The Russell Moore Show - Tim Alberta Worries Politics Is Poisoning the Church

The following episode was recorded on May 13, 2022.

“Having grown up just down the road, the son of the senior pastor at another church in town, I’ve spent my life watching evangelicalism morph from a spiritual disposition into a political identity,” Tim Alberta recently wrote at The Atlantic. “It’s heartbreaking.”

On this episode of The Russell Moore Show, Alberta and Moore discuss the shift in evangelical life that has taken place over the past several years. They share honest, insightful stories about the grief of unwillingly losing relationships over political differences—stories that many listeners may find familiar.

They talk about changes in politics, namely the culture of high-energy political passion we see today, and what it looks like for Christians to live as people of truth in a chaotic age.

00:00 Opening
03:06 Story Behind the Article
09:23 Church Growth and Political Parallels
20:46 Institutional Decline
27:00 Fear of Being Secularized Out of Existence
33:49 End of Roe v. Wade
41:25 Losing Relationships Over Political Differences
45:36 How Growing Up in a Pastoral Household Shaped Perspective
52:22 Expectations for 2024

“The Russell Moore Show” is a production of Christianity Today
Chief Creative Officer: Erik Petrik
Executive Producer and Host: Russell Moore
Director of Podcasts: Mike Cosper
Production Assistance: CoreMedia
Coordinator: Beth Grabenkort
Producer and Audio Mixing: Kevin Duthu
Associate Producer: Abby Perry
Theme Song: “Dusty Delta Day” by Lennon Hutton