As Americans celebrate 250 years since the birth of the USA, we ask what the American project has delivered and what its future might be?

Life & Faith examines the 250th anniversary of the USA. What were the founding ideals? How much have those ideals been realised? What might the future of the union be?

And what about the contribution and implications of the religious layer to this story. Is, or was the United States ever, a “Christian country?” Well, it’s ... complicated. It takes some untangling.

To sort through the complexity we are joined by historian Mark Noll, Bible Scholar and Cultural Commentator Darrell Bock and expert in American politics and foreign policy David Smith.

Explore:

Mark Noll, America’s God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln

Mark Noll, America’s Book: The Rise and Decline of a Bible Civilisation 1794 - 1911

David Smith, Religious Persecution and Political Order in the United States

Ralph Jackman left a successful career in sports broadcasting to become a teacher. He didn’t expect that choice to land him behind bars.

Ralph had been a sports reporter for 25 years but felt he needed a change and in his early 50s trained to become a teacher.

That might be tough enough of a transition, but Ralph’s first appointment was to Melbourne’s Parkville Youth Detention Centre teaching literacy and numeracy to boys on remand. He was teaching some of our country’s most damaged and vulnerable boys.

Ralph has written about that experience in his book Detention: A Rookie Teacher. The Toughest Prison School in Australia, where he narrates some amazing experiences he had in that environment. Jackman shows how being extra creative, as well as personally honest and vulnerable was necessary to make a connection with the boys.

He also tells of the reason he came to be a whistle blower against a system he felt was badly failing those in its care.

Explore:

Detention: A Rookie Teacher. The Toughest Prison School in Australia

Meet winemakers and brothers(-in-law) Daniel and Theo, who make good wine and have thought deeply about why.

What’s it like to win best in the world at the ‘wine Olympics’? Do you need a degree to make great wine, or will Google get you through? Is wine only for snobs? And what do grapes suggest about God?

Daniel Chaffey Hartwig and Theo Engela are the brothers-in-law behind Chaffey Bros Wine Co. In this celebratory episode of Life & Faith, they talk about the ups and downs of winemaking (mostly the ups), and why they think it’s a natural fit for people of Christian faith like them to be in this business – despite certain stereotypes! Benjamin Franklin famously wrote that wine is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy, and Daniel and Theo can definitely get on board with that idea.

Whether or not you’re a wine drinker, we think you’ll enjoy this episode about work and family; loving what you do, but knowing you're not in control of it; and what wine can teach us about life. So pull up a comfy chair and raise a glass with us to the goodness of wine.

Explore:

Chaffey Bros Wine Co