The Protestant Libertarian Podcast

Summary – Becoming a Christian, the Future of Global Christianity, and Nigerian Politics with Econ Bro In this episode I once again talk to the great Econ Bro, the man behind the excellent Twitter account @TruEconBreau. He talks about his journey to Christian faith in Nigeria, the future of global

Summary – Why ‘Disinformation’ is Difficult to Define with Jacob Sullum of Reason Magazine In this episode, I talk to Jacob Sullum, senior editor at Reason magazine, about a recent piece he wrote entitled The Perils of Trying to Curtail Hazily Defined ‘Disinformation’. In this article, he discusses a recent rating given to Reason by

Summary – The Power of Stories, Leaving Ministry, Changing Beliefs, and Podcasting with Josh Williams of Podbless Today I talk to my friend Josh Williams. Josh is the host of Welldagum, a podcast where guest share funny and enlightening personal stories, and, more recently, Podbless, where he and his guest hosts explore

Summary – It’s Time to Address Covid-19 I finally devote a full episode to Covid-19. I discuss why I believe that holistic health (exercise, dieting, and drinking water) is the best method for ensuring health and building an immune system. Then we talk about how the FDA’s budgeting method allows

Summary – Why Christianity and Libertarianism Make Sense with Doug Stuart of the Libertarian Christian Institute In this episode, I talk to Doug Stuart, the CEO of the Libertarian Christian Institute, which is an organization that explores the relationship between libertarianism and Christian thought. He is the coauthor of the

Summary – The Next City Councilman of Jacksonville, FL with Eric Parker In this episode, I talk to Eric Parker, who is running for city council in Jacksonville, Florida. Eric is an Army veteran who now works in the electronics industry and wants to bring libertarian principles to Jacksonville. He

Summary – Covid, Ukraine, Congress, the WEF, and Liberty with Ezra Wyrick Ezra Wyrick is back on the show to discuss some of the most important problems facing our world today. He talks about his recent appearance on the Tom Woods Show, Covid, Ukraine, Congress, the World Economic Forum, his

Summary – How the West Brought War to Ukraine with Benjamin Abelow In this episode I sit down with Benjamin Abelow, who is the author of ‘How the West Brought War to Ukraine: Understanding How U.S. and NATO Policies Led to Crisis, War, and the Risk of Nuclear Catastrophe’. We discuss

Summary – 1 Samuel 8: A Biblical Critique of Monarchy In this episode, we explore how the writer of 1 Samuel 8 expressed concerns about Israel’s monarchy in particular and human government in general. We set 1 Samuel in the context of the Old Testament’s narrative of Israel’s covenant with

Summary – Why the Pledge of Allegiance is Un-American with Tom Mullen On this episode, I sit down with Tom Mullen, and author and host of the Tom Mullen Talks Freedom podcast, to discuss an article he wrote a few years back for the Foundation of Economic Education entitled ‘Why the Pledge

Summary – Can the Pastors Save Our Divided Country? In this episode, I look at an article published in the fall of 2022 by Barna Group, an organization that does research related to Christianity and American culture. The article, which is entitled Does a Divided Public Look to Pastors for Guidance?’,

Summary – The Christian Right Wants to Weaponize State Power In this episode, we look at a recent piece published at Reason Magazine by Stephany Slade entitled ‘Against Game of Thrones Christianity’, in which she argues that there is a growing tendency among members of the Christian right to use state power

Summary – Henry Cadbury: The Anti-War Biblical Scholar Who Warned Against Modernizing Jesus Henry Cadbury (1883 – 1974) was a Quaker Biblical scholar. He was an outspoken critic of the anti-German propaganda being pushed by the US media during World War I and was also critical of Woodrow Wilson’s passing

Summary – Six Books That Shaped My Political Thinking and Theology It is the holiday season, which means you will most likely be receiving at least one Amazon gift card! In this short Christmas special, I present six books, three written about the Bible and the church and three written

Summary – ‘The Apostle and the Empire’ with Dr. Christoph Heilig In this episode, I talk with Dr. Christoph Heilig, who is on the faculty of theology at the University of Basel in Switzerland. He has written extensively on the relationship between Paul and the Roman empire, and his recent

Summary – A Very Libertarian Christmas with Cody Cook In this episode, I sit down with Cody Cook, an author and podcaster who explores the relationship between Christianity and anarchism. Many of his interests overlap with the Protestant Libertarian Podcast, and I know that you are going to love everything

Summary – The Resurrection, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Hope of Israel with Dr. Brandon D. Crowe In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Brandon D. Crowe, professor of New Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary, to discuss his 2020 book The Hope of Israel: The Resurrection of Christ

Summary – Ludwig von Mises vs. A Christian Scholar, Round 2 (James K.A. Smith) *Episode originally recorded in August 2022.* In round two of Ludwig von Mises vs. a Christian scholar, we look at the brilliant Christian philosopher James K.A. Smith’s collection of essays called ‘The Devil Reads Derrida.” There

Summary – The War in Ukraine: A Short Introduction Happy bonus Thanksgiving episode! I wanted to organize my thoughts on the current war in Ukraine and, on this episode, I look at a few short articles and narrate an introductory overview that explains my current understanding of the conflict. The

Summary – What the Bible Says About Women in Ministry with Econ Bro On this episode, I talk to Econ Bro, a Christian and a libertarian from Nigeria, who runs the excellent Twitter account @TruEconBreau. We had an exchange about women in ministry online, and we agreed that we wanted

Summary – ‘The Anatomy of the State’ by Murray Rothbard (Part 2) We are look at the second half of libertarian philosopher, economist, and historian Murray Rothbard’s worldview-changing 1974 essay Anatomy of the State, looking particularly at how the state often overcomes its constitutional limits.  Episode Outline: I. Review of Part

Summary – ‘The Anatomy of the State’ by Murray Rothbard (Part 1) We are reviewing the first half of Murray Rothbard’s classic essay Anatomy of the State, in which he argues that the state can be defined as the entity that maintains a monopoly on violence in a given geographical area

Summary – Voting ‘No’ on Kentucky’s Proposed Abortion Restriction with Bethany Bernardo I sit down with my wife and first ever co-host Bethany Bernardo and discuss the amendment to Kentucky’s constitution that will be on the ballot in November. Issue 2 will read “Are you in favor of amending the

Summary – The Methodist Church is Breaking Up: An Analysis On this episode, we review Bonnie Kristian’s “What the Methodist Split Tells us About American Political Polarization”, which was published in Reason magazine, and explore the impending breakup of the United Methodist church, the theological, social, and political ramifications of the split,

Summary – What Does the Word ‘Love’ Mean, Anyway? In this episode, we explore the contemporary definition of the term ‘love’, analyze how it is used in both theological and political discourse, and challenge it by interpreting the how the writers of the New Testament, particularly John, have an alternative

Summary – Turning Down Teacher Tenure I am a public school teacher. I am also a libertarian. How did this happen? In this episode, I explain why I became a teacher and why teacher tenure is a bad idea. I am eligible to receive tenure this year, and I have

Summary – Against George W. Bush’s CIA Torture Program: Roundtable On the first ever Protestant Libertarian Podcast roundtable, my three guests are Reverend Doctor Jennifer Copeland, who is the director of the North Carolina Council of Churches, Doctor Christina Cowger, who is the facilitator of North Carolina Stop Torture Now,

Summary – The Next City Councilman of Crescent Springs, KY with Bill Schult In this episode, I sit down with Bill Schult, who is running for city council in Crescent Springs, KY. We talk about his campaign, libertarian philosophy, local government, and how libertarian principals should be applied at the

Summary – A Rothbardian Approach to Society with Ezra Wyrick In this episode I talk with Ezra Wyrick, the man behind the excellent Twitter account @ezra4liberty and a rising star in the libertarian movement. Ezra describes himself as a ‘Rothbardian’, someone who is committed to the political outlook of the

Summary – Would Jesus Forgive Student Loans? with Lawrence W. Reed In this episode I talk to Lawrence W. Reed, president emeritus of the Foundation for Economic Education, about his recent FEE article entitled ‘Jesus Would Support Student Debt Forgiveness? Not So Fast’. We discuss both the economic and Biblical

Summary – The Problem of Biblical Inerrancy with Timothy Price In this episode, I sit down with author Timothy Price and discuss an article he published entitled “The Problem with Inerrancy”. We discuss the challenges posed by the doctrine, why it might misguide believers into focusing on secondary theological issues

Summary – The ‘Next Quest’ for the Historical Jesus In this episode, we look at New Testament scholar James Crossley’s proposed ‘Next Quest’ for the historical Jesus, and I comment on several of the suggestions that Dr. Crossley makes for further research. The Next Quest has a lot of potential,

Summary – The First Three Quests for the Historical Jesus: From Reimarus to Wright In part one of a two part series, we take a look at the Quest for the historical Jesus, the attempt by New Testament scholars to analyze the ‘Jesus of History’ that lies behind the ‘Christ

Summary – A Christian Libertarian for Senate with Brian Peotter In this episode I talk to Brian Peotter, who is running for US senate as a libertarian in the state of Colorado. We discuss his faith, his campaign, what he would like to see changed in the United States, and

Summary – The Military Industrial Cult with Laurie Calhoun Laurie Calhoun joins the show today to talk about her new piece over at the Libertarian Institute called The MIC Cult. She is a senior fellow at the Libertarian institute, a philosopher, and an author of several books and articles, many of

Summary – Why We Can’t Agree: Wittgenstein and Language Games We are looking at how conversations about theology and politics break down by analyzing Ludwig Wittgenstein’s classic work Philosophical Investigations. Wittgenstein argues that words have no stable meaning and that, like the rules of a game, people need to define terms

Summary – The Future of Christian Higher Education with Dr. Matthew Barber In this episode, I interview Dr. Matthew Barber on the future of Christian higher education. Dr. Barber worked for nearly a decade in Christian higher education, and earned his PhD in Organizational Leadership, and he now works in

Summary – Is the Mises Caucus Racist; Also, what is the Mises Caucus? We define what the Mises Caucus is, how it will shape the future of the libertarian party, why mainstream outlets (and Reason!) are criticizing it, and how I believe the MC should proceed in the future. Episode

Summary – What Does it Mean to ‘Believe the Science’? We are looking at Thomas Kuhn’s classic work The Structure of Scientific Revolution, and his conclusion that science can’t explain everything and that scientists are just as subjective as the rest of us. We then look at how the government uses

Summary – The Libertarian Abortion Debate In this episode, I discuss the recent Dobbs decision by the supreme court that overturns Roe vs. Wade, why I think abortion is a moral evil but am deeply conflicted about its legality, and how there exists a healthy debate within the libertarian movement

Summary – Who is an Evangelical? by Thomas Kidd In this episode, we look at a book called Who is an Evangelical? by Thomas Kidd, an American historian at Baylor university in Texas. He defines the term ‘Evangelical’ and explores the political evolution of the movement from its inception to its support

Summary – Why Good Arguments are About Ideas, Not Personality This week I will be encouraging us to think about why good arguments should be based on our ideas and not on the personalities of those with whom we debate. We look at the negative effect that polemics has on

Summary – Rules of Engagement: Hermeneutics and Biblical Interpretation This week we are looking at what the Bible is and how we will be interpreting it on this show. We will return to these interpretive methods and analyze them in more detail on future episodes, but this will provide us

Summary – Marxism, a Social and Political Creed In part two of our mini-series on creeds, we take a look at how Marxism, and the historical philosophy of G.F. Hegel which undergirds it, has operated as a social, historical, and political creed for nearly 200 years. Episode Outline: I. A

Summary – The Authority of Scripture and the Creeds of the Early Church In week one of a two-part series, we look at creeds that have defined the Christian church and examine some of the issues of thinking about the Bible through the lens of the creeds. We explore how

Summary – My Libertarian Conversion: How Protestant Ideas Shaped My Political Worldview In this episode I discuss how my protestant worldview led me to embrace libertarian politics. Questions? Comments? Thoughts? Email me at theprotestantlibertarian@gmail.com. If you really like what you heard and want to give me money, you can! Donate

Summary – Ludwig von Mises vs. A Christian Scholar, Round 1 (Michael Gorman) In this episode, we will define both ‘capitalism’ and ‘socialism’ and discuss how Biblical scholars often get capitalism wrong. We will be doing this by comparing Michael Gorman’s Reading Revelation Responsibly with The Anti-Capitalist Mentality by Ludwig von Mises. Episode Outline:

The Meaning of both ‘Protestant’ and ‘Libertarian’ This week, we will be defining what we mean by the term ‘protestant’ and the term ‘libertarian’. If you want to know how I am going to use these two terms in this show, listen to this episode! Episode Outline: I. The importance

Summary – Who am I, and What am I Doing? In this episode I, the host, Alex Bernardo, introduce myself and talk about my background. I discuss what I want to do with the show and ask (but don’t answer) the question of why so many libertarians are either not

Ep. 0 | The Protestant Libertarian Podcast Teaser The Protestant Libertarian Podcast explores the intersection between protestant Biblical studies and libertarian philosophy. We will discuss the Bible, history, culture, philosophy, and current events from both protestant and libertarian perspectives. Episodes will be uploaded once a week beginning in early May