Can the Church Resist Political Extremism Again? with Paul D. Miller
Good Faith
Good Faith
5 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 5 June 2025
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What can 1920s Germany teach us about American politics today?
Georgetown professor and national security expert Dr. Paul D. Miller joins host Curtis Chang to explore striking parallels between the Weimar Republic and our current moment of democratic fragility. From the rise of Christian nationalism to the erosion of institutional norms, they unpack the theological, historical, and civic fault lines shaping today’s polarized landscape. Buckle up—this episode is for anyone ready to trade tribalism for truth and confront the urgent role Christians must play in defending democracy.
Send written questions or voice memos for “Ask Curtis” episodes to: [email protected]
Send Campfire Stories to: [email protected]
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Paul D. Miller’s article: A Confessing Church for America's Weimar Moment
- Paul D. Miller’s previous appearance on the Good Faith podcast: Episode 36: The Religion of American Greatness
- The history of the Weimar Republic
- The rise and fall of the Weimar Republic (video)
- Christians against Nazis: the German Confessing Church
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Confessing Church
- Karl Barth in Nazi Germany
- Sandy Berger’s theft of classified information
- Pete Hegseth shares classified information
- Reining in "Imperial Presidency" executive orders
More From Paul D. Miller:
- Paul D. Miller’s The Religion of American Greatness: What's Wrong with Christian Nationalism
- Paul D. Miller on X (formerly Twitter)
- Paul D. Miller at The Dispatch
Follow Us:
Good Faith on X (formerly Twitter)
Sign up:
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I have found it's much easier for me to find things to agree with on both sides of the political |
| 0:09.0 | spectrum because I don't feel a sense of loyalty to either one. |
| 0:12.3 | And I can listen to a Democrat talk about poverty and like, oh, I agree with about 55% of that. |
| 0:19.1 | And the other is just garbage. And it's just |
| 0:21.7 | much easier to say that and to weigh things impartially or maybe dispassionately. And that is a new |
| 0:28.0 | kind of certainty. It ends up being quite comfortable because I don't have to worry about |
| 0:33.9 | what are they going to think of me. Are they going to ostracize me? Well, they already have. |
| 0:38.0 | So what do I have to lose, right? |
| 1:12.7 | Welcome to the Good Faith podcast. I'm your host, Curtis Chang. And the Good Faith podcast is where friends who follow Jesus help each other make sense of the world. And these days, in trying to make sense of the world, it is very tempting to have our eyes glued on the latest news cycle. But what would it mean for Christians to step back from the news cycle and try to learn |
| 1:18.8 | not from the daily news, but from history? If we wanted to do that, like which part of history, |
| 1:25.8 | which era of history would we turn to and what lessons |
| 1:28.5 | would we draw? I recently read a very thoughtful article taking this historical approach. |
| 1:34.7 | It was published in the dispatch and was written by Paul Miller, who is familiar with the |
| 1:39.4 | Good Faith podcast. Back in July 2022 and episode 36, Paul Miller spoke with our founding friend David French. |
| 1:49.0 | I unfortunately had to miss that episode, but they spoke about Paul's most recent book, |
| 1:54.2 | The Religion of American Greatness, What's Wrong with Christian Nationalism? |
| 2:00.4 | As background, Paul served in the National Security |
| 2:03.3 | Council staff under multiple presidents, including George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He's now a |
| 2:09.1 | professor in the practice of international affairs at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. |
| 2:14.7 | Paul, welcome back to the Good Faith podcast. Thank you so much for having me back. |
| 2:20.2 | Paul, let's get into it because your article provided some historical lessons, potential historical |
| 2:25.9 | lessons for the American church today. And you went to the 1920s and 30s in Germany and talked a lot |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Good Faith, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Good Faith and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.