Moloch, Mormons, and Mike Lee
About this episode
The episode explores the concept of Moloch, the implications of child sacrifice in the Hebrew Bible, and the complexities of defining Christian identity.
Senator Mike Lee keeps accusing his opponents of sacrificing children to Moloch, so this week we ask who — or what — Moloch actually was, why abortion and child sacrifice are not the same thing, and the uncomfortable places child sacrifice really does turn up in the Hebrew Bible. Then, after the Pentagon quietly declined to list the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as Christian, we dig into the bigger question underneath the fight: who actually gets to decide what counts as "Christian"? Turns out the answer is nobody — which makes the whole boundary-policing exercise a lot more about identity and power than about theology. Support Data Over Dogma and get every episode early and ad-free, plus exclusive bonus content — become a patron:https://www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma Watch every episode on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@dataoverdogma Follow us: Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/dataoverdogmapod TikTok — https://www.tiktok.com/@data.over.dogma.pod Threads — https://www.threads.com/@dataoverdogmapod X — https://x.com/data_over_dogma Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod Get Dan McClellan's New York Times bestselling book, The Bible Says…
People in this episode
Hosts: Daniel McClellan, Daniel Beecher
Topics covered
- Moloch
- abortion
- child sacrifice
- Christian identity
- theology
- power dynamics
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Books & works: The Bible Says So
More episodes of Data Over Dogma
- A Trickster God and the Worst Wedding Ever
- Lean Not on Your Own Understanding (and Other Conversation-Enders)
- Faith vs. Works vs. Chaos Monsters
- The Twelve Tribes of Israel (Give or Take)
- Sins of the (Grand)father
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