You're invited to pull up a chair on Lisa Harper's Back Porch, where faith meets real life. Welcome to Back Forch Theology. Each episode helps you dive deeper into God's word and discover that the gospel isn't just good news for eternity. It's great news for everyday life because God is for you and he's always been restoring our value and drawing us closer to him. With honest conversations, a few laughs and guests ranging from close friends to brilliant theologians. Back Forch theology is thoughtful, meaningful, and never stuffy.

So grab some calls. him with honest conversations, a few laughs, and guests ranging from close friends to brilliant theologians.

Back Forch Theology is thoughtful, meaningful, and never stuffy.

So grab some coffee or sweet tea and join Lisa Harper on Bat Forch Theology.

Subscribe now wherever you listen to podcasts. So for the past, So for the past few decades, it seems like Iran is always on the news, whether it's about

terrorism in the Middle East, Iran's role during the U.S. Iraq War, its nuclear program,

and of course Trump's recent bombings of the nuclear facility,

or of course the massive protests and unrest going on in the country.

And honestly, who knows where the situation will be by the time this episode is released.

We're recording on February 20th, and things seem to be moving very quickly.

So our guest today, Randall Fowler,

is an expert on America's policy in the Middle East, and he's written several books. He wrote

the book, More Than a Doctrine on President Eisenhower's relationship with the Middle East,

and he will soon be publishing the book Reagan's doctrines, which examines

President Reagan's policies as well. He's a professor of rhetoric at Abilene Christian University,

and he's here to help us sift through all of the news and some of the history about Iran

and to understand why it matters. So, Randall, thanks for being on our show. So glad to join you.

Thank you. So if you had to sum up

modern Iran to someone who knows nothing about it, when does this story really begin?

Yeah, I think there's a couple of different dates we could point to. We could talk about 1920. When the

first Shah came to power, we could look at 1979 in the revolution. But I think for most Americans,

at least, it's helpful to just take a step back and try to imagine what the Iranian regime really is.

...