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In the first part of our series, Chris explored the beginning of Barry Goldwater's career, from his early days as a young man to his rise to the Senate. In the second episode, Goldwater still hasn't agreed to be the nominee, even though groups are raising money in his name.

One of his most valuable supporters was a woman named Phyllis Schlafly. In 1964 she published a small book, A Choice Not an Echo. It claimed that GOP nominations had been rigged going back many years. She felt burned that Robert Taft (a true conservative) had been avoided over Dwight Eisenhower. Her book earned Goldwater the eventual nomination by his party.

At the 1964 GOP convention, Goldwater announced that extremism was a thing he was okay with. While this excited his base, it scared a good many others who were already afraid that he'd use his power to launch nuclear weapons.

Lyndon Johnson won that year in the greatest landslide in US presidential history.

Sources

• Before the Storm by Rick Perlstein.
• The Heritage Foundation's claims about Black Lives Matter
• JFK's address about the Cuban missile crisis
• The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro
• LBJ ice cream ad
• Rockefeller's speech at the 1964 RNC via C-SPAN
• Birchers by Matthew Dallek
• Goldwater's speech at the 1964 RNC via C-SPAN
• 1964 RNC party platform
• These Truths by Jill LePore
• Goldwater's comments on the Religious Right

Discussion Questions

• How did the 1964 Republican platform show a slide to extremism?
• Is the argument for "states' rights" inherently racist? How has it been used to back racism?
• Why did Goldwater's talk about nuclear weapons make people uneasy?
• How did Goldwater's address to the 1964 RNC act as a call to extremists?
• Why did Lyndon Johnson win by the largest victory in US presidential history?
• Even though he lost dramatically, Goldwater had a big impact. What was it?

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Barry Goldwater may be one of the most interesting figures in Republican history. He grew up the son of a wealthy department store owner. He was a city council member and then a senator from Arizona. He was handsome and took pictures with guns and cacti. Goldwater was also a libertarian who wanted a small government and low taxes.

His platform was laid out in a ghostwritten book Conscience of a Conservative. L. Brent Bozell wrote the book. He was a member of the John Birch Society. The book advocated for state's rights, though Goldwater argued that he was not a racist. The problem is that the South had long been using state's rights complaints to justify their oppression of black people. So, was Goldwater a racist? He sure as heck did what racists wanted.

He also advocated for nuclear weapons in the US, an end to progressive taxation, and strange plans to reduce government spending. He courted extremists, mashing traditional conservatism false conspiracies and bad actors. The Republican Party would eventually bounce back to being an establishment party, but not for long. Many of Goldwater's ideas would be carried out by Reagan just a decade and a half later.

CORRECTION: The original version of this episode said that Goldwater served in WWI. It was WWII. Sorry! The error has been corrected.

Sources

• Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus by Rick Perlstein
• The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro. Especially The Passage of Power
• Bichers by Matthew Dallek
• A Choice Not An Echo by Phyllis Schlafly
• Buckley: William F Buckley Jr. and the Rise of American Conservatism by Cart T. Bogus
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05MPUsdFyQY The Memory Palace episode 130 “Independence Hall 2: The Legend of Walter Knott”
• 1964 Republican Party Platform
• Heather Cox Richardson's video series on the history of GOP

Questions

• What does it mean for someone to be a "conservative"?
• How does it impact us when we are tied to organizations like the John Birch Society? How did it impact conservatives?
• Discuss the relationship between the state's rights argument and racism.
• Was Goldwater a racist?
• Many of the people we've covered over the years have been public speakers. Should we take a second pass at vetting our public speakers?

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Robert Welch was a candy magnate who invented the Sugar Daddy and sold favorites like Junior Mints and Milk Duds. He was also very anti-communist. His dubious research led him to found the John Birch Society, a group whose mission was to spread conspiracy theories worldwide. They had major support from wealthy men like Fred Koch, father of the Koch brothers (who financed opposition to Obamacare and climate change legislation).

Some of their most notable campaigns were those against Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Earl Warren and President Dwight Eisenhower. They claimed that these men were communist sympathizers working behind the scenes to put the communist agenda. Bogus stuff, but they gained thousands of followers across the country. They also fought the income tax, said that black people would not have wanted equality if the communists hadn't taught them to, and argued that the US is a republic and not a democratic republic.

Phyllis Schlafly, RJ Rushdoony, Tim LaHaye, and many others had ties to the birchers. This group had a huge influence on the Religious Right! Not to mention shifting the GOP to accept extremists.

Our special guest for this episode is Dr. Matthew Dallek, a political historian at George Washington University. His book is Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right.

Sources:

• Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right by Matthew Dallek
• Before the Storm by Rick Perlstein
• Divided We Stand by Marjorie Spruill
• Helpful Guardian article about the Koch brothers and Americans for Prosperity
• Christian Reconstruction: RJ Rushdoony and American Religious Conservatism by Michael McVicar
• NY Times article about J. Howard Pew's connections to Robert Welch
• Dark Money by Jane Mayer

Discussion Questions

• What is the John Birch Society?
• Was communism a threat to the country in the mid-1900s?
• What would have been the proper way to respond to communism?
• What is the impact of conspiracy theories on American Christianity?
• There are real conspiracies in the US, like those by Donald Trump and his allies to steal the 2020 election. But a lot of Christians don't believe these real conspiracies. How has an abundance of false conspiracies numbed our ability to recognize reality?
• Are you surprised Tim LaHaye, Phyllis Schlafly, and RJ Rushdoony were affiliated with the JBS?
• How can believers maintain their faith even when evangelical culture has been corrupted?

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Modern evangelicalism sometimes incorporates pieces of different ideas. Things that are in the air. Social messages. Political stances. But has evangelicalism been enchanted by libertarianism?

In this episode, we cover a brief history of libertarianism. What is it and who are some of the main thinkers? We discuss Murry Rothbard, Ayn Rand, Friedrich Hayek, and Robert Nozick.

What is a libertarian? Matt Zwolinski and John Tomasi define libertarianism by six characteristics. Libertarians are defined by a love of private property, they are skeptical of authority, and they like free markets, spontaneous order, individualism, and negative liberty. We will define each of these throughout the episode.

Our special guest for this episode is Andrew Koppelman, law professor at Northwestern University. He's the author of the book Burning Down the House: How Libertarian Philosophy Was Corrupted by Delusion and Greed.

Sources

• Burning Down the House: How Libertarian Philosophy Was Corrupted by Delusion and Greed. by Andrew Koppelman
• The Individualists by Matt Zwolinski and John Tomasi
• The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich Hayek
• Matthew 25
• The Road to Serfdom cartoon version
• The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro (for the Dust Bowl section in book 2)
• 99% Invisible episode The Infernal Machine for information on anarchists
• Teddy Roosevelt's first address to Congress
• Dark Money by Jane Mayer
• EPA.gov article about The Clean Air Act
• NPR story about law enforcement throwing protestors in unmarked vans
• Listen America! by Jerry Falwell
• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (I could only stomach maybe 1/4 of it. I promised myself if she wrote "Rearden Steel" one more time that I would stop reading. She did. So I did.)

Discussion Questions

• What is libertarianism?
• How have you seen libertarianism crossing over into evangelicalism?
• Does libertarianism counter the story from Matthew 25?
• What is the impact of Ayn Rand? Have you read her books?
• Why did Atlas Shrugged suddenly become the "it" book among Republicans in 2020?
• Is there any place for selfishness in the Christian walk?

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Well, we survived the 2024 US presidential election! But many people still feel anxiety as we head into the Christmas and New Year holidays. How can Christians prepare for a holiday season when politics will likely arise?

Chris Staron is joined by Karl Klemmer, Nick Staron, and Ray McDaniel at First Baptist Church in Jackson, WY to discuss these issues and more. Plus Chris talks about his own anger as a pedestrian as drivers have come close to hitting him. How do Christians respond when they are wronged? We also spend a lot of time talking about Romans 14 which encourages believers to love their brothers and sisters who struggle in their faith or who have convictions different than our own. Can verses about food sacrificed to idols teach us something about dealing with loved ones who are different than us?

Sources:

• Romans 12-15 (mixed translations)

Discussion Questions:

• Why is it important to come to a complete stop at stop signs?
• Has anyone ever wronged you on the road? How did that feel? How did you react?
• Do you get upset about things you can't change? What are some examples?
• How can you adjust to not beat yourself up over things you can't change?
• What are other examples of non-mission critical things we can give grace on (like food sacrificed to idols)?
• Are there political issues that are mission-critical? Which ones are not? What are some that you can let slide in a conversation?
• How do you prepare yourself to enter a stressful environment?

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How do ultra-wealthy people avoid paying taxes? It seems like a strange subject to bring up when discussing why some evangelicals are drawn to the Republican Party. But many of the ties between evangelicals and the GOP have to do with money. So, let's take a little side trip and explore the tax loopholes of today. More importantly, let's try to understand why so many Americans are tax-averse. Could it possibly be because we, deep down, know that someone else is getting a better deal than us?

One tactic used by the ultra-wealthy is "buy, borrow, die". They avoid "income", instead opting for assets like stock and real estate they can borrow against. Borrowed money is not taxed. Then they either pay back those loans with other loans (often with interest rates that are much lower than their tax rates would be) or they fail to pay back the loans. Then... they die.

Jesse Eisinger is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter with Pro Publica. Chris first heard about him from his book (pardon the language) The Chickenshit Club and met him when he appeared at a live event in Jackson, WY hosted by the Teton County Library, the Center for the Arts, and the Jackson Hole News and Guide.

Sources

• Pro-Publica's reporting on taxation
• This lecture at the Center for the Arts in Jackson, WY on November 8, 2023
• Fascinating IRS responses to some of the conspiracy theories about them
• Disney's Donald Duck film "The New Spirit" encourages income tax as a national duty
• Time Magazine article about the history of taxes
• William McKinley vs. William Jennings Bryan by John Pafford (pg 29)
• New York Times archival article listing taxes paid by the wealthy
• The 16th Amendment
• The Macomber case article on Justia.com
• Historic Tax Bracket data
• Time Magazine article on the John Birch Society
• Methodist History from January 1988

Discussion Questions:

• What are your thoughts on the income tax in general?
• How should countries be funded?
• Why might a progressive tax structure (where wealthy people pay more) make sense?
• How could we close some of these tax loopholes?
• What is the difference between income and wealth?
• Should we tax wealth in the USA?

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It all started with a meeting over fancy donuts. Paige Patterson and a friend met together to plot the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention. Before that time, the SBC had been more theologically diverse (though, not necessarily racially diverse due to its founding as a group that desired slavery). But if this group of fundamentalists was going to get a whole denomination to turn their way, they'd have to be clever. It would take time.

Their scheme involved getting fundies elected into high office who could then turn committees and sub-committees to their side. It's a story of a minority group gaining control of a large organization, and steering it toward their vision of what it means to be a Christian.

Sources

• The Fundamentalist Takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention – by Rob James, Gary Leazer
• The Evangelicals by Frances Fitzgerald
• Christianity Today article about Paige Patterson's allegations
• Religion News article about Patterson
• Tennesseean article about Patterson
• Article about early Baptists
• Church History in Plain Language by Bruce Shelley
• Cornell's article about the separation of church and state
• Frances Shaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America by Barry Hankins
• Johnson Archives about SBC
• Johnson Archives SBC Resolutions
• Certified Pastry Aficianatro article about beignets

Discussion Questions

• The episode starts with a discussion of accusations about Paige Patterson. What was your reaction to that story and why?
• Is it possible for a spouse to be a part of the salvation of their husband or wife? Where are the lines?
• When were you baptized? Did you do it as an adult, child, or both? Why?
• What do you think is the "right" way to baptize someone? Why?
• What are your thoughts on inerrancy?

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What are the warning signs that a church leader will become a tyrant? How do we prevent church hurt from becoming our identity? What are ideologies and how do they become the overall focus of some ministries?

Mike Cosper is the co-host of Christianity Today's The Bulletin podcast, the producer and host of The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, and now the author of The Church in Dark Times.

Discussion Questions:

• How does Mike define "Ideology"? What does it mean to have a strong ideology? Do you have any? How does this differ from having a simple belief?
• Why do you think so many people today struggle with anxiety? How can ideologies protect us from our anxiety? Why might that be a poor crutch?
• Mike recommends worship as a way to fend off anxiety. Why could that help?
• Is it wrong for churches and organizations to have a missions statement or goals?

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In the Kanawha County Textbook War episode, Chris shared that the people of that county fought against some textbooks and stories being read in classrooms and as homework. Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask of Amontillado is one of the texts that was contested.

So Chris decided to read it here as a bonus episode at the end of October. Enjoy!

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Frances Schaeffer is one of the most important theological thinkers of the 20th century. He urged fundamentalists and evangelicals to think outside of their separatism and consider how they could reach the world and expand their worldview. He began his career as a preacher in the United States, but a foreign missions board asked him to assess the state of fundamentalism in Europe after WWII. While there he saw great works of art and met fascinating people. Eventually, Schaeffer moved to Switzerland to start L'Abri, a chalet community where wanderers could come, live, and discuss the gospel.

That's where the story may have ended. But his lectures were turned into audio cassettes and books. Then, from this small mountain village, Schaeffer became one of the best-known evangelicals in the world. Once he returned to the United States, his books took on a Christian nationalist tone which sticks with us today.

Our guest for this episode is Barry Hankins. He's the author of Frances Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America. He is a professor of history at Baylor University.

Sources:

• Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America by Barry Hankins
• The Evangelicals by Frances Fitgerald
• Reaganland by Rick Perlstein
• A helpful article about the Renaissance
• A helpful article about the Enlightenment
• Schaeffer's film How Should We Then Live?
• Gospel Coalition article about secular humanism
• A Christian Manifesto by Frances Schaeffer

Discussion Questions:

• Have you read any of Schaeffer's work?
• What is your "worldview"? How did you get it? How did you become aware of that concept?
• Should all Christians have an idea of their worldview? Should it look a certain way?
• What do you think about the middle part of Schaeffer's ministry when he was preaching in L'Abri? How does it differ from the last third of his ministry?
• How have you seen Christian nationalism? What parts of the Bible do people use to justify it?

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Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique kicked off second-wave feminism in the United States. The book was published in 1963 and addressed what she called "the problem that has no name". As women's roles shifted with the invention of electricity and the number of workers needed to run farms decreased, women's roles shifted. The idea of a "traditional" woman went from a farm laborer or factory worker to someone who kept the home and managed her children's schedules. This left many women feeling unsatisfied and searching for their purpose in life. Friedan's book addressed those issues and inspired more extreme views of women.

Several "Christian" books were published to respond to Friedan and second-wave feminism. One was The Total Woman, the number one bestselling nonfiction book of the year which has sold over 10 million copies. Published in 1973, it was the genesis of the scene in Fried Green Tomatoes where Kathy Bates goes to the door to meet her husband wrapped in Saran Wrap. It encouraged women to use costumes to greet their husbands, to avoid being "shrewish", and to use Norman Vincent Peele's philosophy of positive thinking.

Another book was The Spirit-Controlled Woman by Beverly LaHaye. This was a companion piece to a book written by her husband Tim LaHaye, but it somehow managed to avoid telling women how to live by the Spirit.

Special guests join Chris for this episode. Each took a different book so we can better understand this movement and counter-movement.

Special Guests:

• Amy Fritz of the Untangled Faith podcast
• Anna Tran of the Love Thy Neighborhood podcast
• Jen Pollock Michel author of In Good Time, A Habit Called Faith, and Surprised by Paradox

Sources:

• The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
• The Spirit-Controlled Woman by Beverly LaHaye
• The Total Woman by Marabel Morgan

Discussion Questions:

• What is your relationship to the books we discussed in these episodes?
• What is the difference between first-wave feminism and second-wave feminism?
• How have the roles of women changed in society in the last 200 years? What role did electricity, the Industrial Revolution and wars shaped those roles?
• What was the "problem that has no name"? How did/does it impact women's lives?
• How does this vision of feminism compare and contrast to biblical images of women?
• How have we added or subtracted from what the Bible says about women to create our modern image of a "Christian woman"?
• Morgan advised her readers to meet their husbands at the door in costumes. What is your opinion of this idea?
• What did she mean when she said she had been "shrewish"? Is that term insulting to women? Why?
• Is the "Christian ideal" vision of women one that requires women to stay home with children?

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