The Protestant Libertarian Podcast

In this episode, I discuss the recent Dobbs decision by the supreme court that overturns Roe vs. Wade, why I think abortion is a moral evil but am deeply conflicted about its legality, and how there exists a healthy debate within the libertarian movement about when, where, and how abortion should be legal. We then look at Michael Gorman’s 1981 book Abortion and the Early Church to contextualize the early Christian perspective on abortion, and then take one more swipe at Gorman’s unfortunate understanding of capitalism. Episode Outline:I. My Mixed Feelings on the Legality of AbortionsII. I Like the Dobbs DecisionIII. The Abortion Debate Within Libertarianism IV. Abortion and the ChurchV. An Economic Postscript Media Referenced:Abortion and the Early Church, Michael GormanAbortion Under the 9th and 14th Amendment, Damon Root (https://reason.com/2022/06/29/abortion-rights-under-the-9th-and-14th-amendments/)To Avoid Civil War, Learn to Tolerate Different Laws in Different States, Ryan McMaken (https://mises.org/wire/avoid-civil-war-learn-tolerate-different-laws-different-states)Kerry Baldwin vs. Avens O’Brien (https://reason.com/2022/06/29/two-libertarians-debate-abortion/)The Tom Woods Show: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-2154-roe-overturned-historians-discuss-the-decision/id716825890?i=1000568582638Part of the Problem: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/roe-is-overturned/id833706616?i=1000568026339The Reason Roundtable: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/whats-wrong-with-abortion-federalism/id1155629323?i=1000567890503Questions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at theprotestantlibertarian@gmail.com.  You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod. If you like the show and want to support it, you can! Check out the Protestant Libertarian Podcast page at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theplpodcast. Also, please consider giving me a star rating and leaving me a review, it really helps expand the shows profile! Thanks!

I wanted to give you all an update about some minor changes we will be making in the show. I want to include more current events episodes and interviews, and because of that I will no longer be saying the episode number at the begging of the show. Unfortunately, I have already recorded three shows that have the (original) episode number in the recording, so you will have to disregard them. I am also cutting the 'next week' segment of the show in case I decide to change what I want to post mid-week. I also made improvements to the sound quality of the outdo at the end of the show. Next week we will talk about abortion, and its going to be great! This is still a big ideas show and that is not going to change, I just want to be able to deliver content that I think is important when it calls for it, and these minor changes give me more flexibility. Thank you all so much for listening, and I will see you all next Tuesday!

In this episode, we look at a book called Who is an Evangelical? by Thomas Kidd, an American historian at Baylor university in Texas. He defines the term 'Evangelical' and explores the political evolution of the movement from its inception to its support of Trump in 2016. As it turns out, they evangelical movement was once kind of libertarian! This is a great overview for people that want to understand how evangelical protestantism became associated with the Republican party and Trump. Episode Outline:I. Who is an Evangelical by Thomas KiddII. Defining the term ‘evangelical’.III. Early evangelical political commitments IV. Evangelicalism becomes more politically engagedV. The Evangelical Right TurnVI. The Crisis of Evangelicalism in the era of Trump  Media Referenced: Who is an Evangelical: The History of a Movement in Crisis, Thomas Kidd Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, Daniel OkrentNext week, we will be attempting to define the term ‘science’ and look at some of the problems raised by Thomas Kuhn’s classic The Structures of Scientific Revolutions. We will connect this both to the government’s rhetoric on science regarding COVID and the way in which certain understandings of science have been used to criticize the Bible.   Questions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at theprotestantlibertarian@gmail.com.  You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod. If you like the show and want to support it, you can! Check out the Protestant Libertarian Podcast page at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theplpodcast. Also, please consider giving me a star rating and leaving me a review, it really helps expand the shows profile! Thanks!

This week I will be encouraging us to think about why good arguments should be based on our ideas and not on the personalities of those with whom we debate. We look at the negative effect that polemics has on our society, how James and Paul encourage us to think about what we say, and ways in which we can have more productive conversations. Next week, we will be looking at the book Who is an Evangelical by Thomas Kidd. It details the history of the evangelical movement in the US, how it became increasingly political and identified with the Republican party, and if this branch of Protestantism has a future.Episode Outline:I. The media cares more about personality than it does about ideas.II. Biblical scholars also often resort to personality attacksIII. How should Christians go about arguing with others with which they disagree?IV. How Protestants can learn to argue better.Media Referenced:D.A. Carson’s podcast series on the New Perspective: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-new-perspective-on-paul/id378879786The Irrepressible Rothbard, Rothbard The Foucoult Reader, Rabinow Questions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at theprotestantlibertarian@gmail.com.  You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod. If you like the show and want to support it, you can! Check out the Protestant Libertarian Podcast page at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theplpodcast. Also, please consider giving me a star rating and leaving me a review, it really helps expand the shows profile! Thanks!

This week we are looking at what the Bible is and how we will be interpreting it on this show. We will return to these interpretive methods and analyze them in more detail on future episodes, but this will provide us with a starting point for thinking about how the Bible works.  Episode Outline:I. Reformation and the problem of Biblical interpretation. II. How should we interpret the Bible – hermeneutics. III. What the Bible is not – popular fallacies. IV. What the Bible is.V. Morality, theology, and devotion.  VI. Danger of importing our own theological preferences into the text   Media Referenced: Biblical Exegesis, John Hayes, Carl Holladay How to Read the Bible For All It’s Worth, Gordon Fee, Douglas Stuart Elements of Biblical Exegesis, Michael Gorman  The Last Word, N.T. Wright Questions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at theprotestantlibertarian@gmail.com. You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod. If you like the show and want to support it, you can! Check out the Protestant Libertarian Podcast page at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theplpodcast. Also, please consider giving me a star rating and leaving me a review, it really helps expand the shows profile! Thanks!

In part two of our mini-series on creeds, we take a look at how Marxism, and the historical philosophy of G.F. Hegel which undergirds it, has operated as a social, historical, and political creed for nearly 200 years.  Episode Outline:I. A review of part one (episode 5)II. Georg Fredric Wilhelm Hegel (1770 – 1831)III. Carl Marx (1818-1883)IV. The Interpretive Problem Next Week: We will be discussing Biblical interpretation – how do we come to an understanding of what the authors of the Bible were trying to say, and discussing what the Bible is and is not. Media Referenced:Carl Marx – The Communist Manifesto Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy Robin Diangelo, White FragilityQuestions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at theprotestantlibertarian@gmail.com.  You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod.If you like the show and want to support it, you can! Check out the Protestant Libertarian Podcast page at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theplpodcast. Also, please consider giving me a star rating and leaving me a review, it really helps expand the shows profile! Thanks!

You can now follow the Protestant Libertarian Podcast on Twitter! My handle is @prolibertypod. I still believe that social media can be toxic and am using this mostly for promotional purposes, so the best way to contact me is still theprotestantlibertarian@gmail.com. I will, however, update the Twitter every week so you know what is coming up on each week's episode! Plus, I will be following lots of cool protestant and libertarian thinkers for you all to explore! Check it out!

In week one of a two-part series, we look at creeds that have defined the Christian church and examine some of the issues of thinking about the Bible through the lens of the creeds. We explore how the creeds are not just the product of theological debate within the early church but are also driven by political forces within the Roman Empire. Episode Outline:I. Are creeds compatible with Biblical authority?II. The creeds that defined the church.III. The problem with the creeds.Next week: We will look at various political creeds and the way in which libertarianism offers both an empirical corrective to those creeds and actually solves social problems that are raised by them. Media Referenced:Magnus Zetterholm, Approaches to Paul Gerald McDermott, The Great TheologiansRaymond Brown, An Introduction to New TestamentJames Dunn, Did the First Christians Worship Jesus Bart Ehrman, When Jesus Became GodQuestions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at theprotestantlibertarian@gmail.com. If you like the show and want to support it, you can! You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod. Check out the Protestant Libertarian Podcast page at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theplpodcast. Also, please consider giving me a star rating and leaving me a review, it really helps expand the shows profile! Thanks!

In this episode I discuss how my protestant worldview led me to embrace libertarian politics.Questions? Comments? Thoughts? Email me at theprotestantlibertarian@gmail.com.If you really like what you heard and want to give me money, you can! Donate at buymeacoffee.com/theplpodcast and help me feed my family!Episode Outline:I. Growing up in different churches. II. Being a political nomad. III. Taking Ideas to their logical conclusions.  Media Referenced:Economic Facts and Fallacies, Sowell The Road to Serfdom, Hayek Enough Already, Horton The Tom Woods Show, Woods Reason Magazine, The Reason Roundtable

In this episode, we will define both 'capitalism' and 'socialism' and discuss how Biblical scholars often get capitalism wrong. We will be doing this by comparing Michael Gorman's Reading Revelation Responsibly with The Anti-Capitalist Mentality by Ludwig von Mises. Episode Outline:I. Language is flexible and productive conversations need shared definitions. II. Defining ‘Capitalism’ and ‘Socialism’.III. Introducing Gorman and MisesIV. Overview of Reading Revelation Responsibly.V. A response from The Anti-Capitalist Mentality.  VI. The need for economic literacy.  Media Referenced:Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein  Survey of Economics: 8th Edition, Tucker Cruciformity, GormanReading Revelation Responsibly, GormanThe Anti-Capitalist Mentality, MisesNext Week: My Libertarian Conversion – how reading the Bible in an ecumenical context shaped my worldview.If you like the show and would like to support it, you can! Check out the Protestant Libertarian Podcast page at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theplpodcast. Thanks!