Podcast
The Bulwark Podcast
Dr. Russell Moore discussed his new book, which contained the theme that if people wanted to find Jesus, they would have to lose their religion. The book explored the current state of the American church and the reasons why people felt the evangelical church was immoral.
Your new book is out this week, Losing Our Religion, an Altered Call for Evangelical America. I found it just an extraordinary read and I wish you could see all the bookmarks, including the first line...
— Episode: Russell Moore: "Losing Our Religion"
Episode: Russell Moore: "Losing Our Religion"
Dr. Russell Moore discussed his new book, which contained the theme that if people wanted to find Jesus, they would have to lose their religion. The book explored the current state of the American church and the reasons why people felt the evangelical church was immoral.
Your new book is out this week, Losing Our Religion, an Altered Call for Evangelical America. I found it just an extraordinary read and I wish you could see all the bookmarks, including the first line of the book. If we wanted to find Jesus, we would have to lose our religion.
Well, the R-E-M song usually plays anytime that there's a segment about someone becoming an atheist or walking away from the faith. But what I found was that that's actually not what the song is about. It's about the old Southern expression, I'm going to lose my religion, meaning I'm so angry, I'm about to move from politeness into rage.
I couldn't help but wonder if the plot twist to the story of American conservative Christianity was that what we thought was the shire was more mortal all along.
If evangelicalism is just political idolatry or populist demagoguery or white nationalism or toxic masculinity or something else, then we can get at that problem merely by addressing all of those. But then you say you have to face the reality that as awful as all of those horrors are, they are made worse when they are framed as badges of religious identity.
What if a time traveler were there, stopped me in the aisle and said, let me tell you, Russell, let me tell you about evangelical Christianity several decades from now. Let me tell you about Donald Trump. Let me tell you about ongoing racism and nationalism, constantly trying to masquerade as Jesus. Let me tell you about all the people whose faces you will see the rest of your life. People who are violated at the deepest core of their being by the church.
