David French on Faith, Fear, and the Future of the Church

The Russell Moore Show

Christianity Today, Russell Moore

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.8 • 914 Ratings

🗓️ 29 October 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

David French checks in on a potpourri of important subjects. Watch the full conversation on YouTube For longtime friends Russell Moore and David French, talking about what’s happening and where things are going is virtually an everyday occurrence. This time, though, they decided to let us listen in. RDM refused to write notes to plan out this conversation and said, “Let’s just go on the air–unfiltered.” This is that conversation. French, New York Times columnist and author, and RDM discuss everything from whether revival is happening among Gen Z to why we’ve seen such a backlash against women in evangelical circles to whether the gender identity disputes are not over to whether we are headed toward a dark place on questions of religious freedom. Then they get personal—talking about why, after all they’ve each seen, they are still Christians, and what advice they would give to those who wonder if they still can be. If you’re looking for honesty without despair and candor without cynicism, this is the episode for you. Resources mentioned in this episode: Richard Hanania article, ”The Based Ritual” David’s article about his incurable disease in the New York Times, ”I Believe in Miracles. Just Not All of Them.” Sign up for David’s newsletter Keep up with Russell: Sign up for the weekly newsletter where Russell shares thoughtful takes on big questions, offers a Christian perspective on life, and recommends books and music he's enjoying. Submit a question for the show at [email protected] Subscribe to the Christianity Today Magazine: Special offer for listeners of The Russell Moore Show: Click here for 25% off a subscription Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This paid message is from Cross International. In a remote village in Malawi, a girl named Esther was born to a single mother. A few months later, the baby's mom tragically passed away. Esther was taken in by her grandparents who did their best to care for her. But resources were scarce and Esther suffered from malnutrition for years until God transformed her life.
0:23.6	Today through Cross International's Thriving Kids Initiative, Esther receives nutritious meals, drinks clean water, and even attends school.
0:31.6	At an after-school program supported by Cross International, she enjoys fun games and activities and engages in regular Bible
0:39.5	lessons and prayer time. Esther knows now that she is loved by Jesus. Her future is filled with hope.
0:46.9	Many other kids like Esther are still trapped in poverty. Help them thrive at crossinternational.org slash CT. That's cross-international.org
0:58.2	slash CT. I don't know your life circumstance, but if you're somebody is looking back in history,
1:06.1	what is it that you want your grandchildren or your great-grandchildren to know about what you did right now.
1:14.3	Hello, this is Russell Moore, and this is the Russell Moore Show, brought to you by Christianity Today.
1:19.9	Here, we look for signposts in a strange time by standing fast to what really matters.
1:26.6	Kingdom over culture wars, truth over tribalism,
1:29.7	pilgrimage over partisanship, sanity over cynicism, witness over winning, and Christ over everything.
1:36.7	Today we have a conversation to do just that.
1:43.6	You know, I've done this with Beth Moore the last time where I said, I'm going to throw out all our ordinary rules here.
1:53.4	Normally what I do is it's kind of like jazz. I know sort of the direction I want to go and then I'll adapt as the conversation goes,
2:03.1	but we're eventually going to get wherever we're going to go.
2:06.6	But with Beth last time, I said, I'm not even going to plan out where we're going to go.
2:11.2	We're just going to have this exactly as though we're just talking and we've invited y'all to come in and over here.
2:19.3	And somebody said to me, you should do that with David French, because we would all love
2:23.8	to be in the room for one of those conversations.
2:26.2	And I said, okay.
2:27.9	So that's what we're going to do.
2:29.7	We have with us today by Fred David French, who is, of course, New York Times columnist, author of the book,
	...

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