The Christian Past That Wasn't: Formerly Telling Jefferson Lies
Season Three begins April 28. I am renaming the podcast The Christian Past That Wasn't to be consistent with the forthcoming book from Broadleaf Books, The Christian Past That Wasn't: Debunking the Christian Nationalist Myths That Hijack History. This is so much more than a fact-checking book; it critiques the entire Christian nationalist project and misuse of history for political gain. Consistent with the first two seasons of this podcast, The Christian Past That Wasn't demonstrates that separation of church and state was the intention of the framers of the charter documents. We would be so much better off if we stayed true to separation of church and state in the US.
Podcast summary:
Telling Jefferson Lies chronicles how history can be hijacked for ideological and political purposes, as well as a much broader story about the surge of Christian nationalism and the misuse of history which often goes along with it. The series begins with an in-depth consideration of the methods of Christian nationalist story teller David Barton. Then I tell the story of how his book on Jefferson was pulled from publication in 2012 and the response of evangelicals to that rare event. From there, I broaden the scope to examine the varieties of Christian nationalism and the negative consequences of this way of thinking about church and state. The last segment examines the reasons why the separation of church and state is good history, good civics, and good religion.
For more information, go to http://www.gettingjeffersonright.com.
Episodes
40 episodes
This Present Moment - Interview with Todd Allen
Today I interview Todd Allen, Founder of the Common Ground Project and administrator at Messiah University (PA). Todd and I talk about his work in civil rights education and history. We also discuss my forthcoming book, The Christian Past T...
The Christian Past That Wasn't - Trailer Season Three
On April 28, the first episode of the podcast series The Christian Past That Wasn't is scheduled for posting. This is a continuation of the podcast formerly known as Telling Jefferson Lies. TJL gets a new name in recognition of the pub...
The Value of Religious Freedom: An Interview with Roger Finke
Roger Finke is distinguished professor emeritus of sociology and international affairs at Penn State University. Roger is also the founder of the Association of Religion Data Archives, which is an online archive of the best religion data availa...
Does Christian Nationalism Work? An Interview with Paul Matzko, Part Two
Today's segment is the second part of my interview with Paul Matzko, historian and senior program manager at the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University. Paul is also an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. Our topic today is ...
What is Christian Nationalism? An Interview with Paul Matzko, Part One
Paul Matzko is a historian and senior program manager for AI and emerging technology at the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University. He is also an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute and host of the Unintended Consequences...
The Crisis of Christian Nationalism: An Interview with Jemar Tisby
This segment includes a significant amount of a recent interview with historican and author Jemar Tisby. Although I interviewed Jemar in the spring, the content is incredibly timely and relevant now. In this discussion, we cover the Trump admin...
Money, Lies, and God: An Interview with Katherine Stewart
Today I feature an interview with Katherine Stewart, the author of the New York Time bestseller Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy. The segment is timely in that we discuss income disparities ...
The Fears of Christian Nationalism: Interview with Andrew Whitehead
Why are Christian nationalists angry about the New York City Democratic mayoral primary victory of Zohran Mamdani? They surely are. Many are blaming "unchecked" immigration for his win. White Christians nationalist fear they are being replaced ...
Bonus Episode: America's Founding - Secular Government, Religious Freedom
Be it resolved: America's founders established a secular government with provision for a religious people. When the delegates met in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787, they deliberately prevented the government from favoring any religion. Then...
That's Not Fair and That's Not American
Recently, David Barton and Matt Krause testified in front of the Texas House of Representatives Public Education committee. Barton and Krause both said some historically questionable things to support the placement of the Ten Commandments in ev...
Charlie Kirk's Christian America, Part Two
In this segment, I examine the notion that there was something remarkably Christian about America's founding era. Last week, I fact-checked Charlie Kirk's viral video defense of the belief that America was founded as a Christian nation in the l...
Charlie Kirk's Christian America
In 2024, Charlie Kirk distributed a five-minute video defense of the idea that America was founded as a Christian nation. It has been played at least 20 million times on various social media platforms and is full of faulty history. This segment...
Mike Johnson's False Jefferson Prayer: The Rest of the Story
On January 3, 2025, Louisiana Representative Mike Johnson was re-elected to be Speaker of the House. In his acceptance speech, he quoted a prayer that he said Thomas Jefferson said every day during his presidency and every day of his life there...
Telling Jefferson Lies Season Two Trailer - Charlie Kirk's History Lessons
In 2024, a video featuring Charlie Kirk defending America as a Christian nation was viewed over 10 millions times on social media. Many of the claims were false or misleading. This season of Telling Jefferson Lies will examine this video and ot...
Telling Jefferson Lies Season Two Preview - January 6 Edition
Although the dates have not been set, new episodes of Telling Jefferson Lies are coming this Spring. I want to go deeper into the faulty history of Christian nationalism but also examine the psychology behind it as well. Christian ...
The Spirit of Justice: A Bonus Episode with Jemar Tisby
On September 3, 2024, author and historian Jemar Tisby's new book The Spirit of Justice: True Stories of Faith, Race, and Resistance officially drops everywhere. Today, I am posting most of the interview I conducted with Jemar for use ...
Disarming Leviathan - Bonus Episode with Caleb Campbell
On July 2, 2024, Caleb Campbell's new book Disarming Leviathan: Loving Your Christian Nationalist Neighbor officially drops everywhere. Today, I am posting most of the interview I conducted with Caleb for use in my podcast series Telling Jeffer...
Ministers of Propaganda - Bonus Episode with Scott Coley
Excerpts from my interview with Scott Coley, lecturer in philosophy at Mount St. Mary's University. His new book Ministers of Propaganda: Truth, Power, and the Ideology of the Religious Right is out this week. In this bonus episode of ...
What's So Good About Separation of Church and State?
Often debates focus on Christian nationalism and the problems which come from blurring the line between church and state. In this episode, I end the Telling Jefferson Lies series with some thoughts and testimony from experts about what is good ...
The O'Connor Question
In 2005, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor asked an important question for those who would erode separation of church and state: "Why would we trade a system that has served us so well for one that has served others so poorly? "I spend much o...
Losing Our Religion
In this segment, I argue that Christian nationalism is bad for religion in general and bad for Christianity in the specific case. This segment sets up the finale which argues that separation of church and state is a benefit to the United States...
America is Not a Christian Nation - Bonus Episode with Randall Balmer
In this short bonus episode, Dartmouth College professor Randall Balmer provides an introduction to reasons why he doesn't see the U.S. as a Christian nation. Dr. Balmer is the John Phillips Chair in Religion at Dartmouth College. ...
Consequences of Christian Nationalism
In general terms, I believe Christian nationalism is bad history, bad politics, and bad religion. In prior episodes, I have concentrated on the bad history. In this segment and the next, I focus mainly on the bad politics. Around the world, rel...
Sally Hemings Bonus Episode, Whitewashing Jefferson, Part Three
As promised, here is the completion of my examination of David Barton's whitewashing of Thomas Jefferson. In our book
The True Story of the False Origins of the Seven Mountains Message - Bonus Episode
This supplements episode 10, Still Searching for Christian America, Part Two. You can listen to this first, but I definitely encourage you to go back and catch up if you do. Everybody in Christian nationalism is talking about the seven ...
