Straight White American Jesus

Luke Wilson is a survivor of "conversion therapy." He has written about his experiences at Liberty University for Religion Dispatches, Queerty, and other outlets. In this conversation, Luke provides his response to the Netflix doc "Pray Away." They discuss the complexities of those who are both survivor and perpetrator sharing their stories and taking the spotlight. They also discuss the (unsurpri...

Brad begins this solo roundup by discussing how provocateur worship leader Sean Feucht provoked conflict in Portland Sunday. His security team was made up of Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer, leading to reflection on what the intimacy between conservative White Christians and militant nationalists groups means for the ongoing Cold Civil War. Brad then spends extended time charting the political/ideol...

Brad speaks with Emily Torres, who is behind the Life She Wrote blog and podcast. Emily tells her story of growing up--and eventually leaving--Evangelicalism and describes the religious trauma that ensued from her experiences. She explains the mechanics of purity culture and how young women learn that their bodies are not their own, their bodies are stumbling blocks, and that they should never tru...

Brad speaks with Dr. Laura Anderson, founder of the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery and co-founder of the Religious Trauma Institute. They discuss the nature of religious trauma, why it can be hard for individuals to label it trauma, and how it can be treated. One of the issues for victims of religious trauma is the absence of a clear cut "before" and "after" that indicates when and how...

Brad and Dan discuss Tucker Carlson's trip to Hungary and interview with Orban as part of a decades-long pattern of White nationalists and White Christian nationalists looking to autocratic strongmen as the models of the ideal society. They trace Carlson's visit to Hungary to Rod Dreher and other White Christians who see Orban and his ilk as the prototypical Christian patriarchal leaders. They the...

Brad addresses two common refrains about racism and social issues--the "racism is a heart issue" response and the "not of this world" response. He shows how when Evangelicals hold power, they turn to individualist responses to issues like race and guns. They don't want the systems changed, so the response is to turn it into a changing hearts for God issue. When they have lost the power, they do ev...

Brad speaks with Matthew Sheffield, the editor and publisher of the new media outlet Flux. They discuss his article, "Republicans are banking on a fusion of Trump autocracy and McConnell nihilism, but will it work for them?" One of the arguments Sheffield makes is that the GOP has given up on policy and has become the party of outrage and resentment. Their only play is belligerence via Fox News an...

Brad and Dan begin with extended analysis of the testimony of the Capitol Police officers before the 1/6 committee. Their words are shocking and harrowing. They reflect on the words hurled at them that day as they were being attacked, words marked by the racism, xenophobia, Trumpism, and Christianity of the capitol rioters. They then turn to the explicit Christian nationalism of the rioters. This...

Brad revisits the idea that exvangelicals are just broke and giving up on faith. He responds to an interview at the Remnant Radio with Skillet's John Cooper. Topics discussed: Do non-Evangelicals allow culture to shape them, while Evangelicals allow Scripture to be the formative influence? Is Truth all or nothing? Why are Evangelicals so upset when exvies "share the Gospel" of their deconstruction...

Brad speaks once again with Dr. Susannah Crockford. They discuss her new book, Ripples of the Universe, which provides an ethnographic account of New Age spiritual practitioners in Sedona, Arizona. Dr. Crockford explains the various spiritual beliefs, cosmologies, and rituals that makeup the peculiar and dazzling form of spirituality in the Arizona desert. She also explains the term "conspirituali...

Brad and Dan begin by discussing what's behind the anti-vax attitudes of many Americans, especially White Christians. After reviewing the staggering and heartbreaking numbers, they draw on scholarship related to wraparound media and conspiracy theories to examine what resisting vaccines does for people--especially as it relates to themes of power, belonging, and authority. They then discuss the 1/...

Last weekend theologian and former head of the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood Owen Strachan tweeted that taking away even one comma from the Bible would demean it. This let to a Twitter storm and many folks pointed out the misguidedness of attributing things like commas to the original composition of the biblical texts. Brad digs deeper into this controversy to show how Strachan's appr...

Dr. Megan Goodwin is the author of Abusing Religion, which explores how White Christians and their influence in our "secular" institutions have constructed religious outsiders as sexual predators as a pretext for persecution and othering. The American body politic is envisioned as a White Christian woman in need of protection from religious (and racial) foreigners who seek to infiltrate and contam...

Brad and Dan begin with a discussion of the revelations from the new book, "I Alone Can Fix It," including General Mark Milley's preparing for Trump's Reichstag Moment, Pence's belief that his Secret Service detail was part of a Trumpian conspiracy, and the ways our democracy have been pushed to the limits before, during, and after 1/6. They then discuss what the Texas Dems self-exile to DC means...

Brad discusses a new article at WaPo on the Trumpism and Christian nationalism of non-denominational churches. He points out that this is not a new phenomenon to anyone who has been paying attention He points out that the identity of non-denominational Christian might replace the Evangelical identity for some people--which helps make sense of recent data on a decline in Evangelical numbers across...

Brad speaks with Dr. Lucas Kwong of CUNY about the far-reaching implications of Christian xenophobia. They discuss the explicit White nationalism of AZ Representative Paul Gosar and far-right commentator Nick Fuentes (who was just banned from Twitter for his hateful content). They also touch on the more cunning versions of Christian xenophobia in pastors such as Tim Keller and Ralph Drollinger, th...

"Whatever natural good was present in the piety and community of the pagan past is an infinitesimal fraction of the grace rendered unto those pagans’ descendants who have been received into the Church of Christ. Whatever sacrifices were exacted in pursuit of that grace—the suffocation of a noble pagan culture; an increase in disease and bodily death due to government negligence; even the sundering...

Brad begins by responding to Pennsylvania Senate candidate Josh Mandel who claimed last week that the Bible and the Constitution were "not supposed to be separate." He then spends the bulk of this response episode dissecting the comments of conservative "theocratic fascist" Matt Walsh, who spent last week whining that the House voted to remove Confederate statues from the Capitol. Brad uses the me...

Dr. Benjamin E. Park is a historian who has become a national voice on issues related to religion and politics, particularly as they relate to the Church of Latter Day Saints. His work has appeared at the Washington Post, Newsweek, Houston Chronicle, Religion & Politics, Talking Points Memo, Religion Dispatches, Dallas Morning News, Salt Lake Tribune, Religion News Service, and Patheos.  He speaks...

Brad and Dan begin this 4th of July weekend episode with thoughts from James Baldwin, who discussed his love for America as a "lover's quarrel." They then lay out the evidence for the fact that the Cold Civil War is escalating--from Trump's Revenge Tour, to new data on how White Evangelicals voted in 2020, to Governor Kristi Noem turning the South Dakota National Guard into soldiers-for-hire, to t...

Brad speaks with author and pastor Ruth Everhart about her new book, "The #MeToo Reckoning: Facing the Church's Complicity in Sexual Abuse and Misconduct." They discuss the connections between rape culture and purity culture, how patriarchal theology contributes to toxic church environments. Link to Ruth Everhart The #MeToo Reckoning: https://www.ivpress.com/the-metoo-reckoning "The #MeToo movemen...

The Catholic Church is officially against abortion. But there are millions of Catholics around the world--including President Joe Biden--who are pro-choice politically. Only the 2nd Catholic president in our history, one would think that the Church, especially the Conference of Bishops, would be ecstatic to have Biden in the White House. But in a vote that portends an escalating culture war, recen...

Brad and Dan do close readings of statements made by Insurrectionist Senator Josh Hawley and Representative Matt Gaetz in order to deconstruct the logic of their attacks on CRT, their resistance to facing the inconvenient truths of American history, and their rage against investigating the 1/6 Coup. Both of them use binary thinking, false dilemmas, and straw man arguments to mount attacks that amo...

We are thrilled to announce Straight White American Jesus's first affiliate podcast: Out of the Closet and Into the Pews, a show by Rachael Borthwick that asks what it means for religion to be a vehicle for liberation and freedom for queer people. Rachael is a burgeoning scholar of religion at the University of Pennsylvania who has written on queer communities of faith in the USA and beyond, serve...

Brad speaks with Kyle J. Howard, a theologian and counselor trained at a Southern Baptist Seminary. He discusses his conversion at 18 at a Black Church in Georgia, his journey to ministry as a counselor of racial and spiritual trauma, and his insider perspective of the calculation made by leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention. It goes like this: Demonize Critical Race Theory in order to diver...