668: Pope Donald, Human Flourishing, & the Pastor’s Wife with Beth Allison Barr
- Phil Vischer
- May 7
- 2 min read

The White House is facing backlash for posting an AI image of Donald Trump as the Pope. Was it a careless joke or a calculated distraction? The most extensive study of its kind finds that the world’s largest Muslim country far outranks the United States in human flourishing, and also explains why secular elites are discovering a new respect for religion. But is there more than a practical purpose behind faith? Historian Beth Allison Barr is back to discuss her latest book, “Becoming the Pastor’s Wife.” She says expectations for ministry spouses aren’t rooted in Scripture but in a reaction to feminism in the late 20th century, and Barr explains how marriage replaced ordination as the way for women to serve the church. Also this week—listener questions, and a whole new look for Holy Post Media.
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Bonus Interview with Beth Allison Barr:
0:00 - Show Starts
2:40 - Theme Song
3:00 - Sponsor - AG1 - Heavily researched, thoroughly purity-tested, and filled with stuff you need. Go to https://www.drinkag1.com/HOLYPOST
4:10 - Sponsor - Our Place - Go to https://www.fromourplace.com and use code HOLYPOST to get 10% off site wide on beautiful cookware!
15:10 - Comparing two recent interviews: Gillibrand and Kasich
28:10 - Pope Donald?
34:24 - Human Flourishing Study in Indonesia!
54:53 - Sponsor - Blueland - Get up to 25% off your first order by going to https://www.Blueland.com/HOLYPOST
56:00 - Sponsor - Glorify - Sign up for the #1 Christian Daily Devotional App to help you stay focused on God. Go to https://glorify-app.com/en/HOLYPOST to download the app today!
56:50 - Interview
1:02:24 - Danver’s Statement
1:09:09 - Rooted in America, not Scripture
1:19:19 - Honoring Responsibility
1:32:55 - End Credits
Links from News Segment:
Religion and Happiness in Indonesia:
Young People and Unhappiness:
Tiktok Trend “Jesus Glow:”
Other Resources:
Becoming the Pastor’s Wife: How Marriage Replaced Ordination as a Woman’s Path to Ministry by Beth Allison Barr: https://a.co/d/7kDNo1I
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I’ve been thinking about the human flourishing article, and how Nigeria made it onto the top 5 list. According to Global Christian Relief, Nigeria is the #1 country in the world for the killing of Christians and also the #1 country in the world for assaults and abductions of Christians. I’m wondering, how can both of these things be true?
Regardless of whether women can be ordained to the priesthood (my own church, the Episcopal, does), I'd like to see actual proof for the claim that non-priests were considered able to consecrate the Eucharist until about a thousand years later in the Middle Ages. Unless I'm profoundly mistaken, that claim (not only the way the consecration "works," but the historical claim that lay people could consecrate the Eucharist) is not the view of the churches on the Catholic end of the spectrum (Anglican (including Episcopalian), Eastern Orthodox, or Roman Catholic). I know that the podcast and Beth Allison Barr are Evangelical, so there will be disagreement with those churches on the metaphysics and such of both ordination and Communion, b…
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