by Chris Staron | May 6, 2025 | Episodes
The New Right Manipulated Evangelicals into Conservative Republican Politics
A small group of men calling themselves The New Right had a major role to play in bonding some evangelicals to the Republican Party. Yet many Christians don’t know who these guys were or how they used money and influence to accomplish their goal.
Let’s meet the fellas. One was named Paul Weyrich. Weyrich’s contribution to the movement is that he knew how to organize people, a skill he learned from watching liberal protests. He was a former radio newsman from Wisconsin, member of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church when he thought the Roman Catholic Church became too liberal. He saw how liberals were organizing in the US and decided to do something similar with conservatives. The goal was to bring together politicians, activists, money, and the press to have a unified front. Organizational skills were his secret weapon.
Howard Phillips was a follower of RJ Rushdoony’s Christian Reconstruction plan. He gutted the Office of Economic Opportunity for Richard Nixon and then founded a think tank called The Conservative Caucus. He said “we organize discontent” meaning that the New Right used emotional issues to rile up their base.
Then there was Richard Viguerie. He was the king of bulk mail. The New Right used his services to advocate for their kind of politicians, for Anita Bryant, and to raise money. His company RAVCO was investigated for fraud.
These men and more were vital in bringing some evangelicals into the Republican Party.
Our guest today is Rick Perlstein, author of amazing history books like Reaganland and The Invisible Bridge. Special thanks to my friend Paul Hastings of the Compelled podcast for lending me his voice about the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival.
Sources:
- Reaganland and The Invisible Bridge by Rick Perlstein
- Mobilizing the Moral Majority: Paul Weyrich and the Creation of a Conservative Coalition, 1968-1988 by Tyler J. Poff pages 22-23
- The Evangelicals by Frances Fitzgerald
- Weyrich, Memorandum, April 16, 1973, Paul M. Weyrich Scrapbooks. But accessed through Mobilizing the Moral Majority: Paul Weyrich and the Creation of a Conservative Coalition, 1968-1988 by Tyler J. Poff page 18
- Christian Reconstruction: RJ Rushdoony and American Religious Conservatism – by Michael McVicar
- Memo from Gerald Ford Library
- The 1974 Campaign Finance Reform Act
- James Robison at the Religious Roundtable
Discussion Questions:
- What was meant by “we organize discontent”? Is this a statement Jesus would have made?
- Have you ever heard of the New Right guys before?
- Google Paul Weyrich and watch videos of him talking. How does he use language to stir fear in others?
- Are there issues that politicians can use to push your buttons? What are they? Why?
- Why are some evangelicals driven by these push button issues?
- How was the New Right able to use issues of sex to steer some evangelicals?
by Chris Staron | Apr 22, 2025 | Episodes
The Compelled podcast is hosted by my friend Paul Hastings. It's a testimony show that walks listeners through people's lives so that we can hear how God continues to set people free through faith in Jesus.
This episode is part of an ad-swap that Chris did with Paul to get the word out about Truce, but it also serves as a reminder to us that God is still working in the lives of His people.
You can learn more about the Compelled podcast at https://compelledpodcast.com/
by Chris Staron | Apr 8, 2025 | Episodes
Milton Friedman advocated for school vouchers
Milton Friedman is one of the most important economists of the last hundred years. His ideas were quoted by many evangelical writers in the 1970s and 80s, despite his not being a Christian and few of his ideas being in the Bible. Figures like Jerry Falwell loved the guy. Ronald Reagan adopted many of his ideas, though they disagreed on things like the increasing national debt. Friedman played a major role in the popularization of the school voucher concept. Essentially, some people want to allow parents to have a say in which school their children attend. If they want to take the children to a private school, they believe that the government should give them a certain amount of money that would have gone to the public school and give it to the private one. Those who disagree say that this would defund already underfunded schools. Friedman also believed that teachers should not necessarily be certified and that the free market would weed out the bad ones.
Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative
Stanford professor Jennifer Burns (author of Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative) returns to help Chris explore this complicated subject.
Sources:
- Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative by Jennifer Burns
- Reaganland by Rick Perlstein
- Free to Choose
- A helpful Britannica article on Friedman
- Listen, America! by Jerry Falwell. Paperback, August 1980 reprint version Bantam edition
- Divided We Stand by Marjorie Spruill
- Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman
Discussion Questions:
- Had you heard of Friedman before this episode?
- What are school vouchers?
- How could school vouchers be seen by some as a tool of segregation?
- What would it mean if parents had to keep track of every teacher their children learned under?
- How are schools currently funded in the US? Why does that matter? How are some schools wealthy while others are poor?
- What should be the role of wealthy people when it comes to education?
by Chris Staron | Mar 25, 2025 | Episodes
Give to help Chris make Truce
Is Laissez-faire really fair?
Milton Friedman may be the most famous American economist. His research and theories have profoundly shaped the modern American economy. But few of us can clearly articulate what he taught and what it means for our times. Friedman’s career was defined by the aftermath of the Great Depression. He worked in the government administering the New Deal, but never really agreed with it. He joined the faculty at the University of Chicago and built a department around him that taught a version of free-market economics known as monetarism. Essentially, monetarism is the idea that inflation is a product of how much money is in circulation. Friedman did not like the Federal Reserve or the gold standard, instead, advocating for a standard 4% increase in the money supply every year that would not be shifted. By setting a rule, he hoped to do away with an entire governmental department.
Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative
Friedman and his co-authors ventured into areas that other economists thought, perhaps, unwise. They used economics to explain things like marriage and school choice. He was also a proponent of school vouchers.
Stanford professor Jennifer Burns joins Chris today to explore the many facets of Milton Friedman. This is the first of two parts.
Sources:
Discussion Questions:
- Had you heard of Friedman before this episode?
- If so, what did you know about him?
- What does “laissez-faire” mean in economic terms?
- Does it line up with the Bible in any direct way?
- Why do you think so many conservative Christians lean toward laissez-faire?
- How bad was the Great Depression?
- If you had worked for the government during the Depression, what would you have advocated?
- Why are some people against the New Deal?
- What did the New Deal mean to starving people during the Depression?
- How does a fear of communism play into anti-New Deal sentiment?
by Chris Staron | Mar 11, 2025 | Episodes
William F. Buckley Jr. struggled to keep his movement pure against Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, and the John Birch Society
William F. Buckley Jr. helped change the face of conservatism in the US because he gave it intellectual backing. But that doesn’t mean that his ideas were accepted completely. He had several nemesis within his own movement that tried to derail him.
One opponent was the John Birch Society. Buckley’s whole modus operandi was to make conservatism respectable. But Robert Welch and other members of the JBS were using their movement to spread bogus conspiracy theories. They were actively discrediting the movement that Buckley tried to build. So Buckley, National Review, and Barry Goldwater tried to bring it down.
Another enemy was Ayn Rand. Buckley and Rand were libertarians, but they disagreed on something important: religion. Rand was an ardent atheist, while Buckley believed Christianity and conservatism were inseparable. When Buckley started Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) he discovered that his young followers were incorporating many other ideas into their ideology. Rand’s writings were impacting the students. So Buckley had to work to expel those ideas from YAF.
Libertarian economist Murray Rothbard was another enemy. Rothbard actively encouraged his followers to split YAF and leave the organization.
Extremism leads to extremism. Extremism lends itself to ideological purity, which means that groups like YAF were destined to split and split and split again. Buckley has his work cut out for him.
Sources
- Buckley: William F Buckley Jr. and the Rise of American Conservatism by Carl T. Bogus.
- The Rise and Fall of Modern American Conservatism by David Farber
- Burning Down the House by Andrew Koppelman
- Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus by Rick Perlstein
- God and Man at Yale by William F. Buckley Jr
- Heather Cox Richardson’s YouTube series on the history of the GOP
- Hoover Institution article on the impact of Buckley and Firing Line
- Reaganland by Rick Perlstein
- The Incomparable Mr. Buckley documentary
- The Sharon Statement
Discussion Questions:
- Extremism leads to extremism. Do you agree?
- The desire to keep a movement ideologically pure is not unique to Buckley. Discuss that desire. When is it important and when does it lead to issues?
- Rand and Buckley disagreed on the role of religion. Why did that put them at odds?
- Why would Murray Rothbard want to split YAF?
- Why are youth movements so important to politics? To religion?
