How Christianity Can Help Save Democracy | Michael Barrett | TNE Podcasts  🔗 **Source:** [How Christianity Can Help Save Democracy | Michael Barrett | TNE Podcasts](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M) > [!note]+ Document Notes > tags: [christian-nationalism, faith-and-politics, church-state-history, civic-engagement, evangelicalism] > author: Michael Barrett > source: The New Evangelicals Podcast (YouTube) > reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M > date created: 2026-09-29 10:32 > > > [!info] Generated analysis — not the author's words. Sections below are machine-written > > from the captured source. Only text inside `> [!quote]` blocks is verbatim from the author. > > Do not quote or attribute any other line to the named author. > > # 🏷️ Title: How Christianity Can Help Save Democracy | Michael Barrett | TNE Podcasts > <!-- deep-read:sections start --> ## 🧭 Table of contents - [📝 Summary](#-summary) - [📖 Main content](#-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#️-notes) - [📚 References](#-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#️-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action items](#-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning styles assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB assessment](#-deib-assessment) - [✅ Logical validity](#-logical-validity) - [🛡️ DARVO analysis](#️-darvo-analysis) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) - [🔄 Refactor appendix](#-refactor-appendix--how-christianity-can-help-save-democracy--michael-barrett--tne-podcasts) ## 📝 Summary - **What happened.** The New Evangelicals Podcast (TNE) uploaded a 45:02 interview on 2026-09-28. Host Tim Whitaker talks with Michael Barrett, an attorney in upstate New York who says he spent about 20 years in government policy work (including advising governors) and the last eight leading nonprofits (00:01:34). The video has 678 views at capture and no chapter markers. Barrett writes a Substack and will teach a free three-session course on faith, law and politics through TNE Connect on October 5, 12 and 19. - **The claim.** Barrett argues that the modern religious right traces to white Southern resistance to school desegregation after Brown v. Board of Education (1954), not to abortion (00:09:28 to 00:11:40). He says the movement swapped targets over time (gay people, trans people) while keeping the same transaction: votes in exchange for "cultural protection" (00:12:25). His prescription is threefold: read the red-letter text and Matthew 25 back to conservative Christians (00:23:15), talk about faith without using it to win votes (00:28:54), and win elections, because "there's no guard rails anymore" (00:33:12). - **Terminology.** Barrett rejects "Christian nationalism" because, in his words, it's neither Christian nor nationalist, and prefers "cultural Christianity" (00:36:46 to 00:39:37). Whitaker has used the older term for years and keeps it. - **Why it matters.** The conversation is a compact example of how a progressive Christian nonprofit frames the origin story and the response. It also shows how much of that story rests on quotations, dates and statistics the speakers state from memory. - **Key stakeholders.** TNE (a digital-first 501(c)(3) that says it exists to dismantle Christian nationalism), Barrett, TNE Connect members (the host says 3,000-plus), the ad sponsor United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities (00:21:06), and the people the speakers name as opponents or models: Jerry Falwell, Bob Jones University, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, James Talarico and others. - **Risks and tradeoffs.** Several factual claims are unsourced or contested by historians (the Nixon-era quote, the Sabbath and Constantine story, the Treaty of Westphalia account, the 47% figure). The auto-captions garble at least ten proper nouns. The episode is advocacy content with a sponsor read and a course promotion, so treat it as a position statement, not a neutral history. - **Bottom line.** The strongest content is the applied argument: quote the text back (Matthew 25), avoid using God for votes, and don't confuse the Bible's internal diversity with a single political program. The weakest is the single-cause history, which the transcript asserts more than it demonstrates. ## 📖 Main content **The frame.** Whitaker opens by describing Barrett as a "constitutional lawyer" and a Christian with a Substack, and by pitching the free course (00:00:00). The interview then moves through five arcs: Barrett's own faith path and the Bible-authority argument (00:02:17 to 00:08:02), a history of the religious right from 1954 forward (00:08:45 to 00:15:18), the movement's adaptation and what churchgoing evangelicals prioritize (00:15:18 to 00:21:06), what to do now (00:21:49 to 00:35:20), and terminology plus the course preview (00:36:46 to 00:44:40). **The Bible-authority argument (00:04:26 to 00:08:02).** The captions render "inerrant" as "inherent" every time, so read "the Bible is inherent" as "the Bible is inerrant." Barrett's case has three steps. First, 2 Timothy 3:16 ("God breathed") was written, by his dating, around 60 to 67 CE, about 300 years before the New Testament canon was compiled, so it can't refer to a New Testament that didn't exist. Second, if it refers to the Old Testament, the Protestant removal of six or seven books undercuts inerrancy claims. Third, he says inerrancy became Protestant doctrine in the United States through nineteenth-century Princeton theology and a later Moody-linked doctrine, "a year after Star Wars came out" (00:05:09). The caption for the year is truncated ("197"), so the exact date isn't recoverable from the transcript. Barrett adds that Jimmy Carter thought the Bible's internal conflicts add to its authenticity (00:04:26). Whitaker agrees and adds their own experience of a "crisis of theology" at 18 or 19 (00:08:02). **The historical thesis (00:09:28 to 00:13:53).** Barrett says the "big bang" is 1954, the year of Brown v. Board of Education. He says segregation academies (he uses "segregationmies," a caption mangle of "segregation academies") multiplied in the late 1950s, and that Barry Goldwater, then Nixon, saw a political opening. He attributes to "Nixon's campaign manager in 1968" a line about Black voter registration driving white Southerners into the Republican Party. He then moves to 1980: Falwell and Paul Weyrich (the transcript spells the second name "Hyrick"), Bob Jones University's tax-status fight, and the recruitment of Ronald Reagan, whom he describes as a divorced actor who, as California governor, signed the country's first no-fault divorce law. His summary of the deal is "southern votes in exchange for cultural protection" (00:12:25). **What the movement cares about (00:15:18 to 00:21:06).** Barrett says the pattern persists: the target changed from Black students to LGBTQ people, and the Republican candidate story at 00:15:18 (a Texas candidate objecting to "too many brown faces" in a University of Texas photo) is offered as current proof. He says the two top issues among churchgoing evangelicals are anti-gay and anti-abortion policy, that neither is central in the Gospels, that Jesus treats the commandments as equal in severity, and that the result drives young people away. He cites 47% of "the current generation" as less likely to attend worship because of Trump's rhetoric, with no source (00:18:15). Whitaker asks whether believers are willfully ignorant or indoctrinated (00:19:41). Barrett answers with a Paul Simon lyric about people hearing what they want to hear, then argues that biblical marriage meant contracted family alliances (00:20:24). **The prescription (00:21:49 to 00:35:20).** Barrett says the traditional progressive move, ceding matters of faith to the other side, hasn't worked. He tells progressive friends to read the text, especially the Sermon on the Mount and Matthew 25, where the test of faith is what you did for "the least of these" (00:23:58). On Democrats, Barrett says the left's campaign professionals are poor at campaigning and the left avoids faith talk out of historical caution (religious wars after the Reformation) and out of respect for the commandment against taking the Lord's name in vain, which he reads as "stop using God for your purposes" (00:28:54). Whitaker offers James Talarico as a model of natural faith talk (00:30:20), and Barrett says opponents attack Talarico's manhood because they can't attack him on scripture (00:31:45). Both then agree elections are the remaining tool, and Whitaker adds that the roots run deeper than one or two cycles (00:35:20). **Terminology and course preview (00:36:46 to 00:44:40).** Barrett says "Christian nationalism" is contrived, "some sort of like cultural voltron," and he prefers "cultural Christianity" (00:36:46, 00:38:11). He illustrates with a Constantine story about moving the Sabbath to Sunday (00:38:54). He previews the course: Reformation and the Thirty Years' War, the Treaty of Westphalia, Separatists, Puritans and Deist founders, then court cases and governing documents from the Declaration of Independence to the Treaty of Tripoli, then the twentieth century (00:40:19 to 00:43:16). **Contested or unverifiable in this source.** Historians disagree on how much of the religious right's origin lies in segregation versus abortion, with some arguing the abortion story is a later reframing and others arguing abortion mattered earlier; the transcript presents only one side. The "Nixon's campaign manager" quote is commonly attributed elsewhere to a Nixon strategist in a 1970 newspaper interview, so verify before citing it. The Westphalia account has problems: the principle of rulers choosing their subjects' religion predates 1648 (the 1555 Peace of Augsburg), and the Church of England separated from Rome in the 1530s, not after the Thirty Years' War. "The 70 years war" is likely the Eighty Years' War. The death range "between six and 17 million" is unsourced, and commonly cited totals for the Thirty Years' War alone run lower. These are my checks from general knowledge, not from the transcript, and they should be confirmed against primary sources before reuse. ## 🗒️ Notes #### ⏱️ [00:00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M&t=0) Cold open and course pitch (Whitaker) - Whitaker previews the guest and names the free course on TNE Connect: October 5, 12 and 19. - He describes TNE Connect as having "3,000 plus people, a social media feed, events, regional group chats." - He spells the web address as "the new evangelicals.com/connected" at 00:00:44, while the description and the closing pitch at 00:43:16 use "/connect." The description is authoritative. #### ⏱️ [00:01:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M&t=94) Barrett introduces himself - Attorney in upstate New York; eight years leading nonprofits; the first 20 years in government roles advising governors and doing policy work. - Whitaker adds from Barrett's bio that he directed the Missouri public defender system. That comes from the host's reading of the bio, not from Barrett. #### ⏱️ [00:02:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M&t=137) Faith background and the letter to the priest - Irish Catholic from the greater New York area. In college he wrote a letter of questions to the parish priest, who read it from the pulpit instead of discussing it. - He later moved to Protestantism during his military service and says he holds "a strong belief in the Christ story" while rejecting claims he calls untrue. - He argues that overclaiming (the Bible as error-free narrative) hurts the goal of bringing people to Christ. #### ⏱️ [00:05:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M&t=309) Where inerrancy came from and the 2 Timothy argument - Barrett dates modern American Protestant inerrancy to nineteenth-century Princeton theology plus a later Moody-linked doctrine, and says early church fathers like Origen didn't hold it. - The 2 Timothy argument runs in 00:06:37: authorship is debated, the letter is dated 60 to 67 CE, the canon came about 300 years later, so "God breathed" may cover only the Hebrew Bible. - If the Old Testament is error-free, he asks, why did Protestants drop six or seven books? He names the Quakers and the Church of England, and says the 1600 King James Bible still had them (00:07:19). - Whitaker calls the conclusion "very logical" and dismisses the apologetics industry (00:08:02). The 2 Timothy dating is Barrett's; many scholars date the letter later, so the premise is contested. #### ⏱️ [00:08:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M&t=525) How we got here: the 2026 scene and the 1954 origin - Whitaker describes the first GOP midterm convention, an AI-voiced Paul Harvey clip thanking God for Trump, and a Robert Jeffress remark (caption: "Robert Jeff") about James Talarico (caption: "James Tyler Freico"). - Barrett calls the strategy "brilliant politics" and starts at 1954, the Brown v. Board decision, tying it to the long Southern strategy. - Segregation academies, in Barrett's telling, were a response to desegregation, not a religious-education project (00:10:56). #### ⏱️ [00:11:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M&t=700) The Nixon quote, Carter and Reagan - The quoted line about Black voter registration is attributed to Nixon's campaign manager in 1968 (unsourced; see Main content). - Carter is described as an orthodox Bible-believing Christian outside the Southern white church establishment. Falwell and Weyrich looked for a challenger, and Bob Jones University's tax-status threat is named as a driver. - Reagan signed California's no-fault divorce law as governor; Barrett uses this to argue the movement backed anyone who would trade "votes for culture protection" (00:13:08). #### ⏱️ [00:13:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M&t=833) Bob Jones and further reading - Whitaker: Bob Jones University lifted its interracial dating ban in 2000, and they keep a Bob Jones sermon on segregation in their notes. They say the university sued the IRS up to the Supreme Court and lost. - They recommend J. Russell Hawkins's book The Bible Told Us So, a study of South Carolina. #### ⏱️ [00:15:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M&t=918) How the movement evolved - Whitaker asks how a movement built on segregation adapted after segregation lost public support; they name anti-trans messaging as a current campaign theme. - Barrett: "it's a new group to pick on." He says the enthusiasm test (which issues get people excited) matters more than stated positions. - He offers the Texas candidate and the University of Texas photo as a current example (00:15:18). #### ⏱️ [00:16:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M&t=1006) What evangelicals prioritize - Barrett says the top two issues for churchgoing evangelicals are anti-gay and anti-abortion policy, and that a Greek-rooted reading of "evangelical" (bringer of good news) doesn't match that. - He points to the first and second commandments as the ones the rest hang on, so sins can't be ranked (00:16:46). > [!quote] [00:18:15] > Jesus is the greatest um victim of identity theft I've ever seen. - The 47% claim sits in the same paragraph and has no source. #### ⏱️ [00:18:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M&t=1139) Willful ignorance or indoctrination? - Whitaker asks how ordinary churchgoers read the Bible daily and prioritize marriage laws and a "Muslim invasion." They ask whether the cause is willful ignorance, brainwashing or something changeable (00:19:41). They say January 6 involved Christians with a Christian flag, Bibles and a prayer. - Barrett declines to diagnose, quotes a Paul Simon lyric, and pivots to marriage: in his account, biblical marriage was a contracted alliance between families, often without love, and Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines (00:20:24). #### ⏱️ [00:21:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M&t=1266) Sponsor read - A 43-second ad for United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities: certificates, masters and Doctor of Ministry degrees, fully online part-time, and a $1,000 scholarship for spring applicants by October 15. #### ⏱️ [00:21:49](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M&t=1309) What do we do? Read the text - Whitaker introduces the course as the "better path forward." - Barrett: the traditional approach has been to cede "seed control or seed dominion" of matters of faith (the caption repeats "seed"; likely "cede") to the other side, so the other side does what it wants (00:22:34). - His advice to progressive friends is to read the text, especially the Sermon on the Mount (00:23:15). #### ⏱️ [00:23:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M&t=1438) Matthew 25 as the record - Barrett reads Matthew 25's sheep-and-goats scene as the test of faith and asks what someone did about immigrants, children in cages, hunger and cold. - "Jesus would be woke" is called absurd (00:24:40). - His call is for more institutions like TNE that "correct the record" and stop using Christ's name for "earthly power and wealth" and "cultural advantage" (00:25:22). #### ⏱️ [00:25:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M&t=1522) The other side of the aisle - Whitaker says progressive media and Democrats rarely discuss Christian nationalism or faith and calls that a "huge opportunity." They name Raphael Warnock (caption "Raphael Waro"), Cory Booker and Talarico as Democratic leaders who are Christian. - Barrett says the Republicans "can't govern, but they can campaign" and Democrats "can't campaign, but we can govern" (00:27:30), and that Hillary Clinton spoke authentically about faith only when asked. #### ⏱️ [00:27:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M&t=1650) Why the left is quiet about faith - Barrett: "we're the well- read side" and know the harm done after the Reformation, with decades of war and "between six and 17 million people" dead (unsourced). - His second reason is the commandment against taking the name in vain, read as "stop using God for your purposes" (00:28:54). - Leaders like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, he says, avoid leveraging God for votes because they're aware of their own sinfulness (00:29:38). #### ⏱️ [00:30:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M&t=1820) Talarico as a template - Whitaker cites a Jimmy Kimmel interview they say has seven or eight million views as of recording. Their point: Talarico speaks from who he is, not from verse-dropping. - Barrett adds the Good Samaritan: the neighbor is the person outside your tribe (00:31:02). Opponents "can't go after him on scripture," so they question his manhood (00:31:45). #### ⏱️ [00:32:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M&t=1948) How much the midterms matter - Barrett describes Washington "scuttlebutt" that Republicans privately dislike Trump but fear him, and says principled members such as Thomas Massie (caption "Tom Massis") get run out (00:33:12). > [!quote] [00:33:12] > It would bother me a great deal if there's a marriage between the hard right and religion. - Barrett attributes that line to Franklin Graham. - His conclusion: with no guardrails left and pastors "trading access," the remaining tool is winning an election, and "you can't sit this one out" (00:33:55). #### ⏱️ [00:34:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M&t=2078) Whitaker on deeper roots - Whitaker says the Bible is "not univocal" and shows the heart of whoever wields it. - They name R.J. Rushdoony (caption "R.J. Rushi") and theonomy (caption "theomy") and say Doug Wilson wrote books calling slavery racially harmonious while remaining platformed in evangelicalism (00:35:20). - They call for an "all hands on deck" coalition of atheists, Buddhists and Christians who learn what Christian nationalism is and work on shared values, and name the Alliance Defending Freedom as part of the court-focused machinery (00:36:03). #### ⏱️ [00:36:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M&t=2206) Why Barrett avoids "Christian nationalism" > [!quote] [00:36:46] > it's not Christian and it's not nationalist - Barrett cites his Army service to argue it isn't patriotism and his Christian formation to argue it isn't Christianity. - His alternative view: if you live for another life, why care what culture is here? Acting differently is how you bring people to Christ (00:37:28). - Whitaker pushes back that they need a label for the movement they see as using Christian language for nationalist ends (00:38:11). #### ⏱️ [00:38:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M&t=2334) Cultural Christianity and the Constantine story - Barrett uses "cultural Christianity" on his Substack and says the Bible is large enough that a snake handler could "open it up, put your finger on something, and start a religion." - Constantine moves the Sabbath to Sunday ("I've got free time on Sunday"); the historical basis is contested, since most historians place Sunday worship well before Constantine. - Takeaway in his words: verses serve "preferred cultural outcomes" (00:39:37). #### ⏱️ [00:39:37](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M&t=2377) Course preview, part 1 - Three sessions, same class. He'll publish a Substack primer through TNE. - Session content: colonists were not homogeneous, and the Reformation and the Thirty Years' War shaped them (00:40:19). #### ⏱️ [00:41:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M&t=2466) Course preview, part 2 - Barrett's Westphalia account: each ruler chooses the country's religion; the Church of England forms; dissenters are still imprisoned (see Main content for the chronology problems). - Separatists (Pilgrims), Puritans, and Deist founders are distinguished, so people can "respond intelligently" when politicians call the founders Christians. - Documents named: the Declaration of Independence and the Treaty of Tripoli (00:42:35). #### ⏱️ [00:43:16](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M&t=2596) Audio glitch and wrap-up - Barrett's audio drops for a few seconds ("Can you hear me? No volume."), and Whitaker restates their point: they were joking that the founders were all "born again evangelical Christians." - Whitaker repeats the class dates and says everything TNE offers is paywall-free. - Barrett names his Substack "God is Great, Jesus is Lord, Christians are full of" (the caption cuts the last word) and jokes that his books aren't faith-based. #### ⏱️ [00:44:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M&t=2680) Close - Barrett ends with "go vote," and Whitaker echoes it. ## 📚 References The transcript itself contains no links; the following come from the video description or are primary sources for named entities. - [How Christianity Can Help Save Democracy | Michael Barrett | TNE Podcasts](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M) — the source video, 45:02, uploaded 2026-09-28 by The New Evangelicals Podcast. - [The New Evangelicals](https://www.thenewevangelicals.com/) — publisher; describes itself as a digital-first 501(c)(3) nonprofit. - [TNE Connect](https://thenewevangelicals.com/connect) — the free community app where the course runs (also on the [App Store](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tne-connect/id6741782548) and [Google Play](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mightybell.thenewevangelicals)). The description's URL is `/connect`; the cold open says "/connected." - [Support TNE](https://www.thenewevangelicals.com/support) — the movement-membership link at the top of the description. - Michael Barrett's Substack, "God is Great, Jesus is Lord, Christians are full of ..." — named at 00:43:59; Whitaker says they'll link it, but the description carries no Substack URL. Find the official link on TNE Connect before citing. - J. Russell Hawkins, The Bible Told Us So — book recommended at 00:14:35 (the caption gives "Jay Russell Hawkins"), on the Bible and segregation in South Carolina. - [Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954)](https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/347/483/) — the decision Barrett names as the starting point. - [Bob Jones University v. United States, 461 U.S. 574 (1983)](https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/461/574/) — the tax-status case the speakers allude to at 00:12:25 and 00:13:53. - [2 Timothy 3](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Timothy+3) and [Matthew 25](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+25) — the two passages Barrett builds his arguments on. - Treaty of Westphalia (1648) and Peace of Augsburg (1555) — the settlements behind the chronology in 00:41:06; check both before repeating the account. - United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities (unitedseminary.edu) — the sponsor named in the ad at 00:21:06. - Caption-garble key: "Robert Jeff" is likely Robert Jeffress, "James Tyler Freico" and "Telerico" are James Talarico, "Fwell" is Falwell, "Hyrick" is likely Weyrich, "Tom Massis" is likely Thomas Massie, "Raphael Waro" is Raphael Warnock, "R.J. Rushi" is R.J. Rushdoony, "theomy" is theonomy, "T& Connect" and "TN" are TNE, "west failia" is Westphalia, and "inherent" is inerrant. ## 🗣️ Paraphrase Michael Barrett, an upstate New York lawyer and nonprofit leader who describes himself as a Christian who has watched the church overclaim, tells host Tim Whitaker that the American religious right didn't start with abortion. He says it started in 1954, when Brown v. Board of Education pushed Southern whites toward new schools and new politics, and that Falwell, Weyrich and Reagan later turned that resentment into a votes-for-protection deal. He argues the targets have shifted, from Black schoolchildren to gay and trans people, while the transaction stayed the same. Barrett doesn't want to answer that with more politics alone. He wants progressives and moderates to stop ceding scripture to the other side: read the red letters, read Matthew 25, and ask what people did for the hungry, the cold and the foreigner. He says leaders on the left stay quiet about faith because of the history of religious war and because they take the commandment against misusing God's name seriously. Whitaker offers James Talarico as an example of natural, unforced faith talk. Both men conclude, with "no guard rails," that elections are the remaining tool, and Whitaker adds that the roots are deeper than a cycle or two. Along the way Barrett makes a Bible-authority argument (2 Timothy predates the canon, and Protestants dropped books), objects to the term "Christian nationalism" as neither Christian nor nationalist, and previews a three-part course on faith, law and politics that runs on TNE Connect in October. ## 📰 Newsletter **One hour of civic history, no paywall.** The New Evangelicals is running a free three-session course on faith, law and politics, taught by attorney Michael Barrett on October 5, 12 and 19 through the TNE Connect app. The podcast episode that promotes it (45 minutes) is worth a listen for the applied argument: quote the text back to people, and don't use God as a campaign tool. Treat the history as one attorney's telling and check the specifics, since the Nixon-era quote and the Westphalia timeline need sourcing. Why this belongs in a technical community's reading list: it's a case study in how a volunteer-driven community explains a divisive topic to its own members. The course is free, the app is free, and the host says the community has 3,000-plus members with events and regional chats. If your project runs a community space, the format (a guest teaches three sessions, a Substack primer sets context) is worth borrowing. This source has no WordPress content, so the connection ends there. Links: [the video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M), [TNE Connect](https://thenewevangelicals.com/connect). ## ✅ Action items #### DevRel - Developer advocacy: no direct action from this source; nearest relevance: the guest-teaches-a-short-free-course format is a low-cost way to run a three-week community workshop series. - Education: no direct action from this source; nearest relevance: Barrett's "quote the primary text back" approach translates to teaching from primary docs (specs, release notes) instead of summaries. - Developer experience: no direct action from this source. - Developer marketing: no direct action from this source; nearest relevance: the episode pairs a sponsor read with a course pitch, a reminder to disclose promotional relationships. - Community management: keep transcripts of contested-topic conversations next to their sources so claims can be checked, as this analysis does with the caption garbles. - Internal/external/cross-project: no direct action from this source. #### OSPO - Policy and governance: no direct action from this source; nearest relevance: none beyond general guidance on political speech in project spaces, which this source doesn't address. - License compliance: no direct action from this source. - Security management: no direct action from this source. - Software inventory: no direct action from this source. - Developer support: no direct action from this source. - Community engagement: no direct action from this source. - Strategic alignment: no direct action from this source. #### Community - Maintainers: no direct action from this source. - Contributors: no direct action from this source. - Sponsors: no direct action from this source; nearest relevance: the sponsor ad (00:21:06) is read mid-episode with a scholarship deadline, a clear-disclosure example. - Ecosystem: no direct action from this source. #### WordPress - Core: no direct action from this source. - Core Performance: no direct action from this source. - Core AI: no direct action from this source. - **Core Program Team:** no direct action from this source. - Mobile: no direct action from this source. - Playground: no direct action from this source. - Community: no direct action from this source; nearest relevance: moderation norms for heated political threads in meetup and WordCamp chat spaces. - Training: no direct action from this source. - Marketing: no direct action from this source. - Support: no direct action from this source. - Design: no direct action from this source. - Documentation: no direct action from this source. - Photos: no direct action from this source. - TV: no direct action from this source; nearest relevance: this episode is a caption-quality example (ten-plus proper nouns garbled) worth showing captioners. - Polyglots: no direct action from this source. - Accessibility: correct the auto-captions on any talk that names people and organizations; see the Accessibility assessment for the failures found here. - Meta: no direct action from this source. - CLI: no direct action from this source. - Hosting: no direct action from this source. - Tide: no direct action from this source. - Openverse: no direct action from this source. - Themes: no direct action from this source. - Plugins: no direct action from this source. #### The WPOCC - Programs: no direct action from this source. - Projects: no direct action from this source. - Funding experiments: no direct action from this source. ### FAIR - Technical independence: no direct action from this source. - Policies and covenants: no direct action from this source. - Productized governance artifacts: no direct action from this source. ## 🧪 Hypotheses 1. Segregation-era school politics explains more of the timing of white evangelical mobilization in the 1970s than abortion does. Barrett's thesis, if stated as a testable claim, predicts that Southern counties with earlier private-academy growth show earlier Republican shifts among evangelical voters. 2. Prioritizing Matthew 25 language ("what did you do for the least of these") in messaging moves conservative Christian respondents' support for immigration and anti-poverty policy more than secular framing does. 3. Candidates who talk about faith when unprompted and without verse-citation ("natural" talk, in Whitaker's description of Talarico) receive higher authenticity ratings from religious voters than candidates who cite verses. 4. The term "cultural Christianity" produces less defensive reaction among churchgoing evangelicals than "Christian nationalism" when both are read in the same survey experiment. 5. The 47% figure (young adults less likely to attend worship because of Trump's rhetoric) falls when measured against a published survey with a defined age range and question wording. 6. Teaching primary founding-era documents (the Treaty of Tripoli, the Declaration of Independence) reduces agreement with the claim that the founders founded a Christian nation, measured before and after a three-session course. ## 📊 Methodology - **Design for H1.** Assemble county-level records of private-school founding years (state education records, historical directories) and match them to county voting shifts and evangelical church membership from the Religious Congregations and Membership Study. Use a difference-in-differences model around the 1954 to 1970 window with regional controls. Pre-register the outcome variable before pulling data. - **Design for H2 and H4.** Run an online survey experiment with 800 or more self-identified evangelical respondents split into three arms (Matthew 25 framing, secular framing, control). Randomize term wording for H4 in a second factor. Measure policy support on 5-point scales and report effect sizes with confidence intervals. - **Design for H3.** Show matched 90-second clips of candidates (same content, one with verse citations, one without) to religious and non-religious viewers. Score authenticity and trustworthiness on validated scales and compare by arm. - **Design for H5.** Search Pew, PRRI and Barna releases from 2024 to 2026 for a question on attendance changes tied to political rhetoric. If none matches the stated wording, the finding is that the number is unsourced. - **Design for H6.** Administer a five-item knowledge quiz on founding-era religion documents before session one and after session three, with a comparison group that receives a reading list only. Track attendance and completion as covariates. - **Controls throughout.** Use a neutral moderator, fix stimulus text, and log every claim's source before analysis. ## ❓ Questions - What source supports the quote attributed to "Nixon's campaign manager in 1968," and does it match the 1970 interview usually cited for the same line? - What survey produced "47%," and what were the age range, sample and question wording? - How does Barrett reconcile his 60 to 67 CE dating of 2 Timothy with scholarship that dates it later and questions Pauline authorship, given that his argument depends on the earlier date? - If Barrett rejects "Christian nationalism" as neither Christian nor nationalist, does "cultural Christianity" still describe movements that use explicitly nationalist language? - Where does the abortion-first origin story fit in his timeline, and what evidence would he accept that it drove earlier organizing? - Whitaker calls for a coalition of atheists, Buddhists and Christians. What shared-values policy list would that coalition use, and who writes it? - Barrett says elections are "the only tool in our toolbox." What role does he see for courts, churches and local institutions after November? - The course promises law, faith, founders and politics in three sessions. How much time goes to primary documents versus lecture? ## 🔮 Future research - **Origin-story historiography.** A side-by-side reading of the segregation-first and abortion-first accounts of the religious right, with the primary documents each side cites, would let readers weigh Barrett's thesis instead of taking it whole. - **Attribution audit for political quotes.** A short audit of the quotes cited across TNE episodes (source, date, original context) would give the community a shared reference for what holds up. - **Terminology effects.** Nobody in this episode cites data on how "Christian nationalism," "cultural Christianity" and similar labels land with the audiences they're meant to reach. - **Course outcomes.** TNE Connect has 3,000-plus members. Measuring what a free civic-education course changes (knowledge, engagement, votes) is feasible and unmeasured in this source. - **Faith talk in campaigns.** The claim that candidates lose or win on tone when discussing faith (Talarico as a template) is an empirical question; the episode offers an anecdote and a view count. ## 💡 Implications - **Practice.** Speakers in advocacy spaces gain credibility by attaching a source to every dated quote and statistic. The two claims that carry the episode's history (the 1968 quote, the 47% figure) arrive without one. - **Policy.** Barrett's closing argument treats an election as the remaining lever. Organizations with 501(c)(3) status should check their own rules on electoral messaging before reusing that framing. This source doesn't address those rules. - **Security.** No direct security implication. The closest is information integrity: unsourced quotes travel fast in shared clips, and an audio-only listener can't check them. - **Education.** Barrett's course outline (Reformation, Westphalia, founders, twentieth-century politics) is a reasonable primary-source syllabus. The chronology errors flagged above are a caution to build the syllabus from the documents, not from lecture memory. - **Funding.** The episode carries a paid sponsor read and a free course, both under a donor-supported nonprofit. Readers can't tell from the transcript how the sponsor relationship and the course relate; a disclosure line would settle it. - **Community health.** Whitaker's "all hands on deck" call assumes coalition partners who share values. Defining the shared values in writing is a precondition, and the episode doesn't do it. ## 🧠 Learning styles assessment - **Reading level estimate.** Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of about 7 to 8 on the spoken text, estimated from sentence length and vocabulary (not computed by tool). Sentences run short and conversational, though run-ons and filler ("um," "uh") push the caption text toward a lower Flesch Reading Ease than the ideas warrant. Domain terms (inerrancy, Westphalia, theonomy) need background from an adult-education audience. #### 👀 Visual learners - Present: a two-person video conversation; the framing and any lower-thirds aren't captured in the transcript. - Improve: the argument has a clear timeline (1954, 1968, 1980, 2000, 2026) that would suit an on-screen chart. Add the course dates and the URL as text overlays. #### 🔊 Aural learners - Present: the whole format is spoken conversation, with music at the open and a sponsor read at 00:21:06. - Improve: a 90-second audio recap of the three-part prescription (read the text, don't use God for votes, vote) would help listeners. The audio dropout at 00:43:16 costs a few seconds of Barrett's content. #### 🗣️ Verbal learners - Present: analogies (identity theft, "cultural voltron," the snake handler) carry the argument and are easy to repeat. - Improve: terms like inerrancy, theonomy, Westphalia and the Southern strategy go undefined; one clause each would help. #### 🧩 Kinesthetic learners - Present: the course itself is a hands-on follow-up, and the Matthew 25 "record" exercise is portable. - Improve: offer a worksheet that maps a policy to a passage and asks the reader to state the counter-reading. #### 🧠 Logical learners - Present: the 2 Timothy argument is stepwise (date of writing, date of canon, scope of "scripture," consequence for inerrancy). - Improve: the history section lists causes without a stated test. Say what evidence would show segregation, not abortion, drove the timing. #### 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Social learners - Present: a guest-host dialogue, and the course is a cohort format on a community app. - Improve: add discussion prompts for each course session and a moderated Q&A thread. #### 🧘‍♀️ Solitary learners - Present: the Substack and a later course reading list give individual follow-up paths. - Improve: add a reflection prompt: "Which of my own political positions can I trace to a passage, and which can't I?" #### 🌿 Naturalistic learners - Present: no direct connection in the source. - Improve: no natural fit exists; the episode is about institutions and texts, not ecosystems. ## 📊 Accessibility assessment #### Screen reader semantics - Present: the YouTube page supplies the title, description and transcript panel; the description carries labeled links. - Improve: the video has no chapters, so screen reader users can't jump to the sponsor read (00:21:06) or the course preview (00:39:37). Chapters aren't a WCAG failure but support 2.4.5 (Multiple Ways) in spirit. #### Keyboard navigation - Present: the YouTube player is keyboard operable, with visible focus, via the platform (2.1.1, 2.4.7). - Improve: nothing in the content adds barriers. #### Contrast and readability - Present: unverifiable from a transcript. - Improve: any burned-in captions or lower-third names should meet 4.5:1 (1.4.3); check them in the published video. #### Text resizing and reflow - Present: the player scales, and YouTube's caption size is user-adjustable. - Improve: burned-in text can't resize (1.4.4, 1.4.10); keep key information in the description as selectable text. #### Media and captions - Present: an auto-generated transcript exists. - Improve: the auto-captions garble at least ten proper nouns and terms (Jeffress, Talarico, Falwell, Weyrich, Massie, Warnock, Rushdoony, theonomy, Westphalia, inerrant). That's a 1.2.2 (Captions, Prerecorded) failure in substance, since captions exist but are unreliable on every name a viewer might want to search. A music bed overlaps speech at 00:01:34, and audio drops out at 00:43:16, which harms deaf-blind and captioned viewers most. #### Forms and interactions - Present: the calls to action are the TNE Connect URL and the class dates, both spoken. - Improve: the cold open says "/connected" and the closing says "/connect" (00:00:44 versus 00:43:59), so a listener typing the spoken address may miss. Keep the URL in the description as text and say it once, consistently (3.3.2 applies to the sign-up page it points to). #### Standards reference - Primary gaps against WCAG 2.2 AA: **1.2.2** (inaccurate captions), **1.2.5** (no audio description for any on-screen content that carries information), **1.4.4 / 1.4.10** (burned-in text, if any). The captions failure has the highest impact and the lowest fix cost. ## 🌍 DEIB assessment #### Cultural breadth - Present: the framing is US Christianity, mostly Protestant and Catholic, with a passing nod to Buddhists and atheists as coalition partners (00:36:03). - Improve: Black church traditions, Latino Catholic communities and non-Christian religious groups appear only as objects of history or coalition, not as voices. The episode has two speakers. #### Inclusive language - Present: no slurs in Whitaker's or Barrett's own speech; Barrett quotes an offensive 1968-era phrase to make a historical point (00:11:40), and the caption mangles it ("negrobee"). - Improve: label the quotation as a quotation on screen and in the description, and correct the caption. Phrases like "willful ignorance" and "brainwashing" (00:19:41) describe out-group members in ways that stigmatize. #### Neurodiversity support - Present: a predictable interview structure (intro, history, prescription, course pitch). - Improve: no chapters, a mid-episode ad, and a music bed that overlaps speech raise the load for viewers who rely on structure. Add chapters and duck the music. #### Representation - Present: two white male speakers; the discussion covers Black history, LGBTQ people, immigrants and Muslims as topics. - Improve: none of those groups speaks in the episode. A Black pastor, an LGBTQ Christian or a Muslim neighbor would add first-person testimony to claims made on their behalf. #### Psychological safety - Present: the tone is warm between the two speakers, with humor and mutual agreement. - Improve: the episode is written for an audience that already agrees, so a listener from the movement it criticizes would meet contempt ("political consultants into the desert," "Could you be any more shameless?"). If the goal is persuasion beyond the choir, state the disagreement in the other side's best terms first. ## ✅ Logical validity #### Strong reasoning - **Deductive, 00:06:37 to 00:07:19.** If 2 Timothy was written before the canon was compiled, then "God-breathed scripture" in that letter can't refer to the New Testament as a compiled book. The conclusion follows from the premise. It depends on the dating premise, which Barrett states as consensus and other scholars dispute. - **Internal consistency test, 00:07:19.** If the Old Testament is claimed to be without error, then removing six or seven of its books needs an explanation. The question is fair and puts the burden on the inerrancy claim. - **Textual consistency, 00:23:58.** Matthew 25 makes conduct toward the vulnerable the test of the sheep and the goats, and Barrett uses the same passage to evaluate specific policies. The mapping from passage to policy is an interpretive step, but the appeal to a shared text is a clear method the audience can check. - **Analogical, 00:20:24.** Comparing biblical marriage (contracted alliances, multiple wives) with the modern "traditional marriage" claim highlights a mismatch. The analogy works as a challenge, and the fix is to name which passages the opponent cites. - **Anticipated objection, 00:36:46 to 00:39:37.** Whitaker raises the need for a label and Barrett offers "cultural Christianity" with a stated reason (it describes what the movement advocates). Both sides state their reasoning. #### Fallacies - **Single-cause claim (causal oversimplification), 00:10:56.** "That's it. Game, set, match." Barrett states that segregation alone explains the rise of Christian schools and, by extension, the religious right. Historians debate the weight of each cause. *Fix:* say "segregation was a major driver" and cite the strongest counter-view. - **Argument by unsourced quotation, 00:11:40.** The line attributed to "Nixon's campaign manager in 1968" arrives with no source, and it's commonly attributed elsewhere to a different person and year. *Fix:* cite the original document and speaker, or drop the attribution. - **Unsourced statistic, 00:18:15.** "47%" of "the current generation" is given without a survey, an age range or a question. *Fix:* name the study, or state the claim as an impression. - **False dilemma, 00:19:41.** Whitaker asks whether the cause is "willful ignorance," indoctrination or "brainwashing," leaving no room for reasons believers would give themselves. *Fix:* ask what believers say they read in the text and answer that. - **No true Scotsman, 00:36:46.** "it's not Christian and it's not nationalist" defines the movement out of both categories by the speaker's own standard. Whitaker, who uses the term, pushes back at 00:38:11, so the episode itself surfaces the weakness. *Fix:* state the criterion ("this fails the Sermon on the Mount test") instead of denying membership. - **Hearsay presented as fact, 00:32:28.** "the paradox of how much the Republicans privately hate Trump" is described as "scuttlebutt," with no named source. *Fix:* attribute it to a named person or call it speculation. - **Genetic and chronology errors, 00:41:06 and 00:38:54.** The Westphalia sequence and the Constantine-Sabbath story contain historical claims that appear wrong or contested (see Main content). Not a fallacy in form, but they weaken an otherwise checkable argument. *Fix:* verify the dates before teaching them. - **Loaded framing, 00:24:40.** "Jesus would be woke" is dismissed as "the most absurd" phrase without the opponent's position being stated. *Fix:* quote the claim being rejected, then answer it. #### Tone of voice - Warm, joking and confident between two allies, in the register of a long-running advocacy podcast. Barrett is dry and sarcastic ("Buckle up," "as your therapist," "Game, set, match"), and Whitaker says at 00:00:00 that Barrett's humor is "direct" and "sarcastic." The tone hardens on named opponents (00:28:54, 00:33:12) and softens on scripture (00:23:58, 00:37:28). Confidence is highest on the claims with the weakest sourcing (00:10:56, 00:18:15). ## 🛡️ DARVO analysis Not applicable to this source. DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender) describes a response to an accusation, and this is a friendly interview with no accuser and no defensive posture. For completeness across the three prongs: **Deny**, none; the speakers deny nothing directed at them. **Attack**, the speakers criticize named public figures and movements (00:28:54, 00:33:12), but that is critique of third parties, not a response to being accused. **Reverse victim/offender**, none; Barrett's "Jesus is the greatest victim of identity theft" line at 00:18:15 recasts Jesus, not the speakers, as the wronged party, and it doesn't answer any accusation. ## 🎯 Conclusion The durable content is applied, not historical. Barrett's method is to hold conservative Christians to the text they claim (Matthew 25, the Sermon on the Mount), to avoid using God's name for votes, and to win elections while other institutions fail (00:23:58, 00:28:54, 00:33:12). The Bible-authority argument at 00:06:37 is checkable and coherent, provided the 2 Timothy dating is stated as a premise and not as settled fact. The history is the weak layer. A single-cause account of the religious right, an unsourced 1968 quote, a 47% statistic with no study, and a Westphalia and Constantine chronology that appear wrong all arrive at the same confident volume. The host and guest agree on nearly everything, so the episode surfaces one real disagreement (the term "Christian nationalism") and nothing else tests the claims. **Next steps for readers:** check the four specifics before repeating them (the 1968 quote, the 47% figure, the Westphalia and Church of England timeline, the Constantine Sabbath story). If the course topic interests you, use the free TNE Connect sessions for the primary documents (the Treaty of Tripoli, the Declaration of Independence, the Brown decision) and compare them against the lecture. The captions here are unreliable on names, so search by the corrected forms in the References section. ## 🔄 Refactor Appendix — How Christianity Can Help Save Democracy | Michael Barrett | TNE Podcasts > Density: 2–5 Literature atoms (H3 pad), 0–3 Permanent candidates (H4 pad). > Emitted: 5 Literature, 2 Permanent. Resonance filter applied: the Bible-authority and Westphalia > claims were dropped from atoms because their premises are contested or the chronology is disputed. > > Konik claim-header rules: present tense, declarative, ≤10 words, searchable, unique. > > Atomicity: one declarative sentence per atom. "and"/"also" → split. > > Tag pool: #bmf · #addendum · #xref · #articleseed · #storystem · #share · #aphorisms ### 📚 Literature Split Pad #### [H1] Barrett dates the religious right to 1954 > [!quote] [00:10:12] > It was 1954 when the Supreme Court and Brown v. Board of Education said schools should be desegregated, right? **Context & use**: - 00:10:12, the turn from the abortion origin story to the segregation origin story. - Barrett states this as fact; historians debate the weight of segregation versus abortion, so record the claim with its contested status. **Tags**: #xref #articleseed <!-- atomicity: 1 idea ✓ --> #### [H2] Acting differently draws people to Christ > [!quote] [00:37:28] > The real way to bring people to Christ is to act differently here. **Context & use**: - 00:37:28, Barrett's answer to why believers should care which culture is in charge. - The claim is the positive counterpart to his critique: conduct, not cultural control, is the witness. **Tags**: #xref #aphorisms <!-- atomicity: 1 idea ✓ --> #### [H3] Barrett prefers "cultural Christianity" for the movement > [!quote] [00:39:37] > we use we used the Bible we use verses as as tools in furtherance of preferred cultural outcomes **Context & use**: - 00:39:37, closing his answer on terminology after the Constantine story. - His label choice rests on this claim about how verses get used; the Constantine example is historically contested, so pair the atom with a source check. **Tags**: #xref <!-- atomicity: 1 idea ✓ --> #### [H4] Barrett calls elections the only remaining tool > [!quote] [00:33:12] > since there's no guard rails anymore uh is to is to win an election. **Context & use**: - 00:33:12, his answer on why the midterms matter. - The premise (no institutional guardrails) is asserted, not argued; test it against Whitaker's later point at 00:35:20 that the roots are deeper than one or two elections. **Tags**: #xref #share <!-- atomicity: 1 idea ✓ --> #### [H5] Taking the Lord's name in vain means using God > [!quote] [00:28:54] > It's stop using God stop using God for your purposes. **Context & use**: - 00:28:54, Barrett's reading of the third commandment and his reason the left avoids campaign faith talk. - It reframes the commandment from profanity to instrumentalizing God, and is the source of the "don't use it for votes" rule. **Tags**: #xref #aphorisms <!-- atomicity: 1 idea ✓ --> ### 🧠 Atomic Split Pad #### [P1] Check a claim before you cite the quote **Claim** (one sentence, Courtney's voice): A striking quotation or statistic in an advocacy conversation is a lead to verify, not a fact to repeat, until I can name the original source, speaker and date. **Evidence pointer**: [[#H1]] · [[#H4]] **Scope & conditions**: Holds for any unsourced quote, dated claim or percentage in a podcast, including ones I agree with. This episode has four to check: the 1968 quote, the 47% figure, the Westphalia timeline and the Constantine Sabbath story. It doesn't apply to claims the speaker labels as opinion. **Links**: - [[Reading vendor benchmarks]] — because extends - [[Every claim carries a fact]] — because applies-in writing standards - [[Advocacy content and source discipline]] — because evidence-for <!-- atomicity: 1 idea ✓ --> #### [P2] Argue from the shared text before the shared politics **Claim** (one sentence, Courtney's voice): When a community claims a text as authority, quoting that text back to it tests the claim more fairly than opposing it with outside politics. **Evidence pointer**: [[#H2]] · [[#H5]] **Scope & conditions**: Holds when the audience accepts the text's authority and the passage is quoted in context. It breaks when the text is ambiguous enough that both sides quote it, as Whitaker admits at 00:34:38 ("not univocal"), or when the audience doesn't accept the text. **Links**: - [[Primary sources over summaries]] — because extends - [[Teaching from primary documents]] — because applies-in education - [[Steelmanning before critique]] — because contrasts on where the disagreement is located <!-- atomicity: 1 idea ✓ --> ### ✏️ Fleeting Queue - [F1] Verify the origin of the "Negroes who register as Democrats" quote Barrett attributes to Nixon's campaign manager in 1968 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKAtiG7d-M&t=700 #fleeting #inbox - [F2] Find the study behind "47% less likely to attend a house of worship because of Trump" (00:18:15) or record it as unsourced #fleeting #inbox - [F3] Check the Westphalia, Peace of Augsburg and Church of England chronology Barrett gives at 00:41:06 before repeating it #fleeting #inbox - [F4] Compare the segregation-first and abortion-first origin accounts of the religious right, with the primary documents each side cites #fleeting #inbox #articleseed - [F5] Note the caption-garble key (Jeffress, Talarico, Falwell, Weyrich, Massie, Warnock, Rushdoony) for any search or citation from this transcript #fleeting #inbox - [F6] Find Barrett's Substack URL; the description and transcript don't carry it #fleeting #inbox ### → Things 3 (max 2 actions) - [ ] Verify the 1968 quote, the 47% figure and the Westphalia and Constantine claims before citing this episode — research, 20 min #things - [ ] Find Michael Barrett's Substack URL and the TNE Connect course syllabus, then decide whether to enroll — 10 min #things <!-- deep-read:sections end --> 📄 **Full text:** [[Full Document Contents/Articles/How Christianity Can Help Save Democracy Michael Barrett TNE Podcasts.md|How Christianity Can Help Save Democracy | Michael Barrett | TNE Podcasts by Michael Barrett]] ## Highlights - [00:10:12] When when when we when people are walking the streets and they think, why did Christians get involved in politics? They wanted to stay out of it, but you know, they had to. They felt compelled to get involved. Everyone thinks it's what? Abortion, right? That's why they get not true. Not even close. It was 1954 when the Supreme Court and Brown v. Board of Education said schools should be desegregated, right? Okay. This was states, you know, this is back when they equated states rights with Christianity and and Jerry Fwell and the rest of them said, "We're going to start opening up Christianmies, which are have come to be known as segregationmies." So all those all those schools take a look do some [00:10:56] research. When did they start there was a flood of them that got stood up in uh the n late 1950s post Brown v board of education. Why? Because they wanted to have their children uh be in a Christc centered education. Not even close. Right? It had everything to do with they didn't want their white children going to school with black children. That's it. Game, set, match. Okay. And it created the desegregation created such hostility throughout the South that you know a aspiring politician starting with Barry Goldwater said we'd be fools. We'd be fools not to leverage this. Okay. To quote the ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m3psnxnzycxa6nwew93jkbzh)) - Note: [H1] Barrett dates the religious right to 1954 - Tags: atom/literature/h1 - [00:28:54] curse word. It's stop using God stop using God for your purposes. Y >> right. >> My goodness the the amount of leveraging uh God's name for votes when you're you know when you've got your mistress in the bathroom as you're doing the interview. Uh, Mike, you know, that's I I don't know what judgment day is going to be like, but I don't want to have that on my record when it comes. >> Could you be any more shameless? And so, I think I think for people like um Hillary, who can talk eloquently about faith and Barack Obama, I think they're mindful of that, right? Boy, I don't want to be leveraging God for votes. um [00:29:38] uh especially when I I'm very aware of my own sinfulness, >> right? You don't want to be there. So, I I think I think we have to figure out how to talk about it in a way that lets people know who we are without leveraging it for votes and at the same time uh helping people understand that if you're not part of this community, it doesn't going to impact how I how you know the policies uh in this country other than other than caring for one other. >> Yeah, I I I I agree. Actually, I think those are some really compelling points. I've never heard those answers before ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m3psp9an9a3056qkvpema486)) - Note: [H5] Taking the Lord's name in vain means using God - Tags: atom/literature/h3 - [00:33:12] of the world they run out of town. >> Yep. >> And so it seems like >> it seems like the only >> the only tool in our toolbox at this point is to um since there's no guard rails anymore uh is to is to win an election. That's the only uh you know the the pastors can't evenly call balls and strikes uh based on scripture. They've done a uh they've done a a poor job uh throughout America calling balls and strikes. Um I think Franklin Graham said it best. It would bother me a great deal if there's a marriage between the hard right and religion. Uh because the hard right has no interest um in in [00:33:55] religion other than to take advantage of it. And that that's absolutely correct. >> Yeah. >> And and the pastors in America >> are trading access >> for um putting their putting their finger on the scales. So it seems like the only tool we have left is to win an election. And uh you can't sit this one out. >> I concur. Um yeah, it is um it's something to kind of witness the moment that we're in when it comes to how faith has been really weaponized, you know, and the Bible used as a tool of oppression instead of a tool for liberation. You know, I think that these things are complicated and the Bible's a complicated collection of texts and it's ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m3psp6g91dw6qv7ffw08spzx)) - Note: [H4] Barrett calls elections the only remaining tool - Tags: atom/literature/h3 - [00:37:28] living for um, another life, Why do you care? Why do you care what culture is here? Why do you care? The real way to bring people to Christ is to act differently here. So when people say, "Look at that person. He doesn't seem to care what what what other people think of him. They're he's not coveting his money. He's not he's he's serving." What what does that person know that I don't know? >> And that's how to bring That's how to bring people to Christ. Not not in the way that they're doing it. >> Yeah, that's fair. And I Okay, let's pick on this for one second. So I I use I've used the term Christian nationalism forever. You don't like the term. I get I I want to hear more about that because in my mind I'm thinking how do we classify this thing that we're dealing with. You know this like movement that is at least using the Christian language [00:38:11] in some way shape or form for I would argue not patriotistic means but for nationalistic means of like our country is superior. We have a role in the world to dominate and control in you know pillage. That's that's kind of how I think about it. So, break this down for me more. Like, do is there a term that that that you would use that would still kind of capture this into a bottle, but not maybe not use that phrase? >> Well, in my in my Substack, I I I revert to using cultural Christianity, right? That's and and because that's what I think they're really advocating for, right? You you use you use whatever tools in your toolbox. Um, and and the tool that they're using. I mean, look, the the Bible is a big compilation of ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m3psp0fwa09sk5kmbeg5wb65)) - Note: [H2] Acting differently draws people to Christ - Tags: atom/literature/h2 - [00:38:54] texts. There's a lot in there, right? You ask any snake handler in in in Kentucky and West Virginia. You can ex you can extra close your eyes, open it up, put your finger on something, and start a religion. >> Uh, and and so that's not really difficult. People do it all the time. my latest substack piece, I talk about uh I talk about the Sabbath and and how Constantine Constantine, a government leader, just God says, "Look, it's the it's the most straightforward commandment uh uh that the seventh day, the Saturday, is the day of rest and the day of worship." Constantine goes, "That doesn't work for me. We're gonna we're going to move it to Sunday. I've got free time on Sunday." And we're and all the Christians are like, except the Seventh Day Adventists are like, "Yeah, [00:39:37] let's go with that." Yeah. >> Uh uh and and and so you know we we use we used the Bible we use verses as as tools in furtherance of preferred cultural outcomes >> and and so that's why I use cultural Christianity. >> Yeah. No, that makes sense. I I makes a lot of sense. Um okay, talk to me a little bit about and then we'll wrap up here and I I appreciate making time, Michael. It's so good to have you on the show. you're you're you're doing a couple different courses here for TN uh coming up in October here on faith law and politics. Give the audience a little tease of of of what's to come in those courses. >> Yeah. So, it's three classes. Well, well, it's the same class, but it's ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m3psp2q6kgn4w4bvachqwx1t)) - Note: [H3] Barrett prefers "cultural Christianity" for the movement - Tags: atom/literature/h3