Episode 480: The Myth of the Religious Right with Randall Balmer

Conservative evangelicals organized into a political movement in the 1970s in response to the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize abortion. Or did they? Historian Randall Balmer argues this origin story for the Religious Right is a myth. He talks to Skye about the real origins of the movement and how it explains the current state of white evangelicalism.

Also this week, we unpack Peter Wehner’s article in The Atlantic about the breaking apart of evangelicalism. Is the church a victim of media manipulation, or is evangelicalism reaping its own rotten fruit? Plus, lawsuits between believers, training Christians for hand-to-hand combat in vehicles, and Phil’s massive magical mushroom.

News Segment:

Phil’s mushroom [2:47]

Christians training in hand-to-hand combat [8:39]
https://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article255162407.html

Mike Stone suing Russell Moore [13:14]
https://religionnews.com/2021/10/20/mike-stone-files-lawsuit-sbc-rival-russell-moore-defamation-erlc-trump-abuse/
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/church-state-and-the-future-of-evangelicalism/

“The Evangelical Church is Breaking Apart” [28:01]
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/10/evangelical-trump-christians-politics/620469/

https://www.holypost.com/post/episode-441-biden-s-inauguration-the-future-of-the-republican-party-with-peter-wehner

Interview with Randall Balmer:

PATREON BONUS: https://www.patreon.com/posts/57900540

“Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right” - https://amzn.to/3btjt7D

Interview Start [52:40]

Context for approaching this study [54:23]

What is the myth? [59:59]

Effects of dispensational premillennialism on social engagement [1:11:37]

Emergence of Religious Right in the North/Midwest [1:19:35]

Why do these origins matter? [1:25:22]

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