Straight White American Jesus

On this Sunday Interview, Annika Brockschmidt talks with scholar of religion and theologian Matthew Taylor about his new book, Defying Tyrants, Following Jesus: In a World of Christian Antichrists. Writing as a Christian to other Christians, Taylor argues that the propaganda fueling MAGA and the authoritarian turn in American politics is theological, and that the response must be too. He explains...

In this Straight White American Jesus Weekly Roundup, Brad Onishi and Dan Miller dig into new White House press secretary Katie Zacharia, who is not a licensed attorney and has deep ties to the Southern California Christian nationalist network around Rob McCoy, Charlie Kirk’s pastor, and a past advisory role with White Rose Resistance, a group calling for women who have abortions to be executed in...

Do all religions lead to God? It's the kind of question that can get you in trouble in strict religious communities, so we look at why. Then we explore who has asked it over the years, from scholars and philosophers to Hindu, Sikh, and mystical traditions, and why many religion scholars today aren't convinced by it. If you enjoy our work, please subscribe.  Paid subscribers get bonus content,...

In this episode of Straight White American Jesus, Brad Onishi is joined by Matthew D. Taylor, author of Defying Tyrants, to discuss the raid on Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home 22 days before the midterms, which came inside the Justice Department’s usual 60-day window for avoiding overt investigative steps. They weigh the evidence that the raid is politically motivated, including years of debunked conspirac...

Brad Onishi talks with three Wheaton College alumnae about the growing controversy over how the college handled abuse by a former administrator, and why they say the problem is systemic rather than the work of one person. The abuse took place in the 1990s. Alumni say it was covered up for roughly 25 years, leaving students and later victims at risk. The conversation covers the case itself, the cal...

They want to rule, not govern. This week on the Weekly Roundup, Brad Onishi and Dan Miller break down Trump’s “bomb LA” comments, the “enemy combatant” rhetoric aimed at Somalis in Minnesota, Hegseth’s plan to live-stream a firing squad execution, and Tucker Carlson and Curtis Yarvin’s Hitler comments. Then they close with some reasons for hope: Ossoff in the Georgia debate and a Satanic invocatio...

What happens to people who have never heard the gospel? It's one of the most common questions people raise in church, and one of the most uncomfortable: how can God be just if he condemns people who never had the chance to respond to the message that could save them? In this episode of It's in the Code, part of the series Questions I Wasn't Supposed to Ask in Church, Dan Miller walks through three...

The Antichrist is not a scary villain who shows up someday to rule the world. According to the New Testament, there are already many of them, and they look a lot like Christians who abuse power in Jesus' name. On the pub day of Defying Tyrants: Following Jesus in a World of Christian Antichrists, Brad Onishi talks with author and scholar Matthew D. Taylor about what the Bible actually says about t...

Brought to you by Homerserve: www.homeserve.com/swaj Can the Christian left challenge the religious right’s claim to moral authority? Leah Payne speaks with journalist and essayist Miguel Petrosky about his article for The Revealer, “James Talarico and the Christian Left,” and what the Texas Senate candidate’s blend of Christian conviction and economic populism reveals about progressive polit...

In this episode of Straight White American Jesus, Brad Onishi and Dan Miller break down Pete Hegseth's State of the Force speech, which they argue recasts the U.S. military as a Christian crusader army defined by narrow standards of body, gender, and faith. They examine his flattened story of Western civilization, his "appeal to heaven" and "armor of God" language, and the plan to remove bureaucra...

"Was Mary a virgin?" Dan Miller unpacks the question in layers. First, the textual evidence: the Greek word parthenos and its relationship to the Hebrew alma; plus Mary's line in Luke 1:34, which together explain why the tradition reads her as a virgin. For Dan, the bigger question is why the claim matters theologically. He traces how it underscores the miraculous nature of Jesus' b...

Peter Thiel says that if you're evil, maybe you're actually good. Brad Onishi (author of American Caesar) and Matthew D. Taylor (author of The Violent Take It by Force) break down the viral clip: what Thiel means by "bad" versus "evil," why he frames progress as an all-or-nothing choice, and how his Antichrist theology, technological accelerationism, and contempt for the "mimetic sheeple" shape hi...

This week on The Sunday Interview, Brad revisits a conversation with sociologist of religion Paul Djupe (Denison University) on two ideas shaping the current political moment: the myth of the persecuted Christian and the inverted golden rule. Djupe unpacks the data behind the persecution narrative — a claim that has intensified under the second Trump administration through initiatives like the Ant...

Does God change his mind? CAN God change his mind? The traditional theological answer to both of these questions is “no.” But what if the answer is “yes”? Why would this represent such a threat to high-control religion and traditional Christian teaching? Check out this week’s episode to find out! If you enjoy our work, please subscribe.  Paid subscribers get bonus content, ad-free listening,...

Matthew Taylor is joined by historian and former CIA Africa analyst Holly Berkley Fletcher (author of The Missionary Kids) to unpack why the religious left — unlike the ideologically cohesive religious right — has long struggled to translate its diverse coalition into electoral power, and why faith-forward Democratic candidates like Adam Hamilton and James Talarico may be changing that calcul...

In this Sunday interview, Annika Brockschmidt talks with journalist and podcaster Michael Edison Hayden about his new book, Strange People on the Hill, which follows what happened when Peter and Lydia Brimelow, the couple behind the white nationalist site VDARE, bought a castle overlooking the tiny tourist town of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. Hayden explains who the Brimelows are and how VDARE...

SCOTUS just blocked Donald Trump's attempt to use the U.S. Postal Service to interfere with mail-in voting ahead of the 2026 midterms — but is the fight over election integrity really over? Brad Onishi and Dan Miller break down the ruling, the dissents from Alito and Thomas, and why Mike Johnson could try to pull a "January 3rd" power grab reminiscent of January 6th. Then: a viral photo from a UT...

Can God be perfectly good and perfectly just and still send people to hell? What’s at stake with questions like these? How do adherents of high-control religion respond to questions like these? Check out this week’s episode to hear Dan’s discussion of why the doctrine of hell fundamentally calls God’s goodness and justice into question. If you enjoy our work, please subscribe.  Paid subscribe...

Brad Onishi on "American Caesar": Inside the Movement to End American DemocracyToday is release day for Brad Onishi's new book American Caesar, and Matt Taylor sits down with him for a deep dive into the ideas inside it. Together they trace how three seemingly separate strands of the American right — Protestant Reconstructionism, radical traditionalist Catholicism, and Silicon Valley technocracy —...

Brad Onishi previews his new book American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy, out this week, and shares its audiobook introduction. He explains the book's central argument: an unlikely alliance has formed between Protestant reconstructionists, radical traditional Catholics, and Silicon Valley technocrats, united by five shared beliefs — hostility to liberalis...

On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Brad breaks down Donald Trump's false claims about his experience that day, Rudy Giuliani's attacks on Mayor Zohran Mamdani for attending the memorial as a Muslim, and newly released documents showing NYC officials knew Ground Zero air was toxic but told the public otherwise. Then Brad welcomes former CIA officer Holly Berkley Fletcher to unpack how the "national m...

The idea of “hell” is a central focus within conservative, high-control Christianity (with analogues in some other traditions as well). But what, exactly, is the teaching concerning hell? And where does it come from? Does the Bible actually teach what religious conservatives say it does about hell? If not, why do they teach it? Why is hell so central to their understanding of Christianity? And wha...

For the first time since 1945, a far-right party bordering on Nazism has won real power in Germany. Brad Onishi and Matthew D. Taylor break down the AfD's stunning election result, Elon Musk and JD Vance's public support for the party, and what this signals about the global retreat from liberal democracy. Then, religious historian Warren Throckmorton joins to unpack Southern Baptist leader Al Mohl...

In PART II A conversation between Robert P. Jones and Brad Onishi, whose books—Backslide and American Caesar—arrive one week apart from the same publisher. Jones traces how "backsliding" carries both theological and political-science meanings, citing survey data showing measurable democratic erosion (from a rating of 67 down to 54, with a projected drop to 47) and arguing white Christianity, not j...

In PART I of this conversation, Brad Onishi and Robert P. Jones (author of Backslide: Reclaiming a Faith in a Nation after the Christian Turn Against Democracy) discuss what they call the "war on empathy" within segments of white Christianity in the United States. Robert argues that voices like Allie Beth Stuckey, Joe Rigney, and Elon Musk framing empathy as sinful serves as a theological retrofit...