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 Jerry Falwell (part 2) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:15
Give to help Chris make more Truce The New Right had a plan--to bring evangelical Christians together as a voting bloc. But how to do that? They chose a few targets, people with big followings, and courted them. Jerry Fa…
Republicans and Evangelicals I Jerry Falwell (part 1) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 40:08
Give to help Chris make Truce Jerry Falwell was a prominent American pastor, televangelist, and conservative political activist whose life and ministry had a significant impact on American evangelicalism and politics. Bo…
Republicans and Evangelicals: Abortion [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:29
Give to help Chris continue to make Truce A lot of evangelicals are now single-issue voters, and that issue is abortion. But that was not always the case. In fact, for a great deal of American history, abortion was large…
Republicans and Evangelicals: The Death Penalty [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:26
Give to help Chris continue making Truce In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the United States went years without using the death penalty. Not a single person was killed by injection, firing squad, hanging, or electric ch…
Republicans and Evangelicals | George Wallace [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:04:06
Give to help Chris continue to make Truce George Wallace was, as historian Dan Carter put it, "the most influential loser in American history". He was the governor of Alabama and lost multiple bids for president of the U…
Republicans and Evangelicals I Boston Against Busing [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:30
Give to help Chris make Truce We talk about racism in the United States like it only happens in the South. But the nasty truth is that the North is also guilty of racist behavior. This is evident in the way that we behav…
Republicans and Evangelicals I Segregation Academies (part 2) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:35
Give to help Chris make the Truce Podcast In 2 Samuel 24 David is told that he must buy a certain piece of land in an act of repentance for his sins. The man who owns the land says that he'd like to give David the land a…
Republicans and Evangelicals I Segregation Academies (part 1) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:09
Give to help Chris continue Truce. Update: I would like to apologize for an error I made in the original version of this story. I stated that tuition payments to private schools are tax-exempt on the federal level. They…
Scopes Monkey Trial - 100 Year Anniversay [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:13:04
Give to help Chris continue making Truce I made these episodes a few years ago, but since it is the 100th anniversary of the Scopes "Monkey" trial, I thought we should revisit them! Tennessee was the first state in the U…