A negative view of Christianity, legalized pot and people’s lack of faith in institutions is why America is in chaos, claims Doug DeVos’ podcast guest

It has been about 10 months since I last posted about Doug DeVos’s podcast called Believe!. In the podcast, DeVos interview former US Vice President and Presidential Candidate in 2024, Mike Pence. In true Orwellian fashion, DeVos and Pence were both talking about “leadership.”

There have only been five new podcasts in the past 10 months, but you have to remember that Doug DeVos is very busy figuring out ways to continue to expand his family’s wealth. 

In today’s post, I want to talk about one of the more recent podcast from September 6th, with Aaron Renn as the guest. Renn used to be a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research is a far right think tank that was founded by Reagan’s CIA Director, William Casey. Like most far right think tanks, the Manhattan Institute opposed Critical Race Theory, LGBTQ equality, was a big supporter of the US War on Terrorism, plays a significant role in denying Climate Change and is a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council. However, the think tank’s bread and butter is to promote free market capitalism.

Since Renn left Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, he joined the more Christian-focused organization known as American Reformer. As an example of where the American Reformer is coming from, here is an excerpt from their most recent article about 10 days ago, entitled, Manning the cultural ramparts. Here is the first paragraph in that article:

Despite the lawlessness, violence, and anarchy that was unleashed by Floyd’s death, America did not fundamentally change on that day. What had been there under the surface for quite some time, however, was revealed in all of its ferocious malice. May 25th, 2020 was, as it were, the storming of the Bastille of the American left’s cultural revolution. It is a revolution still underway, though there are some encouraging signs that a counter-revolution has begun.

Apparently, the problem all along has been the American left, not the cops, not structural racism, not debilitating poverty of the corruption that permeates electoral politics. 

The topic of discussion between Renn and Doug DeVos is, When Did The World Start Going Crazy? In the synopsis that is provided about the show it states: 

Aaron Renn blames the 1960s. That’s when tra­di­tion­al moral­i­ty began to decline, going from a pos­i­tive thing to a neu­tral thing in people’s lives. Now the sit­u­a­tion is even worse: moral­i­ty is large­ly viewed in a neg­a­tive light – with dis­as­trous effects on people’s health and hap­pi­ness.

Here are some of the main comments in the discussion and my responses.

• Christianity used to be the norm and Christian morality was the dominant view in the country. Now, Christianity is viewed negatively. I would argue that Christianity as an institution began to be more questioned and rightfully so. More importantly, the dominance of Christian values in the US is still very present, particularly in major institutions.
• People who identify as Christians in a public way are marginalized or stigmatized. Renn doesn’t really provide concrete evidence to support this claim. My experience as someone who used to identify with Christianity and then rejected it, is that, particularly in West Michigan, in most circles, cultural, social, etc. is that being outwardly Christian does not marginalize you, it makes you part of the club. I work at Hope Network, which is a Christian non-profit. I don’t know how many times that when people ask me something about myself and I talk about the years I spent in Latin America, they just assumed I was doing missionary work. My response used to be I did human rights work, but now I say, I was actually doing work that was anti-missionary work. See my documentary, Reversing the Missionary Position: Learning Solidarity on Mayan Time. 
• Doug DeVos asks what are the implications for us today with a country that is falling apart? Some of Renn’s response was that there are too many single moms or that marriage rates are falling. And of course, he thinks that this has a great deal to do with the “decline of Christianity.” Renn only offers antidotes, without any real analysis. 
• At about 38 minutes into the conversation, Doug DeVos raises the question of “why am I here?” DeVos then says that if people don’t have faith, then how can they cope in the world or feel like they have meaning. This observation really struck me as a very infantile view of the world and of one’s self. Again, my experience is just the opposition. When I no longer identified with Christianity (or any spiritual tradition) I began to be even more fully human and the world was a much more interesting and exiting place.
• At around 45 minutes in DeVos and Renn began to talk about immigration, sort of the Ellis Island dynamic, where the country became more tolerant. I would suggest that there is a much different narrative about new immigrants, a narrative that is presented in the book, American Intolerance: Our Dark History of Demonizing Immigrants.
• DeVos then wants Renn to talk about Grand Rapids, even though Renn is not from here. This hasn’t stopped Renn from talking about Grand Rapids, as he does in an article from 2018 in the online publication City Journal, entitled, Manufacturing a Comeback, Grand Rapids has become a midwestern economic star and is generating new industrial jobs. This article is essentially looking at Grand Rapids through a pro-business lens, where the DeVos and Van Andel families are thought of as gods. 
• At 54 minutes into the conversation, Renn then decides to gush about the DeVos family, saying that they are deeply rooted in this community. Renn uses the example of when Calvin had a new President come in and wanted to do a capital campaign to get rid of a $25 million debt. He said the Calvin President was able to raise the money in 8 months, where people with money came forward and didn’t want their name on a building. First, the effort was to pay off a debt, not to build a new building. Second, most of the names of buildings on Calvin’s campus has the name of particular religious families with very deep pockets. 

Like all of Doug DeVos’s guests, Renn provided little analysis, made vague claims about what’s wrong with this country and blamed it on the lack of Christianity in society. And like all guests, Renn did not want to speak ill about the US, but he did heap a great deal of praise on free market capitalism, something that made Doug DeVos very happy.