The Russell Moore Show - Christianity Today, Russell Moore

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Diane Langberg on Harm, Trauma, and Church Abuse Jan 08, 2025

Show notes

Content warning: This episode discusses sexual, spiritual, and domestic abuse.

Should discussions of the church harming people be kept in-house so the world doesn’t hear about it? No, says Diane Langberg, and there’s a simple reason why: “That would be quite unlike Jesus Christ.”

Listen in as Langberg, an international speaker, psychologist, and author on trauma care, joins Moore to discuss her new book, When the Church Harms God’s People. Their conversation covers abuse in institutions and considers why it is different when those institutions are churches. They talk about the importance of churches and homes as havens from harm and how it affects people when they become places of hurt.

Moore and Langberg consider power dynamics, the importance of language that properly names the abuses people have suffered, and a Christian view of women. They provide reason for hope and opportunities for church leaders to love and care for the hurting.

Resources mentioned in this episode or recommended by the guest include:

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A Conversation with Pulitzer-Winning Poet Natasha Trethewey Jan 01, 2025

Show notes

“Being able to be here and to tell this story—to weep about it occasionally—that is uplifting because what the story says is: ‘I'm still here. I have survived it. I have joy in my life because I have known such depths of despair.’ That is uplifting.”

So says Natasha Trethewey, a Pulitzer Prize winner who has authored several books and served two terms as the Poet Laureate of the United States. Trethewey and Moore discuss their respective familial connections to the state of Mississippi, Hurricane Katrina, and the Gulf Coast. They talk about Trethewey’s lifelong desire to write, her experience as a mixed-race person, and her thoughts on belonging, grief, and faith.

Their conversation welcomes all who long for community, creativity, and clarity.

Resources mentioned in this episode or recommended by the guest include:

Natasha Trethewey
Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir by Natasha Trethewey
Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coastby Natasha Trethewey
Native Guard: Poems by Natasha Trethewey
Providence by Natasha Trethewey
“Pulitzer Prize Winner Trethewey Discusses Poetry Collection”
Elizabeth Sewell
Often I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadowby Robert Duncan
“The Battle Hymn of the Republic” by Julia Ward Howe
The House of Being (Why I Write)by Natasha Trethewey
A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
Michiko Dead by Jack Gilbert
Theories of Time and Space by Natasha Trethewey
Cosmic Connections: Poetry in the Age of Disenchantment by Charles Taylor
Seamus Heaney
Toni Morrison
The Sea by John Banville

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Aliens, Demon Possession, and the Afterlife Dec 25, 2024

Show notes

How might Christians respond to family members who don’t believe mental illness is real? Does standing with Israel mean endorsing all of its government’s actions? Is the Enneagram a slippery slope toward engaging with the dark spiritual forces?

Listen in as Russell and CT’s editorial director for print, Ashley Hales, respond to these listener questions and more. Their conversation considers the role of Christians in religiously diverse nations and explores what it looks like to live faithfully in a complex world.

Questions addressed during this episode include:

How should Christians respond to family members who believe a relative’s mental illness is instead demon possession?
What can believers do to model care and connection amid political polarization?
Is the Enneagram dangerous?
What do we know about heaven—and what is just cultural opinion?
If Christians are free from bondage to sin, why do we still struggle so greatly with temptation?
What does it really mean to stand with Israel?
How should the Capitol Hill testimonies affirming the existence of extraterrestrial life impact the Christian worldview?
Do Christians have the right or responsibility to impose Christian values through laws or governmental power?

Resources mentioned in this episode or recommended by the guest include:

The Enneagram
“Decoding the Enneagram”
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
Harry Potter
Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC by Frederick Buechner

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Moore to the Point: The Holly and the Anxiety Dec 23, 2024

Show notes

Why your anxiety needs an apocalypse this Christmas.

The Russell Moore Show is bringing Russell's weekly newsletter to all streaming platforms. Listen to his most recent newsletter every Monday!

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The Countercultural Sermon That Changed Everything Dec 18, 2024

Show notes

As a pastor, author, and speaker, Rich Villodas has spent a lot of time studying the Scriptures. Over the years, he’s realized what he treasures about them:

“ I love that the Bible is not this collection of sanitized, holy people,” he said. “It’s a collection of broken, frail people who are made righteous by a goodness outside of themselves.”

Villodas and Moore discuss that righteousness and goodness through the lens of the Sermon on the Mount. They talk about the type of life Jesus calls his people to live and consider what it looks like to engage with the emotions of our loved ones. The two converse about the prescriptive power of the Psalms, consider the role of forgiveness, and explore the nature of resentment as they cover Jesus’ statements about anger and lust.

Resources mentioned in this episode or recommended by the guest include:

Rich Villodas
The Narrow Path: How the Subversive Way of Jesus Satisfies Our Souls by Rich Villodas
Good and Beautiful and Kind: Becoming Whole in a Fractured World by Rich Villodas
The Deeply Formed Life: Five Transformative Values to Root Us in the Way of Jesus by Rich Villodas
“Christianity Today’s 2021 Book Awards”
Matthew: A Commentary. Volume 1: The Christbook, Matthew 1–12 by Frederick Dale Bruner
“Bitter-sweet” by George Herbert
Don’t Forgive Too Soon: Extending the Two Hands That Heal by Dennis Linn, Sheila Fabricant Linn, and Matthew Linn

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Moore to The Point: People Love Astrology. The Star of Bethlehem Tells a Different Story. Dec 16, 2024

Show notes

The Russell Moore Show is bringing Russell's weekly newsletter to all streaming platforms. Listen to his most recent newsletter every Monday!

Subscribe to Russell's weekly newsletter here!

Do you have questions for Russell Moore? Send them to questions@russellmoore.com.

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My Favorite Books of 2024 Dec 11, 2024

Show notes

Welcome to the annual best-of-books episode of The Russell Moore Show! Former show producer and current editorial director of print Ashley Hales joins Moore to talk about his favorite reads of the year. Hales identifies three themes in Moore’s book list—the importance of outsiders in communities, ways forward in our historical moment, and the pursuit of the beautiful as a humanizing mechanism.

**Special Event: Join Russell Moore, Ashley Hales, Bonnie Kristian, and Matt Reynolds on YouTube for the CT Book Awards Live Event on December 12, 2024, at 8:00 p.m. EST. Book of the Year winner Gavin Ortlund and Award of Merit winner Brad East will share the inspiration behind their books and the big ideas that animate them as they answer questions from CT staff and subscribers.**

Russell’s top ten books (in alphabetical order by author):

Another Day: Sabbath Poems, 2013–2023 by Wendell Berry
I Cheerfully Refuse: A Novel by Leif Enger
Willie, Waylon, and the Boys: How Nashville Outsiders Changed Country Music Forever by Brian Fairbanks
Ghosted: An American Story by Nancy French
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt
The Crisis of Narration by Byung-Chul Han, translated by Daniel Steuer
The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of C. S. Lewis & J. R. R. Tolkien by John Hendrix
Van Gogh Has a Broken Heart: What Art Teaches Us About the Wonder and Struggle of Being Alive by Russ Ramsey
Cosmic Connections: Poetry in the Age of Disenchantment by Charles Taylor
Mere Christian Hermeneutics: Transfiguring What It Means to Read the Bible Theologically by Kevin J. Vanhoozer

Resources mentioned in this episode or recommended by the guest include:

CT Book Awards Live Event
“The Beautiful Orthodoxy Book of the Year”
“Christianity Today’s 2019 Book of the Year”
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
Owen Barfield
A Secular Age by Charles Taylor
Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ by Fleming Rutledge
Poiéma by Michael Card
Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose by Flannery O’Connor
The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler by John Hendrix
Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander by Thomas Merton
James by Percival Everett

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A Conversation with Peggy Noonan Dec 04, 2024

Show notes

“You have to read in order to develop your mind and develop your ability to think,” Peggy Noonan said. “It’s no good to say, ‘Oh, I can’t help that I was born in 1990 and everybody has a phone.’ Too bad. Put it down.”

For decades, Noonan has been a Wall Street Journal columnist and author, known for her Pulitzer Prize–winning commentary on politics and culture. She and Moore reflect on Noonan’s career both in journalism and as a speech writer in the Reagan Administration. They talk about Noonan’s faith, her love for Christian history, and her long-standing relationship to Roman Catholicism. The two discuss sexual scandals in both church and government, the power of the written word, and the way artists see the world. They consider the concerning potential of artificial intelligence, the value of reading in a world overrun by technology, and the importance of critical thinking in our modern political culture.

Resources mentioned in this episode or recommended by the guest include:

Peggy Noonan
A Certain Idea of America: Selected Writings by Peggy Noonan
Walker Percy
The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton
We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland by Fintan O’Toole
Pascal’s Pensées
“How to Find Grace After Disgrace”
Abbey of Gethsemani
Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson by Gordon S. Wood
The Shadow
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
“The godfather of AI: why I left Google”

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Mental Health, Temptation, and Union with Christ Nov 27, 2024

Show notes

“ Two of the devil's biggest lies are ‘You’re the only one who struggles with this kind of stuff’ and ‘You can’t tell anyone.’ Sin thrives in that kind of dark secrecy.”

So says author and apologist Sam Allberry during this conversation with Russell Moore. The two discuss Allberry’s new book, One with My Lord, and consider various ways people interpret the Bible’s perspective on sexuality. They talk about gender identity, marriage, and what it means when God says it is not good for humans to be alone. Allberry and Moore consider the importance of friendship, the value of community, and the impact of social media on mental health.

They also discuss Allberry’s experience with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM), the Billy Graham rule, and fostering organizational cultures of transparency.

Resources mentioned in this episode or recommended by the guest include: