Russell D. Moore is an extraordinary figure. He is the editor-in-chief of Christianity Today and a longtime evangelical leader. He was the president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. Then the Trump era came, rocking the evangelical world, as it did other worlds. Fissures abounded. Divisions were exposed.
Moore and I have recorded a podcast, a Q&A — here.
We recorded by Zoom, meaning that I could see him in his office, with its books, pictures, and baubles. Over one shoulder were two pictures: of C. S. Lewis and Johnny Cash. The picture of Cash was a mugshot. These guys — Lewis and Cash — mean a lot to Russell Moore.
When he was about 15, he had a “massive spiritual crisis,” as he says. “I looked around at Bible Belt Christianity and wondered, ‘Is this all just really politics and marketing?’” Lewis’s book Mere Christianity helped him a great deal.
What about Johnny Cash? Moore is a big music guy — country-music guy — who has a dog named Waylon (as in Jennings). He lives about a minute from Dolly Parton. (I mean, Moore does. And the dog, too.)
Moore hails from Biloxi, Miss. His grandfather was the pastor of the church in which Russell grew up. Russell’s dad managed a car dealership. “He had a really complicated relationship with the church,” says Russell. As a preacher’s kid, “he had seen the seamy side of religious life.”
When the time came, Russell dreaded telling his father that he himself was going into the ministry. His dad said, “I will only say this once, and never again: I wish you wouldn’t.” He never did — even when he could very easily have said, “Told you so.”
Many people say that religion is a threat to politics. It’s also true that politics is a threat to religion. In our podcast, Dr. Moore points out that authoritarians from the beginning of time have wanted to (a) suppress religion or (b) incorporate it.
About the coming of the Trump era, Moore is very interesting. He says, for example, that many leaders wanted to follow, not lead. Where is the “base”? That’s where I must be. He also says that many, many people talked one way in public and another in private.
On television or radio, people might have been rah-rah MAGA. But what did they say during commercial breaks? Before slipping back into their chosen role?
I think true believers would be shocked, if they knew the extent of the hypocrisy among the talkers.
Russell Moore tells of one U.S. senator who told him something like this: “Yeah, I know all this is crazy. But I don’t want to be hounded by these folks” — the true believers. “When I retire, I want to be able to go to Hardee’s and drink my coffee in peace. I can’t have people thinking I’m a traitor.”
Anyway, recent years have been very painful, for a great many. Russell Moore’s very own mentors have said, “You’re a Marxist.” (He is, in fact, a conservative.)
In our Q&A, Moore and I talk about some specific issues: such as the Confederate flag and gay marriage. (I don’t mean that these issues are related!) Another issue is adoption: Moore and his wife adopted their eldest sons from a Russian orphanage, about 20 years ago. In 2013, Putin banned the adoption of Russian orphans by U.S. citizens.
There is no culture of adoption in Russia, says Moore. So when the orphans “age out” at about 16, they are likely doomed to a life of drug addiction, prostitution, suicide, and other awful things. But Vladimir Putin has made his point about “national honor.”
Moore and I end our conversation with something far more pleasant: music again. In his pantheon he would have Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, George Jones — and we are not to forget Waylon Jennings.
Once more, that Q&A is here. Damn interesting guy. Independent-minded, experienced, and wide-ranging.
P.S. In the heading of this post, I have used the phrase “bloody crossroads.” You may remember that Lionel Trilling spoke of “the dark and bloody crossroads where literature and politics meet.” His student Norman Podhoretz wrote a book of that title: The Bloody Crossroads. (Excellent book.)