Straight White American Jesus

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

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

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

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=f3iwzgEACAAJThe 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

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-homeworldBrad's 1st book: http://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-sacrality-of-the-secular/9780231183925 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

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

ANNOUNCING THE FIRST SWAJ LIVE EVENT! https://www.bradonishi.com/nationalism/Brad and Dan begin by going through the details of Trump's awful no good week of legal woes and lawsuits. Dan piles up the hits against him and shows how the arguments he makes on social media and rallies don't hold up in court. He also points out that the more Trump is pursued by the law, the more his base see him as a suffering martyr.This sets up the next segment where Brad and Dan go through the creepy salutes people are doing at Trump rallies and other MAGA events around the country. It may seem like par for the course at this point, but it hearkens back to scary stages in the development of fascism from the past.In the final segment they dig into the widening scandal surrounding DeSantis' Martha's Vineyard stunt. Brad points out that it recalls the "Reverse Freedom Rides" of the 1960s.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

ANNOUNCING THE FIRST SWAJ LIVE EVENT! https://www.bradonishi.com/nationalism/You may hear Christians say they are called to be “in the world, but not of the world”? What does that mean? When someone talks in this way, what kind of Christian are they likely to be? How does this way of talking relate to different conceptions of Christian identity, to contemporary Christian nationalism, or to the ongoing “culture wars” that affect so many of us? Dan tackles these questions in this episode.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

ANNOUNCING THE FIRST SWAJ LIVE EVENT! CHECK IT OUT: https://www.bradonishi.com/nationalism/Brad speaks with the Rev. Angela Tyler-Williams a queer pastor in the Presbyterian USA Church and co-director for movement building at SACReD (Spiritual Alliance of Communities for Reproductive Dignity). They discuss the interreligious movement led by clergy and religious leaders to bring reproductive justice to the USA.They also discuss: What the Bible really says about abortion Why the Dobbs decision rests on bad theology 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