Republicans and Evangelicals I Milton Friedman and School Choice (part 2 of 2)

Republicans and Evangelicals I Milton Friedman and School Choice (part 2 of 2)

Author: Chris Staron April 8, 2025 Duration: 27:28
Give to help Chris continue to make Truce 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. 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? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosted by Chris Staron, Truce-History of the Christian Church is a deep, journalistic look into the forces that have shaped American evangelicalism. This isn't a simple timeline of events; it's an investigation into the surprising intersections of faith, culture, and power. Staron digs into movements from fundamentalism's roots to modern political campaigns, and even examines connections to phenomena like pyramid schemes, revealing a complex history many listeners may never have encountered. Each episode is built on thorough research and thoughtful interviews, aiming to understand not just how the church arrived at its current moment, but how that story might inform a better path forward. The current season focuses specifically on the rise of the Religious Right, meticulously tracing the evolving alliance between evangelicals and the Republican Party. To tell this story, the podcast features conversations with notable guests like historians Rick Perlstein and Frances Fitzgerald, or journalist Jesse Eisinger, who bring their expertise to this nuanced narrative. Listening to this podcast feels like joining a rigorous yet accessible conversation, one that respects the subject's gravity while pursuing clarity and truth. For anyone curious about the real stories behind today's headlines concerning faith and society, this series offers essential context.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Truce - History of the Christian Church
Podcast Episodes
Republicans and Evangelicals I Reagan's Shibboleths [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 39:05
Give to help Chris make the show! Ronald Reagan was an odd choice for evangelicals. For one, he and his wife regularly consulted a medium. He was a Hollywood actor, which should have put him at odds with fundamentalists.…
Republicans and Evangelicals | Ronald Reagan's Double Cross [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:27
Give to help Chris make Truce Before he became president, Reagan was the head of the Screen Actors' Guild. When it came down to backing his followers or helping big business, he chose business. The same was true when he…
Republicans and Evangelicals | Why Christians Didn't Vote for Carter [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:51
Give to help Chris make Truce Boy, the Religious Right did not like Carter, at least by 1980. Some of them, like Pat Robertson, had high hopes for him at the start. But they quickly grew to distrust the man from Georgia.…
Republicans and Evangelicals | The Many Plagues of Jimmy Carter [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:48
Give to help Chris make Truce President Jimmy Carter's presidency (1977–1981) faced several major challenges, both domestically and internationally. One of the biggest domestic issues was the struggling U.S. economy. Car…
Republicans and Evangelicals | The Battle for the Mind [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:02
Give to help Chris make Truce Tim LaHaye wrote different kinds of books. Books on marriage, sexuality, the end times, and those involved in social and political movements. In his young years, Tim LaHaye taught for the Jo…
Republicans and Evangelicals | What Scared Tim LaHaye [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:54
Give to help Chris make Truce Tim and Beverly LaHaye were a prominent American evangelical Christian couple known for their influential work in ministry, literature, and conservative activism. Tim LaHaye, born in 1926 in…
An American Coup in Guatemala [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:35
Give to help Chris make Truce Given the recent events in Venezuela, I have decided to run a classic episode from season 3. The question of our era is not "why did we do this?" but "why do we keep doing this?" Why does th…
Republicans and Evangelicals: Bill Bright, Campus Crusade, and Cru [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:52
Give to help Chris continue to make Truce William R. “Bill” Bright was born in 1921 in Coweta, Oklahoma. Though raised in a religious environment, he initially pursued business success and personal ambition. While attend…