Episode 3
Overcoming Stockholm Syndrome in Christianity With Dr. John West
Featuring John West
October 21, 2025
Dr. Gerson Moreno-Riaño, host of Cornerstone University’s Wisdom and Influence podcast, welcomes Dr. John West—Vice President of the Discovery Institute and Managing Director of its Center for Science and Culture—to discuss his book Stockholm Syndrome Christianity and the broader challenge of how Christians unknowingly adopt secular assumptions that erode their faith. Drawing on the original 1973 Stockholm hostage crisis, West argues that many sincere Christians—whether in churches, ministries, or institutions of Christian higher education—have internalized the worldview of surrounding secular elites, compromising biblical authority on issues ranging from Darwinian evolution and the historic Fall to sexuality, abortion, religious liberty, and poverty. The conversation also examines the dangers of scientism, the belief that modern science is the sole path to truth, and contrasts it with the biblical conviction that a purposeful, designed creation is what makes scientific inquiry possible in the first place. West and Moreno-Riaño further explore the relationship between Christianity and the nation, unpacking the American founders’ vision of limited government, religious liberty, and sphere sovereignty as an alternative to both theocratic Christian nationalism and secular dismissal of faith’s public role, before closing with encouragement about the unique opportunity Christ-centered universities have to address the profound spiritual questions students continue to ask. Listeners will gain a framework for recognizing where cultural assumptions have displaced biblical conviction, and for recommitting to a Christian worldview that serves as salt and light across every dimension of life.