For God and Country: Russell Moore on Love and Humility in American Politics

In this episode, we interview theologian and Washington influence-maker Dr. Russell Moore on love, humility and power in American political life.

In October 2016 just prior to the Presidential Election, we interviewed Dr. Russell Moore—an Evangelical ethicist, theologian and preacher who has been named one of the top 50 influence-makers in Washington. Dr. Moore was dubbed by then-Presidential candidate Donald Trump on Twitter as "truly a terrible representative of American Evangelicals and all of the good they stand for. A nasty guy with no heart!" Well, we disagree. Listen as Dr. Moore shares his thoughts on love, humility, and power in American political life.

Show Notes

0:00—Show introduction and all about Russell Moore (including a shout out from @realDonaldTrump)
3:22—Russell Moore on his vocation
4:00—The 2016 presidential election and beyond
6:45—Nicholas Carr, Utopia is Creepy
7:00—The 2016 election and other elections—what’s different?
8:25—Humility and the presidential office
11:35—What’s the role of the church in public life?
11:46—Reference to Dr. Moore's book Onward: Engaging the Culture Without Losing the Gospel
13:00—Mentions Pope Francis’ culture of disposable people (his first major statement as pope)
15:25—The current state of Christianity in America
15:40—Christians and the Moral Majority
17:04—“A genuinely authentic Christian witness is always going to be counter to the way of the flesh and the way of the world.”
18:00—Christian hypocrisy
19:00—Jesus’ definition of power and ours
19:33—Intermission
20:50—Christian "engaged alienation": What is it? How does civic friendship fit in?
21:55—Proper ordering of love
23:25—Original pull quote at intro
24:00—Why does religious liberty matter?
28:10—How should the church interact and cooperate with the state?
29:06—Christians and the major issues: homosexuality, family
31:17—Loving those we disagree with
36:04—End interview, start credits

Quotes by Russell Moore

"We can be Americans best when we're not Americans first.
"We've seen 'we' as being the United States of America first, rather than seeing 'we' first as the global body of Christ, as a member of the church of Jesus Christ.' That changes the way that we see people on the outside. It changes the priorities that we have."
"Our love has to be defined primarily in terms of who we are as the kingdom of God."
"If we have an unbounded patriotism, then we end up with an alternative religion and we end up with an idol. If we have the patriotism that is bounded, the patriotism that is a subordinate love, then it's something that is deeply powerful and quite right."

Credits

The Table is sponsored by generous grants from the John Templeton Foundation, Templeton Religion Trust, and The Blankemeyer Foundation
Theme music by The Brilliance
Production and engineering by The Narrativo Group
Edited and mixed by TJ Hester
Production Assistance by Laura Pelser
Special thanks to Russell Moore
Follow: @drmoore @BiolaCCT @Evan_Rosa