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Ep 1: A storm Blows Wildly
Released on
Sept. 3, 2024
Episode description
It is my contention, I believe obvious among any casual observation, that US society and culture, is in peril. As a nation, we are adrift at sea, hence “unmoored” from the safety and protection of good harbor, of a dock set upon a stable foundation. This setting has happened because over the previous 4-5 decades, knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of the nation’s history has fallen so that there no longer is correct comprehension of the events of our founding.
Episode 1 examines why “crisis and turmoil” has happened, including current evidence that it is happening, and who are the principle “players” in this “crisis and turmoil.” We will talk about the three major “crucial ills” that have emerged over the past 50 years that I think are central to understanding the situation.
Ep 2: There Was A Unique Foundation
Released on
Sept. 10, 2024
Episode description
We do not fully grasp the uniqueness of the US system (we now see “Democracies” everywhere and we think “casual, normal”), and in doing so we devalue the factors that went into the creation. That creation, and the foundation as well as the issues we are facing, are of a spiritual nature, and that comes out in “who” are the principle participants in the struggle, in the causing of the unmooring.
The crisis that we discussed in Episode 1 really is only signs or evidence of the deeper issue that we have lost touch with a foundation. Yet due to the historical forgetfulness, many do not realize just how unique the US civic system was. Note, “unique” does not mean our tone or viewpoint is that of triumphalism or trying to suggest the US was ever perfect or singularly special.
The USA version of civic society was set fully on the concept of citizen-only structure. This raised the question or concept of “how could you assume citizens would not just devolved into some self-only concern about living life” and/or “assume they would follow rules on their own, their own self-defined rules.” All other previous societies had a built-in enforcement concept with the powerful central ruler (ie, King, Emperor, nobility, religious leaders). The US was rejecting all of these options for rules.
Ep 3: Tension Between Characters: Conservative and Progressive
Released On
Sept. 17, 2024
Episode description
Episode three further examines the context of what I perceive as a crisis in which USA society is in peril. It is my remise that there are two groups struggling at the center of the national tension, and both have incorrect grasp on history. That tension is one of worldview, and a passion for finding the best path forward for the nation. That is laudable, and yet due to the historical forgetfulness, I believe both are thinking in terms that are misguided.
These two characters the “Conservative Christian” and the “Progressive.” Neither are bad or evil or trying intentionally to “do wrong” or “bring harm” to the other or to the society.
Ep 4: What Documents from Antiquity Reveal
Released On
Sept. 24, 2024
Episode description
Following episode 3, we go deeper into the historical documents about the Christian past, looking at the connection of an earlier moment when “God’s people were the majority culture but suddenly find themselves as ‘exiles’ and the minority culture.” Last episode we got to this point after seeing the two groups at the center of the current US churn, and I think it accurate to suggest the “conservative Christians” might be the principal agent stirring the pot.
To me, they/me will say things like ‘feeling an exile in my own land’ or ‘unhappy discovering to be the minority culture, especially after what seemed to be a renewal in the 1980s.’ What can primary documents from antiquity provide us to understand how we could feel, whether as a Christian or not.
So this episode will be taking a dive into some of the specifics about what the historical documents show us about God’s people, His demands, and what those who claim His name ought to have done or be known for.
We will specifically look at a writing from a Jewish writer, Isaiah, and then later another named Jeremiah. For the writing from Isaiah, I have modernized it for 21st century Christians:
Isaiah 5:11-12–you spend your time in frivolity, getting up early in the morning NOT to commune with God, but to look for a drink of alcohol, to waste time on TV, to engage in social media…spending all day wastefully. You have food and drink, often in your worship…you have lovely big parties with hip current music…but you NEVER think about the Lord and the things He is doing, the things and people He cares about.
Isaiah 5:18-19–you drag your sins around in the open, tied to you by lies that you assume no one can see, but yet everyone sees. Your wickedness, both the open wickedness like accepting modern-day slavery in your town or addiction to porn among your male church leaders, and the “you-think-its-hidden” wickedness like a failure to pray, a failure to pursue justice, a failure to care for the widow or the orphan—that wickedness is proclaimed openly on bumper stickers of your car. You mock God acting pious, saying things like “even so come quickly Lord” and “one day we’ll all be in Heaven” or “Hurry Up, Lord and do something.”
Isaiah 5:22-23–you think you are heroes because you claim the excess of gaming, ESPN, fantasy sports, Netflix binge watching, gambling, success as your video games, alcohol…that you can live large, equal to anyone in the community…you can “drink anyone” under the table with your excellence in fantasy sports or gaming or knowledge of the latest TV show…and yet you know nothing of God’s word, His ways. You look the other way when political leaders from “your side” act wickedly because you think “the other side” is evil. It is you, Christian, who is evil for not protecting the innocent.
Ep 5:Lessons from Constantine
Releasing
Oct. 1, 2024
Episode description
A key pressure point from Conservative Christians is a seeming call for “Christian Nationalism.” That idea suggests some version of domination and control by Christianity and Christian concepts. Or, another way to say this is a call for a version of “Christendom.”
The concept of Christendom emerges in full force during the Middle Ages, after the Roman Empire collapsed in the West. So…we can say “its been done before.” I urge us not to try this again. In a careful examination of what Christendom was, the evidence from history demonstrates that the Christian faith became a warped or devolved version of the faith that Jesus described and was lived out by adherents in the first 300 years after Jesus.
We will examine and describe the Christian faith in its original structure. Then we will look at the impact of both Diocletian and Constantine, impact both on the Roman Empire and on Christianity.
Ep 6: Does Christianity Provide Anything Useful
Released ON
Oct. 8, 2024
Episode description
After laying out the failures and challenges of “Christianity” (especially being critical of the idea of “Christian Nationalism”) as seen in history through the changes to the faith post-Constantine (the eventual Christendom), one could assume the next step is to admit Christianity is bad for society.
However, Upon examination, though, the evidence is abundantly clear that Christianity is a massive net-positive for society. Going further, we can argue that the world is now a “Western world” in that the entire globe, all peoples, races, ethnicities, tribes, etc… all pursue societal values that emerged in the West first.
Issues like “human rights” or that governments should be “of the people” including “voting for most/all citizens” or various concerns about “economic equity” all are concepts that emerged in the West, a break away from the historical norm in all societies. Those “Western concepts” are nearly all things that emerge due to the Christian foundation, ideas about the human as a “special creation” by the Christian/Jewish God.
So, as we look at the tension in our current 21st century culture, where one side seems to be openly post-Christian, if not anti-Christian, and often expresses ideas that would suggest they believe it to be far better for society to be freed from the Christian faith, INSTEAD—it becomes clear that we all NEED Christianity, not only for what it gave as these new ideas that we now all champion, but also to sustain those ideas. This links back to the foundation conversation in episode 1 & 2, that there is a unique foundation upon which our style of society (“of the people” without a dominating force from the top imposing) stands.
We will read and examine Pliny’s letter to Emperor Trajan. You can also read a copy at this PBS site. We will also study and read excerpts from The Letter to Diognetus. A slightly deeper examination of this can be read at this site.
Ep 7: Christianity’s Positive, and Crucial, Contribution
Released On
Oct. 15, 2024
Episode description
Episode 7 is a continuation from the last episode in which we were examining the deep impact of the Christian faith on Western society. We started at the broad level of trends and concepts that were noted about the Christians, things that stood out to contemporary non-Christians, so much so they wrote about these odd behaviors.
We noted in episode 6 the Christian contribution saying ‘the human had worth’ is the central, most vital concept that this faith added to the world. But how? In this episode, we look at the myriad of new ideas that, while today are common or assumed, were introduced with the coming of this new faith.
Why this matters is that as we are seeking safe harbor, we suddenly become aware that we not only shouldn’t get rid or exclude Christianity, but that we NEED it. The very things the Progressive is fighting for (voting rights, rights of individuals to for personal expression, economic equity rights, rights for freedom to do whatever with one’s body, etc…) ARE ONLY DUE to the influence and impact of Christianity. Those ideas or concepts are unknown in the ancient world, especially when broadly considered (for everyone, not just the only people of my tribe).
BonUS EP: The Enlightenment Examined with Dr. Sandy Shugart
Released On
Oct. 19, 2024
Episode description
In our first Bonus Episode, Dr. Sandy Shugart joins me for an indepth examination of the Enlightenment Project and my contention that the promises of such were really a myth, one that has left society disillusioned and bordering on cynicism due to discovery that they were misled. The humans are not improving, not really changing at all from what our species has been all along, certainly not changing when the only agency of change is human will. But why? Dr. Shugart, one of my most important mentors, currently serving as a Senior Fellow at The Aspen Institute and also Quo Vadis Institute (based in Salzburg, Austria), stopped by to help me understand this tension within our modern secular society.
In the early episodes, particularly 1 and 3, I spoke about the Enlightenment and its impact on how we view the world. Starting at some point in the 1600s and building steam in the 1700s, a new way of thinking and considering life, both individually and corporately in civic structures, was emerging. With the American and French Revolutions, the Enlightenment took full form and was soon being elevated to a high plane, perhaps a mystical plane, and in that growing sense of a new way of thinking, the sense of “promises” from this Enlightenment emerged.
And yet, by the late 20th century, it has been manifestly apparent that those promises never arrived, particularly the myth that the human as species could and would improve. Some “Enlightenment Prophets” seemed to believe that a utopia would be soon achieved, but the horrendous 20th century, a century often held up as the triumph of the Enlightenment, was evidence enough to the failure of this concept.
So, as the 21st century has emerged, disillusionment has set in, particularly among the young (say, 40-under crowd). Since faith or even simply “the transcendent” has been marginalized, many have moved into cynicism, depression, and a general sense that life is not worth living. Of course this is part of my raison d’être for the podcast, and we needed to take a deeper dive in order to see the complexities of this topic.
Ep 8: Lessons from Early US Colonization
Released
Oct. 22, 2024
Episode description
We’ve seen that Christianity is vital to the type of society that everyone seems to want—individual rights, protections in liberty, etc… This vital need is both in acknowledging how Christianity brought these concepts to the West (and then others through “the West”) and how Christianity as guiding structure provided US culture the means for its success (that others strive to move here for).
So, we NEED Christianity…but WE ALSO HAVE SEEN that the “Christendom” concept (“Christian Nationalism”) is ruinous to the faith and also how the faith is expressed, especially in a civic structure. So, what did our first colonists believe?
Were the first colonists trying to establish a “Christendom,” a “Christian nation”…a nation only for Christians where there would be religious faith requirements before holding office or opening a business, as was true in the nations from which these colonists came? Or, were they somehow trying to escape religion altogether, eager to create a nation on some broad concept of “Natural Law” in which formal religions would be either absent, or at worst, only something for the individual, something kept quiet and private? To find these answers, we must examine the first English-speaking colonies to see what lessons they can provide.
We will read The Mayflower Compact and also excerpts from the Sermon of John Winthrop. Both documents are crucial to understanding the colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. We will also examine Jamestown and St. Mary’s. For St. Mary’s we will read excerpts from their revolutionary Maryland Toleration Act of 1649.
Ep 9: Impact of the 1776 Guiding Documents
Released on
Oct. 29, 2024
Episode description
In trying to understand the unique concepts of the USA, we need to start with two key documents written in the heady days of the Second Continental Congress: The Declaration of Independence, and the Articles of Confederation.
We saw in the last episode, Christianity was one of the four core themes we can glean from the colonization efforts that formed the USA. In case you missed it, the other three are Capitalism, Risk, and Rebellion. There’s a larger point here about that hypothesis regarding understanding the USA, but that’s not this podcast. Perhaps I will add a bonus episode going into depth about this to help people better understand the nation called “the USA.”
Does that fact that the colonists were intentionally bringing Christianity with them, asserting its importance to their future success, mean that decades later, at the founding of the nation, that they were expecting a “Christian Nation” to follow? What about decades later, as national leaders gathered in Philadelphia in the crucial days leading to the American Revolution…did they perceived themselves creating a “Christian Nation”?
You can read the Declaration of Independence and also the Articles of Confederation for yourself. In the Declaration we focus on the opening explanation, noting editorial changes that were made by Franklin and Adams (“hold these truths to be self-evident”) and a few other parts there. Then, we shift focus to the concluding paragraph to two key editorial changes made that inserted the general consensus of the group about the involvement of the Christian God in their effort. With the Articles, we specifically noted Article III and the conclusion that starts, at the end, with “And, whereas….”
Ep 10: Within Governing Documents
Released on
NOV. 05, 2024
Episode description
Episode 10 considers the creation of our second set of governing documents, what we today call “The Constitution,” in 1787, ratified in 1788, provides us our last bit of evidence to the larger point of the podcast–what did the Founders want to do with Christianity?
We have been examining what was necessary to sustain our unique foundation for the USA civic society. We’ve been seeking what was lost, prior to this time we described in episode 1, where the data is overwhelming that something massive has shifted to where all metrics point in a downward trend, with multiple crises clearly evidence throughout society.
If the Founders wanted to create a “Christian Nation” as our Conservative Christian character proposes today, they could have. If they wanted to create a nation with no religion, no Christianity even acknowledged, banished to private concerns or even fully banished from society, they could have.
They did neither thing.
The podcast seeks to find evidence in our history to help us regain safe harbor, the very structure that had allowed for our great national success, a success that was obvious until things began to unravel over the decades after WW2, especially in the last 30-40 years. The US Constitution is the last governing document produced in our national history, and so is the last thing to consider in seeking to grasp the mind of the Founders.
We also examine the state constitutions created in the years immediately after 1776. You can go read them yourself at the links below. Note that Rhode Island did not write a new constitution until 1842.
South Carolina in 1776 and in 1778
Delaware in 1776
Georgia in 1777
Maryland in 1777
New Hampshire in 1776
New Jersey in 1776
New York in 1777
North Carolina in 1776
Pennsylvania in 1776
Vermont in 1777
Massachusetts in 1780
Virginia in 1776
also the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the Virginia Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom
BonUS EP: Four Founding Themes from US Colonization
Released on
NOV. 08, 2024
Episode description
For our second Bonus Episode, I am returning to a historical point that I made in Episode 8. In that episode, I first introduced my concept of “Four Founding Themes” that emerge from an examination of English colonization. When I cover European colonization in my college classes on early US History, one thing that I do with my students is to look for larger patterns to help us understand what is going on. I do this with them as we look at Spanish, French, and Dutch colonization, and then go into even more depth on English colonization. With the English colonies, we spend more time here is because the British won the geopolitical struggle for dominance in Europe, and that played out in the New World. So, what clues can we discover that helps us understand how those colonies developed into a new nation called the United States? For me, then, there are four dominant themes that one can uncover with these early colonies: Capitalism, Christianity, Risk, and Rebellion. In this bonus episode, I explore this in-depth with you to help explain what I had briefly described in the earlier episode.
If you want to read more about some of the historical moments that I mentioned, here you go:
Paxton Boys or you can read more in this Brittanica article
Frederick Turner’s “Frontier Thesis” about the impact of the closing of the US Frontier, paper given in 1893
About the concept of “Frontier Thesis”
Ep 11: Finding A Safe Harbor, part ONe
Released on
NOV. 05, 2024
Episode description
We come to the end of our journey and its time to draw out conclusions, hopefully seeing possible solutions that will help us move into a safe harbor. Episodes 8-10 examined the core foundational documents of the USA and from those we have see how our “Founders” constructed the nation. From that, we discerned within the founding the vital element of the Christian spiritual ethos that they believed were central to that founding, and yet that faith was not enshrined as a singular or sole core founding theme.
Due to time considerations, our conclusion will stretch over two episodes. In this first part, we begin the conversation going slightly deeper into “civic lessons” related to the USA founding documents. Then we look at some general observations based on the information we’ve previously discussed. We lay out then core points that comprise what a solution broadly can be for us, painting a path forward. We review the lessons from Rome and Athens that remind us how easily “government of the people” can be lost.
Finally, noting that IF we do want to try and keep our unique structure, then we must be willing to work collectively to restore our spiritual moral and virtue foundation. To that end, we consider how a spiritual foundation could be restored or, potentially, constructed anew, even if the society no longer holds one singular majority religious faith.
We can find common ground around morals and virtues, and then we must determine to teach those morals and virtues to the children of the nation. We can leave this unmoored, “in danger”, state and move forward to a safe harbor.
Ep 12: Finding A Safe Harbor, part TWO
Releasing
NOV. 12, 2024
Episode description
Continuing the examination of solutions, we bring the podcast (at least season one) to its conclusion. Here in part two, we return to the three crucial problems that I laid out in episode 1: our national addiction to ease and comfort, hyper-individuality leading to collapse of community, and postmodernism which enshrines a viewpoint that “the only thing that is true is whatever I deem true for me.” We spend time discussing these three issues as a part of finding safe harbor, offering ideas and actions one could take to address each problem. Individually, each of us can take action to mitigate the problems that have negatively impacted society.
To conclude, we come back to our two characters of the story and address each. Each has the opportunity to be brave in confronting their stance about or relationship to Christianity, especially with that faith’s core position in our national history. Whether a person or group will actually want to help find safe harbor remains to be seen, but I believe we can find our way forward, away from this unmoored dangerous situation if both of our characters address the spiritual interior issues.
Then to conclude the episode and the podcast overall, we come back to our two characters of the story and address each. Each has the opportunity to be brave in confronting their stance about or relationship to Christianity, especially with that faith’s core position in our national history. Whether a person or group will actually want to help find safe harbor remains to be seen, but I believe we can find our way forward, away from this unmoored dangerous situation if both of our characters address the spiritual interior issues.
Thank you for listening through this podcast. If you ever had any questions or want to make any comments, you can always reach me at carl@carlcreasman.com.
BonUS EP: Carl’s Hypothesis Challenged with Kurt Powers
Released On
May 1, 2025
Episode description
Surprise! I am so happy to share this fourth bonus episode with you in which my friend Kurt Powers joined me for a last examination of the argument of the podcast. Kurt used to manage his own podcast called “The Powers Project.” He examined a far-ranging set of issues including personal health, philosophical issues, and historical topics. I was privileged to be on the podcast 8 times, and you can hear those at this playlist on my YouTube channel.
Through my doctoral project research, Kurt was a participant in some of the meetings I hosted with invested thinkers, seeking to fine-tune my project. As the project became this podcast, Kurt was also one of the podcast experts I interviewed to learn more about the intricacies of producing and publishing. Kurt holds a different worldview than my own, though at points we are in lockstep. Through our many podcast interviews, I found Kurt to be a deep thinker, eager to listen, and willing to engage in fruitful conversation. Having his contribution in the initial planning stages was crucial to be accomplishment for my Doctoral project.
As the Unmoored Podcast went live, Kurt soon was in communication with things he was hearing. Coming from his worldview, he found ideas and concepts I was presenting to be in need of challenge. We began talking then about doing a bonus episode where he could present other views, and then have the two of us converse further about the points raised. Getting us both in the studio took longer than I wished (both of us with busy travel and work schedules), but we were able to pull it off in the Spring of 2025.
As always, would love if you sent me any questions or comments at carl@carlcreasman.com
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