Pierce Taylor Hibbs joins Discernment Digest to discuss his new book Dissecting the Heart, a carefully annotated collection of lectures by the late David Powlison. Powlison, a leading figure in biblical counseling and longtime CCEF leader, brought unusual clarity to the human heart, the limits of secular psychology, and the practical power of Scripture.

In this conversation Hibbs walks through how he organized decades of Powlison’s teaching into three sections—Secular Psychology, Spiritual Warfare, and True Theology—and why he added extensive footnotes for background, further quotations, and application. Topics include the “psychologized culture,” why the words we use to name our problems shape the solutions we seek, the chessboard metaphor, presuppositionalism (Van Til), the link between certain secular approaches and over-spiritualized deliverance ministries, common grace versus uncritical methodology, and Powlison’s insistence that all theology is practical theology.

Hibbs also shares personal memories of Powlison as a writer, mentor, and friend, including the story behind Hibbs’s first Journal of Biblical Counseling article. Views expressed by the guest are his own; appearance on the program does not imply endorsement.

Dissecting the Heart is available now. Questions or comments: discern@cbctrenton.com

Get the book at

Amazon https://tinyurl.com/aasebvyz or

Westminster Bookstore https://tinyurl.com/bdf3cdwm

This week on Discernment Digest we note upcoming interviews: Pierce Hibbs (10/28), Rush Witt (10/30), Kerry Morgan (11/5), Janet Mefferd (12/3), Tim Alberta (January), and Dr. Michael Riley before year-end.

The episode examines extreme grifting and the unseriousness of our current political moment. We look at Vivek Ramaswamy’s Ohio Senate ad that featured the mother of his opponent, Amy Acton—a mother Acton has not spoken to in 50 years. Court documents confirm Acton’s claims of sexual abuse by her stepfather; her mother protected the abuser and publicly called her daughter a liar. Ramaswamy doubled down rather than pull the ad, and both the president and vice president defended the campaign’s use of it.

We then turn to Alina Habba (former Counselor to the President and Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey). After playing a clip of her on the Benny Johnson podcast gushing over Andrew Tate—who faces 59 charges including rape and sex trafficking involving minors—we examine the sequence involving Julio Herrera Velutini. Herrera’s daughter donated $3.5 million to a Trump-tied super PAC; the family then offered Habba $10 million per year for four years plus bonuses (more than $50 million total) to become general counsel at Concord Partners, a company with no clear business. Weeks after Habba began, President Trump granted Herrera a full and unconditional pardon. Correlation is not causation, but the timeline raises serious questions about access and influence.

We also feature clips of the president making crude comments about men’s physiques and backsides on the campaign trail, and discuss the firing of Kimberly Guilfoyle as Ambassador to Greece after she asked a Trump donor for $100,000 to pay off her American Express card just before Senate confirmation. Trump’s response minimized her engagement to Don Jr. (which lasted until late 2024). We note Katie Zacharia’s five-day tenure as White House Press Secretary—less than half a Scaramucci.

The episode closes with a call for a healthy dose of prudishness rooted in Ephesians 5:3-4, the reminder that the problem with Donald Trump is primarily moral rather than political, and the principle that politics is downstream from culture, which is downstream from beliefs and values. You will either consciously adopt your values from Scripture or unconsciously absorb them from the culture.

Questions or comments: discern@cbctenton.com

Think better, about less.

Discernment Digest

Receipts, Revenge, and a Botched Sword

Contact: discern@cbctenton.com

After two Matt Lewis episodes, a short digest: a Senate “gotcha” that wasn’t, revenge prosecutions that keep failing, and a few items from the week.

Receipts. Sen. Eric Schmitt tried to catch Jack Smith at an Atlanta Hawks game the day after the Fani Willis–Nathan Wade story broke. The texts were for a Maryland–Iowa college game. Iowa are the Hawkeyes. Schmitt still called Smith a dirtbag and, on the Charlie Kirk Show, did not correct a host who praised the moment. An Axios item that morning had floated him as a possible J.D. Vance running mate in 2028.

Revenge. The pattern: if you lack the law and the facts, attack the prosecutor. Smith’s classified-documents report is still unreleased because Judge Aileen Cannon has refused to release it. DOJ’s “grand conspiracy” probe has already lost Joseph diGenova, who told the New York Post, “If you want indictments where there’s no evidence, you have an ethical problem.” The Lincoln Memorial reflecting-pool case was dismissed with prejudice after Interior blamed the contractor, not vandals.

A botched sword. Tennessee failed for the second time this year to carry out an execution. Christa Pike, convicted of murdering Colleen Slemmer, was left unconscious and on a ventilator after injections missed a vein. Genesis 9:6 and Romans 13:4 are cited for capital punishment as justice. The argument: fix the competence, do not drop the penalty.

Also: FlyDubai 1073, a stabbed pilot, and a safe landing in Saudi Arabia after passengers subdued the co-pilot. Netanyahu called it Islamic radicalization. John Hagee denounced the attack, then drew praise from Mark Levin as “our Pastor,” despite Hagee’s claim of a Jewish covenant that does not require faith in Jesus.

Clips

• Senate Judiciary: Schmitt questions Smith (Hawks / Hawkeyes exchange)

  https://x.com/SenAmyKlobuchar/status/2104982049870291386

• Charlie Kirk Show: Schmitt does not correct the host

  https://x.com/atrupar/status/2104975126940815831?s=20

• Hannity and Benny Johnson posts from the hearing both original posts have since been deleted.

  https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTZ86s-bsAEdwV5.jpg

  https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTaKC3tWcAAa2zF.jpg

• Axios item on Schmitt as a possible 2028 Vance running mate

  https://www.axios.com/2026/09/29/eric-schmitt-jd-vance-vice-president-vp-2028

Scripture

• Genesis 9:6

• Romans 13:4

• Exodus 20:13, translated as murder rather than kill

Review of our Matt Lewis interview ("Too Dumb to Fail", 10th anniversary). Conservatism and a biblical view of human nature; the 2010 Tea Party as warning; why the Founders checked majority passions; Burke vs. Paine/Rousseau; the dumbing down of politics and evangelicalism. Guest appearance does not mean full agreement.

Books mentioned

Core conservative reading

• The Conservative Mind — Russell Kirk (Kirk Center, Mecosta, MI)
• Politics — Aristotle
• The Conscience of a Conservative — Barry Goldwater
• The Road to Serfdom — F. A. Hayek
• Reflections on the Revolution in France — Edmund Burke
• Ideas Have Consequences — Richard Weaver

Works that shaped Too Dumb to Fail

• The Conservative Heart — Arthur Brooks
• Reagan’s Revolution — Craig Shirley
• When Character Was King — Peggy Noonan
• The Great Debate — Yuval Levin
• Amusing Ourselves to Death — Neil Postman

Comments: discern@cbctenton.com