Welcome to The Road to Now. I'm Bob Crawford. Well, Thanksgiving holiday is upon us once again,

so we've decided to close up shop for the week and give everyone some much-needed downtime.

But not before queuing up a best of the Road to Now episode featuring author, journalist,

and assistant professor of religion at UNC Chapel Hill, Molly Worthen.

The episode that originally aired last March focuses on the history of Christianity in America.

Last week, Worthen published an op-ed in the New York Times entitled How to Escape from Roy Moore's Evangelicalism.

In the piece, Worthen suggests that these days, many evangelicals have added another ritual.

Besides Sunday service and weekly Bible study, a new liturgy has become tuning in to conservative media outlets like Fox News,

where personalities like Sean Hannity

and Tucker Carlson, to quote Worthen, have become like high priest of a false religion,

who have turned men like Roy Moore into Christian martyrs.

Worthen says, quote, some evangelicals have grown so frustrated with their tradition's captivity to a particular

brand of politics and idolatries of white supremacy in the free market that they have proposed

a radical withdrawal from both moral majority-style activism and modern consumer culture, end quote.

It's a fascinating piece which we recommend everyone check out before or after they listen to the

episode.

From all of us here at The Road to Now, we are so thankful for your continuing support.

And we wish everyone safe travels and a happy and healthy holiday. I'm going to be. I you for having me. Molly, Molly Worthen, welcome to the road to now.

Thank you for having me.

Molly, can you define what an evangelical is?

Oh, I was dreading the possibility that you might start there.

This is, as you know, a fraught question that observers and believers have debated for decades.

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