Truce - History of the Christian Church

In the fall of 1814, the powers of Europe gathered together to discuss what to do with the continent after the Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon had changed a lot in his time in power! He cowed the Roman Catholic Church, ended serfdom where he went, freed Jews from their ghettos, took away kingdoms, and placed new kings in charge. The Congress of Vienna was tasked with a Humpty Dumpty scenario and they couldn't put Europe back together again.

The various countries also wanted to be compensated for their efforts to stop Napoleon. Couldn't they take a little piece of land? Encroach on one of the lesser kingdoms? Install their own puppet governments? In trying to undo all of the changes Napoleon made, they became little Napoleons themselves.

In the same way, when we confront extremism with extremism we become exactly what we dislike. Shouldn't Christians be more focused on simple righteousness than culture wars?

Select Sources:

• The Rites of Peace by Adam Zamoyski
• Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts (a great place to start if you want to learn about Napoleon)

Discussion Questions:

• What was the Congress of Vienna?
• Why did the congress matter?
• Have you ever served God to the point where it cost you something big to do so?
• How have you seen the modern Church become what it opposes?
• Have you seen Christians or churches act in a righteous way?

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The United States and Russia ran along parallel tracks in the late 1800s and 1900s. Both were empires. Both were tangled in war. Both were feeling the weight of the Industrial Revolution. But they divided in how they would deal with labor. That critical difference changed the history of the world.

In this episode, Professor Heath Carter of the Princeton Theological Seminary starts the first of a two-episode conversation about Christianity and labor. Mr. Carter is the author of Union Made and editor of books such as The Pew and the Picket Line.

Helpful Links:

• Heath Carter on Twitter
• New York City in 1903 video (Library of Congress)
• Interesting video of Heath Carter talking about labor
• Article about the Native American from the top of the show

Topics Discussed:

• Do Christians support unions?
• The F. Scott Fitzgerald quote about first-rate intelligence and two ideas
• Working conditions in the 1800s in Chicago
• Pew rents
• How do churches make their money?

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Jackson, Wyoming is a small tourist town in the middle of nowhere. It is just a few miles south of Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone. Millions of people pass through each year as tourists. It's a vacation hotspot. But for those who choose to stay in this region, Teton County is anything but a vacation. Rising income inequality and housing costs have created a hostile environment for working people. The median home price in Jackson went up 47% in 2020 alone, rising to $2.2 million while wages remain stagnant.

We've been talking for the last few episodes about myths of the American West, how cowboy myths about a lone rugged individual have shaped the US. Now it's time to understand how cowboy myths have impacted American Christianity.

Our guest today is Justin Farrell. He's a sociologist and professor at Yale. His book is Billionaire Wilderness. In it, Farrell recounts his studies of the ultra-wealthy. What makes them tick? What are they afraid of? Why do they dress the way they do? And what draws them to the far western border of Wyoming?

Discussion Questions:

• Read the story of the rich young ruler (Mark 10:17-27). What do you think of Jesus' warning about wealthy people entering the kingdom of God?
• Many of the tax avoidance practices discussed in this series are legal (except pretending to live in one place while living in another). Do you think that legality and morality are tied together?
• Are these practices moral?
• What types of friction do you experience in your own life?
• How would more money change the level of friction you encounter?
• How would less money change the level of friction you encounter?
• Do you think that friction is a valuable thing to pay attention to in our lives?
• What is the role of empathy in a Christian's life?
• How do you use money to benefit yourself as opposed to others?

Helpful Links:

• Justin Farrell's book Billionaire Wilderness
• NY Times article about President Trump changing his residence to get out of paying taxes
• Book The Velvet Rope Economy about inequalities in health care, airlines, services, and even Disney World.

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Send checks to:

Truce Media LLC

PO Box 3434

Jackson, WY 83001

The modernish/ fundamentalist controversy was heating up in the early 1900s. Conservatives saw this coming a long way off but could not stop modernism from taking control of seminaries and popular pulpits. It was everywhere. It all came to a head with WWI.

Theological conservatives saw WWI as evidence that the world was getting worse. To them, it was a chance to fight for patriotic reasons. Modernists were also pro-war because they thought this was the "war to end all wars". There would be no more war after this and democracy would take over the world. The liberals fired the first shots in this theological battle because they thought that premillennialism encouraged people to root for the end of the world.

William Jennings Bryan was Secretary of State in the US during this time and did his best to keep us out of the war.

This episode features the voices of George Marsden (author of "Fundamentalism and American Culture") and Michael Kazin, professor at Georgetown University and author of "What it Took to Win".

Sources:

• Fundamentalism and American Culture by George Marsden
• The Evangelicals by Frances Fitzgerald
• A Godly Hero by Michael Kazin
• What it Took to Win by Michael Kazin
• These Truths by Jill Lepore
• To End All Wars by Adam Hochschild
• Dead Wake by Erik Larson (about The Lusitania)
• Woodrow Wilson's second inauguration
• Short article about Billy Sunday

Discussion Questions:

• What was the purpose of WWI? What caused it?
• Would you have been for or against the war in the 1900s?
• How can pre and post-millenniallism shape a person's view of the world? Does it have to?
• How does social Darwinism tie into WWI and WWII?
• Is WWI an outcome of changing morality?
• How would you tell a large audience of Christians to adapt to changing morality?

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US Senator Joseph McCarthy unleashed an era of suspicion on the American people as he went looking for communists. His trials, both public and behind closed doors, focused on the government as well as Hollywood and the Army. He claimed that he had lists of communists, but failed to produce that list. It wasn't until the Army-McCarthy hearings in the spring and summer of 1954 that his unfounded hearings were put to rest.

One year later the play Inherit the Wind opened. It was supposed to be a critique of the McCarthy era set inside of a re-telling of the Scopes "monkey" trial. In doing so, it got many of the facts wrong. John Scopes never spent any time in jail. He didn't have a girlfriend, and that girlfriend was not berated on the stand. The townspeople of Dayton, TN were welcoming to both Bryan and Darrow.

To explore this work of art and revisionist history I spoke with the hosts of the Seeing and Believing podcast Kevin McLenithan and Sarah Welch-Larson.

Select differences between the Scopes trial and Inherit the Wind

• John Scopes was arrested but never spent time in jail.
• He was "arrested" in a soda fountain where the test trial was conceived and not in school.
• Scopes later claimed he never taught evolution, which is why he never took the stand in real life.
• The entire case was set up as a publicity stunt to bring attention to the town of Dayton, TN. They got the idea when they saw an ad placed by the ACLU.
• The character of Rachel did not exist in real life.
• The people of Dayton were welcoming to both Darrow and Bryan and Scopes was loved by many. He even spent time swimming with the prosecution between trial sessions.
• The moment when Bryan was on trial was held outdoors.
• H.L. Mencken was not some loveable curmudgeon. He was an anti-semite and a racist.
• Dayton largely did not vote for Bryan when he ran for president.
• Bryan died a few days after the trial, not while in the courtroom.
• Darrow did not carry a copy of the Bible and Darwin out of the courtroom.
• The textbook in question during the trial was clearly pro-eugenics, was sold in the soda fountain, and had been approved by the state textbook committee.
• The preachers of the town were kind. The odd sermon given the night of the trial never happened and the script adds a lot of strange things that are not in the Bible.
• Bryan wished the law to have no penalty, unlike his stand-in in the movie who hoped for a harsher punishment.

Sources

• Inherit the Wind (1960 version) starring Spencer Tracy
• Summer for the Gods by Edward Larson
• Chris' own visit to the Dayton museum dedicated to the trial
• Helpful video about the Napoleon painting

Discussion Questions:

• Where is the line between art and propaganda?
• Does art have an obligation to the truth?
• Do you see McCarthyism in Inherit the Wind?
• Is Inherit the Wind a fair way of discussing the Scopes trial, or a work of revisionist history? Why does it matter?
• What would it mean for a group that feels maligned and misunderstood to have a film misrepresent them?

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