The Cross and the Capitol

"Let every person be subject to the governing authorities." Romans 13 has been quoted to defend the American Revolution's opponents, the Fugitive Slave Act, and apartheid, and in 2018 to defend separating families at the border. So what did Paul actually mean?

In this episode, Dennis Kramer goes back to Nero's Rome to read Romans 13 in its setting, alongside the verses around it that often get left out. We look at the data on how Americans think about authority, Scripture, and law today, trace how the chapter has been used and misused through history, and hear the strongest case from each side.

0:00 Cold Open

1:32 Introducing the Host

2:17 Welcome

3:34 Rome, Around AD 57

6:05 Reading the Whole Passage

10:43 By the Numbers

14:16 Romans 13 on Trial

18:37 The Case Each Side Makes

20:44 Closing

"Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's." Almost everyone in American politics claims these words of Jesus, but what did he actually mean? In this episode, Dennis Kramer goes back to the coin Jesus held up and the trap his opponents set for him, explores how Christians across two thousand years have read the passage, and walks through the data on taxes, trust in government, and church giving today. Then we ask the hardest question: what happens when Caesar asks for something that belongs to God?

0:00 Cold Open
1:40 Introducing the Host
2:25 Welcome
3:47 The Trap
6:10 Image and Inscription
10:04 By the Numbers
14:09 When Caesar Asks Too Much
17:45 The Case Each Side Makes
19:52 Closing

In a Yale experiment, students backed whatever welfare policy their party supposedly endorsed, then insisted the party label had nothing to do with it. In this episode, Dennis Kramer explores the behavioral science of why our sense of who we are often shapes what we believe, from classic research on group loyalty to evidence that politics can even shape our faith. Then we turn to Galatians 2, where the Apostle Peter gave in to group pressure, and close with four practical habits for thinking more freely.

0:00 Cold Open
1:32 Introducing the Host
2:17 Welcome
3:30 The Tribe in Your Head
5:25 Party Over Policy
7:19 When Politics Shapes Faith
8:58 Peter at Antioch
10:45 Breaking the Pull of the Tribe
12:17 Closing

In 1896, America's most famous evangelical politician was a Democrat. A century later, roughly eight in ten white evangelicals vote Republican, election after election. What changed? Not the Bible. The politics.

In this first episode of The Cross and the Capitol, Dennis Kramer traces how white evangelicals and the Republican Party became allies, from William Jennings Bryan and Jimmy Carter to the Moral Majority and Ronald Reagan. Along the way, we look at who "the Christian vote" really is, and give each side its strongest case.

0:00 Cold Open
1:06 Introducing the Host
1:51 Welcome
3:52 Before the Alliance
6:05 The Turn
9:01 The Alliance Hardens
10:52 Who Is the Christian Vote?
12:11 The Case Each Side Makes
14:02 Closing