Marvin Olasky on a Better Moral Vision

The Russell Moore Show

Christianity Today, Russell Moore

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.8 • 914 Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2024

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It was November 1, 1973, and Marvin Olasky—a then self-proclaimed atheist and communist—was reading an essay by Vladimir Lenin. Suddenly, Olasky began to have thoughts he couldn’t shake. What if this is all wrong? What if there really is a God? Within eight hours, Olasky had decided he was no longer an atheist or a communist. He became a Christian a few years later. Olasky went on to become a leader in Christian higher education and publishing—most notably as the editor in chief of World Magazine. On this episode of The Russell Moore Show, Olasky—author of 29 books, senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, and affiliate scholar at the Acton Institute—joins Moore to discuss religion, politics, and philosophy. They talk about two of Olasky’s latest book releases: Pivot Points and an extensively updated Moral Vision, which includes a new foreword by Moore. Olasky shares thoughts on his conversion, his relationship with George W. Bush during his presidency, and the evangelical embrace of some politicians and rejection of others. He and Moore consider the state of journalism, Christian symbolism in political movements, and the danger of echo chambers. Their conversation covers abortion and the pro-life movement, the Hamas attacks, and American involvement in world politics. Olasky encourages listeners to live a life they’ll be glad to look back on, and offers words of wisdom for doing so. Resources mentioned in this episode include: Discovery Institute Acton Institute Zenger House WORLD Magazine Pivot Points: Adventures on the Road to Christian Contentment by Marvin Olasky Moral Vision: Leadership from George Washington to Joe Biden by Marvin Olasky Jonathan Edwards Cotton Mather John Cotton “Marilynne Robinson on Biblical Beauty, Human Evil and the Idea of Israel” on The Ezra Klein Show “Glenn Beck Comes to Town” by Chris Good March for Life Living Life Backward: How Ecclesiastes Teaches Us to Live in Light of the End by David Gibson Do you have a question for Russell Moore? Send it to [email protected]. Special offer for listeners: Russell Moore will join friends David French and Curtis Chang in Washington, DC for The After Party LIVE! on April 19. As a faithful listener to the podcast, we'd love for you to join us and use this $20 off offer just for listeners! The After Party is a free six-part video curriculum designed for people & pastors alike, and offers "a better way" for Christians to engage in politics. Learn more and buy tickets here — we've saved a seat for you! Click here for a trial membership at Christianity Today. “The Russell Moore Show” is a production of Christianity Today Executive Producers: Erik Petrik, Russell Moore, and Mike Cosper Host: Russell Moore Producer: Ashley Hales Associate Producers: Abby Perry and McKenzie Hill Director of Operations for CT Media: Matt Stevens Audio engineering by Dan Phelps Video producer: Abby Egan Theme Song: “Dusty Delta Day” by Lennon Hutton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by our daily bread ministries, a global media
0:09.5	organization that makes the life-changing wisdom of the Bible,
0:13.0	understandable, and accessible to all.
0:15.0	Visit where you're from.org
0:17.0	for more information.
0:18.0	That's where YA from.org.
0:21.0	O.G. from dot o'r g I'm going to Hello, this is Russell Moore, and you're listening to the Russell Moore show brought to you
0:49.2	by Christianity today.
0:51.2	Every week we explore here conversations and questions from a Christian
0:55.8	perspective to help you sort out how to live as a follower of Jesus in
1:00.3	confusing times. This week we have a conversation to seek to do just that.
1:07.0	Marvin Olaski is senior Fellow of the Discovery Institute and
1:15.3	affiliate scholar at the Acton Institute. He also chairs the Zinger House
1:20.5	Foundation and serves as a Zinger Prize judge and he's the author of
1:25.9	29 books that's right 29 and from 1992 through 2021, he edited World Magazine, his two new books, not just one.
1:40.6	The author of 29 books cannot put out one book, but two at a time.
1:45.0	And one of them is called pivot points, adventures on the road to Christian contentment,
1:50.0	which is a memoir of his life and work and the other is moral vision, leadership from
1:57.0	George Washington to Joe Biden and I was honored to do the forward to that book.
2:03.3	So there's so many things to talk about today.
2:06.0	But I want to start here.
2:07.6	Marvin Olaski, are you now or have you ever been a member
	...

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