Impolite Conversation: Religion and Politics

Impolite Conversation: Religion and Politics


#51: Holy Disunity and Trump as Messiah

September 30, 2019

This month we talk to Presbyterian minister Layton Williams about her new book Holy Disunity and her thesis that authenticity is more important than unity. Then the two of us settle in to chat about the "quasi-messianic" language that's come out of the White House recently. (Note: we knew when we recorded this episode that the events we discussed in our B-segment would have been overtaken by other scandals many times over by the time it came out, but we had no way of knowing there would be an actual impeachment inquiry underway. So enjoy this window into the more innocent time that was the middle of last month.)

Some of the things we talked about in this episode:

Here is the tweet and the video that made our second segment possible, and here is the article that inspired us to talk about it.

Dan mentioned this moment as possible evidence of Trump's cognitive decline.

Tim's OLT was about the New York Times' 1619 Project.

And Dan's OLT was about the audio versions of Robert Caro's biographies of Lyndon Johnson.

 

0:00-1:44: Introduction

1:48-22:33: Williams interview

22:38-45:44: "Trump as messiah" conversation

45:49-48:09: Tim's OLT

48:10-51:22: Dan's OLT

51:23-52:21: Credits