Lecture Me!

As a tenured professor at Syracuse University who identified as a lesbian, Dr. Rosaria Butterfield had no desire to become part of the heterosexist, patriarchal culture that she perceived to be the identity of Christianity. Her thinking was challenged by the letter of a local pastor who inquired about her basic presuppositions and asked her questions no one had ever asked her before. What began as an academic exercise to find fault with the Scripture and expose the darker side of Christianity ended with answers and a changed life that resonates in today's culture. After Dr. Butterfield’s testimony, FRC’s Director of Christian Ethics and Biblical Worldview David Closson joins Lecture Me! to further discuss her powerful account and how Scripture can transform people’s lives in surprising ways.

Social libertarianism is one of the fastest growing and most powerful political forces in America and is particularly prevalent among millennials and younger generations. In this episode, Jeff Hunt, Vice President of Public Policy at Colorado Christian University, presents an important conservative response to social libertarianism primarily by returning to an understanding of natural law-based freedom and ordered liberty. After the lecture, Mary Beth Waddell, FRC's Senior Legislative Assistant, joins Lecture Me! to further unpack the consequences of a libertarian worldview on social issues.

In Iran, Christians are being arbitrarily detained, arrested, tortured, and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Converts from Islam to Christianity are specifically targeted by the regime and labeled a national security threat. Yet, in spite of all this, the underground church in Iran is growing rapidly and people continue to turn to the Christian faith. FRC recently hosted Maryam Rostampour, Marziyeh Amirizadeh, and Dabrina Bet Tamraz, three Christian victims of religious persecution from Iran, who shared their stories. After their testimonies, Arielle Del Turco, Research Assistant for FRC's Center for Religious Liberty joins Lecture Me! to give further analysis of Iran's pattern of persecution and what believers in the U.S. can do to help support the persecuted.

Josh Brahm has worked in the pro-life movement since he was 18. After 12 years of full-time pro-life work he launched the Equal Rights Institute to maximize his impact for the movement. In this podcast, Josh discusses the powerfully persuasive Equal Rights Argument for fetal personhood, which masterfully takes premises that almost all pro-choice people already strongly agree with, and demonstrates that the only reasonable conclusion is that the unborn is a person with a right to live. After Josh’s lecture, FRC’s Research Fellow for Legal and Policy Studies Katherine Beck Johnson joins Lecture Me! to discuss the ins and outs of the Equal Rights argument as well as other pro-life argument strategies.

After a century of evidence documenting what happens when governments authorize abortion, one fact quickly becomes clear: abortion does not become rare, but increases exponentially. The Abortion Worldwide Report is the first to systematically track reported abortions in 100 nations, territories and regions, from the year of authorization through 2015. In this podcast, experts from Human Life International, Global Life Campaign, Charlotte Lozier Institute, Regent University, and Family Research Council unpack the groundbreaking findings of this Report, which details the unthinkable: 1 billion babies lost to abortion worldwide. After the report, FRC’s Legislative Assistant Connor Semelsberger joins Lecture Me! to delve further into the numbers in the report and the consequences of abortion on policy and culture.

In 2017 and 2018 the U.S. men’s and women’s soccer teams required players to wear an LGBT rainbow on the national U.S.A. jersey. A Christian player declined to wear the jersey and thus did not play. Using soccer as a case study, Dr. Jennifer Bryson, the founder of Let All Play, will discuss the religious freedom issues at stake in the management of U.S. and international sports. She will also examine the manner in which the politicization of sports threatens America's civic fabric. Jennifer S. Bryson is the founder of Let All Play, a sports advocacy project. She is author of the 2019 report “Let All Play: Yes to Soccer, No to Politics” about the use of political symbols, such as the LGBT rainbow, on uniforms in international soccer. She wrote the current international CitizenGO petition to FIFA against use of political symbols in soccer. She worked previously at the Religious Freedom Institute in Washington, D.C. She has a B.A. from Stanford, an M.A. and a Ph.D. from Yale, and she is currently studying international sports law.

After witnessing the collapse of two young marriages, the preparation for which they had played a part, Ryan and Mary-Rose Verret founded Witness to Love, a marriage preparation renewal ministry dedicated to integrating engaged couples fully into the life of their church community through mentorship and ongoing church involvement. Managing Editor for Publications Dan Hart joins Lecture Me! to discuss how the Verret’s Witness to Love program can build community and decrease divorce.

Currently, an average of 21 military veterans are taking their lives each day. FRC's Deputy Director of State and Local Affairs Matt Carpenter joins the podcast to discuss Richard Glickstein's lecture as he shares the compelling evidence that proves faith-based solutions reduce suicides, speed the recovery of PTSD, and build resiliency.

How can the conservative movement help restore America’s inner cities? FRC’s Coalitions Senior Research Fellow Chris Gacek joins the podcast to discuss Robert L. Woodson, Sr.’s lecture on how the conservative movement must identify, recognize, and support agents of individual and community uplift and provide the resources, expertise, and funding that can strengthen and expand their transformative work.

Director of Christian Ethics and Worldview David Closson joins Lecture Me! to discuss author Nancy Pearcey's book Love Thy Body. Pearcey talks about how the sexual revolution led to the mainstream personhood argument used by bioethicists and sexual fluidity used by left.