Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Senator Mike Lee has taken to invoking Moloch online, recasting abortion as ancient child sacrifice to a bloodthirsty god. There's just one problem: there's no good evidence Moloch was ever a god at all — the word points to a type of sacrifice, not a deity — and the Hebrew Bible draws a sharp line between a born person and a fetus. This episode, we untangle the Moloch myth, trace how abortion got built into a political wedge issue, and confront the far thornier texts where it is the God of Israel who seems to be asking for child sacrifice.
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Support Data Over Dogma and get every episode early and ad-free, plus exclusive bonus content — become a patron: patreon.com/DataOverDogma
Listen to the podcast on every app: pod.link/1681418502
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Follow us on social media:
Instagram — instagram.com/dataoverdogmapod
TikTok — tiktok.com/@data.over.dogma.pod
Threads — threads.com/@dataoverdogmapod
X — https://x.com/data_over_dogma
Facebook — facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod
____________________________________________________________
Get Dan McClellan's New York Times bestselling book, The Bible Says So:
static.macmillan.com/static/smp/bible-says-so-9781250347466
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Credits for photo used in thumbnail:
Image Credit:
Photo of Mike Lee by Gage Skidmore, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
Source: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mike_Lee_(48512263512).jpg
License: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en
Note: This image was modified from the original (e.g., masked and color-adjusted).
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Chapters:
0:00 — Intro
1:49 — Twisted Scripture: Mike Lee
3:29 — The Talarico Tweet
5:20 — Moloch on the Altar
6:38 — Abortion as Child Sacrifice
8:46 — Property, Not a Person
11:50 — Inventing a Wedge Issue
14:31 — The Magic Bullet Vote
16:49 — Moloch Was Never a God
17:58 — Reconstructing Lost Vowels
22:25 — The Milcom Corruption
24:03 — The Bible's Child Sacrifice
26:43 — "Give Me Your Firstborn"
30:47 — What Actually Reduces Abortion
32:42 — Outro
____________________________________________________________
#DataOverDogma #BibleScholarship #Moloch #ChildSacrifice #MikeLee
Senator Mike Lee has taken to invoking Moloch online, recasting abortion as ancient child sacrifice to a bloodthirsty god. There's just one problem: there's no good evidence Moloch was ever a god at all — the word points to a type of sacrifice, not a deity — and the Hebrew Bible draws a sharp line between a born person and a fetus. This episode, we untangle the Moloch myth, trace how abortion got built into a political wedge issue, and confront the far thornier texts where it is the God of Israel who seems to be asking for child sacrifice.
____________________________________________________________
Support Data Over Dogma and get every episode early and ad-free, plus exclusive bonus content — become a patron: patreon.com/DataOverDogma
Listen to the podcast on every app: pod.link/1681418502
____________________________________________________________
Follow us on social media:
Instagram — instagram.com/dataoverdogmapod
TikTok — tiktok.com/@data.over.dogma.pod
Threads — threads.com/@dataoverdogmapod
X — https://x.com/data_over_dogma
Facebook — facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod
____________________________________________________________
Get Dan McClellan's New York Times bestselling book, The Bible Says So:
static.macmillan.com/static/smp/bible-says-so-9781250347466
____________________________________________________________
Credits for photo used in thumbnail:
Image Credit:
Photo of Mike Lee by Gage Skidmore, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
Source: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mike_Lee_(48512263512).jpg
License: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en
Note: This image was modified from the original (e.g., masked and color-adjusted).
____________________________________________________________
Chapters:
0:00 — Intro
1:49 — Twisted Scripture: Mike Lee
3:29 — The Talarico Tweet
5:20 — Moloch on the Altar
6:38 — Abortion as Child Sacrifice
8:46 — Property, Not a Person
11:50 — Inventing a Wedge Issue
14:31 — The Magic Bullet Vote
16:49 — Moloch Was Never a God
17:58 — Reconstructing Lost Vowels
22:25 — The Milcom Corruption
24:03 — The Bible's Child Sacrifice
26:43 — "Give Me Your Firstborn"
30:47 — What Actually Reduces Abortion
32:42 — Outro
____________________________________________________________
#DataOverDogma #BibleScholarship #Moloch #ChildSacrifice #MikeLee
