Show Notes
What happens when standing by your principles means losing your community? David French was once a Republican darling - a military veteran in Iraq, a pro-life lawyer, and a defender of religious liberty. But when he publicly opposed Donald Trump in 2016, everything changed. His church turned on him, his family received threats, and he became controversial figure in political and religious debates. In this conversation, David reflects on the cost of choosing virtue over political loyalty, why free speech still matters even when it's painful, and what it’s like to be exiled by your tribe. We talk about moral courage, the state of American evangelicalism, and what it means to stay principled in a world that rewards tribalism.
🎙️ Follow The Sacred: linktr.ee/sacredpodcast 📖 Follow Elizabeth Oldfield: www.elizabetholdfield.com/ 💡 Produced by the @thinktanktheos www.theosthinktank.co.uk/ ✍️ Follow David French: https://x.com/davidafrench?lang=en
Chapters 00:00 Intro 01:07 What is Sacred to you? David French answers 01:29 Defining Virtue in American Society 06:26 When Have Your Virtues Been Tested? 14:42 Formative Experiences and Moral Foundations 18:40 Political Awakening and Conservative Values 27:27 The Role of Civil Liberties in Society 30:47 The Importance of Defending Difficult Speech 33:31 The Importance of Free Speech 36:39 Serving in the Iraq war 39:52 Transformative Experiences of War 44:10 Political Identity and Church Community Rejection 50:49 The Impact of Community Rejection 54:52 Staying True to Principles Over Tribes
Keywords: David French - veteran, constitutional lawyer, political commentator, and lifelong conservative - joins The Sacred to talk about the cost of staying true to his values. In this episode, he shares how refusing to support Donald Trump led to being “cancelled” by his church, receiving threats, and becoming a controversial figure in conservative Christian circles. We explore free speech, religious freedom, evangelical politics, cancel culture, moral courage, integrity, and the crisis of virtue in public life. David speaks about his military service in Iraq, his time defending civil liberties, and why he believes principles should come before political parties. This conversation is for anyone wrestling with faith and politics, Christian identity, the culture wars, the evangelical church, or what it means to live with integrity in polarised times. Topics include: Christian conservatism, Never Trump, leaving church, freedom of speech, spiritual exile, republican, political pressure, and how to remain faithful under fire.
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Can you really vote your way to a good society - or does it have to be built house by house, street by street?
What does it mean to prepare to die—and then discover that you need to prepare to live again? In this conversation, poet Christian Wiman reflects on faith, poetry, love, mortality, and his experience of living for more than 20 years with cancer. He talks about his turbulent childhood, how poetry transformed his anger into something creative, and why he believes poems can open us to something beyond ourselves. The conversation also explores: Wiman’s journey from economics to poetry What a poem actually is—and why sound can matter more than meaning Attention and his idea of “productive inattention” Faith, suffering, and writers including Simone Weil and Etty Hillesum
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