Does democracy need Christianity to survive? Jonathan Rauch — a gay, atheist, Jewish journalist at Brookings and The Atlantic — has concluded that it does. His 2025 book, Cross Purposes: Christianity's Broken Bargain with Democracy, argues that Christianity is a load-bearing wall in the American experiment, and that two decades of de-churching have left the whole structure sagging.

As an outsider who once celebrated secularization as progress and watched what filled the vacuum, Rauch now claims that democracy needs Christianity. What he found is that when the church stopped carrying its load, toxic partisanship, tribal politics, and substitute religions rushed in to take its place.

Host Doug Stuart talks with Rauch to work through why the founders counted on Christian virtue, which three teachings of Jesus underwrite liberal democracy, why compromise is a Christian act rather than a betrayal, and what the church has to recover to be worth listening to again.

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:22 Guest Intro and Book Origins
4:03 Christianity’s Civic Role
7:28 Churches, Decline, and Politics
12:23 Liberalism and Democracy Defined
13:56 Founders on Virtue
18:52 Jesus and Liberal Democracy
25:10 Compromise as a Creative Process
29:53 Congress and Political Cynicism
32:50 Reforming a Broken System
33:45 Christians and Culture War
35:38 Freedom, Fear, and Public Faith
38:10 Pseudo-Religions Fill the Void
41:25 Libertarianism and Christianity
45:39 Altruism, Virtue, and Freedom
51:15 Latter-Day Saints and Agency
59:18 Make Christianity Peculiar Again

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Come meet fellow Christian libertarians, sharpen your thinking, and be part of a growing movement rooted in faith and freedom at the Christians for Liberty Conference.

Lunch is included in the price of the ticket. We will send out a form ahead of the conference requesting dietary preferences and restrictions.

Learn more here.

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Acton University is one of the most respected gatherings in the faith-and-markets world. This year four hosts from the Christians for Liberty Network were able to find out what it was like to attend. Through a scholarship from the Foundation for Harmony and Prosperity, they spent four days at Acton University among Catholics, Calvinists, Eastern Orthodox, Jews, Muslims, and free-market thinkers from more than sixty countries, and came away deeply impressed.

Doug Stuart is joined by Alex Bernardo, Cody Cook, and Kerry Baldwin to recap the experience: the core sessions, the standout speakers, the dinner-table conversations, and what it felt like to show up openly as Christian libertarians in a room that leads with virtue, stewardship, and dignity before it ever reaches policy. The short version is that it felt like being among kin.

This recap walks through what Acton University gets right, where Christian libertarians found common ground, and the friendly, sharpening conversations that made the week worth every minute.

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:22 Acton University Overview
2:36 First Impressions of Acton
5:08 Ecumenical and Marketed Faith
9:16 Libertarianism Versus Libertinism
15:24 Moral Language and Shared Values
23:58 The Four Core Sessions
30:59 Questions That Challenged
43:03 Best Sessions and Standouts
48:37 Receptivity to Libertarians
52:51 Closing Reflections and Thanks

Audio Production by Podsworth Media - https://podsworth.com

Come meet fellow Christian libertarians, sharpen your thinking, and be part of a growing movement rooted in faith and freedom at the Christians for Liberty Conference.

Lunch is included in the price of the ticket. We will send out a form ahead of the conference requesting dietary preferences and restrictions.

Learn more here.

Use code LCI50 for 50% off your first order at Podsworth.com to clean up your voice recordings and also support LCI!

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Black empowerment is often framed as a debate between pro-black, welfare state progressivism and anti-black, law-and-order conservatism. But what if free markets, not big government, is the key to black empowerment? In this episode of the Libertarian Christian Podcast, Cody Cook talks to Dr. Rachel Ferguson about the dominant narrative that racial justice requires state intervention. Ferguson demonstrates that classical liberalism offers a more historically grounded, morally coherent, and economically effective path forward.

Ferguson argues that the worst racial injustices in American history were not failures of markets but failures of the state — from slavery to Jim Crow to redlining to welfare policies that fractured families and communities. She also highlights the long, overlooked tradition of Black classical liberals who championed individual rights, entrepreneurship, and civil society as the real engines of flourishing.

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:24 Welcome and Black Liberation Through Markets
2:53 Challenging White Privilege Claims
7:04 Douglass and Classical Liberalism
9:00 Why Freedom Needs a Voice
13:19 Slavery’s Economic Costs
19:57 Defining Real Free Markets
22:57 Welfare’s Perverse Incentives
27:18 Beyond Bootstraps and Blame
31:11 Sharecropping After Emancipation
34:05 Lynching and Public Memory
37:59 Racism Beyond the Law
40:48 Populism and Immigration Fears
44:39 Churches and Civil Society

Audio Production by Podsworth Media - https://podsworth.com

Come meet fellow Christian libertarians, sharpen your thinking, and be part of a growing movement rooted in faith and freedom at the Christians for Liberty Conference.

Lunch is included in the price of the ticket. We will send out a form ahead of the conference requesting dietary preferences and restrictions.

Learn more here.

Use code LCI50 for 50% off your first order at Podsworth.com to clean up your voice recordings and also support LCI!

Full Podsworth Ad Read BEFORE & AFTER processing:
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Most people who want to know how to study the Bible are looking for a system. A plan to finish in a year, the "right" translation, a highlighting method that finally sticks. Alex Bernardo, host of the Protestant Libertarian Podcast and a trained biblical studies student, spent this episode dismantling that instinct. There is no single correct method. There is only the daily habit of putting yourself in front of the text and refusing to leave until it has done something to you.

Doug Stuart noticed Alex's heavily marked-up Bible over breakfast at Acton University and wanted to know the man behind the exegesis. What came out is a working philosophy of Bible study that treats intellectual growth and discipleship as the same project, not competing ones. You cannot grow as a disciple without growing in understanding, and understanding that never touches your life is just trivia.

This is a practical guide to how to study the Bible over a lifetime: how to build the habit, which translations reward close reading, when to bring in commentaries, what to mark, and which popular practices are worth abandoning.

Chapters:
0:22 Welcome and Bible Reading Habits
2:53 Early Bible Memories
4:39 Faith Through the Gospels
6:06 Daily Reading Routine
8:36 Reading Without a Plan
10:26 Lectionary Life
12:05 Choosing the NASB
16:00 Paragraphs and Verse Marks
18:09 Reading as Narrative
22:22 Finding the Right Translation
28:30 Using Study Tools
33:07 Memory and Bible Flow
35:23 Marking Key Passages
41:30 What Didn’t Work

Audio Production by Podsworth Media - https://podsworth.com

Come meet fellow Christian libertarians, sharpen your thinking, and be part of a growing movement rooted in faith and freedom at the Christians for Liberty Conference.

Lunch is included in the price of the ticket. We will send out a form ahead of the conference requesting dietary preferences and restrictions.

Learn more here.

Use code LCI50 for 50% off your first order at Podsworth.com to clean up your voice recordings and also support LCI!

Full Podsworth Ad Read BEFORE & AFTER processing:
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Most abortion debates fail to advance the conversation because the two sides aren't arguing on the same grounds — one side makes a moral or religious case, the other a case from women's rights; so they talk past each other. Kerry Baldwin argues that there's a better approach. In this FreedomFest debate with Michael Shermer, Baldwin makes her case. Shermer approaches abortion from a secular humanist perspective, making a moral-pragmatic case for pro-choice that centers the lived reality and full moral status of women. Baldwin, though a professing Christian, does not argue from religious or moral grounds. Instead, she argues from a natural law, libertarian legal-rights, and free-market perspective. Both are critical of the conventional pro-life argument, and both believe that reducing unwanted pregnancies through free-market solutions is the practical path forward. What they disagree on is whether a consistent defense of women's rights can stop short of recognizing fetal self-ownership. Rather than relitigating the familiar culture-war framing, this debate advances the liberty conversation by asking what libertarian principles actually require and what the net benefit is for women's rights more broadly.

Be sure to bring your questions and participate in Kerry's post-debate live Q&A here: https://mereliberty.com/freedomfest-attendee-email-list/

Kerry's main site: https://mereliberty.com/

The Reformed Libertarians Podcast: https://libertarianchristians.com/shows/reformed-libertarians-podcast/

Audio Production by Podsworth Media - https://podsworth.com

Come meet fellow Christian libertarians, sharpen your thinking, and be part of a growing movement rooted in faith and freedom at the Christians for Liberty Conference.

Lunch is included in the price of the ticket. We will send out a form ahead of the conference requesting dietary preferences and restrictions.

Learn more here.

Use code LCI50 for 50% off your first order at Podsworth.com to clean up your voice recordings and also support LCI!

Full Podsworth Ad Read BEFORE & AFTER processing:
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Christians often talk about missions, hospitality, and loving the stranger. But few American believers ever test those convictions by stepping outside their own cultural world. This episode explores the reasons Christians should travel overseas, not as tourists chasing novelty but as disciples learning how God forms His people through displacement, cross‑cultural life, and the humility of being a foreigner.

Benj Giffone has lived, taught, and ministered across Lithuania, India, South Africa, Singapore, and beyond. His story gets us thinking about how overseas experience reshapes how Christians read Scripture, helps us to think differently about war, immigration, and national identity. The episode argues that travel can be a spiritual discipline that exposes idols, expands empathy, and clarifies what Christian responsibility actually demands.

What follows is an editorial‑style overview of Giffone’s argument — why global life matters, how it sharpens libertarian instincts, and what Christians should weigh when considering whether to stay, leave, or sojourn for a season. But to get the whole argument, you'll need to listen to or watch the episode!

Audio Production by Podsworth Media - https://podsworth.com

Come meet fellow Christian libertarians, sharpen your thinking, and be part of a growing movement rooted in faith and freedom at the Christians for Liberty Conference.

Lunch is included in the price of the ticket. We will send out a form ahead of the conference requesting dietary preferences and restrictions.

Learn more here.

Use code LCI50 for 50% off your first order at Podsworth.com to clean up your voice recordings and also support LCI!

Full Podsworth Ad Read BEFORE & AFTER processing:
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In this episode, we discuss the new edition of Faith Seeking Freedom, which expands the original book from 102 to 230 questions and is designed to help libertarian Christians work through a wider range of topics while still keeping the book concise. We talk about the different theological backgrounds on the writing team, including Reformed and Anabaptist influences, and how those perspectives shaped the project. We also reflect on the writing and editing process, including revisions and disagreements, and mention chapters on abortion, capitalism, immigration, American history, Christian nationalism, and culture war issues. The conversation closes with a discussion of how Christians might think about political engagement, the limits of libertarianism, and using the book as a starting point for further conversation.

Audio Production by Podsworth Media - https://podsworth.com

Come meet fellow Christian libertarians, sharpen your thinking, and be part of a growing movement rooted in faith and freedom at the Christians for Liberty Conference.

Lunch is included in the price of the ticket. We will send out a form ahead of the conference requesting dietary preferences and restrictions.

Learn more here.

Use code LCI50 for 50% off your first order at Podsworth.com to clean up your voice recordings and also support LCI!

Full Podsworth Ad Read BEFORE & AFTER processing:
https://youtu.be/vbsOEODpQGs

Audio Production by Podsworth Media - https://podsworth.com

Come meet fellow Christian libertarians, sharpen your thinking, and be part of a growing movement rooted in faith and freedom at the Christians for Liberty Conference.

Lunch is included in the price of the ticket. We will send out a form ahead of the conference requesting dietary preferences and restrictions.

Learn more here.

Use code LCI50 for 50% off your first order at Podsworth.com to clean up your voice recordings and also support LCI!

Full Podsworth Ad Read BEFORE & AFTER processing:
https://youtu.be/vbsOEODpQGs

Audio Production by Podsworth Media - https://podsworth.com

Come meet fellow Christian libertarians, sharpen your thinking, and be part of a growing movement rooted in faith and freedom at the Christians for Liberty Conference.

Lunch is included in the price of the ticket. We will send out a form ahead of the conference requesting dietary preferences and restrictions.

Learn more here.

Use code LCI50 for 50% off your first order at Podsworth.com to clean up your voice recordings and also support LCI!

Full Podsworth Ad Read BEFORE & AFTER processing:
https://youtu.be/vbsOEODpQGs

Audio Production by Podsworth Media - https://podsworth.com

Come meet fellow Christian libertarians, sharpen your thinking, and be part of a growing movement rooted in faith and freedom at the Christians for Liberty Conference.

Lunch is included in the price of the ticket. We will send out a form ahead of the conference requesting dietary preferences and restrictions.

Learn more here.

Use code LCI50 for 50% off your first order at Podsworth.com to clean up your voice recordings and also support LCI!

Full Podsworth Ad Read BEFORE & AFTER processing:
https://youtu.be/vbsOEODpQGs