Straight White American Jesus

Brad begins by reviewing the bombshell document on Trump's plan to commandeer a recount of the 2020 election by using the military and other government agencies. He links this to comments this week by Matt Gaetz about how when the GOP takes over power once again they will come for their political opponents directly--using "shock troops" to overrun the American government. He then turns his attenti...

On the final installment of Mild at Heart Brad discusses how purity culture taught him to treat his body as an enemy that his mind was in charge of controlling. This had after effects long after he left purity culture. It took him years to learn how to exist in his own body, to recognize how his mind was preventing him from feeling in real time, and how to quell the hypervigilant inner dialogue th...

Amanda Moore spent a year undercover attending rallies, events, and conferences in the trenches of MAGA Nation. She hung out with Proud Boys, got up close and personal with QAnon grifters, and got invited to join a fascist grassroots organization while attending a Turning Point USA event. She was also present at January 6th. She joins Brad to share what she saw and heard. They play clips she recor...

Brad and Dan are back after a week off. They begin by discussing SCOTUS and the very real possibility of Roe v. Wade being overturned. Dan distills the arguments of the Trump appointed judges. Brad points to the religious history and context that made this moment possible. They then turn their attention to Oxford, Michigan and the school shooting from a few days ago. Brad argues that the reason we...

Brad and Dan are joined by Professor Kristin Kobes du Mez, author of Jesus and John Wayne, and an expert on evangelical masculinity and culture. They discuss why evangelicals imagine Jesus to be a heterosexual strong man, how evangelical pastors prime their congregations for fear, the trappings of gender complementarity, the #churchtoo movement, and the damaging effects of patriarchal church cultu...

Brad speaks with Dennison University political scientist Paul Djupe. They discuss Djupe's findings that those Christians who live in homogenous Christian communities are most likely to believe that Democrats, atheists, and others are trying to take their rights away. They also discuss data that shows a large majority of Evangelicals are willing to strip rights from nonbelievers. Subscribe for $5.9...

Dan speaks with author and constitutional lawyer Andrew Seidel. They discuss his new book, "The Founding Myth," and dissect the idea that the USA is a Christian nation. 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 new...

In his new book, Profaning Paul, USC Professor Cavan Concannon takes an unflinching look at the letters of Paul through the metaphor of excrement--or shit. "The letters of Paul have been used to support and condone a host of evils over the span of more than two millennia: racism, slavery, imperialism, misogyny, and anti-Semitism, to name a few. Following the lead of feminist, queer, and minoritize...

Brad and Dan discuss the censuring of Rep. Paul Gosar for his tweet depicting him as an anime character killing Rep AOC. This leads to a bold, but evidence-based thesis: There is no good Republican party. If it ever existed in the first place, it is now gone. What has taken its place is a party founded on Trumpism, grievance, and fascist tendencies. After providing evidence for this thesis, Brad a...

On Mourning the One and the lessons about love you never learn in church. 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 SWAJ Appa...

A life long social activist, Obery Hendricks is one of the foremost commentators on the intersection of religion and political economy in America. He is the most widely read and perhaps the most influential African American biblical scholar writing today. Dr. Hendricks’ appearances include CNN, MSNBC, CBS, Fox News, Fox Business News, the Discovery Channel, PBS, BBC, among others. Dr. Hendricks ha...

Brad and Dan begin by discussing the case of Aaron Rodgers, who was recently found out not to have been vaccinated. They discuss the various components at play in the case--from becoming an anti-vaxxer wiithout realizing it, to blaming the "woke mob" for cancel culture, and the politics of scientific authority. This leads to a discussion of Ted Cruz's criticism of Big Bird's immunization. Yes, Big...

Brad uses recent comments by Josh Hawley to talk about what people mean when they say that the country (and the church) needs to return to masculinity. Brad argues that this is a common trope in Christian nationalism and the theme opens the door for seeing how Christian nationalism is the original purity culture. Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the e...

Brad's spirited and at times contentious interview with Daniel Silliman, the news editor for Christianity Today and the author of Reading Evangelicals:: How Christian Fiction Shaped a Culture and Faith. Their discussion of Silliman's book includes rumination on the themes of race, class, politics, and the contours of evangelical culture. Where Silliman sees diversity, Brad sees a narrow focus on s...

Brad and Dan begin by debating the fallout of the gubernatorial election in Virginia. Dan points out that historically the party in power doesn't perform well in midterm and off-year elections. This is especially true in Virginia. Brad takes a different approach by discussing the ways that the GOP has made extremism mainstream in the past and how Glenn Youngkin, who ran on a Trumpian platform with...

Brad takes a break from Mild at Heart to talk to writer, podcaster, and organizer Cindy Wang Brandt, the person behind Parenting Forward. Cindy discusses her journey from Evangelical convert to the go-to person helping folks navigate parenthood after deconstruction and in the wake of purity culture. Her new children's book, You Are Revolutionary, provides an inspiring child-affirming message that...

Dr. Brett Krutsch is the editor of the Revealer and the Director of the Center for Religion and Media at NYU, He speaks to Brad about his book, "Dying to Be Normal: Gay Martyrs and the Transformation of American Sexual Politics." In Dying to Be Normal, Krutzsch argues that gay activists have in the past enacted a political strategy to present gays as similar to the country's dominant class of whit...

Brad and Dan begin by discussing three trials happening right now: the Charlottesville Unite the Right Trial, the Kenosha Shooter Trial, and the Murder of Amaud Arbery. They analyze the racial, legal, and historical dynamics of each, pointing to the failure of our legal system to reckon with the baked-in White supremacy of our system. They then dissect the revelations about January 6th planning me...

Why does love feel like death? Brad continues to reflect on the soulmate myth and purity culture's vision of love. He analyzes how the model of love in these stories sees it as the end of life--the completion of one's journey, and thus something like death. With help from Plato and the Odyssey he explains why it is such a toxic, and potentially abusive, vision of love within the purity culture con...

Calvary Chapel started in Southern California in the 1960s. From the beginning, the aesthetic was laid-back, casual, and welcoming--the type of place barefoot hippies and wet-haired surfers could find a church home. But below the surface a militant conservative theology and politics took shape. Fast forward half a century and Calvary Chapel is now a nation-wide network that is at the forefront of...

Brad and Dan begin discussing the MAGA freakout over Mayor Pete's paternity leave. They use this to ask what kind of families and what kind of fathers conservatives envision when they talk endlessly about family values. Using the work of George Lakoff, this leads to examining the metaphor of the nation as a family and the political leader as the nation's father. Brad and Dan connect the outrage ov...

Brad shifts to the theme of love and explains the toxicity of the soulmate myth in purity culture. 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-Nationalis...

Alex DiBranco is Executive Director and Founder at Institute for Research on Male Supremacism. Alex stops by to discuss "Male Supremacist Terrorism as a Rising Threat". According to Dibranco, male supremacism is a right-wing extremist ideology that has contributed to terrorist attacks, primarily in the US, but also in Canada and Europe. Within male supremacist communities, the motivation for terro...

Brad and Dan begin by discussing a rally for VA gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin where supporters pledged allegiance to a flag carried at the January 6th Insurrection. To top it off, Steve Bannon--who is ignoring a subpoena to testify about January 6th--appeared at the rally to support Youngkin's campaign. They then discuss an ongoing debate in a school district near Forth Worth Texas, where...

Brad discusses the fact that masculinity is often a performance for other men. Men fear what other men think of them, creating the need to constantly live up to an ideal of masculinity that is neither rooted in reality, nor healthy. Purity culture exacerbates this phenomenon by setting up God as the Ultimate Masculinity who every man mimics, but cannot live up to. This leads to anxiety and insecur...