I’m pretty skeptical about books that oversell catastrophic outcomes. It seems like scare tactics to sell books. So I picked up David French’s new book, Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation, with curious suspicion. But the way French sets up the book, I hadn’t realized the scenarios that might make secession politically advantageous for both parties. And I have to admit French’s imagination has haunted me ever since, as I discussed in my review of the book. The death last week of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has only heightened tensions.

Divided We Fall is about how to avoid secession. And if you’re familiar with French’s writing as senior editor of The Dispatch, you’ll recognize his appeal to pluralism as our way forward. French joined me on Gospelbound to discuss how Christians can coexist peacefully beside neighbors with quite different notions of a life well-lived. And how we can introduce them to Jesus. In part, he said, we simply focus too much on political power and not enough on witness. French told me:

Given the fact that so many Americans, as they pull back from Christianity, as they pull back from religion, are filling that hole in their hearts with politics, that the Christian political witness is becoming more important, not less. And I said political witness, I didn’t say political strength. Those are different things. An increasing number of Americans are interacting with the church almost exclusively through a political lens. And I would ask listeners, is that how the church puts its best foot forward? Is that where we’re doing our best? And I think the answer is a decisive emphatic no.

You’ll want to hear us debate the priority of overturning Roe v. Wade and lessons learned from ending slavery through Civil War. As the old partisan lines harden with November approaching, we need far more imaginative conversations about the evangelical political calculus when it comes to abortion in particular. The same failed strategies won’t suddenly produce better results.

CELEBRATION: Last week we crossed 1 million downloads of Gospelbound in the seven months since we lauched. Thank you for listening and sharing with your friends! If you’ve enjoyed these first two seasons, I’d appreciate a favorable review and comment.

CLARIFICATION: In my last newsletter I made a confusing comment about my friend Mark Galli’s return to the Roman Catholic Church. I did not mean to imply that he became Catholic in order to land a book deal. Rather, in light of his plans to write a book about his reversion, I wanted to poke fun at the evangelical tendency to over-react to such news. While many more Catholics become Protestant than vice versa, reaction to high-profile evangelicals who write about crossing the Tiber tends to leave the opposite impression. I apologize for leaving any doubt about Mark’s motives.