The Most Influential Family in America with Obbie Tyler Todd

Life and Books and Everything

Clearly Reformed

Books, Religion & Spirituality, Arts, Christianity

4.6 • 635 Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2025

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Before the Bushes or Clintons, before the Kennedy or Kardashians, there were the Beechers—a sprawling family of preachers, suffragists, abolitionists, and moral crusaders that defined (and exemplified) America as much as any single family in the nineteenth century. Join Kevin as he interviews Obbie Tyler Todd, a pastor and professor, about his new biography of the Beechers (LSU Press). From patriarch, Lyman Beecher, to the famous novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe, to the most famous pastor of his age, Henry Ward Beecher, this episode explores the crazy and controversial life of Lyman Beecher, his three wives (not at the same time), and their thirteen children.

Chapters:

0:00 Sponsors

2:00 Introductions

5:37 The Beecher Family and Moral Influence

10:45 Three Themes of the Beecher Family

21:36 Beecherism and Controversy

28:07 The Fate of the Nation and Presbyterianism

36:49 Other Beeches

50:38 Harriet Beecher Stowe

54:43 Henry Ward Beecher

1:09:11 The Beecher Legacy

Books & Everything:

Be Thou My Vision: A Liturgy for Daily Worship

The Supremacy of God in Preaching

GPTS Midweeker

Master of Arts in Theological Studies

The Beechers: America's Most Influential Family

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of LBE is brought to you in part by Crossway.
0:14.0	Grateful for many, many Crossway books, in particular, want to remind our listeners of Johnny Gibson's excellent work, Be Thou My Vision, a liturgy for daily worship designed to be read in 15 to 20 minutes a day. Maybe you haven't seen this before, and there are a couple of different versions, one over Christmas, one over Lent, but this is the first one, Be Thou My Vision. It's a great way to focus your devotional time.
0:41.9	Again, it takes maybe 15 or 20 minutes. It uses historical prayers, creeds, catechisms that point to Christ.
0:49.2	I've found it personally helpful and have used it different seasons and it's excellent.
0:55.2	So pick up a copy of Be Thou My Vision wherever books are sold or go to crossway.org
0:59.4	slash plus and learn how you can get 30% off with a free Crossway Plus account.
1:04.6	We're also grateful for desiring God, sponsoring life and books and everything.
1:10.3	This was really one of the first books I read as a pastor on preaching, John Piper's book, The Supremacy of God in Preaching. I encourage you to get it, even if you're not a pastor. I think you would enjoy it, benefit from it, understand the call of preaching on the preacher's life, but in particular, if you are a preacher
1:30.6	or an aspiring one, encourage you to look at this book. John challenges preachers to keep God's
1:35.7	glory at the center of every sermon, as you might expect. Piper looks to examples like
1:41.8	Jonathan Edwards in making much of God in your preaching.
1:47.0	You can go to desiring god.org slash preaching and you can find the supremacy of God in preaching
1:54.0	or wherever good books are sold. Thank you to DG.
1:58.0	Greetings and salutations.
2:02.0	Welcome to Life and Books and Everything.
2:04.8	I'm Kevin DeYoung, Senior Pastor at Christ's Covenant Church in Matthews, North Carolina, just outside of Charlotte.
2:10.8	And today I'm joined by my special guest.
2:13.8	I'm really excited to talk about his new book.
2:16.7	So Abbey, Tyler Todd, welcome to the program,
2:19.8	and we are going to talk about the beachers, America's most influential family. So,
2:27.1	Avi, tell us a little bit about yourself where you're from, what you're doing, because you have a couple of
2:31.7	different jobs. Sure. Well, first of all, thanks for having me.
	...

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