Evangelicalism's Failure with Jon Ward

“What can people do about the fact that things are so tense with their families, especially when it comes to politics?”

This is one of the pressing questions that Russell Moore poses to Jon Ward, Chief National Correspondent for Yahoo News. A long-time political reporter, Ward acutely perceives the relationship between religion and politics in America. His new book, Testimony: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Failed a Generation chronicles Ward’s upbringing in, and eventual separation from, a well-known church that emerged at the intersection of Pentecostalism, the church growth movement, the Jesus Movement, and the New Calvinism. 

On this episode, Ward and Moore talk about what it’s like to look back on the church experiences of their earlier years and notice the political manifestations they hadn’t seen as young people. They talk about the ways various evangelical movements engaged society, the role of social media, and whether or not institutionalism is the answer to cultural problems. And they talk about what it looks like to maintain meaningful connections with family members when political differences threaten to break relationships. 

Tune in for a conversation that is full of heartfelt honesty and thoughtful insight not only into the state of American faith and politics today, but how we got here.  

Resources mentioned in this episode include:

Camelot’s End by Jon Ward

Testimony by Jon Ward

Untrustworthy by Bonnie Kristian

Axios

2023 Asbury Revival

Timothy George

“Development of the Spiritual Harm and Abuse Scale” by Dan Koch

“The Toronto Blessing” 

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“The Russell Moore Show” is a production of Christianity Today 

 Executive Producers: Erik Petrik, Russell Moore, and Mike Cosper 

 Host: Russell Moore 

 Producer: Ashley Hales 

 Associate Producers: Abby Perry and Azurae Phelps 

 CT Administration: Christine Kolb 

 Social Media: Kate Lucky 

 Director of Operations for CT Media: Matt Stevens 

 Production Assistance: coreMEDIA

 Audio Engineer: Kevin Duthu 

 Coordinator: Beth Grabenkort 

 Video Producer: John Roland 

 Theme Song: “Dusty Delta Day” by Lennon Hutton

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