Disarming Leviathan - Missionaries to Christian Nationalists

We will be sharing a curated selection of new and rereleased episodes of the pod to empower you to navigate this election season. In this episode, Phil Herndon examines how purveyors of American Christian Nationalism leverage the emotions of their audiences to gain allegiance, power, and money.

This episode will not only help you recognize when your loved ones are experiencing emotions like rage, anxiety, and fear, but also provide you with practical tools for fostering peaceful, constructive conversations.

About Phil

Phil uses a dynamic approach to help his clients recover their hearts and redeem their stories. His therapeutic approach is grounded in the Spiritual Root System™, and is informed by the work of Irvin Yalom, Curt Thompson, Dan Siegel, and Dan Allender. He also integrates perspectives from Judeo-Christian traditions, existential philosophy, and pastoral care. Phil works with individuals who have lost their way through addiction, anxiety, depression, struggles with spirituality, or burnout to walk them through the tumultuous and scary times that are so common to the human experience.

Phil worked in the trucking business through college and after college until finally realizing his true passion was helping people walk through difficulties and heartache. He completed graduate school in 1992 with a Master of Arts degree in counseling and religious education.

He served as a pastor in Texas for 15 years until joining the Center for Professional Excellence in 2005 where he served as Clinical Director until 2020. Phil became the Clinical Director and co-owner of (what is now) River Tree in 2020 and loves his role in developing, encouraging, and equipping the staff as they walk with people through their life journeys.

This week, we are joined by Rev. Dr. Mae Cannon for a discussion of how Christians can think deeply about peacemaking in the Middle East. Mae shares from her years of experience, commitment to practicing the way of Jesus and deep love for the people.

About Rev. Dr. Mae Cannon

Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon is the executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace and an ordained minister in the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC). She formerly served as the senior director of advocacy and outreach for World Vision US on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. She is the author of Social Justice Handbook and Just Spirituality, and coeditor of Evangelical Theologies of Liberation and Justice.

https://www.maecannon.com

In this episode, Lee C. Camp and Caleb explore what it means to live as someone who bears witness to the gospel of Jesus in America today.

About Lee C. CampLee is the creator and host of the No Small Endeavor podcast, a professor at Lipscomb University, and the author of Scandalous Witness: A Little Political Manifesto for Christians.For more on Lee and his work, visit https://www.leeccamp.com

In this episode, Caleb shares a sample chapter from the audiobook version of Disarming Leviathan: Loving Your Christian Nationalist Neighbor. The full audiobook launches on August 27th and is available on Amazon.com.

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Dr. Dennis Edwards guides us in exploring how the New Testament can shape our understanding of and engagement in politics today.

More about Dr. Dennis EdwardsDennis Edwards is the Vice President for Church Relations and Dean of the Seminary and is the author of 1 Peter in the Story of God Bible Commentary series (Zondervan), What is the Bible and How Do We Understand It? (Herald Press), and Might from the Margins: The Gospel’s Power to Turn the Tables on Injustice (Herald Press). Dennis has been married to Susan Steele Edwards since 1982. They are the parents of four children, and grandparents of four.

You can find more on Dennis at https://www.revdrdre.com/

Dr. Daniel Bennett joins the Disarming Leviathan podcast for a discussion of how the Christian faith can shape our understanding of political engagement and the meaning of citizenship.

About Daniel Bennett

Dr. Daniel Bennett is an associate professor of political science at John Brown University, where he has taught since 2016. He is the author of Uneasy Citizenship: Embracing the Tension in Faith and Politics, and Defending Faith: The Politics of the Christian Conservative Legal Movement. His research focuses on the politicization of religious freedom, group attitudes and constitutional rights, legal advocacy in the United States, federal judicial selection, and more.

Dr. Bennett has written popular articles for Christianity Today, Religion and Politics, and The Dispatch, among others. He has appeared in national and local media, including the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New Yorker, National Public Radio, and KNWA. He is the director for the Center for Faith and Flourishing, and has served in advisory roles with the American Values Coalition and Neighborly Faith. In 2023 he was named as a Public Life Fellow with the Center for Christianity and Public Life.

Pastor and author David Swanson joins us for a discussion about the ways that racism, tribalism, and nationalism are impacting the American Church, and how we can work to be peacemakers in the midst of division.

About David SwansonDavid is an author and the founding pastor of New Community Covenant Church who lives with his family on the South Side of Chicago. He is the founder and CEO of New Community Outreach, a non-profit organization dedicated to healing community trauma through restorative practices.

David’s first book, Rediscipling the White Church: From Cheap Diversity to True Solidarity was published with InterVarsity Press in 2020. His forthcoming book with IVP, Plundered: The Tangled Roots of Racial and Environmental Injustice, will be published in October, 2024.

David is a former Director of Church Planting for the Evangelical Covenant Church. He is a graduate of Montreat College (BS, 1999), Wheaton College Graduate School (MA, 2003), and North Park Theological Seminary (MDiv, 2023). He keeps track of what he’s reading here and on most Tuesday mornings you’ll find him wandering around Jackson Park looking for birds.

Pastor Steve Bezner joins us to discuss how American culture has influenced the American Church's view of Jesus. We explore some of the distorted views of Jesus, including 'Christian Nationalist Jesus.' He also gives some coaching on how we can invite people back to a robust, biblical view of Jesus.

Preorder Steven’s book, Your Jesus is Too American today! About Steve Bezner

Steve Bezner (PhD, Baylor University) is senior pastor of Houston Northwest Church in Houston, Texas. He is a local leader and participant in Multi-Faith Neighbors Network, where he builds bridges with Muslims and Jews, and he serves on the board of the Houston Church Planting Network. He also trains church planters through Glocalnet, serves on the executive committee of Texas Baptists, and is an adjunct professor at George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University. Bezner lives in Houston with his wife and two sons.

Dr. Katharine Hayhoe shares her experience as a climate scientist and gives some practical coaching on how we can cultivate healthy conversations with friends and family with whom we fundamentally disagree.

About Katharine

Katharine Hayhoe is a climate scientist and chief scientist for The Nature Conservancy. She is also the Endowed Professor in Public Policy and Public Law and Paul W. Horn Distinguished Professor at Texas Tech University.

She has been named a United Nations Champion of the Earth and one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People, and serves as the climate ambassador for the World Evangelical Alliance. Katharine was a lead author for the US Second, Third, and Fourth National Climate Assessments, hosts the PBS digital series Global Weirding, and has written for The New York Times.

Her TED Talk “The Most Important Thing You Can Do to Fight Climate Change: Talk About It” has been viewed over 5 million times. She has a BSc in physics and astronomy from the University of Toronto and an MS and a PhD in atmospheric science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.