Founder. Teacher. Author. Curriculum Developer.
Meet Dr. Marlene McMillan: A Lifetime Dedicated to Teaching Truth and Liberty
Dr. Marlene McMillan has devoted approximately forty years to studying, teaching, and communicating the principles of biblical truth, liberty, responsibility, and self-government.
An educator, author, speaker, and curriculum developer, Dr. McMillan has spent her career helping people examine the assumptions behind what they believe, understand how ideas shape their decisions, and recognize the consequences of the principles by which they live.
Her work extends across biblical studies, education, economics, government, law, cultural formation, personal responsibility, relationships, and leadership. What connects these diverse subjects is her conviction that truth is knowable, that ideas have consequences, and that liberty requires more than political freedom. It requires people capable of thinking truthfully and governing themselves responsibly.
As the founder of Why Liberty Matters and Dr. Marlene McMillan University, she is now bringing this extensive body of work together into one comprehensive educational pathway.
Education and Academic Background
Dr. McMillan’s educational preparation reflects her longstanding interest in the relationship between biblical truth, education, society, and government.
Her academic credentials include:
- Bachelor of Science (B.S.) — John Brown University
- Master of Divinity (M.Div.) — Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
- Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) — Tyndale Theological Seminary, with an emphasis in Church and State Relations
Dr. McMillan previously served as a professor of Church and State Relations at Tyndale Theological Seminary.
Her academic interests have continued throughout her teaching and writing career, particularly in questions concerning the relationship between religious belief, education, lawful authority, and the responsibilities of individuals and institutions.
In 2014, her work was presented in connection with Pepperdine University School of Law’s Nootbaar Institute conference on Love and Law, addressing questions of social justice, cultural assumptions, and their consequences for society.
An Educator in the Home and Beyond
For Dr. McMillan, education has never been confined to the classroom.
A mother of seven and a longtime advocate of home education, she homeschooled her children through high school. Her experience as both a parent and an educator helped shape her understanding of education as something far more consequential than the transfer of information.
Education influences how people define words, recognize authority, form judgments, establish priorities, and make decisions. The ideas a person receives in childhood may become the assumptions through which that person later understands family, work, government, economics, and faith.
These concerns have remained central to Dr. McMillan’s work as a curriculum developer, author, and advocate for educational liberty.
Her teaching has consistently emphasized the responsibility of individuals and families to understand the principles being passed from one generation to the next.
Books and Published Works
The Five Pillars of Liberty
A foundational work examining the principles necessary to understand, preserve, and practice liberty.
Dr. McMillan explores liberty in relation to truth, cause and effect, character, independence, and rights, providing a framework for understanding why liberty concerns the responsibilities of everyday life as well as the structure of government.
Mountains of Deceit: How the Dialectic Process Has Infected the Culture
An examination of how language, definitions, assumptions, and patterns of reasoning influence individuals and cultures.
The book investigates the relationship between what people believe, how they are taught to think, and the cultural consequences that follow when definitions or underlying premises change.
Declaration of Dependence: How to Heal Our Nation Through Prayer
A wide-ranging work connecting prayer and dependence upon God with questions of education, government, law, economic responsibility, culture, and the condition of society.
It reflects Dr. McMillan’s enduring interest in understanding biblical principles as applicable to the full range of human responsibilities rather than confining them to a separate religious sphere.
31+ Blatantly Ignored Causes of Poverty
An examination of poverty, economic behavior, dependency, and the assumptions underlying common approaches to economic problems.
This work reflects Dr. McMillan’s commitment to understanding the conditions and causes behind visible outcomes rather than treating symptoms as complete explanations.
Beyond the Books
Dr. McMillan has also developed audio courses, teaching series, webinar collections, articles, and instructional resources addressing subjects such as:
- The Five Pillars of Success
- Kingdom Economics
- Liberty and Truth
- Education and Cultural Formation
- Self-Government and Citizenship
- Government, Law, and Authority
- Forgiveness and Personal Restoration
Her extensive teaching archive includes eight Liberty Webinar compilation volumes, along with additional courses, lectures, and recorded discussions.
These works form part of the historical and intellectual foundation from which the University’s connected curriculum is being developed.
Throughout her career, Dr. McMillan has brought her teaching beyond books and classrooms through conferences, seminars, interviews, public presentations, and educational organizations.
Her work has included teaching and presentations on biblical economics, Christian education, liberty, cultural formation, governmental authority, and the influence of language upon public understanding.
She has participated in educational and policy discussions, contributed to Christian education initiatives, and appeared on radio programs, podcasts, and other media platforms addressing questions of liberty and responsibility.
Her involvement with the Christian Education Initiative reflects her longstanding interest in the relationship between education, worldview, and the future of families and communities.
Across these settings, the central concern remains consistent: people must learn to examine the principles underlying their decisions if they are to understand the world they inhabit and exercise their responsibilities wisely.
Why Dr. Marlene McMillan University?
Over the course of decades, Dr. McMillan has developed a substantial body of teaching through books, courses, lectures, webinars, research, and conversations with students and audiences.
Truth affects how people reason. Reasoning affects how they understand liberty. Liberty is inseparable from responsibility. Responsibility informs character, economics, education, government, relationships, and leadership.
The University brings these subjects together into a single educational journey.
Rather than asking students to encounter individual teachings in isolation, Dr. Marlene McMillan University provides an intentional progression through nine connected modules.
Students begin by developing disciplined habits of thought. They proceed through the biblical foundations of liberty, the Kingdom of God, self-government, stewardship, cultural formation, authority, relationships, and integrated leadership.
The program draws upon Dr. McMillan’s accumulated knowledge, observations, examples, and teaching experience, organizing them into a course of study designed to help students develop understanding they can explain, examine, and apply for themselves.
The University is not intended merely to preserve a collection of lectures.
It is intended to develop students who can recognize truth, reason soundly, exercise responsibility, receive correction, and carry what they learn into situations they have not previously encountered.
An Educational Inheritance
Dr. McMillan’s work has consistently returned to the importance of what one generation passes to another.
An inheritance can include possessions and resources, but it can also include understanding, wisdom, habits of thought, and the ability to recognize truth.
The establishment of Dr. Marlene McMillan University is an opportunity to bring a lifetime of teaching into a durable educational structure—one that can serve students today while creating a foundation for those who follow.
The goal is not simply that students remember what Dr. McMillan taught.
It is that they become capable of thinking truthfully, understanding the principles they have studied, exercising responsibility, and carrying that understanding into their families, work, communities, and future generations.
Learn to think truthfully. Understand liberty. Carry it forward.
Study with Dr. Marlene
Dr. Marlene McMillan University’s founding program is designed around nine connected modules, 45 instructional weeks, and more than 200 hours of instruction, including live question-and-answer sessions with Dr. McMillan.
Students progress together through a small cohort, examining ideas, testing their reasoning, and developing the ability to apply what they learn.