Facing the Fire: American Racism, Evangelicalism, and Taking Christian Responsibility - w/ Phil Vischer

Voxology

Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 October 2020

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How a deeper understanding of American history, systemic injustice, and evangelical complicity can help Christians live out the gospel in today's racially charged culture. Mike and Tim sit down with Phil Vischer—creator of VeggieTales, co-host of The Holy Post Podcast, and cultural commentator—to walk through the historical realities that shaped our current racial divide and the church's role in both perpetuating and healing those wounds. This episode is a powerful call for Christians—especially white evangelicals—to listen, reflect, and act with humility and courage.

Key Takeaways:
• The Legacy of Inequity – Phil unpacks the data behind racial disparities in household wealth, systemic exclusion from housing and economic opportunity, and how the church must reckon with its part in that history.
• Evangelicalism and Segregation – A shocking look into how the religious right was politically mobilized not by abortion, but by the defense of segregated schools—and how the abortion issue was strategically adopted later.
• Beyond Individualism – Why saying "I didn't own slaves" or "I'm not racist" misses the point of biblical justice and the Christian call to stand in solidarity with those oppressed, regardless of personal blame.
• Why ‘Systemic Racism’ Isn’t Just a Buzzword – Even without using the term, the episode illustrates how policy choices and national priorities have historically sidelined Black communities—and why that damage persists today.
• Historical Honesty as Gospel Witness – Reliving American history with humility and honesty is not about hating your country—it's about understanding the roots of injustice so the church can become a healing force in the world.

Guest Highlight:
Phil Vischer – Co-host of The Holy Post and creator of VeggieTales. Transforming his platform into a catalyst for truth-telling and grace-filled justice, Phil offers clear, fact-driven insights about America’s racial past and a biblical vision for the future.

Resources Mentioned:
• Phil Vischer’s Race & American History Video – Watch on YouTube
• “Sky Jethani’s Abortion Thread” on Twitter – A breakdown of abortion’s politicization and the limits of conservative policy
• Holy Post Podcast – theholypost.com
• Christianity Today archive exploring fundamentalism and neo-evangelicalism – [Link]

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As always, we encourage and welcome discussion as we grow together. Reach out anytime with questions at [email protected]!

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Music by Timothy John Stafford

As always, we encourage and would love discussion as we pursue. Feel free to email in questions to [email protected], and to engage the conversation on Facebook and Instagram.

We're on YouTube (if you're into that kinda thing): VOXOLOGY TV.

Our Merch Store! ETSY

Learn more about the Voxology Podcast

Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify

Support the Voxology Podcast on Patreon

The Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology Radio

Follow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerre

Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford

Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

Transcript

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0:00.0	So today, ladies and gentlemen, we've got an interesting conversation we've been wanting to have.
0:11.0	Our friends at the Holy Post, which is another podcast that many of you are familiar with, Sky,
0:18.0	one of the co-hosts has been on our show and vice versa several different times.
0:23.6	They've done, they've been doing some really good work on racism in its historical
0:30.6	antecedents. And particularly, and I knew, I knew of Phil Vischer, right? Phil is the guy behind veggie tail. So
0:40.5	anybody who had a vaguely, you know, Christian experience or church experience of 20 years ago,
0:48.6	you know, this was like, this was what you did in kids ministry. I mean, it was a, it was a huge deal. So I knew Phil
0:56.5	Vischer, the name that way. He started the podcast with Sky, man, maybe seven, eight years ago.
1:05.2	They were one of the first, you know, they were the OGs. Yeah, they were the OGs, absolutely.
1:11.2	And Phil has taken on this sort of interesting role in these days as kind of a cultural historian,
1:21.0	a popular level cultural historian on race issues and the church's complicity in American racism.
1:32.0	And we're going to, we're going to, so we wanted to talk to him about that.
1:37.3	He produced a video that we're, that Tim is going to put in the show notes about what has happened to bring us to
1:50.4	where we are now.
1:52.5	How did we get here?
1:55.0	Really very informative set of videos.
1:57.4	If you just type Phil Vischer into YouTube, you're going to get those videos.
2:01.9	And they've done some stuff on their, on their podcast about this. So we, so in light of the
2:06.6	presidential debate that we just watched and the kind of reengaging of discussions around
2:13.0	white supremacy, we thought, hey, this is, we'd love some of his perspective on this, because
2:19.2	very often, at least for me, I live in sort of an intellectual or historical vacuum, right?
2:26.6	I think this is kind of the first time we're having these conversations. And I'm just not aware
	...

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