Episode 480: The Myth of the Religious Right with Randall Balmer
The Holy Post
Phil Vischer
4.6 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 27 October 2021
⏱️ 93 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Conservative evangelicals organized into a political movement in the 1970s in response to the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize abortion. Or did they? Historian Randall Balmer argues this origin story for the Religious Right is a myth. He talks to Skye about the real origins of the movement and how it explains the current state of white evangelicalism.
Also this week, we unpack Peter Wehner’s article in The Atlantic about the breaking apart of evangelicalism. Is the church a victim of media manipulation, or is evangelicalism reaping its own rotten fruit? Plus, lawsuits between believers, training Christians for hand-to-hand combat in vehicles, and Phil’s massive magical mushroom.
News Segment:
Phil’s mushroom [2:47]
Christians training in hand-to-hand combat [8:39]
https://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article255162407.html
Mike Stone suing Russell Moore [13:14]
https://religionnews.com/2021/10/20/mike-stone-files-lawsuit-sbc-rival-russell-moore-defamation-erlc-trump-abuse/
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/church-state-and-the-future-of-evangelicalism/
“The Evangelical Church is Breaking Apart” [28:01]
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/10/evangelical-trump-christians-politics/620469/
Interview with Randall Balmer:
PATREON BONUS: https://www.patreon.com/posts/57900540
“Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right” - https://amzn.to/3btjt7D
Interview Start [52:40]
Context for approaching this study [54:23]
What is the myth? [59:59]
Effects of dispensational premillennialism on social engagement [1:11:37]
Emergence of Religious Right in the North/Midwest [1:19:35]
Why do these origins matter? [1:25:22]
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to episode 480. This week, Mike Stone lost the election last summer to become the next |
| 0:05.8 | president of the SPC, and now he's suing Russell Moore over it. Then, we unpack Peter Wainer's |
| 0:12.2 | article in The Atlantic about the breaking apart of Evangelicalism. Is the Church of Victim |
| 0:17.1 | of Media Manipulation? Or is Evangelicalism just reaping its own rotten fruit? Then I talk with |
| 0:23.1 | Professor Randall Balmer about his new book, Bad Faith, Race and the Rise of the Religious Right. |
| 0:29.2 | Most people think conservative Evangelicals organized into a political movement in the 70s in |
| 0:33.8 | response to the Roe v. Wade decision. But knowing the truth, says Balmer, helps explain the current |
| 0:39.3 | state of the American Evangelical movement. All of that, plus Christians are training for hand-to-hand |
| 0:45.0 | combat in cars, and Phil has a massive magical mushroom. Hey there, welcome back to the show. |
| 0:50.1 | This is Phil Vischer. This is the Holypost podcast. I am here with... |
| 0:54.4 | Keith? Caitlin Chess. Hi, Caitlin. Hi, Phil. Books are looking good. We're talking about your bookcase. |
| 1:01.7 | You got a lot of books. Scott, can I... No, I'm not going to mention the... |
| 1:05.8 | No, he's not... Just don't look too closely. Don't look too closely. Really? Do you have bad... |
| 1:10.7 | They're fake, aren't they? Do you have... Yeah, I have fake news. |
| 1:14.7 | You have naughty books on your shelf? No, just like don't attribute them to mythology. |
| 1:20.6 | Like romance novels and appropriate things. No. So some of your books, you're just there, |
| 1:26.4 | are there for competitive research. It's like, what are the other guys saying about that? |
| 1:30.3 | Yeah, as everyone's library should be. Yes, yeah, okay, I hear you. |
| 1:35.0 | And Sky, Jitani, here. Hi, Sky. I'm here, but my bookshelves is facing a direction where the |
| 1:40.4 | webcam cannot see it. Yeah, and I can't quite see your Banksy either. You're blocking your Banksy. |
| 1:46.8 | There he is. Yeah, that's too bad. Okay, she'd bang. Can you slide him down the wall? |
| 1:52.0 | No, it's a decal. Could I know? I know, but if you could put it like a little train track along |
... |
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