Oct 6, 2026 · 38 min · 13 segments
For more than a decade American politics has been framed by the Trump era, and during that time President Trump's longstanding support from the religious right has hardly wavered. Within that…
Jeff TiberiiHost
Leoneda IngeHost
Before the break, you were talking about the Southern Baptist Church and it being a pillar of the Jim Crow South.
Again, I have a degree from a Southern Baptist college and a Southern Baptist seminary.
So I d- I did a Master of Divinity degree at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, um, uh, which one of the f- kind of at the time five of the...
One of the five, you know, official denomination, denominational seminaries.
Uh, so I was still fully in there, still attending Southern Baptist churches, um, but I was also there when the more fundamentalist wing of the, uh, convention took over.
The seminary fired the president, um, in the middle of the term, uh, uh, essentially lied to the student body about why they were doing it, and even escorted him off campus with armed guards.
So I mean, I witnessed a kind of fundamentalist coup, um, at the seminary, and then they went after professors, um, you know, th- they considered to be, quote-unquote, "liberal," uh, there.
A- I think from, in many ways that seeing the ugliness of that was probably the beginning of the end, uh, for me in realizing there really would not be a place for me, uh, in this denomination, uh, seeing that up close.
I think the first of per- perhaps a couple of passages that we're gonna hear from.
Uh, as we shift gears, I'm gonna ask you, uh, to read a passage that begins with, "We can no longer pretend." It's, uh, on page 13.
We can and should know that any political ideology that demands the circumscription of love and the extinguishing of empathy has moved beyond the bounds of both pluralistic democracy and Christian faith.
If we do not defend that truth with our lives, we will find ourselves unable to recover a democratic society in which we can all live together, and we will surely feel devastating regret.
If we have any hope of finding our way, we must start by being explicit about the dangers of our current moment.
I think most listeners are with you and the text at that point, but unpack, expound, and, and carry it forward if you were, uh, if you would.
Before the break, you were talking about the Southern Baptist Church and it being a pillar of the Jim Crow South.
Again, I have a degree from a Southern Baptist college and a Southern Baptist seminary.
So I d- I did a Master of Divinity degree at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, um, uh, which one of the f- kind of at the time five of the...
One of the five, you know, official denomination, denominational seminaries.
Uh, so I was still fully in there, still attending Southern Baptist churches, um, but I was also there when the more fundamentalist wing of the, uh, convention took over.
The seminary fired the president, um, in the middle of the term, uh, uh, essentially lied to the student body about why they were doing it, and even escorted him off campus with armed guards.
So I mean, I witnessed a kind of fundamentalist coup, um, at the seminary, and then they went after professors, um, you know, th- they considered to be, quote-unquote, "liberal," uh, there.
A- I think from, in many ways that seeing the ugliness of that was probably the beginning of the end, uh, for me in realizing there really would not be a place for me, uh, in this denomination, uh, seeing that up close.
I think the first of per- perhaps a couple of passages that we're gonna hear from.
Uh, as we shift gears, I'm gonna ask you, uh, to read a passage that begins with, "We can no longer pretend." It's, uh, on page 13.
We can and should know that any political ideology that demands the circumscription of love and the extinguishing of empathy has moved beyond the bounds of both pluralistic democracy and Christian faith.
If we do not defend that truth with our lives, we will find ourselves unable to recover a democratic society in which we can all live together, and we will surely feel devastating regret.
If we have any hope of finding our way, we must start by being explicit about the dangers of our current moment.
I think most listeners are with you and the text at that point, but unpack, expound, and, and carry it forward if you were, uh, if you would.
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