Straight White American Jesus

Brad and Dan discuss how returning to normal after the pandemic is tragic in contemporary America: from the murder of Daunte Wright during the Derek Chauvin murder trial to the propagation of White replacement theory by prominent pundits and politicians to the Evangelical reticence to get the vaccine. They draw on the work of James Baldwin and others to draw connections among these disheartening facets of American life.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/StraightWhiteJCOrder Brad's new book: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163SWAJ Apparel is here! https://straight-white-american-jesus.creator-spring.com/listing/not-today-uncle-ronTo Donate: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BradleyOnishi Venmo: @straightwhitejc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brad's second (and hopefully final) response to Timothy Keller. Brad discusses Keller's reductionist view of modern conceptions of selfhood; the problematic approach he takes to criticisms that his sexual ethic erases queer people--and creates the context for violence against them; and the ways Keller uses academic and theoretical sources (Taylor, Asad, Foucault) to cover over what are classic evangelical maneuvers: reduce sexual identity to choice, label those who don't fit the heterosexual fold as deviant, and blame them for it by tracing their path to sinful desire. 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/StraightWhiteJCOrder 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's second (and hopefully final) response to Timothy Keller. Brad discusses Keller's reductionist view of modern conceptions of selfhood; the problematic approach he takes to criticisms that his sexual ethic erases queer people--and creates the context for violence against them; and the ways Keller uses academic and theoretical sources (Taylor, Asad, Foucault) to cover over what are classic evangelical maneuvers: reduce sexual identity to choice, label those who don't fit the heterosexual fold as deviant, and blame them for it by tracing their path to sinful desire. 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/StraightWhiteJCOrder Brad's new book: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163SWAJ Apparel is here! https://straight-white-american-jesus.creator-spring.com/listing/not-today-uncle-ronTo Donate: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BradleyOnishi Venmo: @straightwhitejc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brad and Dan draw on Sophie Bjork-James' new book, the Divine Institution, to demonstrate how Evangelicals use the nuclear family in order to both attack members of the LGBTQ+ community and draw attention away from systemic issues related to race and other public health threats. In particular, they discuss a) the trans bill and healthcare for trans children in Arkansas b) Biden's executive order on gun control and the issue of gun violence as a public health threat c) the CDC's labeling of racism as a threat to public health. In all three instances, the individualist, patriarchal, and heteronormative Evangelical view leads to either active or passive complicity in marginalization and/or violence against racial, sexual, and gender minorities. 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/StraightWhiteJCOrder Brad's new book: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163SWAJ Apparel is here! https://straight-white-american-jesus.creator-spring.com/listing/not-today-uncle-ronTo Donate: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BradleyOnishi Venmo: @straightwhitejc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brad is joined by Dr. Susannah Crockford, author of "Thank God for the greatest country on earth: white supremacy, vigilantes, and survivalists in the struggle to define the American nation," an article in which she shares her ethnographic field work from the Arizona desert, near the US-Mexico border. Her work illuminates how Christian nationalism works in the minds of those who see defending the border as the most pressing issue in maintaining the greatness of the USA. She also explores how certain people separate the "People" and the "Land" from the government, thus creating a populism of We The People apart from allegiance to the workings of US democracy. 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/StraightWhiteJCOrder Brad's new book: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163SWAJ Apparel is here! https://straight-white-american-jesus.creator-spring.com/listing/not-today-uncle-ronTo Donate: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BradleyOnishi Venmo: @straightwhitejc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brad responds to a Twitter thread by Timothy Keller, pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. Keller argues for sex in a lifelong covenant marked by deep permanent union. He calls this biblical. Brad points out that the only biblical soulmate story we have of this kind is between God and Israel, which is a problematic example since God is both Israel's Husband AND maker. How do you have consent and symmetry if your spouse is your creator? He then shows that the soulmate myth Keller is advancing comes from Plato, not the Bible. And this non-biblical source of biblical sexual ethics is problematic for Keller because it includes same-sex soulmates and is articulated by a comic poet. In other words, it's meant to be a joke. Shoutout to Cindy Wang Brandt 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/StraightWhiteJCOrder Brad's new book: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163SWAJ Apparel is here! https://straight-white-american-jesus.creator-spring.com/listing/not-today-uncle-ronTo Donate: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BradleyOnishi Venmo: @straightwhitejc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brad and Dan are happy to announce that SWAJ is joining the Irreverent Media Group--a collective of podcasts that offers content on deconstruction, rediscovery, and everything in between. We outline the details at the top of the episode. Check out irreverent.fm for more details!We spend the major segment discussing the 82 anti-trans bills up for vote across the country. Dan shares analysis about how and why the trans body is so disruptive to the Christian nationalist vision of the USA. By using the metaphor of the social domain as a body, it's clear that Christian nationalists see trans people as an aberration from nature--and thus they are trying write laws that make it almost impossible to acknowledge trans existence, much less trans rights. On the second segment, they discuss the Evangelical leaders trying to defend purity culture and how sexual ethics in the Bible is a complex--and often disdainful-thing. 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/StraightWhiteJCOrder Brad's new book: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163SWAJ Apparel is here! https://straight-white-american-jesus.creator-spring.com/listing/not-today-uncle-ronTo Donate: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BradleyOnishi Venmo: @straightwhitejc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TEDx speaker and author Asha Dahya is the Creator and Editor in Chief of GIRLTALKHQ. She was born in the UK, raised in Australia, and now lives in the USA. Of Indian descent, Asha grew up in Evangelical churches and was imbued with the teachings of purity culture. She discusses how it shaped her understanding of love, embodiment, and relationships, and why it prevented her from seeking the proper help when her marriage turned abusive. She also discusses how being a woman of color in the United States adds another layer of otherness and objectification within the confines of Evangelical spaces. 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/StraightWhiteJCOrder Brad's new book: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163SWAJ Apparel is here! https://straight-white-american-jesus.creator-spring.com/listing/not-today-uncle-ronTo Donate: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BradleyOnishi Venmo: @straightwhitejc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brad’s response to Focus on the Family head Jim Daly, who mentioned him in a recent article. In the article Daly tried to deflect the analyses that connect the Atlanta shooter with Evangelicalism and purity culture. Brad dissects Daly’s argument that: The Atlanta shooter’s actions were born from insanity, and thus warrant no further investigation This is unfair to Christianity Purity culture = healthy Marriage is for procreation = biblical He concludes by extolling Daly to focus on his own family so that the rest of us don’t have to continue living with its violent and abusive effects.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/StraightWhiteJCOrder Brad's new book: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163SWAJ Apparel is here! https://straight-white-american-jesus.creator-spring.com/listing/not-today-uncle-ronTo Donate: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BradleyOnishi Venmo: @straightwhitejc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan provides a detailed rebuttal to a piece claiming that there the concern about Christian nationalism is an overblown conspiracy by liberals and celebrities. Brad links this to the draconian voter-suppression law signed in Georgia last night. The law was bankrolled by Christian nationalists organizations and is a direct reaction to Black women and POC organizing to flip the state Blue. It even makes it illegal to give people in line to vote a glass of water. Talk about freedom, eh? They finish the episode by talking about the comically bad arguments against DC statehood and why they reflect the fear of the "wrong kind of person" voting. 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/StraightWhiteJCOrder Brad's new book: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163SWAJ Apparel is here! https://straight-white-american-jesus.creator-spring.com/listing/not-today-uncle-ronTo Donate: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BradleyOnishi Venmo: @straightwhitejc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices