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The book "The Color of Compromise" is an heartbreaking historical journey through the history of America specifically around faith and the racial divide.

In this episode we sit with the author of "The Color of Compromise" and "The Spirit of Justice" Jemar Tisby. He is an author, historian, speaker and Christian who calls on his readers to faith history honestly, to step out of the bounds of complacency into real activism and real change.

Today we talk about head-shaking history, the development of "white is right" and the ideal that began to associate Christianity with European descent. We discuss "hereditary heathenism" and the key role the white church has played in injustice, both by her actions, and by her silence.

We get to choose in this moment how the story of our lives will be written. When it comes to our response to injustice, "What will it say?"

Sorry this came out late, for some reason it did not publish.

"History doesn't repeat itself but it often rhymes"- Mark Twain

It seems to be a common ideology that anyone who identifies as "left" or "liberal" or "progressive" or audible gasp "democratic socialist" is "a f*cking commie"!!!! And that of course is bad.... but why? Why is that rhetoric so ingrained in American vernacular?

In the wake of World War II, the tenuous "alliance" between the USSR and the USA disintegrated. With the entrance of nuclear arms, the ideological enemies and political superpowers fell immediately into the decades long Cold War. Fear of nuclear fallout, another devastating world war, was perfect political fodder for those who wanted to use fear to generate power, privilege and wealth for themselves.
Senator Joseph R McCarthy was a super power in his own right. From his speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, viciously clasping a piece of paper he claimed had over 200 names of employees in the state department who were communist spies. He levied unfounded accusations, ruined careers and lied his way into infamy. He, and his right hand man and future mafia and Trump lawyer Roy Cohn, made it a point to paint all their opposition as communist enemies of state. And it worked.. until it didn't.
We explore not just the life and movements of Joseph McCarthy, Roy Cohn, the Red Scare, the Lavender Scare and the thread of manipulation that leads us all the way to now.

Sources:

1. Richard H. Rovere – Senator Joe McCarthy (Harcourt Brace, 1959)

2. Ellen Schrecker – Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America (Princeton University Press, 1998)

3. David M. Oshinsky – A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy (Oxford University Press, 1983)

4. Richard M. Fried – Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective (Oxford University Press, 1990)

5. Howard Zinn – A People's History of the United States

6. John Lewis Gaddis – The Cold War: A New History (Penguin Press, 2005)

7. Arthur Herman – Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator

Government & Legal Documents

1. Army–McCarthy Hearings Transcript (1954)
   Available through the U.S. Senate Historical Office and National Archives.
   Excerpts are commonly found in collections like:
   📁 National Archives – Army-McCarthy Hearings

2. U.S. Senate Resolution 301 (1954) – Censure of Senator McCarthy.

   • Congressional Record

3. FBI Vault – Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Files

• FBI Records: The Vault – Rosenberg Case

1. Venona Project Decrypts (NSA) – Declassified Soviet espionage cables.

• NSA.gov Venona Files

Journalism & Documentary Archives

1. Edward R. Murrow – “See It Now” Broadcast on McCarthy (March 9, 1954)

• CBS News Archives & YouTube

1. New York Times Archive – Coverage of McCarthy, the Rosenbergs, and the Army hearings.

2. Vanity Fair – “The Power and Poison of Roy Cohn” (2019)

• Vanity Fair – Roy Cohn

1. The New Yorker – “Roy Cohn and the Making of a Winner-Take-All America”

• New Yorker – Roy Cohn

1. The Guardian – “Trump's Roy Cohn Obsession” and Cohn’s legacy in GOP tactics.

• The Guardian – Roy Cohn

Video & Archival Footage

1. Army–McCarthy Hearings (C-SPAN Archive)

• C-SPAN: Army–McCarthy Hearings

1. “Have You No Sense of Decency?” – Joseph Welch Confronts McCarthy (June 9, 1954)

• YouTube Clip

1. PBS American Experience: “McCarthy”

• PBS – American Experience

1. “Where’s My Roy Cohn?” (2019 Documentary) – Directed by Matt Tyrnauer

• Available on various streaming platforms (Amazon Prime, Hulu, YouTube).
  

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What would happen if representatives from every religion sat in a room and talked? How long would a conversation take before the atheist and the christian realized, they love the same hobbies, care about their kids having the best chance of success and LOVE Marvel movies? How long before the Muslim mother and the gay couple share their favorite recipes because cooking for their families brings them so much joy?

Today is just a conversation, with one of the orphans from Stuart Little, the winner of TV show wipeout, recovered addict, fiance to his gorgeous partner Jennaca and satanic atheist. Kyle and I couldn't have grown up further apart in life and what we were taught to believe. And Kyle and I talk about.....
How did we get here???
Talking about what its like to be a creator who feels like you HAVE to start using our voice to help??
How do we heal together and make something better for the future for EVERYONE, how do we create healing and hope and belonging for everyone??
How do we help pull young men back from the jaws of the manosphere??
This and more and I hope it intrigues and challenges you as much as it did me.
Thank you for your continued patience, I have limited wifi access where we are and I'm having to produce the entire shows and content solo for another week. But update: Lucy is doing better and almost ready for her second surgery

If you grew up in Church in the 90s and early 2000s you remember the CRAZE that was the book "I kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris. Purity culture was rampant in the church, preaching to young girls their worth was their virginity and that their bodies belonged to their fathers until they were given to their future husbands. YIKES.

Do you know that Joshua Harris has now denounced both the book and his stance?

Today Jubilee Dawns joins me on a deep dive about purity culture in the church, the damage it wreaked on ours and other women's lives and share our first "Youth Pastors Gone Wild" segment.

Purity culture emerged in American evangelical Christianity in the 1990s and early 2000s, emphasizing abstinence from sex before marriage as a moral and spiritual ideal, particularly for girls and women. It promoted the idea that a woman's worth was intrinsically tied to her sexual behavior, often using metaphors like "chewed gum" or "used tape" to describe those who had engaged in premarital sex. Movements like True Love Waits and purity balls encouraged young girls to make vows of chastity, often symbolized by rings and ceremonies involving their fathers.

This culture disproportionately harmed young women by instilling shame, fear, and a deep sense of guilt around their bodies and natural sexual development. Many were taught to suppress their desires, avoid close relationships with boys, and take responsibility for male lust by dressing modestly and remaining “pure.” As a result, countless women have reported long-term effects including sexual dysfunction, body shame, difficulty forming healthy relationships, and trauma from victim-blaming in cases of sexual abuse or assault. Rather than empowering young women, purity culture often silenced and controlled them, framing obedience and modesty as the only path to spiritual value.

This week on the podcast I scratched my original plan. The passage of the Big UGLY monstrous bill the day before July 4th and my recording being that day, it inspired me to change the topic.

I didn't celebrate July 4th the way that I have growing up. But I spent a lot of time thinking about what revolution means, especially at this moment in history. In this episode, I re-read the Declaration of independence and the crimes the crown committed that made the colonists revolt. Then I talk about the American Revolution but focus on the revolution it inspired... the French Revolution.
The French Revolution was inspired largely by wealth disparity. By the late 1780s, France was deeply in debt from wars, including the American Revolution. Food prices got so high that bread took up 80% of a poor family's income. Unemployment and starvation were widespread and while the people starved, the monarchy led by Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette spent like the countries coffers never ended. The top 1-2% controlled over 20% of the land and all the political power while 98% of the company could barely survive. The bottom 98% paid all the taxes, including tithes to the church, feudal dues and royal taxes.

Compare that to the US Today, 1% of Americans hold 34% of the nations wealth. The top 10% of the US hold almost 70% of the nations wealth. The bottom 50% of Americans? 2.5% of the wealth.
2.5% OF THE WEALTH.

Half the country has 2.5% of the wealth.

The current wealth gap in the US is the widest its been since the 1920s which led us to the Great Depression. And now we just passed a bill that is the largest upward transfer of wealth from the lowest 10% to the top 10%. And this wealth gap is always predictive of an incoming Revolution.
The world changes when people do. People like Dietrich Bonhoeffer who gave up everything to fight against in justice when he had everything to gain by staying quiet. But his work, his example and his writings would inspire Martin Luther King Jr. the US Civil Rights movement, Desmond Tutu and the fight against apartheid.
Empires always fall. Regimes do not last.
WE, the people, get the final say.
Fight on and Viva La Revolution!

54% of Gen Z individuals who disaffiliated from their childhood religion were women. For millennial women- 34%. For the first time in US History, men and young men are converting more to religion and filling the pews than women. Why? Women site gender inequality, systemic abuse, teaching limited roles for women, and lack of female church leadership as reasons for leaving.

My opinion is that women are realizing that organized religion run by men, led by men, collaborated on by men, interpreted by men, translated by men, taught by men... might be a system built to CONVENIENTLY benefit men. How convenient that the interpretations of scripture taught from the pulpit JUST SO HAPPEN to give men all the power, resources, decision making, a partner who can't say no and has to serve them as a house slave. Did God say that? Or did these men make God in their own image?

I think women are leaving because we see through the dogma right to the lies.

I am so deeply honored to call Irene a friend. I've been following her on social media for a couple years, when I discovered her rage-y music and that she had also deconstructed as well.
Irene and I left different branches of faith, evangelical fundamentalism for me, and mormonism for her.
This episode we talk about those journey's, how art was part of that healing process, how we found ourselves after growing up in a worldview that diminished us as women and told us that who we were was defective... sinful... and less than.
May this be your weekly reminder that YOU ARE WORTHY.

If you're familiar with the online deconstruction space, you've probably encountered Brian Recker or @brecker on Instagram. As a former evangelical pastor, he's been very vocal about his deconstruction and transformation.
In this episode, Brian and I talk about our growing up years, our faith and how thats evolved from narrow and rigid mindsets into who we became today.
I wasn't going to release this podcast for a few more weeks but I felt that some people needed reminded today that people can change. I was an open and passionate Christian Nationalist. Brian was raised in the IFB (think EXTRA fundamentalist). We were able to find our way and if people like us can change, anyone can.
Even on a dark day the sun is sitting behind the clouds.

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How can someone so intelligent end up with a cult like mindset? Someone who otherwise seems to have their life together? Seems to be so grounded?

Anyone can fall into a cult, and even those who are deeply indoctrinated can get back out.

Dr. Steven Hassan is a leading expert in cults, mind control, and undue influence, best known for transforming his own traumatic experience in a high-control group into a lifelong mission to help others recover from coercive persuasion. Born in Queens, New York, Hassan was raised in a Jewish family and, at age 19, was recruited into the Unification Church (commonly known as the “Moonies”). He quickly became a zealous member, working long hours and cutting ties with family and friends. After a serious car accident in 1976, his family organized a deprogramming intervention, which helped him leave the group and sparked his determination to understand how such manipulation occurs.

Hassan earned a Master’s in counseling psychology from Cambridge College and later completed a Ph.D. from Fielding Graduate University. Over the following decades, he dedicated himself to developing non-coercive methods of intervention, eventually creating what he calls the Strategic Interactive Approach. He also founded the Freedom of Mind Resource Center, which provides education, counseling, and expert support for individuals and families affected by cults, extremist groups, human trafficking, and political radicalization.

Hassan is widely recognized for his development of the BITE Model (Behavior, Information, Thought, and Emotional control), which helps identify the key mechanisms by which authoritarian groups manipulate people. He also created the Influence Continuum, a framework for understanding the difference between healthy and destructive influence. His published works—including Combating Cult Mind Control, Releasing the Bonds, Freedom of Mind, and The Cult of Trump—have become foundational texts for understanding psychological manipulation and authoritarian control, not just in religious cults but in political movements and abusive relationships as well.

He has helped thousands reclaim their autonomy and continues to shape the conversation on cult dynamics, political extremism, and mental freedom in the digital age. There's always hope that even someone who was raised in a cult or lost their way in one can find their way back out.

As RFK Jr. removes all members of the CDC panel advising on vaccines we are faced with the question, is all this making America healthy again?

Dr. Knurick has a PHD in Nutrition Science, is a registered dietitian and a mom of 2. And in this episode we break down the facts and fictions of the MAHA movement and what the real concerns for America's health are.

The "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) movement is merely a loosely connected health and wellness movement that gained traction specifically after covid. It merges anti-vaccine, anti-mask, and natural health rhetoric with far-right political ideologies and is deeply aligned with Christian nationalism. Despite its name, the movement often spreads misinformation under the guise of “freedom” and “bodily autonomy.”

• Core Beliefs: Promotes “natural immunity,” distrusts vaccines and pharmaceutical science, and often embraces conspiracy theories about government control, the CDC, and the World Health Organization.

• Pseudoscience: Opposes public health measures like vaccines, fluoride, mask mandates, and school-based health education. Spreads debunked claims about detoxes, supplements, and “Big Pharma.”

• White Supremacist Roots: Echoes long-standing themes in white nationalist circles, including “purity of the body,” distrust of multicultural institutions, and framing public health as globalist overreach.

• Overlap with Christian Nationalism and MAGA: Often intertwined with right-wing evangelical and MAGA politics, promoting the idea that “real” (white, Christian) Americans are under attack by progressive, science-driven agendas.

• Undermines public health with disinformation.

• Targets marginalized communities by resisting inclusive care (e.g., trans health, reproductive health).

• Wraps racial and political extremism in the language of wellness, liberty, and holistic health.

The MAHA movement exploits the language of health and freedom to push anti-science, far-right ideology. Beneath its surface lies a deeper current of white supremacy, Christian nationalism, and resistance to modern medicine rooted in fear, control, and exclusion.

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Andrew Seidel is a constitutional lawyer, author of books "The Founding Myth" and "American Crusade", and works full time defending the 1st amendment and every Americans right to true religious liberty.
On Flipping Tables we have a discussion about the Christian Nationalist myth that America is a "Christian" nation and the dangers it poses to true individual freedom.