Conversations That Matter

The Democratic Party appears to be changing its tune on transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.

Politicians including Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg, and James Talarico have recently used the language of fairness and safety when discussing women’s sports. That represents a significant change from the rhetoric surrounding transgender rights and school sports during the Obama and Biden years.

But is this a genuine change in conviction, or is it a political retreat?

In this episode, I look at the history of the Democratic position on transgender issues, the growing public resistance to males competing in women’s sports, and the political calculations surrounding the issue. I also examine the difference between voters motivated by deeply held convictions and voters who simply do not want political policies to produce consequences in their own families and communities.

The larger question is whether the Democratic retreat represents a change in principle or simply a strategic pause until the political environment changes.

Finally, I discuss why arguments about fairness and public opinion are not enough. If our understanding of men and women is ultimately grounded in God's created order, then political arguments cannot simply rest on whatever happens to be popular at a particular moment.

00:00 Democrats and the Trans Sports Reversal
02:18 Is This a Genuine Change of Heart?
04:26 The Gender Debate and the Nature Argument
07:20 Remembering the Biden and Obama Years
09:24 Why Democrats Are Changing Their Message
10:30 The Polling Problem for Transgender Sports
12:30 Convictional Voters vs. Convenience Voters
15:42 What Democrats Have Learned From the Backlash
18:05 Why “Fairness” Is Their New Argument
23:48 God's Rights, Nature, and the Foundation of Society

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Jon Harris sits down with William Wolfe of the Center for Baptist Leadership to discuss what has happened since Willie Rice became president of the SBC and what comes next.
The conversation covers the Truth and Unity Amendment, the effort to prevent women from serving as pastors in the SBC, appointments to committees and trustee boards, financial transparency, restoring trust in the Cooperative Program, the International Mission Board's vaccine requirements, and the continuing influence of progressive and DEI ideas within SBC entities.
Wolfe also explains why he believes the biggest danger may no longer be an obvious return to the previous "woke" era, but a period of what he calls "managed decline" in which institutions become less willing to take clear and courageous positions.
The discussion also examines Willie Rice's leadership, the upcoming fight over the Truth and Unity Amendment, and what conservatives and ordinary Southern Baptists should understand about the institutional battle ahead.

00:00 Intro
01:00 The Fight After Willie Rice's Election
02:50 Filling SBC Committees and Trustee Boards
03:34 The Truth and Unity Amendment
04:36 What Willie Rice Has Accomplished
06:11 The Future Direction of the SBC
07:40 Is Willie Rice His Own Man?
09:54 The Push to Ratify the Truth and Unity Amendment
10:52 Can Conservative Momentum Continue?
12:23 Restoring Trust in the SBC
13:30 The IMB and Vaccine Mandates
15:00 Are Progressive Forces Still Active in the SBC?
18:00 Opposition to the Truth and Unity Amendment
19:30 From Wokeness to "Managed Decline"
20:45 What Courageous Conservative Leadership Looks Like

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Dr. D. Millard Haskell joins Conversations That Matter to explain what happened to Christianity's influence in Canada and why Americans should pay attention.

Haskell, a sociologist and author of Christ or Collapse: The Case Against Godless Government, argues that the evidence points toward the social benefits of traditional Christianity. His research led him from liberal Christianity toward a conviction that Christian norms produce greater stability and flourishing.

The conversation then turns to Canada as a cautionary tale for the United States. We discuss multiculturalism, the decline of Christian influence, government and media, the controversy surrounding the Ezra Institute, Alberta's political future, and Canada's increasingly difficult environment for Christians who publicly defend traditional Christian beliefs.

Haskell also discusses Bill C-9, freedom of expression, political apathy, institutional capture, the loss of Christian influence in academia and government, and the growing reluctance of Canadian pastors to address controversial cultural issues.

Finally, we look at the different historical foundations of Canada and the United States and why Haskell believes America's Christian heritage must be actively preserved rather than simply assumed to continue.

00:00 — Introduction: Canada as a Warning to America
01:13 — Why Haskell Wrote Christ or Claps
04:19 — The Empirical Case for Christianity
06:25 — Canada as America's Cautionary Tale
09:00 — Multiculturalism, Alberta, and the Canadian Divide
11:00 — The Ezra Institute and the "Christian Nationalist" Controversy
24:40 — Bill C-9 and the Future of Christian Speech
28:00 — How Canada Lost Its Institutions
32:00 — Political Fatigue, Immigration, and the Next Generation
38:55 — Why America Held Onto Christianity Longer

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The 2026 midterms are approaching, and there is growing pressure on conservatives to sit out elections, reject Republican candidates, or pursue some kind of political accelerationism because Republicans have not accomplished everything conservatives hoped they would.
In this episode of Conversations That Matter, I make the case for why Christian conservatives should generally vote Republican in the midterms, while also explaining why voting is not a substitute for the much more important work of Christian discipleship and social renewal.
The key distinction is between practical politics and pragmatism. Pragmatism means changing your moral standards to achieve a desired political outcome. Practical judgment means recognizing the political circumstances you actually inhabit and using the tools available to you without changing your moral convictions. As I argue in the episode, morality does not change, but political circumstances and available options do.
I also discuss the temptation to abandon the Republican Party because it is imperfect, the dangers of accelerationism, what the experience of Europe can teach us, my own decision not to vote for Donald Trump in 2016, and why that calculation would be different in a competitive state.
Finally, I look at what the Trump administration and the MAGA movement have actually accomplished on issues including immigration, DEI, abortion, and foreign policy, and argue that conservatives should consider whether to build on those gains rather than simply destroy the political apparatus because it has not delivered everything they wanted.
The question is not whether Republicans are perfect. The question is what political options actually exist, what can be accomplished through them, and how Christians should exercise stewardship in the circumstances God has given us.

00:00 The Midterm Question
01:05 Voting Is Not Social Renewal
03:00 What Political Options Do We Actually Have?
05:45 Practical Politics vs. Pragmatism
09:00 The Problem With Accelerationism
10:25 Why Build on MAGA?
16:00 Stewardship and Imperfect Political Options
25:45 What Has MAGA Actually Accomplished?

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In this episode of Conversations That Matter, I examine the Presbyterian Church in America, Covenant College, and the broader question of whether Christian institutions are actually moving away from the ideas associated with the social justice movement or simply giving them new names.

I begin with several pieces of evangelical news, including the latest Southern Baptist compensation data for pastors and staff, the PCA's decision concerning Burke Parsons, and a complaint involving the Missouri Presbytery and the ordination of a same-sex-attracted man.

The main discussion concerns Covenant College's revised curriculum. Covenant has defended its approach as Christian, while critics such as Joe Rigney have questioned whether courses emphasizing diversity, cultural perspectives, identity, and critical theory represent genuine reform or continued ideological drift.

I look at the curriculum, faculty, and the ideas being presented to students, while also acknowledging that Covenant has good professors and that not every course or professor should be painted with the same brush. The central question is more basic: What direction is the institution going?

I also explain why Christians should be able to learn from other cultures without adopting the assumption that Western civilization requires a special set of alternative perspectives in order to recognize its own moral deficiencies. The Christian has Scripture, the church, and a long Christian intellectual tradition through which to evaluate his own civilization.

00:00 Why Christian Institutions Matter
04:08 The SBC’s Changing Pastor Compensation
10:16 Burke Parsons and the PCA Judicial Process
12:49 Same-Sex Attraction and Missouri Presbytery
14:15 Are Christian Universities Reversing Mission Drift?
17:49 Covenant College Changes Its Core Curriculum
20:16 Did Covenant College Put Woke Away?
24:30 Why Direction Matters More Than Individual Professors
29:44 The Evidence of Social Justice Thinking
42:15 Personnel Is Policy
50:12 How Social Justice Can Threaten the Gospel
54:58 Western Civilization, Diversity, and Critical Theory

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