Finding Your Spine

Herzog Foundation
  • 4.3 (12)
  • Self-Improvement

In a time when courage feels increasingly rare, Finding Your Spine challenges the status quo. Hosted by Dr. Chase Spears, this weekly podcast explores how Christians—and even secular conservatives—can stand firm in their values amid the pressures of cancel culture. With insightful commentary and bold conversations, Dr. Spears examines the tradeoff many make between conscience and comfort, reminding listeners that true freedom requires the spine to defend it. Tune in each week for thought-provoking discussions that inspire moral courage in an age of compromise.

  1. 3d ago

    Why Do Christians Feel Good About Losing?

    Michael Clary, Senior Pastor of Christ the King Church in Northern Kentucky and author of Loser Theology: Why Weak Men Will Not Inherit the Earth, argues that a popular strain of teaching conditions Christians to treat passivity as faithfulness. The cross was necessary, he says, but the crown was always the goal. Isolating the hours before the crucifixion and ignoring Jesus’ public authority, or Paul’s command to act like men and be strong, produces a piety that feels humble while undermining the duty to assert Christ’s lordship.   Clary traces the pattern to a neo-Gnostic split that treats only inner spiritual acts as truly Christian and leaves politics, work, and cultural stewardship in the category of worldliness. Evangelism then becomes the sole public duty, often practiced by punching right and coddling left. He discusses Russell Moore’s support for mosque construction and David French’s description of drag-queen story hour as a blessing of liberty, arguing that both land in the same place as secular critics of Christian public influence. The conversation also covers passive versus active righteousness, the stewardship mandate that the Great Commission did not revoke, and the cost of a church that has been discipled into thinking suffering under bad policy is proof it is doing it right. 00:00:00 – Introduction 00:01:10 – Pastor and Author 00:03:16 – Planting the Church 00:06:00 – Defining Loser Theology 00:08:27 – Cherry-Picking the Cross 00:10:33 – Cross Before the Crown 00:12:57 – Paul Was Not a Fatalist 00:15:07 – Weakness Is Not the Goal 00:19:12 – Only Evangelism Matters 00:20:47 – Neo-Gnostic Split 00:23:27 – Woke Evangelism 00:25:13 – Punch Right, Coddle Left 00:26:25 – Cultural Shibboleths 00:28:56 – Russell Moore Alignment 00:33:35 – French on Drag Story Hour 00:36:42 – Why He Wrote the Book 00:40:36 – Suffering as Works 00:41:12 – Passive Then Active 00:43:45 – Run the Race to Win You can find out more about Michael Clary and his work at https://www.dmichaelclary.com/ You can follow Chase Spears on X @DrChaseSpears. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share your favorite episodes to keep the conversation going. To learn more about the Herzog Foundation, visit HerzogFoundation.com. Like and follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram, or sign up to receive monthly email updates. #Faith #ChristianLiving #Military #Discipline #Morality #Politics #BiblicalMasculinity #Masculinity #ChristianPodcast #American #America #Army #Navy #AirForce #Marines #CoastGuard #SpaceForce #NationalGuard #ChristianMen

  2. Oct 12

    Courage Is a Muscle

    Jesse Boulden, Director of the ALERT Academy in Big Sandy, Texas, argues that courage is less a gift some men are born with than a capacity that has to be used. Scripture keeps telling people to be courageous, he says, and his own father’s hard years in the Navy made the point concrete. At ALERT, a gap-year program of discipleship, emergency training, and service, young men practice that muscle in small reps before they fight fires, dive, or deploy.   Boulden distinguishes real courage from the fake kind that talks big online and then refuses a face-to-face cost. He also warns that well-meant parental protection can bubble-wrap sons until they will not take a risk. Freedom and safety do not travel together. The conversation moves through public speaking, a broken obstacle course at officer candidate school, the leadership tests of 2020, and the fear of man that makes God look small. Boulden says a culture survives only if it has children and a pipeline that turns boys into men of self-control. Fathers do most of that work. ALERT tries to stand in the gap Ron Fuhrman opened in 1994: nine weeks of boot camp, emergency skills, a specialty, and a bias for service. 00:00:00 – Introduction 00:03:09 – How Jesse Came to ALERT 00:05:20 – Can Courage Be Trained 00:06:02 – Courage Like a Muscle 00:08:36 – False Courage Online 00:10:25 – Parents and Bubble Wrap 00:13:06 – Boys in the Creek 00:14:19 – Freedom Versus Safety 00:16:00 – Public Speaking Reps 00:18:31 – A Broken Obstacle Course 00:20:05 – 2020 Exposed the Cracks 00:21:11 – Courage Must Be Renewed 00:23:28 – Fear of Man 00:25:04 – Calls Based on Truth 00:27:16 – Harder Days Ahead 00:28:49 – Apathy Is Not Inevitable 00:30:22 – Boys Must Become Men 00:33:25 – Fathers Do the Forming 00:36:22 – What ALERT Actually Is 00:41:26 – Why He Stayed 00:42:06 – The Men Are the Mission   Find out more about Jesse and his work at ALERT Academy here: https://alertacademy.com/ You can follow Chase Spears on X @DrChaseSpears. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share your favorite episodes to keep the conversation going. To learn more about the Herzog Foundation, visit HerzogFoundation.com. Like and follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram, or sign up to receive monthly email updates. #Faith #ChristianLiving #Military #Discipline #Morality #Politics #BiblicalMasculinity #Masculinity #ChristianPodcast #American #America #Army #Navy #AirForce #Marines #CoastGuard #SpaceForce #NationalGuard #ChristianMen

  3. Oct 5

    Why Religious Liberty Protects Everyone’s Conscience

    Lathan Watts, vice president of public affairs at Alliance Defending Freedom, explains how ADF fights in court, in legislatures, and in public for the God-given right to live and speak the truth. He describes clients who never asked to become test cases, cases that can last years, and a public-affairs job that translates legal work so ordinary people can recognize when their rights are being crossed. Watts answers Christians who treat persecution as a reason not to use the law. He points to the Apostle Paul appealing to Caesar and treats American constitutional protections as a stewardship trust, not a talent to bury. The episode surveys recent Supreme Court work: a Colorado counseling ban, a New Jersey pregnancy center fight, and women’s-sports laws in Idaho and West Virginia. Watts argues that gender ideology now touches speech, religious liberty, and parental rights at once. He rejects the claim that law cannot teach morality, walks through the Declaration’s theological assumptions, and contrasts ordered liberty with the French Revolution’s collapse into chaos. The charge is simple: keep using the courts, keep forming consciences, and do not surrender what was given. 00:00:00 – Introduction 00:03:55 – Court of Public Opinion 00:08:00 – Conscience Protects All 00:12:19 – How a Client Case Starts 00:15:22 – Four Supreme Court Wins 00:16:04 – Counseling Ban Struck Down 00:17:28 – Pregnancy Center Harassment 00:19:05 – Women’s Sports Laws Stand 00:21:24 – One Ideology Many Rights 00:25:07 – Law Teaches Morality 00:27:43 – Theology of the Founding 00:32:17 – Ordered Liberty Not Chaos 00:36:22 – From Law to Messaging You can find out more about the work Lathan Watts does at https://adflegal.org/profile/lathan-watts/ You can follow Chase Spears on X @DrChaseSpears. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share your favorite episodes to keep the conversation going. To learn more about the Herzog Foundation, visit HerzogFoundation.com. Like and follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram, or sign up to receive monthly email updates. #Faith #ChristianLiving #Military #Discipline #Morality #Politics #BiblicalMasculinity #Masculinity #ChristianPodcast #American #America #Army #Navy #AirForce #Marines #CoastGuard #SpaceForce #NationalGuard #ChristianMen

  4. Sep 28

    Why Faith and Public Life Belong Together

    Tim Goeglein, vice president of external and government relations at Focus on the Family, argues that faith and public life were never meant to be strangers. Drawing on years in the Bush White House, the Senate, and Washington advocacy, he says the American story repeatedly turns on the church: the Revolution, the fight against the slave trade, the Cold War, and the pro-life movement. He revisits Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists and Washington’s letter to Rhode Island’s Jewish congregation to show that religious liberty was never a high wall shutting conviction out of civic life.  The conversation then turns to what Goeglein calls the permanent things: marriage, family, parental rights, conscience, and the meaning of words. He frames the country’s deepest problem as a spiritual crisis of moral relativism and defines conservatism as reforming in order to preserve. Goeglein discusses a hopeful turn among young men toward marriage and faith, the harder trend among many young women, and the “unmarriageable” pool of men who are neither in school nor at work. In Aaron Renn’s “negative world,” he says the local church is still the best place to teach friendship, dating, and the family before those goods are forgotten. 00:00:00 – Introduction 00:01:35 – Focus on the Family 00:03:13 – Speaking in Public 00:04:01 – Faith and Government 00:06:45 – Danbury Letter Myth 00:08:07 – Washington on Virtue 00:10:17 – A Moral Republic 00:12:04 – Church Family Government 00:14:40 – What Really Matters 00:19:12 – Conservatism and Christ 00:20:44 – Reform to Preserve 00:23:19 – Young Men Turning 00:24:41 – Restoring the American Male 00:27:27 – Living in Negative World 00:28:54 – Church and Relationships You can find out more about Tim Goeglein and Focus on the Family here: https://www.focusonthefamily.com/contributors/tim-goeglein/ You can follow Chase Spears on X @DrChaseSpears. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share your favorite episodes to keep the conversation going. To learn more about the Herzog Foundation, visit HerzogFoundation.com. Like and follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram, or sign up to receive monthly email updates. #Faith #ChristianLiving #Military #Discipline #Morality #Politics #BiblicalMasculinity #Masculinity #ChristianPodcast #American #America #Army #Navy #AirForce #Marines #CoastGuard #SpaceForce #NationalGuard #ChristianMen

  5. Sep 21

    The Army’s Worldview Crisis

    Sam Rolofson, a serving Army officer and trainer of future leaders, talks about what happens when a fighting force tries to run on several incompatible moral systems at once. He traces the tension from equal-opportunity classrooms to Army values such as respect and dignity, which sound universal until leaders treat them as preferences instead of truths grounded in something higher. Vague language about readiness and lethality, he argues, lets officials justify almost any policy after the fact. The conversation turns to moral injury: the hidden cost of lying for a green box, enforcing rules you do not believe, or watching standards collapse after Afghanistan. Rolofson wants professional military education to teach worldview and philosophy so commanders can decide what is right rather than hide behind lawyers. He then walks through the GOMAR system—tens of thousands of permanently filed reprimands, investigations built on hearsay, and an appeals path so slow that soldiers must prove their own innocence while the Army assumes the file is correct. Zero-defect culture, he says, produces glass-jawed commanders and erodes the warrior ethos. His counsel to cadets is simple: stay true to yourself. 00:00:00 – Introduction 00:00:55 – Speaking While Still Serving 00:04:26 – Competing Army Worldviews 00:06:52 – Equal Opportunity Training 00:09:14 – Respect Without a Center 00:11:22 – Dignity and Combat Paradox 00:12:42 – Has Anything Changed 00:14:41 – Careerists Versus Warriors 00:17:37 – Vague Value Language 00:20:05 – What Moral Injury Is 00:22:28 – Spiritual Readiness and PME 00:25:15 – Ivy League Fellowships 00:28:34 – How GOMARs Work 00:32:02 – Permanent Filing Numbers 00:35:11 – Prove Your Own Innocence 00:40:47 – Zero Tolerance Culture 00:43:46 – Glass-Jawed Commanders 00:46:43 – Warrior Ethos Eroded 00:48:50 – Advice to Cadets You can follow Chase Spears on X @DrChaseSpears. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share your favorite episodes to keep the conversation going. To learn more about the Herzog Foundation, visit HerzogFoundation.com. Like and follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram, or sign up to receive monthly email updates. #Faith #ChristianLiving #Military #Discipline #Morality #Politics #BiblicalMasculinity #Masculinity #ChristianPodcast #American #America #Army #Navy #AirForce #Marines #CoastGuard #SpaceForce #NationalGuard #ChristianMen

  6. Sep 14

    Christianity That Goes on the Offense

    Pastor J. Chase Davis of The Well Church in Boulder, Colorado, discusses Offensive Christianity and why Christian men should stop treating manhood as a liability. He explains the book’s double meaning: the gospel will offend a dying world, and Christians are called to go on offense rather than hide in a bunker until Christ returns. Davis contrasts piety with pietism, arguing that a split between body and soul has taught many evangelicals to treat business, politics, family formation, and national life as dirty distractions from “spiritual” things. He traces that split to Enlightenment rationalism and later pietistic strains that emptied desire, delayed responsibility, and recast testosterone as a problem. The conversation turns to the full character of Christ—not only the cross, but His public confrontation, resurrection authority, and present reign—then to media that trains boys to see fathers as fools. Davis describes how his church talks with men about work, fitness, home defense, and disagreement, and warns that if churches will not speak to young men’s hunger for mission, pagan voices will. The episode closes with practical tests for spotting pietism in otherwise Bible-believing churches. 00:00:00 – Introduction 00:05:50 – Dominion and the Great Commission 00:09:22 – Law and Christian Influence 00:11:31 – Piety Versus Pietism 00:17:10 – Fear of Giving Offense 00:20:06 – Full Character of Christ 00:24:27 – Culture Talking Down to Men 00:29:16 – What Men’s Ministry Should Be 00:35:36 – Cancel Culture in Church 00:40:50 – How Wide Pietism Runs 00:43:20 – Tests That Reveal Pietism You can follow Chase Spears on X @DrChaseSpears. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share your favorite episodes to keep the conversation going. To learn more about the Herzog Foundation, visit HerzogFoundation.com. Like and follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram, or sign up to receive monthly email updates. #Faith #ChristianLiving #Military #Discipline #Morality #Politics #BiblicalMasculinity #Masculinity #ChristianPodcast #American #America #Army #Navy #AirForce #Marines #CoastGuard #SpaceForce #NationalGuard #ChristianMen

  7. Sep 7

    This Ad Man Left Super Bowl Spots to Defend Women’s Sports

    Brett Craig, an award-winning advertising creative and chief creative officer of XX/XY Athletics, talks about standing up for women’s sports from inside an industry that rarely rewards that kind of candor. After years making Super Bowl work for major brands, he now helps lead the rare apparel company willing to say men do not belong in women’s competition. The conversation covers why so many executives stay quiet even when their daughters are at stake, how wealth and distance can insulate people from consequences, and why giants such as Nike still treat the issue as untouchable. Craig recounts the ads that turned attention back to girls’ lost opportunities, including a film later shared by J.K. Rowling. He also tells the story behind his exit from agency life: a 2020 cancellation over a five-year-old casting email, the closed doors that followed, a short stretch at The Daily Wire, and the sense that those losses redirected his craft. The episode ends with a harder question of vocation—whether gifts honed selling tacos and beer can be used instead to tell the truth, take the cost, and refuse to hide. 00:00:00 – Introduction 00:01:49 – Pressure Not to Speak 00:03:13 – Grace Versus Urgency 00:07:42 – How the Brand Began 00:09:23 – Real Girls Rock 00:11:56 – Why Nike Stays Quiet 00:16:07 – Path Into Advertising 00:21:40 – Why Bad Campaigns Happen 00:27:17 – Why He Left Agencies 00:36:28 – Counting the Cost 00:40:35 – Using Gifts for Truth You can follow Chase Spears on X @DrChaseSpears. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share your favorite episodes to keep the conversation going. To learn more about the Herzog Foundation, visit HerzogFoundation.com. Like and follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram, or sign up to receive monthly email updates. #Faith #ChristianLiving #Military #Discipline #Morality #Politics #BiblicalMasculinity #Masculinity #ChristianPodcast #American #America #Army #Navy #AirForce #Marines #CoastGuard #SpaceForce #NationalGuard #ChristianMen

  8. Aug 31

    Fables That Restore American Courage and Imagination

    Dr. Matthew Mehan, associate dean and associate professor of government at Hillsdale College’s Van Andel Graduate School of Government in Washington, D.C., discusses The American Book of Fables and why stories still form citizens. A scholar of literature, rhetoric, and civic education, Mehan argues that arguments alone are not enough. People also need images that teach them to love courage, self-government, and the land. He explains how the book weaves fables, nursery rhymes, founding letters, and frontier accounts across 13 American regions, each tied to a phrase from the Declaration of Independence.  The conversation ranges from the New England Primer and the Columbian Orator to Daniel Boone, wagon trains at Council Grove, and the difference between liberty and law on the Great Plains. Mehan warns that cozy, softened children’s literature has drained grit from the American imagination, while rival narratives rush in to replace our history. He calls for gratitude to forebears, discernment about the images we give children, and a frontier spirit aimed not only west, but east—toward recultivating American towns, checking foreign threats, and forming tough citizens for the next three centuries. 00:00:00 – Introduction 00:00:28 – Why Fables Matter 00:02:03 – Literature and Civic Education 00:03:29 – Teaching Mind and Heart 00:04:00 – Stories That Shape Children 00:05:13 – Settlement and Revolution 00:06:02 – Courage at the Backbone 00:07:37 – Primer and Columbian Orator 00:08:50 – Recapturing American Grit 00:10:48 – Declaration as Framework 00:12:08 – Toughness of the Pioneers 00:14:12 – Recapturing Frontier Spirit 00:16:56 – Americanizing the Fable 00:19:35 – Imagination Against Softness 00:21:46 – Daniel Boone’s Sacrifice 00:24:26 – True Stories Versus False Ones 00:25:43 – History Contains a Story 00:28:43 – Hidden Nursery Rhyme Meanings 00:31:26 – Losing Touch With Origins 00:31:33 – Face East and Stay Tough 00:33:58 – Conquer or Be Conquered 00:36:19 – Unchanging Principles of Justice 00:37:26 – War for the Sake of Peace 00:39:33 – Raising the Literary Standard 00:40:25 – Discerning Books and Images 00:42:07 – Wit Married to Wisdom You can find out more about Dr. Mehan here: https://dc.hillsdale.edu/Profiles/Matthew-Mehan/ You can order The American Book of Fables here: https://www.amazon.com/American-Book-Fables-Matthew-Mehan/dp/B0G1XYVC54 You can follow Chase Spears on X @DrChaseSpears. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share your favorite episodes to keep the conversation going. To learn more about the Herzog Foundation, visit HerzogFoundation.com. Like and follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram, or sign up to receive monthly email updates. #Faith #ChristianLiving #Military #Discipline #Morality #Politics #BiblicalMasculinity #Masculinity #ChristianPodcast #American #America #Army #Navy #AirForce #Marines #CoastGuard #SpaceForce #NationalGuard #ChristianMen

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4.3
out of 5
12 Ratings

About

In a time when courage feels increasingly rare, Finding Your Spine challenges the status quo. Hosted by Dr. Chase Spears, this weekly podcast explores how Christians—and even secular conservatives—can stand firm in their values amid the pressures of cancel culture. With insightful commentary and bold conversations, Dr. Spears examines the tradeoff many make between conscience and comfort, reminding listeners that true freedom requires the spine to defend it. Tune in each week for thought-provoking discussions that inspire moral courage in an age of compromise.

Information

  • Creator
    Herzog Foundation
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    75
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Herzog Foundation
  • Show Website
    Finding Your Spine

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