The After Party is a project from the non-profit organization Redeeming Babel born out of friendship among Curtis Chang (founder of Redeeming Babel), David French (author and New York Times columnist), and Russell Moore (editor in chief of Christianity Today). It is a six-part digital course (+ supporting book/workbook and music album) designed to be experienced in a small-group setting, within or outside of a local church.

To reorient Christian thinking about politics in an effort to heal political divisions in the church and cultivate key Biblical virtues like humility, kindness, and hopefulness in Christian political engagement. By taking participants through a six-part digital course, The After Party equips viewers to reorient their hearts on the person of Jesus such that our status as beloved sons and daughters of Christ comes before any partisan identity.

If you’re a Christian who’s concerned about the state of politics, yes! The course was designed for pastors who know there’s a better way and want help navigating divisions within their churches, interacting with their boards, and keeping their congregants’ hearts centered on Jesus. It’s also made for small group leaders and lay people who want to understand how we got into this mess and focus on Jesus as we work to get out of it. It can help you from the pulpit to the living room. Want to talk about how you might use it in your specific context? Let’s chat!

The After Party was designed to encourage & equip Christians of all denominations to honor Jesus as they engage in politics and the public square. Our content was created in response to a growing sense that an “exhausted majority” longs for more resources to guide them in navigating the turbulent waters that have come to define national politics and many of our churches. If this resonates with you, we encourage you to give it a try! The course is available free of charge, can be completed at your own pace, and was designed to be supremely practical such that we hope you’ll find it immediately relevant to your everyday life. Read our guides for how to pitch The After Party to your pastor or recruit your friends.

We’re so glad you’re here! You can read an overview of the six sessions here. Once you’ve registered with Redeeming Babel and completed the course check-out process (don’t worry, it’s free!), you will be able to access the course itself here.

To access the course, please use this link. Click “Register Now,” provide your personal details, and click “place order.” And remember: The After Party is FREE so you won’t be providing any payment details.

Once you’ve registered for the course, you can access the materials via this link.

If you’re experiencing the course as part of a group and would like each participant to watch the course on their own, please invite all members of your group to create their own individual accounts following the same steps noted above. You can also use our quick start guide and facilitator guide to prepare for the course.

Once you have registered, you may access the PDF here while signed in.

No. A Bible study, by definition, focuses on the study of the Bible as the main subject matter. The After Party is a six-module course designed to equip participants to center their political thinking (and engagement) on the person of Jesus while cultivating key virtues like hope and humility. We of course do support our teaching with Biblical references, but the focus is on politics.

Definitely not. The After Party course makes no endorsement or critique of any specific political party or candidate.

We don’t think so, because they are not talking about Trump or any other political figure in this course. The After Party isn’t about any candidate, political party, or policy position but rather about how we show up for the conversation and stay in relationship in the process. In The After Party, David, Russell, and Curtis are teaching about Biblical values that should inform how we approach politics, not what candidates to support. We believe leaders can express views about political figures in another context while still teaching Biblical values in a different context. For instance, some prominent evangelical leaders have very publicly endorsed Trump. We believe that act should not disqualify them from teaching about Biblical values. We ask that our critics extend to us the same right.

We think pastors should form their people to have a healthy, Jesus-centered approach to politics. We believe the most important formation should center on the “How” of politics, especially the need to follow Jesus’ instructions to practice humility and hope. While some pastors may rightly feel confident of their ability to preach on politics in a Sunday sermon, we also want to give others the option to spiritually form their people in small-group contexts and using other tools like this curriculum.

Yes! Thoughtful, mature Christians aiming to live their lives in the truth of the Gospel can take different positions on numerous government policies – and therefore find themselves situated among a wide spectrum of party position/alignment. We can also make good faith critiques of opposing positions held by other Christians, provided we do so with love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness and the other “fruits of the Spirit” (Gal. 5:22-23). We should also recognize that in the Final Judgment, it is almost certain that God will show that everyone of us – on all political positions – have gotten some things wrong!

Here we reference the wise Tim Keller, who once wrote:

“While believers can register under a party affiliation and be active in politics, they should not identify the Christian church or faith with a political party as the only Christian one. There are a number of reasons to insist on this. One is that it gives those considering the Christian faith the strong impression that to be converted, they need not only to believe in Jesus but also to become members of the (fill in the blank) Party. It confirms what many skeptics want to believe about religion — that it is merely one more voting bloc aiming for power.”

In addition, historically orthodox Christian positions on a variety of issues do not fit neatly into the modern American two-party system.

As a non-profit organization, Redeeming Babel and the programs it produces (including The After Party) are funded by a mix of individual and institutional partners. All are united in a shared love of – and concern for – the common good. No funders are involved in creating or vetting our content in any manner. We do not partner with political organizations or those maintaining an IRS 527 classification. Current funders include New Pluralists, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Fetzer Institute.

It is very important to make three key distinctions:

Receiving Funding vs. Being Influenced: We receive funding from a number of secular foundations. None of them have ever sought to influence the content of The After Party. If they had, we would have rejected the funding immediately.

Receiving Funding vs. Endorsing Everything the Funder Does Elsewhere: We almost certainly disagree with some of our funders on other projects they have funded. Receiving funding on an area of agreement does not mean endorsing everything else the funder supports. For example, many organizations across the political spectrum received funding from the Biden Administration as part of COVID-relief funding. This most certainly does not mean all recipients agreed with all decisions made by the Administration.

Receiving Secular Funding vs Being Christian: The After Party is thoroughly Christian in nature. It also benefits from non-Christian funding. Those two things are fully compatible. Scripture is full of examples where followers of God take advantage of “secular” resources and benefits: e.g. the Israelites receiving gifts from the Egyptians (Exodus 12:35-36) and Paul claiming the rights of a Roman citizen, including a fully funded trip to Rome (Acts 25).

No.

No.

No. Redeeming Babel affirms the traditional orthodox understanding of the Christian faith as articulated by the early church in the Apostles’ Creed:

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

We encourage you to consult the original writings of both David French and Russell Moore to verify and understand their positions on various topics. Not sure where to start? You can subscribe to Russell’s weekly newsletter here or listen to his podcast here. David writes regularly in the New York Times here, for The Dispatch here, and is often a guest on our own Good Faith Podcast.

We’d be happy to hear from individuals, prospective partners, and the media. Please email us at info@redeemingbabel.org and we’ll get back to you.