Episodes

Our guest for today’s episode is Texas State House Candidate Jonathan Schober. We discuss lessons learned in running for state legislative office in Williamson County, north of Travis County , where Austin is.

We talk Lockdowns under Republican leadership, property taxes (the problems in that, practically and philosophically) in Texas, and economic liberty (and the infringement of economic liberties), and the use of the state guard to stem the tide of vulnerable people exploited at the border by the cartels and coyotes.

The approach that Jonathan used was an “educate the voter” approach, where they put out a newspaper–it actually was a small newspaper one could hold in your hand and read–on the issues important in that area of Texas relevant to the election. Did it work ? No, it didn’t work in winning. But does that mean that that strategy should be abandoned in the future ? Not necessarily. Have a listen and tell us what you think about the approach. We’d be happy to hear from you.

The Republican Professor is a pro-educating-the-voter, pro-protecting-economic-liberty, pro-lessons-learned podcast.

Therefore, welcome Jonathan Schober !

The Republican Professor is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

Check out more TRP episodes on our server, https://www.therepublicanprofessor.com/podcast/

Let us know which one is your favorite.

“Halee, what happened to you was rape. And if you don’t call it that, you’re never going to get better,” Halee’s co-worker said to Halee when she finally told someone the true story 4 months later.

Our guest today is the Christian spiritual formation and leadership scholar Dr. Halee Gray Scott, Ph.D. She speaks with a slight, charming Texas drawl.

“I grew up in serious country,” Texas-native Dr. Halee Gray Scott, Ph.D., begins her story by saying. “I swam in crocodile-infested waters” exploring the nooks and crannies of the East-Texas wilderness. Her childhood was at the same time idyllic for an insatiably curious contrarian kid such as herself, and at the same time quite frightening. There were tornadoes coming down from the uncontrollable, unpredictable and angry giant Texas sky.

Later, her adventurous spirit directed her curiosity to scholarship into stable truths about Leadership and the Christian faith, about how young people’s attitudes are being shaped by forces we didn’t have when we were kids.

Whereas the threat of a tornado kept her up at night, now it’s the kids. It’s the church, and what they’re dealing with. It’s what the churches and seminaries are or are not doing about it. Maybe they don’t know what to do about it, or how to be.

Halee’s heart is as follows: she hopes to help others to get trained to fill the gap between the challenges facing Leadership and the training they receive.

She first got on the radio at 15 years old.

Now, she has a Ph.D., is a syndicated radio host, and author of Dare Mighty Things: Mapping the Challenges of Leadership for Christian Women.

Her latest book is Not a Hopeless Case: 6 Vital Questions from Young Adults for a Church in Crisis, available April 2023.

Check out Christian Curious Radio Program here: https://www.christiancurious.com/

In this wide-ranging discussion, we talk touch on the Kingdom of God and the ethics of eating meat, and naturally from that to hunting. I take the American Indian perspective, for the most part, on the uses of the animal. We camp out on Indian-stuff for a while, what it must have been like for the settlers.

We touch on the role of women in ministry. This is a huge part of her professional research.

We talk about her Washington Post article where she reported having been raped by her pastor in Texas when she was a young woman, how how she has and is dealing with that. You can find the article titled “#MeToo: I was Raped by my Pastor” published October 16, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/10/16/metoo-i-was-raped-by-my-pastor/

It ran in the print edition of the Post.

She had come to college there at UNT, Denton an atheist, and at the time of the rape, had only been a true Christian for 3 months.

Does Halee still believe that there is a good God as revealed in the Bible ?

Yes, she does. But it’s been a journey, and continues to be.

Her passion involves protecting the possibility of that belief in the soil of other vulnerable souls, as well. It’s what motivates her research and directs her professional steps.

It took her 4 months to tell anyone about it, and when she did, her co-worked used the appropriate term “rape.” But it took her 15 years to come to terms with that word for what happened. And she had panic attacks for years every-time she went inside a church.

But she’s healing.

We do not rush through this conversation. There is no rush. We take our time. We just enjoy the company and the conversation, and hope you do, too.

The Republican Professor is a pro-coming-to-terms, pro-reminiscing-of-idyllic-childhood-conditions, pro-take-your-shoes-off-and-stay-awhile, pro-theological-discussion, pro-wrestling-with-the-problem-of-evil, pro-let’s-help-not-screw-the-kids-up-and-keep-the-leadership-appropriately-trained-up-and-accountable podcast.

Therefore, welcome Dr. Halee Gray Scott, Ph.D., Curious Christian

The Republican Professor is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

Few episodes have given me more joy to produce than this one with the man behind Made by Jimbob, Mr. Jimbob himself.

He’s on his like 4th Instagram account now having been banned on social media for his cartoons, for his art and social commentary. His cultural observations through art and cartoons are apparently “unsafe” or “dangerous” for a certain group of people who run social media. Does he stop ? No, he keeps going, sometimes with an even bigger smile on his face than before. Mr. Jimbob (or, Jimbobb now, with 2 b’s–he just keeps adding b’s when he needs for new accounts if old ones get shutdown by the Thought Police) keeps on keeping on, and in fact he produces the art you can hang on your wall, that you can touch, art that lasts.

You’ll find that the man is incredibly well-thought out (he uses the term ‘metaphysics’ casually and accurately, for instance, just as an example) and that he is mature and purposeful in what he does for MadebyJimbob. He’s and also quite funny and down to earth, all at the same time.

For more information, check out https://madebyjimbob.com/ and look him up and follow him on social media.

The Republican Professor is a pro-Free-Speech, pro-art-as-effective-social-and-political-commentary, pro-getting-people-to-think-with-just-the-right-art-work, pro-art-helping-us-notice-reality, pro-skillful-use-of-art-as-humor, pro-down-to-earth-thoughtful-person podcast

Therefore, welcome cartoonist, artist, and humorous social critic Mr. Jimbob, the man behind MadeByJimbob !

The Republican Professor is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

It’s our great honor to welcome the founder of Apologetics.com, the delightfully humorous Lion of Christian Apologetics, Dr. Harry Edwards.

Dr. Edwards is ethnically Filipino, speaks Tagalog fluently having grown up there in the big city on Luzon. Harry moved to the US lawfully when he was a very young man.

There were many, many years when every time you went into the Biola University bookstore, back when they sold, well, books instead of everything else besides books (you can buy coffee mugs, skis, hunting rifles, used Toyota trucks, and rare military insignia, but not like hard cover books anymore at the Biola Book Store since the decline began)(actually, hunting rifles would be progress, but), you would see Harry Edwards there, the king of the Biola Bookstore Commonwealth. And that’s because fundamentally Harry is a nerd, sure, but more superficially, it’s because Harry was the Biola Bookstore Manager.

In other words, you thought of Harry, you thought, books. Books, books, books. And he loves books, and he had and has a passion for introducing people to books, books, and more books.

That alone would be a good reason to be a fan of Dr. Harry Edwards.

Harry has jet black hair (and he’s old, and he does not dye it), he’s got dark skin, and he grew up elsewhere, yet he is a red-blooded American.

Dr. Harry Edwards has a passion for reaching the lost in America, especially Generation Z, with the wonderful news (true, defensible news) of the historic, biblical Christian Gospel and all the truths of general revelation that flow out of and are consistent with that view of the world. His doctoral dissertation was on reaching Generation Z with Apologetics. His doctorate is a D.Min., a Doctor of Ministry, with emphasis in Apologetics from the epicenter of scholarship on Christian Apologetics, Southern California’s Biola University, Talbot School of Theology, in Lost Angeles County.

(D. Min. is ironically pronounced “dmon” — ironic because there’s nothing dmonic about it, actually).

Many years ago Harry founded Apologetics.com which he still runs while on the pastoral staff of Christian church in Orange County, California. Part of that effort involves a late-night radio program and podcast in Lost Angeles which helps listeners develop, refine, correct, and progress in the best way to understand Christianity and the world.

The Republican Professor is a pro-books, pro-awesome-bookstore-that-actually-sells-books, pro-Apologetics-done-right, pro-red-blooded-American-no-matter-what-color-you-appear-to-be, pro-America-loving-lawful-immigrant, pro-re-thinking-how-best-to-reach-the-young podcast.

Therefore, welcome Dr. Harry Edwards, D.Min. (in Christian Apologetics, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, California).

The co-host for this episode is Kurtis Olson, co-founder of TheRepublicanProfessor.com

The Republican Professor podcast is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

—

A helpful note on the numbering of TRP episodes:

This is Episode 70 of The Republican Professor on YouTube.

The last two audio-only episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc. (featuring a topic on which YouTube censors free discussion) featured Dr. John R. Lott, Ph.D. and Jon Matthews. The last YouTube episode, The Fatty Truth on Instagram on Political Censorship, was numbered episode 68 on YouTube because our Good Friday and Easter episodes 2022 were not numbered. But this is the 70th episode uploaded to The Republican Professor channel on YouTube.

The Audio only version of The Republican Professor podcast included Episode 1 on Abortion, recorded January 2021 with K-12 Public School Teacher Aaron Axtell, published late 2021. Episode 2 was published early 2022. Episode 2 of the audio-only line-up is Episode 1 on YouTube, since the real Episode 1 with Aaron Axtell on Abortion did not have video.

More than you ever wanted to like evar like know about, like, how the like episodes are like numbared and stuff.

~Dr. Ljm, Trp

Hey TRPers,

This is a conversation with Jon Matthews of Election Integrity Project California which has settled one lawsuit and is in the middle of appealing another right now at the 9th Circuit.

We talk about Election Integrity. The key to moving forward with shoring up Election Integrity is transparency.

I normally publish the episode to my YouTube channel, The Republican Professor, before it goes out to the rest of the world on Apple podcasts through TRP’s website. But I hesitate to do that for this episode and the one which came before with Dr. John Lott.

YouTube censors discussion about Election Integrity.

They took down one of TRP’s videos early on when my co-host and I, Kurtis Olson, interviewed the film producer and book publisher Brad Cummings (The Shack, book and film). In three hours, Brad said his opinion that there a lack of integrity and transparency in our election system twice. That’s right, in 3 hours of conversation about everything else, he briefly mentioned just twice, very quickly, his personal opinion about how much work we have to do to shore up Election Integrity in the United States, and YouTube took it down for “spreading misinformation” about a very specific election for a specific office during a specific year, details Brad hadn’t even bothered to mention, his comments were so brief.

Democrats run YouTube, and we had a strike, or warning of a strike against my YouTube channel (you get 3 before your channel is gone).

I did appeal and they did republish the video, so verify yourself — go watch Brad Cummings’ episode and see for yourself whether that video is “harmful” to the community.

The bottom line for me is that although YouTube reinstated the video , they did so at their sole discretion without any explanation (or expectation that they owed us or anyone any explanation) as to why they changed their minds, or how specifically they make their decisions, nor did they offer an apology for their admitted mistake. And so I’m left with a chilling effect on frank discussion about that topic on YouTube. By the way, YouTube sure seems to be run by Democrats, certainly not by Republicans.

Enjoy this episode with our guest Jon Matthews with Election Integrity Project Californai, and look for the video on Rumble if you want to see us.

The Republican Professor is a pro-secure-elections, pro-shoring-up-election-integrity, pro-Free-Speech-about-election-integrity-on-any-platform, pro-producing-people-who-can-think-for-themselves-instead-of-having-Youtube-run-by-Democrats-censor-the-information-they-may-need-to-make-up-their-own-minds-intelligently, pro-transparency-in-elections podcast.

Therefore, welcome Jon Matthews of Election Integrity Project, California.

The Republican Professor podcast is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

Dr. John R. Lott, Jr. (Ph.D. UCLA, Economics) is best known to us as a researcher on the harms and myths of the effectiveness of gun control, but Dr. Lott joins The Republican Professor podcast this episode to discuss his recent Hillsdale College Imprimis piece called “Is Ensuring Election Integrity Anti-Democratic?” (October 2021, to 6.1 million readers). Dr. Lott provides a comparison of the US with the rest of the World on efforts to shore up election integrity.

What he writes is shocking.

I normally publish the episode to my YouTube channel, The Republican Professor, before it goes out to the rest of the world on Apple podcasts through TRP’s website. But I hesitate to do that for this episode and the one to follow. YouTube censors free discussion about Election Integrity.

They took down one of TRP’s videos early on when my co-host, Kurtis Olson, and I interviewed the film producer and book publisher Brad Cummings (The Shack, book and film). In his three hour episode, Brad expressed his opinion twice, within a span of about 10 seconds, that there a lack of integrity and transparency in our election system.

That’s right, in 3 hours of conversation about everything else, he briefly mentioned just twice, very quickly, his personal opinion about how much work we have to do to shore up Election Integrity in the United States.

YouTube took it down for “spreading misinformation” about a very specific election for a specific office during a specific year, details Brad hadn’t even bothered to mention, his comments were so brief. And they threatened my TRP channel with a strike.

Democrats run YouTube, and we had a strike, or warning of a strike against my YouTube channel (you get 3 before your channel is gone).

I appealed and they did republish the video. So verify yourself — go watch Brad Cummings’ episode and see for yourself whether that video is “harmful” to the community.

The bottom line for me is that although YouTube reinstated the video , they did so at their sole discretion without any explanation (or expectation that they owed us or anyone any explanation) as to why they changed their minds, or how specifically they made their decisions, nor did they offer an apology for their admitted mistake. And so I’m left with a chilling effect on frank and free discussion about that topic on YouTube. By the way, YouTube sure seems to be run by Democrats, certainly not by Republicans.

Enjoy this episode with our esteemed guest, Dr. John R. Lott, Jr., Ph.D., and look for the video on Rumble if you want to see us.

The Republican Professor is a pro-secure-elections, pro-shoring-up-election-integrity, pro-Free-Speech-about-election-integrity-on-any-platform, pro-producing-people-who-can-think-for-themselves-instead-of-having-Youtube-run-by-Democrats-censor-the-information-they-may-need-to-make-up-their-own-minds-intelligently, pro-transparency-in-elections podcast.

Therefore, welcome Dr. John R. Lott, Jr., Ph.D.

My co-host for this episode was Kurtis Olson.

The Republican Professor podcast is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

When our guest began her Instagram page, it was about Keto stuff. It was a typical food account, pictures of food. It still is about food, if you go and look at her pictures.

But then the first quarter of 2020 happened, and she lost her job as a result of the lockdowns in New York, and she went from not having a political pulse–in her words, not knowing the difference between a Republican and a Democrat, a self-described liberal woman, a racial and ethnic minority who grew up in a foreign country–she went from political novice to voting for Trump in 2020. This despite the fact she is not in the Klan, as she clearly says when I asked her just to make sure. She’s also not a Nazi — I double-checked on that, as well. So.

She now uses Instagram to post Bible quotes and political and social commentary on the news of the day through Instagram stories.

Instagram doesn’t like her.

It doesn’t let her be tagged by other people. Instagram doesn’t allow you to hashtag her account name. It shadow-bans her. It has caused her to lose thousands of followers. And this kind of thing has been happening ever since she , well, became a Republican !

Amazing coincidence !

It’s almost as if the people who run Instagram are … Democrats !

The Republican Professor is a pro-Free-Speech, pro-Free-thought, pro-freedom-of-inquiry, pro-civil-non-censored-dialogue-on-social-media podcast.

Therefore, welcome, the woman behind The Fatty Truth on Instagram !

The Republican Professor is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

At the time of this recording in Spring of 2022, Professor Paul Franks, Ph.D. was not yet Vice President of Tyndale University in Toronto, Canada, but as you’ll see in this episode, he brings an authentic, warm, honest, charitable demeanor to our conversation, sprinkled with a delightful sense of humor. And we needed it for such serious topics as firearms over-regulation and the problem of evil.

What I love about this episode is how Paul takes us through, in painstaking detail, the dignity-defying, overly-regulated process of obtaining, owning, and carrying a firearm in Canada (it costs $20,000 to take a pistol outside the home lawfully–not kidding–that’s how corrupt the system is), offering lightheartedly as he does that Canadians think that guns have cooties, which is a word that I last heard for girls in elementary school. He talks about it in as much detail as I asked (and I asked a lot), very minimally critiquing, just describing the process by which one has to ask the sovereign for permission to have a firearm .

He did his graduate work at the University of Oklahoma (studied Philosophy of Religion for his Ph.D. under the famous philosopher Linda Zagzebski) and is from Oklahoma so this kind of thinking is quite foreign, which makes sense, because Canada is almost like a foreign country. (That’s my dry sense of humor). He has wonderful things to say about Canada otherwise, however, and about Tyndale University in Toronto, where he as taught for a long time.

Most crucially, Dr. Franks takes us through The Problem of Evil in an area of Philosophy commonly called “Philosophy of Religion.” How does God fit in a world with evil ? Atheists think there is no fit, so evil must stay and God must go. (It’s an interesting question then, what exactly is the definition of evil , then? Doesn’t evil go, as well ?).

Paul is the editor of “Explaining Evil: Four Views” published by Bloomsbury Academic Press, available in paperback here: https://www.amazon.com/Explaining-Evil-W-Paul-Franks/dp/1501331124/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Explaining+evil+four+views&qid=1657992816&sr=8-1

Join us as we talk through all these things. Maybe have a notepad ready to take notes.

The Republican Professor is a pro-Philosophy-of-Religion, pro-rightly-understanding-the-Problems-of-evil, pro-describing-accurately-the-arduous-dignity-defying-labyrinth-of-firearm-regulation-criminalizing-innocent-conduct, pro-I-need-a-sense-of-humor-to-get-through-this podcast.

Welcome Dr. Paul Franks, Ph.D.

The Republican Professor Podcast is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

What an incredible honor to spend this precious time with Samra Dresevic of Maverick Lingo, a small business in based in Lost Angeles, California. She speaks to us in her 4th language. And good luck finding any mistakes in her diction, vocabulary, or grammar. She speaks flawless English.

Samra grew up Muslim in an idyllic, rural childhood only to experience massive trauma as a 10 year old when her youth was shattered by war. Her family immediately became refugees in Europe, and her life was never the same again. In her words, she lost her childhood.

Many, many years later, in her 4th language, she had Professor Mather, the producer and host of The Republican Professor podcast, while a student at Loyola Marymount University in Lost Angeles, California. It was a morning class, Philosophy 160, Philosophy of Human Nature as it was called at the time, that began her friendship with the professor.

[LMU has since dispensed with the course for reasons that utterly baffle all intelligent people].

That was 10 years ago as of the recording of this episode. The lines of communication and dialogue have stayed open throughout the years between Samra and the professor.

Samra is now a successful small business owner, an entrepreneur, related to language learning in Lost Angeles, California, having become an American. Her company is called Maverick Lingo and you can check out her website here : https://www.mavericklingo.com/

The Republican Professor is a pro-staying-in-touch-with-the-best-students, pro-lines-of-communication-open, pro-entrepreneur, pro-small-business-owner, pro-language-learning, pro-intriguing-life-story podcast.

Therefore, welcome dearest Samra Dresevic, one of my very favorite former students ever out of thousands.

The Republican Professor podcast is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

It seems like only 47 years ago that Dr. Ciocchi began teaching Logic, but no: It’s actually been 48. David Ciocchi has nearly half a century of service to Christ, Culture & kids under his belt.

My former boss joins us in this episode of The Republican Professor podcast.

Partial disclosure (people say “full disclosure” but then go on only to partially disclose — *full* disclosure would take a lot of time, wouldn’t it?): I was his Logic Teaching Assistant (TA) for multiple semesters while I was in graduate school studying Philosophy for my Masters at Biola University in Lost Angeles County, California.

I cut my teeth learning from this master how to teach Logic, something I ended up doing myself for 15 years in Lost Angeles and Ventura Counties (So Cal). His name is Dr. David Ciocchi, Ph.D., and Professor Ciocchi has taught for darn near half a dadgum century Introduction to Logic to blurry eyed students and budding citizens of this great Republic.

Dr. Ciocchi is known as a gentle, patient mentor with one of the driest and most pedagogically effective senses of humor known to man. (It’s not on full display here because that was not the purpose of the episode–you’d have to talk to his former students). His classes for decades have been Mon Wed Fri (MWF) starting before 8 am. The co-host for this episode, Kurtis, took his course 3 times at that early schedule, each time faring better than the last, and Dr. Ciocchi’s consistent gentle, patient demeanor is on full display there as those sensitive details come up.

Dr. Ciocchi talks us through what teaching is like, or has been like, including challenges and regrets that he’s come to terms with over those 48 years. He’s seen a lot of changes in California, not all worth celebrating (to say the least). But he’s maintained a faithfulness to the Logic-teaching ministry to Christ and Culture in California by the grace of God, and we are so grateful for God’s grace to us, through him, and for spending time with us today on this episode.

The Republican Professor is a pro-effectively-teaching-Logic-to-the-younger-generation, pro-decades-of-faithful-service, pro-mentoring-new-professors, pro-deadpan-dry-humor-in-the-morning podcast.

Therefore, welcome Dr. David Ciocchi, Ph.D., professor of Logic for 48 years at Biola University, Lost Angeles County, California.

The Republican Professor podcast is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

This episode was co-hosted by TheRepublicanProfessor.com co-founder and former student of Dr. Ciocchi, Kurtis Olson.