Straight White American Jesus

Brad speaks with Dr. Jessica Johnson, research fellow at the College of William and Mary and author of Biblical Porn: Affect, Labor, and Pastor Mark Driscoll's Evangelical Empire. They discuss the ways that Christianity Today's podcast, "The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill," primes its audience using similar tactics to Driscoll and other megachurch pastors, how it refuses to center abuse victims, and h...

Brad and Dan begin by discussing the Senate Judiciary Committee's findings on how Trump sought to overturn the election by pressuring the DOJ. Dan relates these revelations to the concepts of populism and nationalism, showing how Trump used tactics used by populist leaders who take control of every aspect of government in order to take complete control of a nation. They then turn their attention t...

Brad shares an episode from his deconstruction when he began to date again. It was the first time he was out of church and single since he converted. What ensued was a crisis of self image and a crisis of masculinity. While he was overjoyed to be outside the narrow confines of the Evangelical fold, he also had no tools with which to understand himself in the world. When he tried to date "out there...

Blake Chastain, host of #Exvangelical and Powers and Principalities, and the author of a recent piece on the recent Christianity Today podcast on the downfall of Mars Hill, stops by to talk about why religious leaders and thinkers refuse to listen to ex-evangelicals. He and Brad discuss the excuses that the Christianity Today podcast and other sources make about why people leave high demand religi...

Brad and Dan discuss American values in relation to the ongoing debates among Democrats about the Biden administration's infrastructure bill. They discuss why Joe Manchin has been willing to vote for 9 trillion in military spending over the last decade, but doesn't want to invest in education, fighting climate change, or American families. The bulk of the episode focuses on how White Christians us...

Brad continues his analysis of sex and masculinity in purity culture. He focuses on how it teaches men to hate themselves twice. First, they hate themselves for continually giving into lust and sexual temptation. It is a losing battle that can't be won. Second, they hate themselves because men are supposed to be sexual barbarians. So, when they get married, if they don't want to engage in sexual a...

Constitutional Originalism is the idea that one should read the Constitution, not interpret it. It endeavors to implement the "original" intent of the Founders. The goal is to limit renovation and innovation in order to stick with the "fundamentals" of the United States. Sound familiar? It should. The origins of this strategy are found in biblical inerrancy--the idea that the Bible should be read,...

Brad and Dan begin by discussing Trump and why exploring the ongoing revelations of the January 6th is more than just archival mining. The second major topic is the reclaiming of abortion as a religious right. Brad draws upon the United Church of Christ fight for queer marriage where religious leaders stated that a ban on queer marriage violated the religious liberty and leaders of their church. I...

Brad discusses the strange contradiction at the heart of purity culture's vision of masculinity: You are a sexual savage that has a near uncontrollable libido and that is just how God made you. And you, the uncontrollable animal, should be the leader of church, family, and society. This, among other things, is a form of rape culture. It's also an infantilizing view of masculinity and sexuality tha...

Brad speaks to his co-host Dan Miller about Miller's new book, Queer Democracy: Desire, Dysphoria, and the Body Politic. Dan explains why the metaphor of the social body is helpful for understanding Christian nationalism as a visceral reaction to the expansion freedoms and rights to marginalized groups within the American body politic. In essence, Miller explains, Christian nationalism holds a myo...

Dan and special guest Blake begin by discussing the Babylon Bee, and the anti-censorship bill in Florida. They explore how misinformation is disseminated disguised as free speech. The second major topic is the planned "Justice for J6" rally planned at the Capitol on September 18. This is, in their view, a ritual enactment of the myth of the Big Lie--a return to the site of violence to commemorate...

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/ On this first installment of Mild at Heart, Brad shares some of his experience with purity culture. He focuses on how it taught him to hate his mind for the way it led him into continual sexual sin, and to hate his body for the...

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 book: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163 SWAJ Apparel is here! https://straight-white-american-jesus.creator-spring.com/...

Brad and Dan begin by discussing Biden's sweeping new vaccine mandates and measures. They explore the right-wing response to the measures in comparison with right-wing responses to the Patriot Act and other policies in the wake of 9/11. They then dissect Ben Shapiro's statements about vaccines and COVID using the standard of a freshman logic course. The second major topic is the planned "Justice f...

Brad refutes the idea that mandating vaccines is un-American and anti-Christian. 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 book: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/150648216...

Brad speak with Ryan Stollar, expert on child protection and a Christian homeschooling survivor. Ryan shares his research on the evangelical and ex-evangelical components of Britney's story--from her childhood in church, to her experiences in purity culture, to the powerful evangelical business manager who convinced her dad to put Britney under conservatorship. It is a story of sexualizing young w...

Brad and Dan begin by discussing the slate of new laws in Texas: Abortion: The six-week abortion ban that includes a 10k bounty for anyone involved. Handheld Killing Machines: The new permitless carry law. Voting: making absentee voting harder, preventing 24-hour voting in Harris County, demanding driver licenses for mail-in votes, etc. School Curricula: Laws creating an "1836 Project," outlaw dis...

A re-release of Dan’s interview with Professor R. Marie Griffith, author of Moral Combat: How Sex Divided American Christians and Fractured American Politics. Dan and Prof. Griffith discuss the surprising history of evangelical positions on abortion, and how evangelical extremism has left no room for nuance in the debate. R. Marie Griffith, the John C. Danforth Distinguished Professor in the Human...

On another installment of Ex-Evangelical Apologetics Brad takes on the mantra, "I stand for the flag and kneel for the cross." By looking back to the New Testament and Early Church Fathers, he is able to show the Uncle Rons of the world that the earliest iterations of Christian faith were often staunchly against war, violence, and revenge. Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free...

Dr. Liliana Mason is faculty at Johns Hopkins University and author of Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity. In a new article, Activating Animus: The Uniquely Social Roots of Trump Support, she and her co-authors show that "Trump’s support is thus uniquely tied to animus toward minority groups." She provides key takeaways fro this study: "First, the people who really like Trump in 2...

Brad and Dan discuss the dangerous rhetoric coming from the right that frames the COVID outbreaks as the result of "infestations" of undocumented immigrants. It is not founded in data. And it is dangerously dehumanizing. They then discuss Madison Cawthorn's suggestion that masks for children = abuse. This is rich in a country where kids practice active shooter drills regularly. They also discuss T...

Brad discusses the idea that capitalism and Christianity go together from two angles. First, he outlines how in the mid-twentieth century big business actors infiltrated church spaces with the ideas that free market capitalism, individualism, and libertarianism were God ordained from the Bible. Like abortion in the 1970s, the idea that capitalism and Christianity are natural partners is the result...

Dartmouth professor and pre-eminent scholar of Evangelicalism Dr. Randall Balmer returns to talk about his new book, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right. He and Brad discuss how over the course of the 20th century, race and xenophobia have been the drivers of Evangelical theology and politics. Balmer explains how Evangelicals once invested in social reform, but over the last centur...

Brad and Dan discuss the vehement support for the Iraq War and the invasion of Afghanistan during the Bush years and comment briefly on the ills of American Empire. They then discuss the dangers and implications of the alliance between anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers with the Proud Boys and how cultural melding leads to strange--and in this case, scary--bedfellows. This leads to a reflection on the...

Brad continues the Exvie Apologetics series with a retort to those who would say that there are only two genders and that the idea of pronouns is a leftist invention. 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 b...