The Aaron Renn Show

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Protecting Your Opponents from Themselves Oct 12, 2021

Show notes

In my previous podcast series on American conservatism, I observed that they have a pattern of jumping into the breach to try to defend their opponents from the consequences of those opponents' own ideology. For example, they defended the school administrators against the student radicals of the 60s when the administrators themselves were liberals implacable hostile to conservatism. In fact, some of those university leaders had previously trashed William F. Buckley over God and Man at Yale.
We see this pattern persist into the present, most recently on display last week when New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the city would eliminate gifted and talented programs in the city's public schools. Conservatives were outraged. I discuss this reaction and what it reveals about conservative patterns of behavior.
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The Small Mindedness of the Middle Class Oct 06, 2021

Show notes

The upper class and the intellectuals have always particularly loathed the middle class. The novels of Sinclair Lewis or the essays of H. L. Mencken exhibit this mindset. Conservatives, whose social base and principal character is middle class, have pushed back against this, celebrating middle class values. It's worth considering, however, whether there is something to the critique of the middle class. Middle class values too often revolve around small pleasures and respectability that fatally compromise their ability to politically or culturally engage with the world.
My article on Grand Rapids: https://www.city-journal.org/html/manufacturing-comeback-15833.html
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Learning from Marcuse Sep 29, 2021

Show notes

American conservatives rarely read or engage with leftist thought outside of the mass media. This is a weakness because if they did do so, they'd find that serious thinkers on the left are often very smart and have important insights about our world. This includes people often stigmatized as bogeymen (by people who have never read them) like the postmodernists or the Frankfurt School.
This podcast talks briefly about a couple of insights from Herbert Marcuse's book One Dimensional Man. Although an extremely difficult read, this 1950s work makes many observations about Western society that remain as relevant as ever and must be confronted by anyone seeking to change the system.
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The Cultural Contradictions of Conservative Values Sep 14, 2021

Show notes

If you made a list of what a right wing fantasy utopia would look like for someone with localist leanings, you'll discover that the only people who have successfully produced those environments are on the left. In this podcast I examine the cultural contradictions of conservative values, showing how in practice the values of conservatives themselves have produced some - not all, but some - of the dysfunction in which they live.
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What to Think About When You Think About Moving Sep 07, 2021

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Americans are relocating, for economic, political, religious, or lifestyle reasons. But what should we think about when we think about moving? This podcast examines a number of factors to consider: whether you having a historic connection to or family in a place, economic prospects, costs and whether you can really afford to live there, whether you actually like it (not just think you'll like it), and whether you can find a church you like there.
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Do the Collapse Aug 31, 2021

Show notes

Mars Hill Church collapsed suddenly. The American backed Afghan regime collapsed almost instantly as America withdrew. The Berlin Wall fell unexpectedly in 1989 and the Soviet Union collapsed at a time when few expected it.
Sudden collapse of organizations and countries does happen. Could it happen to the United States? In this episode I examine both sides of the question and how to think about the dynamics of collapse.
Dietrich Dörner: The Logic of Failure - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0201479486/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=theurban-20
Lionel Shriver: The Mandibles - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006232828X/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=theurban-20
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Mars Hill and Complementarianism Aug 17, 2021

Show notes

This week I weigh in with some initial thoughts on the Christianity Today podcast The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill. Although there are some legitimate critiques of the way CT has positioned the materials, complementarians need to accept that Mark Driscoll legitimately does reflect poorly on the movement as a whole.
Freddie deBoer: Who Tells Them Things They Don't Want to Hear? - https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/who-tells-them-what-they-dont-want
Newsletter #7: Accountability for Failure - https://www.aaronrenn.com/p/newsletter-7-accountability-for-failure
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Why You Need to Know What's On Your Rap Sheet Aug 10, 2021

Show notes

What are people saying about you when you aren't in the room? Everybody has a rap sheet. The only question is whether we know what's on ours. Unless we know what people really think of us, we have no opportunity to improve on our weaknesses.
In this podcast I share some of the personal, painful feedback I received. I also discuss ways you can look for good feedback for yourself. And philosophies about how to deal with our weaknesses.
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Succession Planning in Churches Aug 03, 2021

Show notes

In 2013 Bill Hybels foretold a looming succession crisis for churches. He ended up being more right than he knew. He observed that there had been an explosion of mega-churches, many still led by a founding pastor approaching retirement age.
His prophecy has very much come true. Not only did his own succession not go well, we've seen several succession plans unravel recently. John Piper's successor at Bethlehem Baptist recently resigned. There are pastoral searches underway for two of the three major locations at the spin off churches of Redeemer Presbyterian in New York City. And the challenges facing David Platt and McLean Bible Church likely also have some roots in succession.
There are three major models of succession: the internal successor, the external peer successor, and the unofficial interim. In this podcast I discuss these models, as well as other considerations of succession. Given high profile succession challenges we've seen at churches run by world class leaders, this is an area requiring significant attention.
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How We End Up With Pews Full of Older Singles Jul 20, 2021

Show notes

The media glamorizes people making the choice to defer marriage and children in order to focus on other priorities like career. While this is a free country and people absolutely have the right to live their lives how they want, the longer term consequences of this for many is not as well advertised. The proliferation of older singles in the pews is in part a downstream consequence of these decisions. The church should not simply become an underwriter of other people's choices to live life on their own terms. While the church absolutely be adjusting to the new realities of more singles in congregations, it should also make sure the role of individual choice in how people ended up where they are is fully acknowledged. And people should be challenged to make different choices going forward.
I also look back at a famous sermon on abuse by Jason Meyer, the successor to superstar evangelical John Piper as senior pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church.
Blog post on Jason Meyer's sermon: https://www.aaronrenn.com/p/bethlehem-baptist-churchs-jason-meyer
Text and video of Jason Meyer's sermon: https://bethlehem.church/sermon/fooled-by-false-leadership/
NYT article on deferring marriage: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/16/us/declining-birthrate-motherhood.html
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