Unmoored: America Adrift in Historical Forgetfulness and Finding Our Way Back

Invitation to listen to Uncovered: the Bible as Historical Document

Carl and Matthew are back in the studio with this next, but new, podcast. This "episode 0" is an overview intro of the coming podcast. Episode 1 will come out September 16, 2025 with the following episodes coming weekly after that. This podcast does have a link back to the first podcast, Unmoored as that podcast argued that the US founders believed that to make this governing idea work ("government of the people"), there had to be a common moral virtue foundation. For those founders, the foundation was based around Christianity. Should we care today about that? What evidence is there that Christianity is real or worth our time? To study or understand any religion or philosophy, you must look at the foundational documents. For Christianity, that is the Bible. This podcast will not be looking at the religious concepts within the Christian faith, but rather we will examine the Bible as a historical document. We will consider the tests and concepts that Historians apply to any moment, event, or personage from the past. Episode 1 will be coming out September 16, 2025.

Bonus Episode with Kurt Powers: Carl's Hypothesis Challenged

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 [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLekzwGveczfCpMrz-QDguMY-x8fztuu2G] 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

Bonus Episode: Lessons for the Christians

Throughout the entire podcast, the audience was designed for both people of no spiritual religious faith claims and those who openly state that they are Christians. Matthew and I did our very best to keep the approach academic in nature, examining the primary sources, and simply seeking to uncover historical evidence that can guide us as a nation to a safe harbor, a place for flourishing for everyone. If you listened to any of the episodes, you noticed that I cast two characters as representative of the tension and struggle of the nation over the past decades, building in intensity over these last 15-20 years. One of those represented the Conservative Christian who, I argue, has seemed to lean deeply towards some sort of "Christian Nationalism" as the solution for the nation...a stance I reject. Through my study, now going back over 15 years at least, and with deeper focus since 2022, there were more conclusions that really aim directly and singularly at the Christian community. I point out yet again that such community includes me and Matthew. I've been an ordained Christian pastor for over 30 years, previously having served as the Senior Pastor of a small church for 18 years. My desire for "my group" to do well, to live wisely, to be a positive influence in the world is great. And sadly, I beleive in many respects "my group" has gotten off target. So this bonus episode is Matthew and I examining more of the historical documents pertinent for Christians, found most easily in The Bible. And my focus is to highlight the specific things God says to those who claim His name about how to live, especially in days in which it may feel like you are the minority culture in a society. As always, would love if you sent me any questions or comments at carl@carlcreasman.com

Finding A Safe Harbor, part two

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.

Finding A Safe Harbor, part one

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.