.

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Apple Podcasts (US)

4.8 / 5

5 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

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