Telling Jefferson Lies: Debunking the Myth that America was Founded as a Christian Nation

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Telling Jefferson Lies: Debunking the Myth that America was Founded as a Christian Nation

Warren Throckmorton

38 episodes

3 months ago

Send us a text 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 available, a standard research tool for social scientists. He is the author of several books including the subject of today's interview: The Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and Conflict in the 21st Century (2011) co-authored with...

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All content for Telling Jefferson Lies: Debunking the Myth that America was Founded as a Christian Nation is the property of Warren Throckmorton and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

Send us a text 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 available, a standard research tool for social scientists. He is the author of several books including the subject of today's interview: The Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and Conflict in the 21st Century (2011) co-authored with...

Show more...

Episodes (20/38)

Telling Jefferson Lies: Debunking the Myth that America was Founded as a Christian Nation

The Value of Religious Freedom: An Interview with Roger Finke

Send us a text 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 available, a standard research tool for social scientists. He is the author of several books including the subject of today's interview: The Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and Conflict in the 21st Century (2011) co-authored with...

3 months ago

41 minutes

Telling Jefferson Lies: Debunking the Myth that America was Founded as a Christian Nation

Does Christian Nationalism Work? An Interview with Paul Matzko, Part Two

Send us a text 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 Paul's answer to the question: has Christian nationalism ever worked? As a part of addressing the question, Paul tells the story of Quaker martyr Mary Dyer. Listen in to find out. Music provided by Earl's Taco Shack, Jon...

3 months ago

24 minutes

Telling Jefferson Lies: Debunking the Myth that America was Founded as a Christian Nation

What is Christian Nationalism? An Interview with Paul Matzko, Part One

Send us a text 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 podcast. Today, he joins me to discuss how Christian nationalism differs from citizen engagement with politics. Often Christian nationalists complain that they are simply living out their faith in the public square. However, Paul tease...

3 months ago

38 minutes

Telling Jefferson Lies: Debunking the Myth that America was Founded as a Christian Nation

The Crisis of Christian Nationalism: An Interview with Jemar Tisby

Send us a text 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 administration's war on due process, diversity programs, and foreign aid. A recurring theme is the grift, greed, and cruelty of the Trump administration's Christian nationalism. Jemar challenges listeners to speak the truth and act to pr...

4 months ago

29 minutes

Telling Jefferson Lies: Debunking the Myth that America was Founded as a Christian Nation

Money, Lies, and God: An Interview with Katherine Stewart

Send us a text 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 accentuated by the passage of the recent Trump budget. The dominance of Christian nationalism in the current administration isn't helping many of the foot soldiers who helped bring Trump to power. Katherine discusses her new book and much mo...

4 months ago

49 minutes

Telling Jefferson Lies: Debunking the Myth that America was Founded as a Christian Nation

The Fears of Christian Nationalism: Interview with Andrew Whitehead

Send us a text 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. Too many non-Christians, too many black and brown people is the worry leads to a problem according to white Christian nationalists. In light of this event and the overall attack on immigrants taking place in Trump's America, have I got a segment for you. We also hear from a founder on why Muslim...

4 months ago

39 minutes

Telling Jefferson Lies: Debunking the Myth that America was Founded as a Christian Nation

Bonus Episode: America's Founding - Secular Government, Religious Freedom

Send us a text 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 when the Bill of Rights were added, freedom of religious expression was guaranteed. Those who wanted a Christian government at the time were upset at what they called the religious defect in the Constitution. They were honest enoug...

4 months ago

11 minutes

Telling Jefferson Lies: Debunking the Myth that America was Founded as a Christian Nation

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 every Texas classroom. A premise of this podcast is that it takes faulty history to pursue Christian nationalist goals, one of which is to erode separation of church and state. Texas Representatives John Bryant and James Talarico scrutinized Barton'...

6 months ago

34 minutes

Telling Jefferson Lies: Debunking the Myth that America was Founded as a Christian Nation

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 legal sense. Most of what Kirk had to say was irrelevant or incorrect. Today, I consider an overview of moral and religious failings during the founding era. Along with guests Jemar Tisby, Mark Noll, George Marsden, Caleb Campbell, and Aaron Cowan,...

6 months ago

39 minutes

Telling Jefferson Lies: Debunking the Myth that America was Founded as a Christian Nation

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 serves to correct the false claims and defend the proposition that America's founders set out to found a secular government with provision for religious pluralism. Unfortunately, this only applied to white males at first. Kirk and his fellow Chri...

6 months ago

48 minutes

Telling Jefferson Lies: Debunking the Myth that America was Founded as a Christian Nation

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 thereafter. There is a problem with this story. The prayer was written 56 years after Jefferson died. Jefferson never said the prayer even one day of his life. Later, Johnson and the House chaplain refused to acknowledge they spread false witness to th...

7 months ago

42 minutes

Telling Jefferson Lies: Debunking the Myth that America was Founded as a Christian Nation

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 other Christian nation claims by Christian nationalists in addition to Kirk. The first full episode is planned for April. There are lies, there are Jefferson Lies, and then there are Christian nationalists' stories. Music by Warren Throc...

8 months ago

2 minutes

Telling Jefferson Lies: Debunking the Myth that America was Founded as a Christian Nation

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 nationalism as an ideology is much more complex than fake quotes and false stories. The way history has been written from the beginning of the arrival of the Europeans must be examined as well. This trailer focuses on January 6 with a clip from David and Tim...

10 months ago

3 minutes

Telling Jefferson Lies: Debunking the Myth that America was Founded as a Christian Nation

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 in my podcast series Telling Jefferson Lies. In this episode, I recreate my questions because of a recording glitch in the original. The recording on Jemar's end was excellent with brilliant content to match, so this is a quality and thought provoking episode....

1 year ago

26 minutes

Telling Jefferson Lies: Debunking the Myth that America was Founded as a Christian Nation

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 Jefferson Lies. In this episode, I do say I want to smash Christian nationalists, but I hope it is clear that I am not serious, but instead I agree with Caleb's approach. There is often a difference between what we might feel like doing and we know we ...

1 year ago

28 minutes

Telling Jefferson Lies: Debunking the Myth that America was Founded as a Christian Nation

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 the podcast series Telling Jefferson Lies, Scott discusses Christo-authoritarianism and the role of justice in overcoming self-interest. Music credits: Seiche by Dustin Blatnik Debris by Roman Candle Night Walk by Warren Throckmorton

1 year ago

10 minutes

Telling Jefferson Lies: Debunking the Myth that America was Founded as a Christian Nation

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 about separation. Helping me close out the series are: Randall Balmer, John Phillips Chair in Religion, Dartmouth College Caleb Campbell, Pastor, Desert Springs Bible Church, Phoenix, AZ Michael Coulter, Professor, Political Science and Humanities, G...

1 year ago

44 minutes

Telling Jefferson Lies: Debunking the Myth that America was Founded as a Christian Nation

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 of this episode affirming that we should not trade. Much of this series has been raising alarm about Christian nationalism and supporting separation of church and state. This episode assembles an all-star cast of experts in favor of a strong separation positio...

1 year ago

56 minutes

Telling Jefferson Lies: Debunking the Myth that America was Founded as a Christian Nation

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 and should be strengthened. If you like experts and multiple voices, this is the segment for you. Here is the lineup: Randall Balmer, John Phillips Chair in Religion, Dartmouth College Paul Kemeny, Dean of Arts and Letters, Grove City College B...

1 year ago

50 minutes

Telling Jefferson Lies: Debunking the Myth that America was Founded as a Christian Nation

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. He has spoken at numerous colleges and universities, including where I met him, Grove City College. Balmer has published more than a dozen books, including Redeemer: The Life of Jimmy Carter, God in the White House: How Faith Shaped the Presidency from ...

1 year ago

11 minutes