The Russell Moore Show - Christianity Today, Russell Moore

Latest Episodes:

Should I Report Abuse in Church to the Police? Apr 13, 2026

Show notes

Russell answers a listener question about whether church policies should include reporting abuse to local law enforcement. (Spoiler alert: yes, you should.)

Watch the video of this episode on YouTube here.

Submit your own question for the show! Email questions@russellmoore.com — and remember: attach a voice memo!

Keep up with Russell:

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Malcolm Gladwell on Radical Forgiveness and the Death Penalty Apr 08, 2026

Show notes

What if the justice we rely on to bring closure is actually keeping us from it?

Watch the video of this episode on YouTube here.

*At 23 minutes, a question is asked about the physical realities of the death penalty. That section is over by 26 minutes.*

Malcolm Gladwell joins Russell to discuss his recent 8-part podcast series, The Alabama Murders (from the Revisionist History podcast), which tells the story of a church leader who hires two men to kill his wife. In the search for closure, their judgment–penalty by death–is stretched out over decades. Gladwell believes forgiveness would have been the better option.

What becomes clear in this conversation is that justice, as we often imagine it, doesn’t resolve things nearly as cleanly as we think. And in that waiting, we’re forced to confront something deeper: whether we really believe in the possibility of redemption, or whether we’ve quietly decided that some people are simply beyond it.

This conversation may invite you to think more carefully, to see more clearly, and to wrestle honestly with what it means to seek both justice and mercy in a broken world.

Russell also asks Malcolm about his favorite Revisionist History episode King of Tears, which tells the back story of the famous George Jones song “He Stopped Loving Her Today”.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

The Alabama Murdersfrom Revisionist History

Keep up with Russell:
- Sign up for the weekly newsletter where Russell shares thoughtful takes on big questions, offers a Christian perspective on life, and recommends books and music he's enjoying.
- Submit a question for the show at questions@russellmoore.com
- Subscribe to the Christianity Today Magazine: Special offer for listeners of The Russell Moore Show: Click here for 25% off a subscription.

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Am I Sinning By Feeling Anxious? Apr 06, 2026

Show notes

Russell answers a listener question about trusting God when your anxiety won’t go away.

Watch the video of this episode on YouTube here.

Submit your own question for the show! Email questions@russellmoore.com — and remember: attach a voice memo!

Keep up with Russell:

Sign up for the weekly newsletter where Russell shares thoughtful takes on big questions, offers a Christian perspective on life, and recommends books and music he's enjoying.

Subscribe to the Christianity Today Magazine: Special offer for listeners of The Russell Moore Show: Click here for 25% off a subscription

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Everything Depends on an Empty Tomb Apr 01, 2026

Show notes

In this special Easter edition of the Russell Moore Show, Russell draws from past episodes to explore how the resurrection of Jesus reframes everything: from scientific belief and intellectual doubt to embodied life, unexpected joy, and suffering. Featuring clips from episodes with Francis Collins, Michael Wear, David Taylor, Christian Wiman, Kate Bowler, and Tim Keller, this episode draws out our Christian hope: if Christ is raised, then reality itself is different.

Across stories of cancer diagnoses, intellectual conversions, poetic insight, and quiet moments of joy, the episode insists on a central truth: the resurrection is not metaphor. And if it happened, then even in grief, uncertainty, and death—everything is going to be okay.

Keep up with Russell:

Sign up for the weekly newsletter where Russell shares thoughtful takes on big questions, offers a Christian perspective on life, and recommends books and music he's enjoying.
Submit a question for the show at questions@russellmoore.com
Subscribe to the Christianity Today Magazine: Special offer for listeners of The Russell Moore Show: Click here for 25% off a subscription.

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Is Country Music Selling Out? Mar 30, 2026

Show notes

Russell answers a listener question about whether commercialization has ruined country music.

Watch the video of this episode on YouTube here.

Submit your own question for the show! Email questions@russellmoore.com — and remember: attach a voice memo!

Keep up with Russell:

Sign up for the weekly newsletter where Russell shares thoughtful takes on big questions, offers a Christian perspective on life, and recommends books and music he's enjoying.
Subscribe to the Christianity Today Magazine: Special offer for listeners of The Russell Moore Show: Click here for 25% off a subscription.

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Jon Meacham on the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union Mar 25, 2026

Show notes

The American experiment has never been about achieving perfection, but facing a task always unfinished.

Watch the video of this episode on YouTube here.

At a moment when many Americans feel fearful, exhausted, or tempted to despair, Russell Moore welcomes Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Jon Meacham for a conversation about the moral and spiritual meaning of democracy. Drawing from Meacham’s new anthology, American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union, Meacham argues that the American experiment has never been about achieving perfection, but about the difficult and unfinished task of seeking a more perfect union.

Throughout the conversation, Moore and Meacham discuss the 1619 Project, the myth of an idyllic Christian nation, the Scopes Trial, the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s, and the recurring temptation to treat political opponents not as rivals but as enemies. Meacham makes the case that democracy depends on humility, compromise, and a willingness to resist the politics of destruction.

Together, he and Meacham consider whether reconciliation is still possible in a culture shaped by vengeance, fear, and performative power. Even so, the conversation does not give way to fatalism. Their exchange is a sober but hopeful reminder that history is not destiny, that political renewal remains possible, and that the future of the republic depends on ordinary people choosing courage over cynicism.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union — Jon Meacham

Keep up with Russell:

Sign up for the weekly newsletter where Russell shares thoughtful takes on big questions, offers a Christian perspective on life, and recommends books and music he's enjoying.
Submit a question for the show at questions@russellmoore.com
Subscribe to the Christianity Today Magazine: Special offer for listeners of The Russell Moore Show: Click here for 25% off a subscription.

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Remembering John Perkins Mar 23, 2026

Show notes

The civil rights leader treated love of God and love for others as inseparable.

Watch this episode on YouTube

On occasion, we like to record audio versions of the latest from Russell’s weekly newsletter. Sign up for the newsletter, Moore to the Point, where Russell shares thoughtful takes on big questions, offers a Christian perspective on life, and recommends books and music he's enjoying.

Submit a question for the show (and include a voice memo!) at questions@russellmoore.com

Subscribe to the Christianity Today Magazine: Special offer for listeners of The Russell Moore Show: Click here for 25% off a subscription

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Doug McKelvey on Rites of Passage and the Sacredness of Ordinary Life Mar 18, 2026

Show notes

Every Moment Holy author Douglas McKelvey on writing prayers for the moments both sacred and mundane.

Watch the video of this episode on YouTube here.

There are moments in life when something significant is happening, but we don’t quite know how to mark it. Not a wedding, not a funeral—just one of those in-between spaces when we feel that words ought to be said but don’t know how to say them. In this episode, Russell Moore talks with writer and liturgist Douglas McKelvey about the Every Moment Holy series of prayers and the newest volume focused on marking the unique experiences of young adulthood in the new book of prayers, Rites of Passage.

Their conversation explores why people often need help finding words for prayer in the most human experiences: grief over a beloved pet, awkward encounters with a former relationship, the anxiety of measuring oneself against impossible standards, or the transitions of young adulthood. McKelvey reflects on the long process of writing these prayers and the sobering responsibility of crafting words that others might speak to God in their most vulnerable moments.

They also talk about the unique pressures facing emerging adults today and why the church must learn again how to shepherd people through these seasons. Drawing from the Psalms and the rhythms of historic Christian prayer, McKelvey argues that liturgy doesn’t remove pain or uncertainty. Instead, it helps people remember a deeper truth: that God is present in every moment, even when we don’t yet see how the story will resolve.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Keep up with Russell:

Sign up for the weekly newsletter where Russell shares thoughtful takes on big questions, offers a Christian perspective on life, and recommends books and music he's enjoying.
Submit a question for the show at questions@russellmoore.com

Subscribe to the Christianity Today Magazine: Special offer for listeners of The Russell Moore Show: Click here for 25% off a subscription.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Can AI Really Sing a Country Song? Mar 16, 2026

Show notes

Russell answers a listener question about what algorithms miss about heartbreak.

Watch the video of this episode on YouTube here.

Links mentioned:

Submit your own question for the show! Email questions@russellmoore.com — and remember: attach a voice memo!

Keep up with Russell:

Sign up for the weekly newsletter where Russell shares thoughtful takes on big questions, offers a Christian perspective on life, and recommends books and music he's enjoying.
Subscribe to the Christianity Today Magazine: Special offer for listeners of The Russell Moore Show: Click here for 25% off a subscription.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chris Beha on Why He Isn’t An Atheist Anymore Mar 11, 2026

Show notes

Former Harper’s Magazine editor Christopher Beha on his journey from skeptical Atheism to skeptical Christianity.

Watch the video of this episode on YouTube here.

For many people, faith and skepticism are opposites, but novelist and former Harper’s Magazine editor Christopher Beha argues that the two may be more intertwined than we assume. In this conversation about his new book, Why I’m Not an Atheist, Beha reflects on his journey from a devout Catholic upbringing to atheism and eventually back to Christian faith.

Beha describes how an early mystical experience and later personal tragedy pushed him into deep questions about suffering, prayer, and the nature of belief. In college, those questions led him to identify as a skeptic, valuing reason and intellectual independence. Yet over time he came to see that skepticism itself has limits. The turning point came not through philosophical argument but through life itself, like falling in love and becoming part of a family. Those experiences prompted Beha to return to church, where he began hearing familiar Christian teachings in a new way: not primarily as moral demands or metaphysical propositions, but as a story centered on love and relationship–without setting aside his questions.

Together, Russell and Chris reflect on what it means to believe while still wrestling with doubt, how parents might talk with children who are questioning faith, and why the path toward belief often begins not with certainty but with simply showing up.

If you’ve wrestled with the Christian life being sold as putting aside all questions and doubt to choose unwavering certainty, you may appreciate hearing from Chris.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Why I Am Not an Atheist by Christopher Beha

Essays by Michel de Montaigne

Keep up with Russell:

Sign up for the weekly newsletter where Russell shares thoughtful takes on big questions, offers a Christian perspective on life, and recommends books and music he's enjoying.
Submit a question for the show at questions@russellmoore.com
Subscribe to the Christianity Today Magazine: Special offer for listeners of The Russell Moore Show: Click here for 25% off a subscription.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices