The Russell Moore Show

From the Moore to the Point newsletter: What a Painfully Weird Movie Can Show Us About Lying and Liars

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What if everything we think we know about power is wrong?

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In a world captivated by political strongmen, military might, and the promise of technological salvation, the ancient prophet Isaiah offers a startlingly different picture of what happens when God comes to set the world right.

For Russell Moore, Isaiah has been one of the biblical books keeping him sane in unsettling times. And in his new book, Into the Heart of Isaiah (October 27), renowned biblical scholar N. T. Wright argues that the prophet's message is even stranger—and more hopeful—than many Christians realize.

Moore and Wright explore why Isaiah mocks the idols people trust, how money and military power can become objects of worship, and whether artificial intelligence might be creating idols of its own. They also take up a particularly contemporary question: What should Christians make of the claim that God raises up modern-day versions of Cyrus, the pagan king who delivered Israel from exile?

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From the Moore to the Point newsletter: Maybe now is the time to look at what we actually see around us: a culture that too often delights in cruelty and violence.

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Five years after The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast, have American churches learned anything about the dangers of celebrity, power, and spiritual abuse?

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When Mike Cosper released The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill in 2021, he thought he was telling the story of one church congregation and its charismatic, controversial pastor, Mark Driscoll. But the podcast reached far beyond those who knew anything about Mars Hill. It turns out the story of a Seattle megachurch had something to say about the ways we think about leadership, authority, and the things we're willing to excuse in the name of a good cause. Five years later, Driscoll is still drawing crowds, the evangelical celebrity machine is still running, and some of the questions the series raised seem more urgent than ever.

Russell welcomes Mike back to the show to ask what, if anything, has changed in the last 5 years. They talk about why churches continue to rally around leaders whose character should give them pause, how our ideas of success can distort the very meaning of pastoral ministry, and why the people who speak up about abuse so rarely receive the apologies they're owed.

Mike also reflects on the people whose stories he told, the unexpected lessons he learned about grief and forgiveness, and why some who have been deeply wounded by the church still find themselves unable to walk away from Jesus. Ultimately, this isn't just about a church that collapsed more than a decade ago. It's about the kinds of churches we're building today—and what it might take to build something different.

Resources mentioned in the episode:

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The Church in Dark Times — Mike Cosper

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Land of My Sojourn — Mike Cosper

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When Narcissism Comes to Church — Chuck DeGroat

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What if the most important questions people are asking about Christianity are no longer about whether it's true, but whether it can make sense of their lives?

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When Alister McGrath arrived at Oxford as a young atheist, he assumed Christianity was on its way out. He wasn't alone in that assumption. For much of the past century, the prevailing idea among intellectuals was that science and reason would eventually make religious belief obsolete. But McGrath ended up becoming a Christian, and over the decades since, he's noticed something interesting in his conversations with students. Where skeptics once came to him convinced that Christianity was intellectually indefensible, many now come wondering whether it might offer something that secularism hasn't been able to provide.

Russell Moore has been reading McGrath since he was a teenager, and his books have occupied a good deal of space in Russell's library ever since. A theologian, scientist, and one of the world's leading Christian apologists, McGrath has spent decades thinking about the relationship between faith and reason. His new book, Rethinking Christianity: A Thoughtful Guide to a Life-Changing Faith(out October 27), grows out of years of conversations with people trying to figure out what they believe and why. Together, Russell and McGrath discuss whether renewed interest in Christianity amounts to anything like revival, why artificial intelligence is raising questions about human dignity, and what Christians can learn from C. S. Lewis and the remarkable growth of Pentecostalism around the world.

It's a conversation about the limits of argument, the importance of empathy, and the possibility that the Christian faith offers not simply a set of answers but a place to belong.

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From the Moore to the Point newsletter: We ought to look around at places without keg parties or ketamine hits and ask where our own sense of solidarity is real and where it’s just another prelude to a coverup.

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What would we learn if we listened to the people who have left our churches?

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Emilee Hackney had never written a book before. She doesn’t have a substack or a social media following, nor does she write op-eds for the New York Times or The Atlantic. But her debut memoir, All That’s Unseen, has become a New York Times bestseller, was named a finalist for the 2026 Southern Book Prize, and had feature reviews in the Wall Street Journal, Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and more.

The topic? Appalachia, faith, poverty, and her journey from Virginia coal country to Harvard.

Remarkably–despite having left the Christian faith as an adult–Hackney doesn’t speak poorly of the church, instead she remembers the beauty and freedom she experienced growing up in a Pentecostal tradition. And yet, she recounts the devastating failure of that same community when she found herself in an abusive relationship as a teenager engaged to an older man.

Hackney’s story is indeed complex, but familiar for so many of us who once had genuine spiritual experiences in a church home, but were failed by that same community when it seemed to really matter. While some continue in the Christian faith despite the devastation, many choose to leave. You might know some of them. You might be one of them.

This shared experience is part of what drew Russell to Hackney’s story, especially with her tone of hospitality and high regard for a tradition in which she experienced great devastation.

Emilee joined Russell from her office in Virgina, with a Dolly Parton poster peeking over one shoulder, and a Loretta Lynn poster above the other. Their conversation spreads from church hurt to class and belonging, even to parenthood. Through it all, Emilee resists the invitation to dilute or flatten Appalachia, her family, or even the church that wounded her into something easily dismissed. Instead, she asks what it might mean to see the people and places we think we already understand.

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Maybe the way to speak with clarity into a loud and angry age starts with learning when not to speak at all.

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Most of us know what it is to feel overwhelmed by noise…not just the literal kind, but the pings and alerts, the demands and arguments, the constant sense that something somewhere requires our attention right now. John Mark Comer, author of The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, returns to talk with Russell about his new book, Into the Quiet: Following Jesus in a World of Noise (October 6th). And, as Comer argues, quiet isn't simply a way to calm down. Sometimes the first thing we encounter in silence is everything we've been using the noise to avoid.

Russell and Comer talk about why solitude can initially make us more anxious rather than less, how to distinguish the voice of God from all the other voices rattling around in our heads, and why God's silence isn't the same thing as God's absence. They also consider what churches might look like if they became refuges from noise rather than competitors in it—and why the Christian call to “lead a quiet life” doesn't mean retreating from a troubled world.

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From the Moore to the Point newsletter: A system that scares you can sometimes keep you compliant, but whatever can ultimately direct your life is your god.

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How do you learn the lessons of mortality before mortality forces you to?

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After Wendell Berry’s death, Russell Moore gathered with friends to talk about Berry’s life and work. During that conversation, pastor and author Russ Ramsey brought up Remembering, Berry’s novel about Andy Catlett, a farmer who loses his right hand—and, with it, his old way of holding on to the world.

Years earlier, Ramsey had nearly died from a bacterial infection that required open-heart surgery. Reading Remembering during his recovery gave him language for what was happening to him: the disorientation of suddenly knowing life will not go back to what it was, the temptation to take our pain out on those closest to us, and the strange clarity that can come from confronting death.

Dr. Moore wanted to continue that conversation here. He and Ramsey talk about whether it is possible to learn some of mortality’s lessons without first being “struck”; why suffering sometimes makes us freer and sometimes makes us harder; and what happens when a culture responds to death not with resurrection hope but with attempts to outrun mortality altogether. Yes, the tech bros come up.

They also turn to Ramsey’s books Rembrandt Is in the Wind and Van Gogh Has a Broken Heart. What initially seems like a different subject turns out not to be different at all. Ramsey’s writing about mortality and his writing about art are both concerned with learning to see—to pay attention to beauty, to other people, and to the life in front of us while we still have it.

Along the way, Ramsey walks us through how to look at a painting, why you don’t have to like every great work of art, and how to know when it’s time to leave a museum—which, as it turns out, may be a lesson about mortality too.

Plus, stay to the end to hear Ramsey’s song “The Ballad of Andy Catlett,” inspired by Berry’s Remembering.

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From the Moore to the Point newsletter: AI tech bros seem like awful, broken people. And they might be telling us the truth.

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Tim Keller’s son on the new book they co-wrote together.

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Russell talks with Michael Keller about his new book, The Stories We Live By (co-written with Tim Keller), and the cultural myths that promise to make sense of our lives before ultimately falling apart.

Michael and Russell talk about why suffering has a way of exposing the stories we actually believe, why forgiveness becomes almost impossible when everything is reduced to a struggle for power, and why a Christian understanding of identity is neither something imposed on us nor something we invent for ourselves.

They also consider whether AI–a particularly interesting topic for Keller, who has a PhD in computational linguistics–is creating new problems or just magnifying very old ones.

Michael also reflects on the more personal story behind the book, finishing work he began with his father before his death. He shares what it was like to return to his father’s words while grieving—and why, afterward, he found himself searching their old text messages for a word every child longs to hear.

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From the Moore to the Point newsletter: The Joker Is Our Spiritual Director Now

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How can Wendell Berry’s novels help us understand love of country and community without stumbling into idolatry?

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In 2021, Russell did a talk at The Rabbit Room’s virtual conference, Hutchmoot: Homebound. Given in the main room of North Wind Manor, Russell shared how Berry’s fiction can help us see something underneath our political arguments, revealing the human longing to belong somewhere.

Drawing from Jayber Crow, Hannah Coulter, and other works by Berry, Russell argues that the answer to Christian nationalism isn’t less Christianity, but Christianity that refuses to use Jesus as a means to some other end.

Special thanks to the Rabbit Room for allowing us to air this talk from Hutchmoot Homebound 2021. Learn more about the Rabbit Room here.

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From the Moore to the Point newsletter: Reflections on Wendell Berry.

Watch the episode here.
Some of Russell’s Writings on Wendell Berry over the Years

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"Why You Should Read Hannah Coulter"

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"7 Books That Changed My Life"

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"My Favorite Books of 2019"

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On It All Turns on Affection

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On Life Is a Miracle

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"Faith, Fiction, and Christian Nationalism"

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My Library of America tribute to Wendell Berry on his 90th birthday

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"Good Riddance to the Robert E. Lee Statue"

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"Wendell Berry’s Grief and Gratitude"

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Sign up for the weekly newsletter where Russell shares thoughtful takes on big questions, offers a Christian perspective on life, and recommends books and music he's enjoying.

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What happens when Christians separate righteousness from justice?

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In American Christianity, questions of personal morality and public justice are often treated as though they belong in different categories. Christians may speak confidently about some moral issues while dismissing others as distractions from the gospel or as politics the church should avoid. Charlie Dates’ new book, What Hath Justice to Do with Righteousness?, challenges that distinction. Scripture, he argues, doesn’t allow Christians to choose between personal holiness and concern for the people and communities around them.

On this episode, Russell and Charlie explore what that divide has done to the American church and why, in Charlie’s words, American Christianity can become “more American than Christian.” They discuss what the prophet Amos has to say to comfortable churches, why pastors can be tempted to avoid difficult subjects, and what Christian courage looks like when speaking the truth comes with a cost.

Dates has no easy optimism about where American Christianity is headed, in fact, he says he has a “healthy cynicism". But, he does have hope that, as he says, is needed “when the evidence is against you.”

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From the Moore to the Point newsletter: Dolly Parton didn’t need you to love her (and that’s why most of us did)

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Our most listened-to episode of all time.

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We’re finishing our “Best Of” series with the most listened to, most engaged with, most OUTSTANDING listener favorite episode of all time: Russell’s conversation with Beth Moore from 2021. The topic of the conversation was supposed to be “lessons in leaving and staying,” as they had both recently gone through leaving the beloved denomination they were raised in, but as it often goes…the conversation went much further than that.

Beth has been on this show several times since this episode–and you all have loved every one of them–but this one remains the most beloved of them all.

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From the Moore to the Point newsletter: God knows forgiveness is hard for us. It is not hard for him.

Watch the video of this episode on The Russell Moore Show YouTube Playlist here.

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An early conversation with one of our favorite guests.

This “Best of” episode is from the first few years of this show’s existence–back when it was called Signposts–with a guest we’ve had on many times since, Andrew Peterson. The conversation was recorded in 2016 (without cameras, so you won’t be able to watch this one on YouTube) in front of a live audience. You’ll hear shifting in seats, coughing, and even the sound of soda cans being opened.

The conversation wasn’t centered on a new book or new music or some new project, it was just an agendaless exchange about creating art from seasons of darkness, Buechner (par for the course with Russell and Andrew), burnout in leadership, marriage, and more.

Take a seat, grab a Diet Coke, and enjoy this conversation with Andrew Peterson.

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