ProtestantVoice's Substack Podcast

ProtestantVoice
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This Podcast is focused on the Bible, History, Politics and Christianity. www.protestantvoice.org

Episodes

  1. 1d ago

    The Middle East Perspective_Part 1

    Introduction The Middle East is likely the most complex region in the entire world and yet most Americans have only the knowledge gained over these last 25 years of war. Prior to September 11, 2001, Americans were still searching for Kosovo on a map, and had not even thought about the Middle East much more than Jesus’ hometown and oil. The problem for the average American is that we don’t think the way much of the world does. We exist in a bubble of capitalism and freedom that preaches American exceptionalism. To be clear, I love exceptionalism but the application of that exceptionalism can have consequences. This American Creed, by its very nature, requires an American to think of themselves as the standard of excellence by which the entire world is measured. While this may be provably true through mathematics and markets, it lends to skew our perspective to the assumption that America is the best, does everything the best, and everyone else thinks just like us. For citizens of the West, we tend to have a strong understanding of the government and what it is; its function. We have clear distinctions between the Federal and State level and the ways in which each tier are equally devoted to maintaining the order of law. Look at your community and you will find government functions everywhere. There are fire and police departments, ambulance service, public transportation, public roads, food stamps, welfare, childcare, homeless outreach, medical clinics, and the list goes on. When we start to really think about our society, we begin to see just how many public services our government offers at both the state and federal level. Another measure of a civil society is how it deals with social unrest and violence. In many countries, cities are well regulated and controlled by the government, however, once one finds themselves outside of those city boundaries, one is often outside of the government's reach as well. That is to say that, in many nations around the world the government does not control the rural regions within its own borders. The rural regions are controlled by the leaders of the people that live there and methodology is often in conflict with the rules of the State. In America, this is not the case and one can simply look to any number of examples in history where Federal Law Enforcement took jurisdiction and restored order when the state could not resolve the issue . You may argue the methodology of the policing, my point is that here in America, there really isn’t any geographic region where anyone can escape the reach of the federal government. This is important to keep in mind because for much of the Middle East this simply isn’t their reality. It is also very important to understand the difference in perspective and how that impacts our interpretations and formulates our opinions. America is truly a unique experiment and I would suggest that we are more the exception than the standard. For a great deal of the world outside of America and Europe, the religious center (church, temple, mosque, etc) is the foundation of their community. In those societies, they view the religious center as being ahead of the government in importance in their lives. You could argue their faith is stronger, but the true reason is because the church provides them with more than the government does. The social safety net we have in America (in the form of Medicaid, food stamps, welfare, social security etc), does not exist in the majority of the world. For much of the world, and America traditionally, the social safety net came from the religious center within the community in which it served. The society and culture are therefore built around that which is the caretaker of the community. In Western society, we have replaced that with the government. The church is our religion and the government handles everything else. Western society, without intending to (or maybe intending to), removed the glue that placed the church in the center of the community and subsequently changed the way we as a society view our faith. Much of the Middle East does not think this way, in fact, their politics are a product of their faith. There is no separation. For American Protestants this is tough to understand because we have a strong doctrine of separation of church and state. Protestants are not completely united politically, they do lean heavy to the right, but not completely united the way other communities are. This is often because most people around the world retain both an ethnic identity and a religious identity that sometimes are difficult to separate and takes precedent over the national identity. For the West, societies were built upon national identity and religious identity, as tribal or ethnic identity was cast out as disruptive and divisive. People began to build religious nations and not religious tribes. This was the beginning of empire. The Western World is data focused and thus looks forward and creates new methods and products to aide in the furtherance of progress. For many people, they tend to look backward into history and tradition to gain the answers for the present. Americans are always looking forward for wisdom, while others look into the past. There is a tendency in Americans to believe that humans of the past were not as smart as us because they didn’t have machines and technology, but I would argue the way you define intelligence or wisdom is at the core of the issue. A Brief History of the Christian Church No disrespect here, but Protestants are usually the least educated regarding the history of the Christian Church. We don’t really have a strong sense of where we came from. It is a worthy endeavor to understand that the Protestant branch of Christianity can be thought of as a reaction to the Catholic Church and its function and practices at that time in history. Protestantism came out of Catholicism as Martin Luther was a Catholic Priest when he wrote his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 CE. Even though Protestant theology sought to dissolve the control of the church, it retained much of its structure and framework from the Catholic Church at first. This can be seen in the Lutheran or Anglican/Episcopalian branches. Moral of the story, there was a ton of Protestant thought coming out of England (which is where many Protestant denominations come from; they followed a thinker). Beginning in 1642 CE, there were a series of Civil Wars in England and many people fled to the colonies in America as a result. This was the seeding of Protestantism in America. For approximately 1,000 years, the church was known only as the Christian Church. It was broken up into regions to make it easier to govern but the church was global and unified. In July 1054 CE, an event occurred in the Christian Church that is known as “The Great Schism” or “The East-West Schism”. The church in Rome wanted to do certain things differently than had been traditionally done and they had a few different interpretations of the scriptures that conflicted with the current church understanding, but mostly because they wanted a Pope. Therefore, the church divided and the Western Church in Rome became the Holy Roman Catholic Church. The remaining network of Christian Churches are today known as Eastern Orthodox. As we understand the history of the Christian Church and the divides that created friction and disrupted unity, we can better understand the context of history and apply lessons learned to our perspectives today. Building off of our understanding of the Christian Church and The Great Schism of 1054 CE that divided the church, we can begin to examine an equal parallel in the history of Islam. A Brief History of Islam Islam officially began in 610 CE when Muhammad received his first divine revelation. At the time of Islam’s founding Judaism was present in the Middle East as it always had been and Christianity largely surrounded the Arabian Peninsula courtesy of the Byzantine Empire (Rome). The bulk of the interior of the Arabian peninsula was still largely tribal and polytheistic with no great religion unifying them. Islam would become the solution to this problem. Judaism and Christianity share the same heritage but argue over who Jesus is/was. Islam says that Judaism and Christianity get it wrong and Islam is the correct way that was lost over time and restored through Muhammad. With this new message from God, Muhammad began preaching and building his following in Mecca until he was forced to flee to Medina. In 630 CE, Muhammad returned to Mecca with his followers and a series of battles occurred, with Muhammad and his followers emerging victorious. With word of his conquest spreading, many regional tribes sent delegates to Mecca to affirm conversion to Islam. Muhammad dies shortly after the conquest of Mecca in 632 CE. After Muhammad’s death, Islam was left without a leader and conversations began amongst his most respected followers as to who should become the new leader of Islam. These conversations lead to the most significant schism is Islamic history. This schism is known as the Sunni-Shia split. The majority belief then and now is the Sunni view. The Sunni’s believe Muhammad left no designated successor and the community should choose the leader based on piety and capability. Upon this belief, Muhammad’s close friend and father-in-law Abu Bakr was chosen as the first Caliph (successor). The minority belief then and now is the Shia view. The Shia believe that Muhammad had divinely designated his cousin and son-in-law, Ali ibn Abi Talib as his successor and that his successor should come from his lineage (bloodline). The term Shia comes from Shi’at Ali, meaning “The faction of all”, further strengthening their belief in bloodline succession. The first three Caliphs were Sunni choices, Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman and it wasn’t until the fourth Caliph was selected, Ali, that the Shia finally saw th

  2. Jul 24

    Why are you here?

    I listened to the JD Vance interview on Joe Rogan’s Podcast recently and as much as I despised his defense of some of the Trump administration’s recent decisions, one comment he made really stuck with me because I agree with it. We need to find a more Christian approach to economic policy. I really believed in Donald Trump. I truly felt that he had harnessed the frustration of every American who had been forgotten in the race to globalism. I assumed that this time would be better than his first term because he was wise to Washington now, had weathered the barrage of attacks and was still standing tall even after an assassination attempt. Besides, this would be his last term so he has nothing to lose. I just knew he would get things moving in the right direction. He had been endorsed by Christian leaders, sold his very own Trump Bible, made comments in speeches like, “God, we love you God,” and publicly recited scripture like Two Corinthians 3:17. That’s not a typo. In a 2016 campaign speech at Liberty University he pronounced it that way. See? 5-D Chess. Thanks for reading ProtestantVoice's Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. I never once thought Trump was a Christian. He just didn’t seem to give off humility or self-control and he always presented as extremely crass. To me he seemed more a typical lover of self-help books and positive thinking. Someone who only likes an ideology that doesn’t push hard enough for true self examination. I believed he would adhere to the closest thing we could get to Christian policy, but he didn’t. The veil has been torn and Trump in all his good and bad qualities is very much responsible for the upending of Right-wing American politics. Some may even argue that because of the response required by the Left-wing to Trump’s antics, he may be responsible for the current chaos witnessed in both parties today. Only time will tell if this period in American history will be a net positive, however, the more alarming issue is the way that Americans have responded to this disruption of political order in the short term. Americans are more devoted to their political ideology than their faith, if they even have one. The bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites during the Twelve-Day War in June of 2025 was alarming to say the least, but not enough to really shake anyone. True to Trump’s track record, the campaign was hard-hitting and short. Nothing to see here and nothing like the war in Iran now. Trump lost me the moment he made this post that he claimed shows him as a doctor but others argue comes much closer to depicting him as Jesus Christ: The American military soldier angels, the girl praying beside Trump, his radiant light and healing power, it all comes so close to blasphemy for me. Especially since he sold Trump bibles during his campaign. It just doesn’t quite feel right as a Christian to support this type of messaging. Regardless, I was still torn because I should support him right? The Republicans are the Christian Political Party. I remember attending a campaign event at a local Mega-Church to support the re-election of George W. Bush during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is how it is. Christians vote for Republicans and heathen devils vote for Democrats. I think this pushed me over the edge because just a couple weeks before this post, there were some very odd statements made about President Trump by so called religious leaders. Trump’s spiritual advisor, Paula White-Cain made the following remarks about President Trump at a White House Easter event on April 1, 2026: "And Mr. President, no one has paid the price like you have paid the price. It almost cost you your life. You were betrayed and arrested and falsely accused. It's a familiar pattern that our Lord and Savior showed us. But it didn't end there for him, and it didn't end there for you." During that same event, President Trump later got a few laughs from this tasteful joke: "On Palm Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem as crowds welcomed him with praise honoring him as king. They call me king now. Can you believe it?" It only gets better from here…. At that same event, Reverend Franklin Graham (who many of you would know as Billy Graham’s son), was given the honor of delivering a prayer. While we don’t have a direct transcript of the prayer to examine it in full context, there is one part that is publicly available that I would question. Essentially he stated that the ancient Persians in the book of Esther “wanted to destroy the Jews in a single day,” and he went on to imply that today’s Iranian regime “wants to kill every Jew and Destroy them with atomic fire.” That’s a very dangerous line to walk when one begins to bend the Bible into a current day political narrative. Shouldn’t we be harnessing the ancient wisdom of God’s word and simply continuing its practice? We do believe in Sola Scriptura, don’t we? It is quite clear that by tying the current Iranian regime to ancient biblical Persia, Rev. Graham is implying that Christians should blindly support the war in Iran. The Ayatollah is salivating over a nuclear warhead as we speak. Israel is seconds away from total annihilation. One question though, if Iran wants to kill all the Jews then why have they not killed the estimated 8500-9000 Jewish residents that currently reside in Iran? I think the answer lies in the difference between Jewish people and the state of Israel, after all, the Jewish minority living in Iran has a designated seat in its parliament. Maybe when Iran chants “Death to America”, and “Death to Israel”, they are actually talking about the policies of those governments toward the Nation of Iran and thus, the Iranian people. Do I think that there is a faction within the Iranian government that is evil? Absolutely. I also think there is a faction in the American and Israeli governments that are equally evil. The problem is that people feel like they have to choose a side and cannot for a minute consider that maybe all sides have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Maybe all this Christian posturing and nonsense theology is to convince the Christians in America to support something that Jesus wouldn’t. Jesus isn’t a voting block, Christians are. The entire reason Jesus flipped those tables in all four gospels was because of how blatantly God’s house was being disrespected, exploited and tarnished. The poor were being exploited by greedy money changers who changed the common Roman and Greek coins for the Tyrian Shekel, which was the only currency Jews could use to pay the required annual temple tax. Apparently manipulating the exchange rate and taking a little, or a lot, off the top didn’t sit well with Jesus. Sound familiar? In order to atone for one’s sins, an unblemished animal had to be sacrificed at the temple. Temple inspectors would often disqualify animals that were brought in from the outside to be sacrificed and thus forced the person to purchase an overpriced pre-approved (regulated) animal sold right inside the temple. I think I’m starting to see a pattern. Merchants set up their shops in the Outer Court of the Temple, the only place Gentiles were allowed to be, further desecrating the holy space of God. This is likely why Christ said this in Matthew 21:13, “My house shall be called a house of prayer , but you have made it a den of thieves”. By pulling from the prophets words in Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11, Jesus is making a very bold statement in the face of corruption and abuse; Wake Up and turn from your wicked ways! It is necessary that the church be kept free from earthly pursuits and our hearts and minds be cleansed of earthly matters. We must remember what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.” In this passage, the you is plural and is talking about the church as a whole. When any Christian leader uses the Holy Scriptures and the name of our God to justify a political move it only lends to divide the church and paint the walls with the blood of the vanquished. Why must we defile the temple of God? We have no excuse. On June 28, 2006, before he was even President of the United States, Barack Obama said, “Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation-at least, not just. We are a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, and a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers,” and he was absolutely right! America is no longer a Christian nation and it shows with our actions, our attitudes, our policies, and our choices. Christianity is growing in Africa and Asia, but declining in the West. With every passing baby boomer, Christianity in the west decreases. Islam however is growing rapidly and that growth is largely due to high birth rates. Oh no, another thing the West has lost. We no longer have sustainable birth rates, meaning just by mathematics, the Christian population is shrinking because there is no future generation. The American Protestant Christian Church has lost its way. We treat our Sunday mornings as a block on the calendar; the same as we do going to the gym. They last about the same amount of time these days. We depend upon the government to teach us all we need to know, to protect and care for us. We have traded the temple of God for the Politicians Pulpit. We have compromised our morals, we have reinterpreted the Bible for our own endeavors and the worst sin of all, we remain silent. We are lukewarm. We do not flip tables when the temple is defiled, no, we are far too sensible and civilized for that! Revelation 3:16 says, “So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth”. If you back track to verse 14, you find out that

  3. Jul 21

    The Beginning

    It’s often said that taking the first step is the most difficult. I tend to disagree. The most difficult steps are taken 10 years down the road when you are broken, beaten, and tired. When you are on the 14th kilometer of a 20 kilometer ruck march and you see a hill in the distance. Those are the difficult steps. When your boots are soaked and caked with mud; 5 pounds heavier, and it is all you can do to move your legs. Thanks for reading ProtestantPolicy's Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Most folks never see that side of life. I suppose they wouldn’t want to. I seem to remember a study that examined the psychological impact of a soldier killing someone at different distances. I can’t quite remember the intervals but I do remember that it began at knife range and ended at artillery range. We can probably assume that drones didn’t exist then, so it’s feasible to lump drones in with artillery. For the sake of fun, let’s assume knife range, rifle range and artillery range. Turns out that it is way harder for a man to kill another man the closer you are to them. Go figure. The researchers found that the further the distance one is from the person being killed, the less it tends to impact them. Could it be possible that it is far more difficult to pull the trigger when you can see someone’s eyes…or is it their humanity? Could there be something that is built into us to make us inherently feel that murder and killing are a sin? I wonder how hard it was for Cain when he killed Abel. Did he look into his brother’s eyes as the breath left his lungs? Did Cain watch as the spirit left his brother’s body and the light in his eyes dimmed eternally? Did Cain, in that moment right before Abel breathed his last breath, feel regret? Did he regret what he had done? Do you think he felt sad? Did he like it? Did it feel good to him? Genesis 4:8 explains that in the field Cain murders his brother, but it is the beginning of this verse that we find God’s wisdom. “Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out in the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.” NIV “Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.” NASB “Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.” ESV “Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.” NKJV As redundant as it seems, I find it extremely useful to examine multiple translations, as translation is truly more of a nuanced art than it is a hard science. When we look at the same verse translated 4 different ways we begin to see commonalities. Each verse begins with Cain verbally communicating something to his brother. What it was doesn’t matter much because the meaning is staring you in the face. Cain was angry and jealous. Cain said something to his brother and they ended up in the field together. Then Cain murdered him. Can we assume that Cain had planned this? Was this premeditated murder? Did Cain actually intend to only speak with his brother and he lost his temper? A crime of passion perhaps? Do we really think God cares whether Cain should be charged with 1st degree murder or 1st degree manslaughter? Gen 4:9-10 “Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel? “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.” NIV Powerful. “Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.” Can we assume that God heard it? Does God hear the blood crying out from the ground every time a man uses his own hand to slay another? When one human, made in the image of God, take’s another human’s life he snuffs out a beautiful and unique soul that was crafted by God himself. Does God have to listen to that? Genesis 4 tells us that Cain was mad about how his offering was received by God in comparison to his brother. Cain was clearly angry and jealous. God sees this in Cain and like a good father, seeks to offer wisdom. God says that there is no reason to be angry. If you do what’s right in the first place then you know what you will get. If you don’t then sin is crouching at your door waiting to have you, possess you, control you; but you must rule over it. The problem here is Cain. Cain wants to make his own rules and reap the reward. God tries to reason with him and warns him, but to no avail. We have our bibles, God gives us wisdom, but for some reason we trust the politicians more than God. We want to make up our own rules. We want to kill the bad people. So what have we learned here? * Murder is morally wrong. * If we do what is right then we should not worry because our offering will be accepted by God. * God hears our sin. Abel’s blood cries out to God for justice. For order to be restored. Can we all agree now that killing is wrong? Can we all agree that because God made us in his image, when we kill human beings it hurts God? Now what happens if Cain didn’t kill Abel with his hands, what if he used a drone? The farther away we are from our sin, the easier it is to keep sinning. American Christians must understand that God tells us in the very beginning that killing hurts him. God does not care why. We should not kill and call ourselves Christian. In the same respect, we should not vote for killing and call ourselves Christians. It is far easier to lie to yourself when the cries of the dead are across oceans. Far away, where you can’t see or hear the blood the way God does. Christ did not come to destroy the world, he came to save it. We should always value humanity and life over destruction and death. We must begin to understand that our perspective and the way in which we see God’s word and the world, is flawed. God is not happy that the Ayatollah of Iran is dead. God didn’t pick a side. “No way!” you say. He was a muslim. He chanted “Death to America.” He wanted a nuclear bomb! We don’t get to kill our brother because he angers us. Maybe we should consider that if we do right, then our offering will be accepted. There is a great deal wrong with the American Protestant Christian Church. Honestly, the entire christian western world is slowly dying. Nobody seems to have a plan. Nobody is really thinking about it. Sure folks pretend to care, but we haven’t seen change. We are continually disappointed by our political leaders as they are routinely found out to be Christian in Name Only (CINO). Politics should not form our faith. Our faith should form our politics. If you are a christian and you are celebrating anyone being killed then I highly suggest you ask God if he is hearing what you’re hearing. America has become like Cain. We want…..everything and we think God favors us. God favors people not countries. If anything, God has warned us that sin seeks to ambush us and capture us. We must rule over it. We cannot as Christians, continue to vote for people that love killing. We must rule over that sin. We especially cannot quietly allow those who love killing to use our God YHWH for justification. What sounds like a victory celebration to you, may not sound so sweet to God. Maybe what God hears is the blood of the victim. And I don’t think he is happy about it. As a soft cry rises from the blood stained fields, As the clay and rock are washed with brain matter and organ meat, As small children’s body parts are collected in wheel barrows by their parents, As flag draped coffins return home, As mother’s lie to themselves that their sons and daughters died for something, God does not softly whisper to his children, “You’re killing all the right people, now start cutting taxes.” That was Lindsey Graham. Thanks for reading ProtestantPolicy's Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.protestantvoice.org

    The Beginning
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This Podcast is focused on the Bible, History, Politics and Christianity. www.protestantvoice.org

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