Research On Religion » Chuck Colson

Michael Cromartie on Religion, the Media, and Think Tanks

tonygill — Sun, 18 Oct 2015 08:00:22 +0000

Jay Hein on the Invisible Revolution. How did the secular and religious media react to the recent visit of Pope Francis to the United States? And what does a think tank do to influence the national dialogue and policymakers on a variety of issues related to religion and faith? These area a few of the questions we explore with Michael Cromartie, vice president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, DC. A former research assistant to Chuck Colson, member of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, and founder of The Faith Angle Forum, Mr. Cromartie has a unique perspective on the world of faith, the news media, and public policy.

We begin with a lesson on the Scottish pronunciation of names. Tony, being the football fan he is, mispronounces “Cromartie,” placing the emphasis on the wrong syllables, but Michael instructs him on the proper syllabic emphasis. And then it is off to a discussion on the pope’s recent trip to the United States. Instead of focusing on what the pontiff said, we look at how both the secular and religious media covered the event. Michael points out that the media is fascinated by Francis due to his lack of ostentation, but the coverage of what was said was skewed towards the economic and climate message, but avoided the cultural issues that were part of Francis’s message. We also talk about the liberal and secular nature of the national news media and the recent emphasis on “religious nones” and why a population that is seemingly becoming less religious would be so fascinated with this spiritual figure. Michael also tosses in some of his thoughts on how the Protestant media covered the pope and how this opens a door for evangelicals to reframe their image in the public square.

Tony follows this discussion by probing Mr. Cromartie’s background, wondering how he ended up in a Washington DC think tank. Michael reviews his high school and college experiences, including time living in a Christian commune, and how he surprisingly ended up working for Chuck Colson and getting mugged in Denver. It is from there that he eventually became linked to the Ethics & Public Policy Center (EPPC) in Washington DC. We then follow the conversation into the world of think tanks and discuss what the EPPC does and how it originated. Tony asks about how and whether such think tanks actually effect policy and Michael provides a number of examples of how EPPC attempts to slowly change the nation’s dialogue by bringing academics and policymakers together in a number of different forums. We discuss two of these programs that Mr. Cromartie helped shape — the Evangelicals in Civic Life Program and the Faith Angle Forum. As to the latter, Tony asks how the EPPC is trying to get journalists and academics to break out of the bubble they are in. Michael presents some of his thoughts on this.

We finish the interview with some of Mr. Cromartie’s personal reflections on his own life experience and how this might be useful for a younger generation. He notes that rather than trying to make a world-changing impact immediately when you are young, it is important to be “significant where you are right now,” which relates to being faithful in the ordinary tasks of life. Recorded: October 9, 2015.

The Faith Angle Forum.

Evangelicals in Civic Life Program.

Religion and Politics in America: A Conversation, edited by Michael Cromartie.

Religion, Culture, and International Conflict: A Conversation, edited by Michael Cromartie.

A Public Faith: Evangelicals and Civic Engagement, edited by Michael Cromartie.

RELATED PODCASTS

Jeremy Lott on the Media’s Pope-O-Rama.

R.R. Reno on Pop(e) Francis.

Louis Bolce on the Media and Anti-Fundamentalism.

David Brody on the 2010 Midterm Elections and Religious Journalism.

Owen Strachan on Chuck Colson.

Jon Shields on Democratic Virtues and the Christian Right.

Jay Hein on the Quiet Revolution.

Owen Strachan on Chuck Colson

tonygill — Sun, 16 Aug 2015 08:00:06 +0000

What happens when you walk the highest hallways of power and then end up in prison for your role in one of America’s most famous political scandals? Such was the life of Chuck Colson. Owen Strachan — associate professor of Christian theology at the Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary — takes us on a journey through this fascinating individual’s life via his recently-published book, The Colson Way.

We begin the discussion with a bit of background on Owen himself, finding out what he does as the director of the Center on Gospel & Culture and how he is able to write so many books even though he is quite young. We also learn that he is answering these questions while sitting in a Toyota Highlander (which is not moving, for the record). Owen explains how he came to write about Colson, noting that as a historian he is always taking stock of who is, and who is not, being written about and finding opportunities to connect with new communities. Prof. Strachan makes a case for writing about Colson to bring this man’s life to the attention of the so-called Millennial generation, a theme that he picks up again at the end of the interview.

We then plunge into the early life of Colson, the “swamp yankee.” Owen defines this term that Colson used to describe himself as someone who grew up in New England but who does not have the elitist trappings of that region. This aspect of Colson’s life is important as we find out that he goes through much of life with a “chip on his shoulder,” even deciding to turn down admission to Harvard University in favor of Brown. Combined with his brief time in the US Marines, this “swamp yankee” mentality forms his personality in such a way that will make him an ideal candidate to eventually take on the role of prison minister. We walk through the Watergate scandal and Colson’s role as “the fixer” in the Nixon Administration, noting that Colson was a guy that was able to get things done, even if it entailed “breaking some china” along the way. Again, this is another related aspect of Colson’s demeanor that helps explain his doggedness in his Christian faith in later years. Owen spends time noting that Colson’s role in Watergate has been exaggerated in media accounts, and that he wasn’t involved much about some of the deeper scandals. Nonetheless, Colson was sentenced to three years in prison for his involvement, of which he served about seven months of the sentence.

During the period that the Watergate scandal was breaking, Colson was also experiencing a spiritual transformation. Seeing how Colson was stressed by the pressure of the White House and media attention on Watergate, Tom Phillips, CEO of Raytheon Corporation, gave Colson a copy of C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity, which had a huge impact on Colson who was not much of a religious man at the time. We discuss how Colson picked up on a number of other (relatively) contemporary Christian scholars such as William Wilberforce, Frances Schaeffer, and Carl Henry. Tony asks Owen to reflect upon this pathway to Christianity, noting how it is different than the typical “going to church as a kid every Sunday” method of picking up and learning one’s faith. Owen agrees that this is a much different means of coming to Christianity, and combined with his time in prison, helps to shape Colson’s approach to missionizing. While Colson saw a role for the corner church and Sunday services, he was unsettled with this as a way of bringing the Gospel to the world. Instead, he preferred taking Christianity to the places where it typically wasn’t, which becomes the basis for the eventual creation of Prison Fellowship, not to mention a number of other entrepreneurial creations credited to Colson, including Breakpoint radio. It is clear how Colson’s hard-nosed “fixer” and “swamp yankee” personality shape his approach to Christianity, including taking ex-cons directly to Capitol Hill in Washington, DC to pray for and with Congressional representatives, an approach that was shocking to some at the time.

Our conversation continues to discuss the various other endeavors that Colson undertook in his life and how each tended to reflect a “whatever I want to do” approach to missionizing that Colson adopted. At the end of the interview, Prof. Stachan reflects upon some of what he learned from exploring the life of Colson. He notes how Colson’s life tended to come “full circle” when presented with a special pin honoring his service at a White House ceremony during the George W. Bush administration. He reflects upon how it must have seemed to be given an award for service in a place that had earlier sent him to the bottom of the barrel in his own life. Colson, in essence, returns to the place of his own undoing in a triumphant manner — a quintessential American success story that is peppered with hardship and determination. Owen also discusses how he came to realize the importance of prison in the Biblical narrative, with many of the key players from Daniel and Joseph in the Old Testament to Jesus and Paul having had to spend time in such an environment. Prof. Strachan further explains how this lesson can be important to the disaffected youth of today’s Millennial generation, who seem to be experiencing a “hollow prosperity.” Recorded: August 13, 2015.

The Council on Biblical Manhood & Womanhood.

The Colson Way: Loving Your Neighbor and Living with Faith in a Hostile World, by Owen Strachan.

Awakening of the Evangelical Mind: An Intellectual History of the Neo-Evangelical Movement, by Owen Strachan.

The Pastor as Public Theologian, by Kevin Vanhoover and Owen Strachan.

Risky Gospel: Abandon Fear and Build Something Awesome, by Owen Strachan.

Essential Evangelicalism: The Enduring Influence of Carl F.H. Henry, by Matthew Hall and Owen Strachan.

Designed for Joy: How the Gospel Impacts Men and Women, Identity and Practice, edited by Owen Strachan & Jonathan Parnell.

Born Again and Life Sentence, by Chuck Colson.

Colson Center for Christian Worldview.

Breakpoint Radio.

RELATED PODCASTS

Jeff Henig on Prison Ministry.

Byron Johnson on More God, Less Crime.

Byron Johnson on Religion & Delinquency.

William Wubbenhorst on Serve, West Dallas.

Jay Hein on the Quiet Revolution of Religious Social Work.

Jim Tonkowich on Converting to Catholicism

tonygill — Sun, 07 Dec 2014 09:00:23 +0000

After serving in the Presbyterian ministry for over two decades, our guest Jim Tonkowich, former president of the Institute on Religion & Democracy, made the decision to convert to Catholicism. We follow Jim’s journey in this interview that is part personal reflection and part sociological look at the state of Christianity today.

We begin our discussion by going back to Jim’s early upbringing and learn that his family was rooted in the Russian Orthodox Church. His curiosity in religion, though, was piqued while attending boarding school in Connecticut when he purchased a Bible and began reading it. Finding this reading difficult on his own he began participating in a Bible study group and also attended a “Ski and Skeptics” program that helped him to start making sense of Christianity, much the way a the box top picture on a jigsaw puzzle helps one align the pieces. We follow him through his college career at Bates College and his further investigations into theology and philosophy. At this point in his life, he is still not a Roman Catholic.

Jim’s varied travels them take him to Gordon Cromwell Theological Seminary where he begins studying for the ministry. His own religious participation at this time involved a non-denominational Protestant congregation and participation at Park Street Congregational Church where he met both his wife and Marcus Grodi (also a Protestant who would later “make the journey home” to Catholicism). It is at this point in the interview we begin a conversation about church polity — i.e., how congregations are organized in terms of authority structure. This theme appears numerous times in our discussion and is one of the key pieces to understanding Jim’s conversion to Catholicism. Jim also reveals how he read the early Church Fathers and how that influenced his long-term thought process.

Following seminary we then move cross-country to a Presbyterian church in Silicon Valley, California. We discuss Jim’s experiences as a pastor here as well as the various challenges that ministers face in their profession. While Jim was pleased with the folks in that congregation, he talks about the professional grind and loneliness that often accompanies the pastorate. It is at this point where he brings up the issue of pastoral formation — preparing clergy for the tough road ahead — and mentions that the Catholic Church tends to excel at this task relative to its Protestant counterparts. Again, we start to see the pieces of the conversion puzzle start to fall into place. We develop a sense that Jim’s conversion wasn’t a Pauline “flash of light on the road to Damascus,” but rather a long and intellectually-engaging path.

After his ministerial stint in California, it is back to the Washington DC area where he shares a number of other stories regarding a variety of experiences, including an interesting interview he had with a few Presbyterians and the questions of whether Catholics need to be rebaptized if they move in a Protestant direction. Here we reflect a bit upon attitudes towards Catholics and how this challenged Jim’s thinking further. We also return to the question of orthodoxy and church polity at this point before finally learning more about the final pieces to his Catholic conversion that involved his son attending Thomas Aquinas College and bringing a group of friends home from California, an event that led him into the National Basilica for Mass and a great sermon “worshipping among the nations.” We further go into a wide range of topics involving connections with other intellectuals who converted Catholic (e.g., Frances Beckwith, Robby George) and a number of other interesting topics related to theology and church organization.

The podcast finishes with a few of Jim’s insights from his e-book How (Not) to Become Catholic, which is a humorous self-reflection of his journey and a variety of mistakes he and others often make when looking across the Catholic-Protestant divide. Recorded: November 7. 2014.

RELATED LINKS

Jim Tonkowich’s web page (including biography another links)

How (Not) to Become Catholic, by James Tonkowich (an e-book on becoming Catholic)

The Liberty Threat: The Attack on Religious Freedom in America Today, by James Tonkowich.

The Coming Home Network International (mentioned in the podcast)

The Institute for Religion and Democracy (where Jim was the former president).

Called to the Ministry, by Edmund Clowney (mentioned in the podcast)

Wyoming Catholic College (mentioned in the podcast)

RELATED PODCASTS

Tim Kelleher on the Nicene Creed.

Jim Papandrea on the Church Fathers & Patristic Exegesis.

David Gallagher on Opus Dei.

William Donohue on Secular Sabotage.

Hunter Baker on the Past and Future of the Religious Right

tonygill — Sun, 03 Aug 2014 08:00:01 +0000

The Religious Right has been a force to be reckoned with in American politics over the past four decades, but is its influence on the wane as many of its initial leaders and intellectuals pass from the scene? Prof. Hunter Baker, associate professor of political science and Dean of Instruction at Union University, talks about the past, present, and future of this movement based upon his most recent book The System Has a Soul.

Following some light banter about puppies, Prof. Baker provides us with a definition of what the Religious Right is, noting that it has been a term that has been ill-defined and often used to refer to poor and uneducated religious voters. Hunter points out that this movement has some deep and surprising intellectual roots. While religious involvement in American politics has a long history, he dates the current movement back to William Jennings Bryan and the Scopes Monkey Trial and then picks up the story in the mid-20th century with the emergence of a number of “neo-evangelical” thinkers such as Carl F.H. Henry and Frances Schaeffer. We review the interesting influence these thinkers had and note the surprising activist background of these individuals, including Schaeffer’s willingness to “listen to hippies” and pro-labor attitudes (things that are not normally associated with the media caricature of the Religious Right).

We then talk about the emergence of the movement in the 1970s with individuals such as Chuck Colson arguing for religion to take on a more public profile and events such as the Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision playing an important mobilizing effect. This is where Hunter explains how Christians began to reject “functional differentiation” and helps Tony understand what that social scientific-sounding terms means. While many neo-evangelicals supported Jimmy Carter’s bid for the presidency in 1976 and that many Democrats were supporters of the pro-life movement that was gaining ground, Hunter points out the shift that occurs to the Republican Party in the 1980s with Ronald Reagan’s embrace of these individuals with his famous quote, “I know you can’t endorse me, but I endorse you.” Our conversation also covers the extent to which this movement was merely an evangelical Christian movement or whether it entailed non-Protestant thinkers such as Richard John Neuhaus.

We review the public rise of the Religious Right in the 1980s with reference to Falwell’s Moral Majority and Robertson’s Christian Coalition, but Hunter points out that it was James Dobson’s Focus on the Family that probably had the bigger and more lasting impact on the movement. Again he points out that Dobson, who has a Ph.D., is indicative of the scholarly grounding of the movement contrary to a media opinion that paints the movement as anti-intellectual. Although the demise of the Moral Majority and the election of Bill Clinton as president are often seen as indications of the waning of the Religious Right in the 1990s, Hunter asserts that the movement took on a more grassroots approach and was able to develop a “deeper bench” by electing adherents to office and placing them in the Academy. He makes the claim that the real peak of the Religious Right movement was around 2005. Disillusionment with the presidency of George W. Bush and the apparent failings of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan aided in eroding the influence of Christian conservatives during this time. We also discuss the politics surrounding same-sex marriage and how losses in the battle to ban gay marriage have also chipped away at the movement’s strength.

We finally turn our attention to the future of the Religious Right. Tony asks to what extent the Tea Party represents a revitalization of the Christian conservatives, but Prof. Baker notes that the Tea Party represents a distinct social movement. Nonetheless, he raises the issue of religious liberty and how Christians are now seeing this as a major issue that may allow them to align with the more libertarian leanings of the Tea Party. We also chat about the recent writings of Jonathan Malesic and James Davison Hunter who argue that it may be a time for Christians to embrace secularism and perhaps take a “season of silence.” Hunter provides his thoughts on this topic and we ruminate about the future of Christian political activism in the United States noting that there have been periods of waxing and waning throughout the long course of history and we may be witnessing one of those waning moments. Recorded: July 23, 2014.

RELATED LINKS

Hunter Baker’s bio at his personal blog.

The System Has a Soul: Essays on Christianity, Liberty, and Political Life, by Hunter Baker.

The End of Secularism, by Hunter Baker.

Political Thought: A Student’s Guide, by Hunter Baker.

How Should We Then Live?, by Frances Schaeffer (mentioned in podcast).

RELATED PODCASTS

Hunter Baker on Secularism.

Hunter Baker on the Future of Higher Education.

Jon Shields on Democratic Virtues and the Religious Right.

Gerald de Maio on the Electoral Religion Gap.

Kevin den Dulk on Religion, Education, and Civic Engagement.

Luis Bolce on the Media and Anti-Fundamentalism.

William Donohue on Secular Sabotage.

Micah Watson on C.S. Lewis

tonygill — Sun, 17 Nov 2013 09:00:12 +0000

On the 50th anniversary of C.S. Lewis’s death, we take a moment to review his life, times, and writings with Micah Watson, an associate professor of political philosophy at Union University in Jackson, TN. Having just visited this fine school, Tony noticed that Prof. Watson was using a great deal of Lewis’s works for a class he was teaching. Unfamiliar with many of those works, Tony invited Micah to join him on the podcast and talk about this epic author.

We begin with a general overview of Lewis’s life, growing up in Northern Ireland, his drift away from Christianity, his astounding brilliance in school, his time as a soldier during WWI, and then his gradual return to the Christian faith. In somewhat of a non-synchronous fashion, we flitter in-and-out of his time at both Oxford and Cambridge, mixing intellectually with the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien and Owen Barfield. We then develop the intellectual themes of his writing, both fiction and nonfiction. We learn about the wide range of genres and styles of writing that he undertakes, including everything from apologetics to science fiction to children’s books and poetry. His broad repertoire — including radio broadcasts — earned him some cautionary disrespect from his intellectual colleagues, but also allowed him to reach audiences that he may not have had access to otherwise.

Prof. Watson walks us through some of Lewis’s works, including The Space Trilogy, and how he developed his immaginative thoughts. We learn how Lewis uses imagery and narrative to circumvent the “watchful dragons” of more orthodox Christianity. Prof. Watson considers Lewis’s ability to speak in the vernacular to a non-academic audience one of the main reason why he remains so popular today. He also notes that following a debate with G.E.M. Anscombe, Lewis stops writing pure apologetics and weaves his defense of Christianity into a more nonfiction narrative style. Given Micah’s own interest in political theory, we also talk about natural law and Lewis’s political views, which were never strongly stated but were nonetheless present in his scholarship.

The interview ends with Micah’s reflections on how Lewis has influenced our contemporary intellectual landscape and his own personal development as well. Recorded: November 11, 2013.

The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis, by Alan Jacobs (mentioned on the podcast).

RELATED PODCASTS

Corey Olsen on J.R.R. Tolkien, Religion, and The Hobbit.

Jason Jewell on Why Christians Should Read the “Great Books.”

Byron Johnson on More God, Less Crime

tonygill — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 08:00:26 +0000

How effective are religious-based rehabilitation programs in reducing recidivism among released prisoners? We invite Prof. Byron Johnson, co-founder and director of Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion and author of More God, Less Crime, to discuss his comprehensive research into this issue. We begin with a review of how church-state partnerships have helped to reduce juvenile delinquency in places such as Boston and Philadelphia, and then turn out attention to general theories of whether incarcerated individuals can be rehabilitated or not. Based on numerous studies, including his own, Byron takes a firm stance in favor of rehabilitation and argues forcefully for faith-based educational programs in jail. We then talk about Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship and devote a significant amount of time to examining the InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI) sponsored by the Prison Fellowship in a Houston-area penitentary. Byron reviews how inmates are accepted into the program, what the IFI entails, and reveals that graduates of this program show a remarkable decrease in recidivism rates. We address the methodological skeptics by talking about some of the limitations of the study and Byron makes a good case that participants in this program are, if anything, the least likely to show any progress yet the IFI program does yield an insipiring success rate. The last part of our interview focuses on the critical need for “aftercare” — i.e., developing church-based mentoring programs for paroled or released convicts. While most of the energy in prison ministries is devoted to what goes on inside the jail walls, the long-term success of these programs requires extensive follow up when former prisoners are released into environments that can often tempt them back into old habits. We also discuss the opportunity for greater partnerships between religious organizations and local, state, and federal agencies that are cost-effective and an attractive alternative to purely government-based. Recorded: May 26, 2011.

More God, Less Crime: Why Faith Matters, and Why It Could Matter More, by Byron R. Johnson.

Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion. (A great resource for relevant and accessible research, with many reports free to the public.)

RELATED PODCASTS

Byron Johnson on Religion & Delinquency.

Merisa Davis on Bill Cosby, Religion, & African-American Churches.

Jay Hein on the Faith-Based & Community Initiative.

Eric Carter on Religion & the NFL.