Straight White American Jesus

Latest Episodes:

The Case Against Christian Nationalism Oct 17, 2022

Show notes

Brad links last's week's episode on Christianity as the original American purity culture to the argument made in a new book by Stephen Wolfe - "The Case for Christian Nationalism." In the book and in his public comments, Wolfe makes an argument like this:

God created humans on earth
Those humans were always going to gather in separate communities
Christianity therefore assumes nations
Christians should institutionalize Christianity in order to rightly order the public sphere
You should love those who are like you more than others
Nations should defend their people's identity and freedom from others

In Brad's mind, this is a stone's throw from ethno-nationalism - and it creates an impulse to see those who are not White, Christian, straight, patriarchal, and native-born as less than - as deserving less love - and as potentially the threats against which real Americans would defend themselves in the name of God and country. Despite the high theological language, it's White ethno-nationalism - at a time when Kanye West and Donald Tr*mp are making anti-Semitic remarks.

Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/

Order Brad's new book: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163
To Donate: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BradleyOnishi
SWAJ Apparel is here! https://straight-white-american-jesus.creator-spring.com/listing/not-today-uncle-ron

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Weekly Roundup: Civil Info Wars Oct 14, 2022

Show notes

Brad and Dan begin by discussing the final J6 hearing. Brad focuses on the new information that the Secret Service had tips about potential violence on J6 as early as December. They then discuss the released footage of Pelosi, Schumer, et al trying to get military and law enforcement help as the Capitol was under siege.

In the second segment Dan breaks down the verdict in the Alex Jones case. He zeroes in on how the GOP has reacted to the news by playing the victim - as if Alex Jones did nothing wrong and should not be held to account.

In the final segment, Brad discusses Kanye West's anti-Semitism and how it reveals a larger issue in this country: the casual acceptance of everyday anti-Semitism - as well as Christian nationalist's infatuation with Israel, but little regard for Jewish people.

Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/

Order Brad's new book: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163
To Donate: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BradleyOnishi
SWAJ Apparel is here! https://straight-white-american-jesus.creator-spring.com/listing/not-today-uncle-ron

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's In the Code, Ep 24: Not a Spirit of Fear Oct 12, 2022

Show notes

One of the central admonitions within theologically conservative American Christianity is that Christians are not defined by a “spirit of fear.” What does this mean? Where does this way of talking come from? And what are its effects? Dan answers these questions in this first of paired episodes on this topic, decoding this language to reveal what’s really going on with this insistence on not experiencing fear in the Christian life.

Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/

Linktree:https://linktr.ee/StraightWhiteJC

Order Brad's book:https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christian Nationalism is the Original Purity Culture Oct 10, 2022

Show notes

Brad does a preview from a key chapter in his new book. He argues that we should see purity culture - the movement for sexual purity in every way that swept through evangelical spaces in the 1990s - as an outworking of Christian nationalism. For Brad, Christian nationalism is the original purity culture because Christian nationalism is about creating and sustaining a pure nation - a nation that is ordered the right way with White Christians in power and everyone else knowing their place on the margins. Christian nationalism wants a pure national body. Purity culture is the attempt to create that nation by purifying teenage flesh from not only sexual licentiousness, but also all the elements that might make the national body impure - queerness, mixed races, and foreigners.

Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/

Order Brad's new book: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163
To Donate: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BradleyOnishi
SWAJ Apparel is here! https://straight-white-american-jesus.creator-spring.com/listing/not-today-uncle-ron

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Weekly Roundup: I'm Pro Secret Abortion But Anti-Flute, OK? Oct 07, 2022

Show notes

Brad and Dan begin by discussing the revelations about Herschel Walker, GOP candidate for US Senate in Georgia, paying for an abortion for an ex-girlfriend. What interests them is how this event (like others) reveals the power-at-all-costs worldview of the GOP and the Christian nationalists at the heart of the party. Such events also show how any criticism of GOP Christians is perceived as persecution - as if they are targets of spiritual warfare, rather than public figures being asked about incoherencies between their actions and policy positions.

In the next segment Brad zeroes in on the reactions the American Right had to Lizzo playing James Madison's flute. His analysis focuses on the theme of racial retribution and a reduction of the world to an us-vs-them mentality.

In the final segment the hosts discuss the similarities among Brazil's Bolsonaro, Russia's Vladimir Putin, and the newly elected Giorgia Meloni in Italy. While they may not be political allies formally, they use similar strategies to foment fear and anxiety in their supporters.

Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/

Order Brad's new book: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163
To Donate: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BradleyOnishi
SWAJ Apparel is here! https://straight-white-american-jesus.creator-spring.com/listing/not-today-uncle-ron

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's In the Code, Ep 23: Christian Health and Safety Oct 05, 2022

Show notes

Theologically and culturally conservative American Christians actively mock “liberal” or “progressive” or “secular” appeals to “safety” in society. And yet, the rhetoric of safety, and the related idea of “health,” have penetrated deeply into this religious culture. One the surface, these emphases represent a more inviting, less judgmental form of spirituality. But in this episode, Dan decodes this language to show that, beneath that appearance, this rhetoric harbors judgment and resentments that actively endanger huge numbers of people and that lead to lasting negative mental and emotional health consequence.

Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/

Linktree:https://linktr.ee/StraightWhiteJC

Order Brad's book:https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fantasy and Folly at the Museum of the Bible Oct 03, 2022

Show notes

Brad is joined by scholars Jill-Hicks Keeton and Cavan Concannon to talk about their new book: "Does Scripture Speak for Itself: The Museum of the Bible and the Politics of Interpretation. "

https://books.google.com/books/about/Does_Scripture_Speak_for_Itself.html?id=f3iwzgEACAAJ

The Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC is arguably the latest example of a long line of white evangelical institutions aiming to amplify and promote a religious, political, and moral agenda of their own. Jill Hicks-Keeton and Cavan Concannon show how the Museum's exhibits reinforce a particularized and partial interpretation of the Bible's meaning. The authors reveal how the MOTB produces a version of the Bible that in essence authorizes a certain sort of white evangelical privilege; promotes a view of history aligned with that same evangelical aspiration; and above all protects a cohort of white evangelicals from critique.

Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/

Order Brad's new book: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163
To Donate: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BradleyOnishi
SWAJ Apparel is here! https://straight-white-american-jesus.creator-spring.com/listing/not-today-uncle-ron

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Everything You Need to Know About SWAJ Sep 30, 2022

Show notes

Brad and Dan are in the same room! Recording SWAJ in person! It's the first time since 2019 and so they take the opportunity to do a primer on all things SWAJ: the origin story of the show, the rundown of all the series they've done in the past and are planning for the future, the books they've written, the live event coming up in Denver, and why Brad is a California cliche and Dan is a walking dad joke.

Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/

Order Brad's new book: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163
To Donate: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BradleyOnishi
SWAJ Apparel is here! https://straight-white-american-jesus.creator-spring.com/listing/not-today-uncle-ron

Dan's 1st book: https://www.dupress.duq.edu/products/the-myth-of-normative-secularism-politics-and-religion-in-the-democratic-homeworld

Brad's 1st book: http://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-sacrality-of-the-secular/9780231183925

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's In the Code, Ep. 22: God's Ways Are Not Our Ways Sep 28, 2022

Show notes

Many have heard Christians claim that “God’s ways are not our ways,” or that “God moves in mysterious ways.” While these words might have been offered as comfort in a trying time, they have had a negative impact on many. In this episode, Dan cracks the code on phrases like these find out why, and to understand the multiple meanings encoded within them.

Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/

Linktree:https://linktr.ee/StraightWhiteJC

Order Brad's book:https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andrew Seidel on How SCOTUS is Weaponizing Religious Liberty Sep 26, 2022

Show notes

Brad speaks with constitutional lawyer Andrew Seidel about the crusade to weaponize religious freedom for the minority - and against the majority.

The Bible speaks of people beating swords into plowshares, but some conservative American Christians are proving that a false prophecy. They’re beating plowshares into swords. A group of committed and well-funded activists—“Crusaders”—are attempting to redefine and weaponize religious liberty, to change a hallowed legal protection into a tool to impose religion on others.

The Crusaders are deliberately working to pervert this hallowed constitutional protection. Their vision of religious liberty codifies privilege and status for conservative, white Christians, a dwindling demographic. It’s a weapon to maintain their dominant, privileged caste status that can be used against nearly every law, rule, or regulation.

https://andrewlseidel.com/american-crusade/

Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/

Order Brad's new book: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163
To Donate: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BradleyOnishi
SWAJ Apparel is here! https://straight-white-american-jesus.creator-spring.com/listing/not-today-uncle-ron

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Straight White American Jesus

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected