Straight White American Jesus

Brad Onishi talks with three Wheaton College alumnae about the growing controversy over how the college handled abuse by a former administrator, and why they say the problem is systemic rather than the work of one person. The abuse took place in the 1990s. Alumni say it was covered up for roughly 25 years, leaving students and later victims at risk. The conversation covers the case itself, the calls for President Philip Ryken to resign, the theology of gender and sexuality that shapes how reports are received, and what it’s like to parent students on campus now.

Content note: this episode discusses sexual abuse and assault.

Guests

UPCOMING EVENTS (Brad Onishi, American Caesar)

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They want to rule, not govern. This week on the Weekly Roundup, Brad Onishi and Dan Miller break down Trump’s “bomb LA” comments, the “enemy combatant” rhetoric aimed at Somalis in Minnesota, Hegseth’s plan to live-stream a firing squad execution, and Tucker Carlson and Curtis Yarvin’s Hitler comments. Then they close with some reasons for hope: Ossoff in the Georgia debate and a Satanic invocation in Ottumwa, Iowa.

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What happens to people who have never heard the gospel? It's one of the most common questions people raise in church, and one of the most uncomfortable: how can God be just if he condemns people who never had the chance to respond to the message that could save them? In this episode of It's in the Code, part of the series Questions I Wasn't Supposed to Ask in Church, Dan Miller walks through three broad Christian answers that stretch back nearly to the beginning of the tradition. Exclusivism, the historically dominant view from Augustine and the Protestant Reformers, holds that salvation comes only through explicitly accepting the gospel. Inclusivism, associated with Justin Martyr and more common among Catholics, holds that people can receive Christ's saving work through responding in faith to general revelation. And a third category, miraculous revelation, includes the "harrowing of hell" (Jesus preaching to the spirits in prison), as well as the idea, associated with Thomas Aquinas, that God provides a way for sincere seekers to encounter the gospel. Along the way, Dan explores why this question has troubled believers for centuries, how the answer often depends on the kind of church you grew up in, and how it differs from the separate question of what happens to Jews who lived before Jesus. He also invites listeners to keep sending in the questions they weren't supposed to ask in church.

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Books mentioned:

📕 American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy by Brad Onishi — out September 15: https://static.macmillan.com/static/essentials/american-caesar-9781250427922/

📗 Defying Tyrants: Following Jesus in a World of Christian Antichrists by Matthew D. Taylor — out October 6: https://www.broadleafbooks.com/store/product/9798341900370/Defying-Tyrants

Live events:

Full tour dates: https://axismundinetwork.substack.com/p/the-american-caesar-book-tour

🔗 axismundi.us

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The Antichrist is not a scary villain who shows up someday to rule the world. According to the New Testament, there are already many of them, and they look a lot like Christians who abuse power in Jesus' name.

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Can the Christian left challenge the religious right’s claim to moral authority? Leah Payne speaks with journalist and essayist Miguel Petrosky about his article for The Revealer, “James Talarico and the Christian Left,” and what the Texas Senate candidate’s blend of Christian conviction and economic populism reveals about progressive politics.

They explore the appeal of Talarico’s neighborly tone, his framing of inequality as a spiritual struggle, and why religious language can resonate with religious and secular voters alike. They also examine why coverage treats his faith as a political novelty despite the long tradition of Black clergy connecting Christian theology with progressive activism.

As mainline Protestant denominations lose members, can the Christian left gain political influence through advocacy, protests, and coalitions? And where is the line between bringing Christian convictions into public life and seeking a nation organized around a particular Christian vision?

Subscriber bonus: Leah and Miguel discuss whether Talarico’s approach can travel beyond Texas.

About the guest: Miguel Petrosky is a journalist and essayist covering American and global politics, religion, and culture. He lives in Scotland. Find him on Instagram @miguelpetrosky.

About the host: Dr. Leah Payne is the author of God Gave Rock & Roll to You: A History of Contemporary Christian Music (Oxford University Press, 2024) and host of Spirit & Power: Charismatics and Politics in American Life, an Axis Mundi Media podcast. Find her on most social media platforms at @drleahpayne.

Links:

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Paid subscribers get bonus content, ad-free listening, access to the entire 1k episode archive, an invite to our Discord community, and access to the Axis Daily Brief.

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Books mentioned:

📕 American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy by Brad Onishi — out September 15: https://static.macmillan.com/static/essentials/american-caesar-9781250427922/

📗 Defying Tyrants: Following Jesus in a World of Christian Antichrists by Matthew D. Taylor — out October 6: https://www.broadleafbooks.com/store/product/9798341900370/Defying-Tyrants

Live events:

🎤 Brad in Portland at Annie Bloom’s Books — September 16, 7 PM: https://annieblooms.com/event/2026-09-16/reading-bradley-b-onishi

Full tour dates: https://axismundinetwork.substack.com/p/the-american-caesar-book-tour

🔗 axismundi.us

www.quo.com/SWAJ - Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months

www.groundnews.com/SWAJ 40% off the Vantage Subscription!

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In this episode of Straight White American Jesus, Brad Onishi and Dan Miller break down Pete Hegseth's State of the Force speech, which they argue recasts the U.S. military as a Christian crusader army defined by narrow standards of body, gender, and faith. They examine his flattened story of Western civilization, his "appeal to heaven" and "armor of God" language, and the plan to remove bureaucratic oversight from the Office of Religious Affairs.

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"Was Mary a virgin?" Dan Miller unpacks the question in layers. First, the textual evidence: the Greek word parthenos and its relationship to the Hebrew alma; plus Mary's line in Luke 1:34, which together explain why the tradition reads her as a virgin. For Dan, the bigger question is why the claim matters theologically. He traces how it underscores the miraculous nature of Jesus' birth, how it ties female virginity to purity, and how the doctrine expanded into the perpetual virginity of Mary (before, during, and after the birth). That expansion goes back to at least the second century, was affirmed at the Second Council of Constantinople, and was held by reformers like Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and Wesley, despite New Testament references to Jesus' siblings. The episode argues that the doctrine's staying power, even against that counter-evidence, shows how much is riding on it. It becomes a flashpoint for critics because it encapsulates the tradition's ties to purity culture, patriarchal assumptions, and the devaluation of embodiment and sexuality. Listeners are invited to send more questions and topic ideas for the series.

If you enjoy our work, please subscribe.

Paid subscribers get bonus content, ad-free listening, access to the entire 1k episode archive, an invite to our Discord community.

🔔Subscribe - Substack: www.axismundi.substack.com

Books mentioned:

📕 American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy by Brad Onishi — out September 15: https://static.macmillan.com/static/essentials/american-caesar-9781250427922/

📗 Defying Tyrants: Following Jesus in a World of Christian Antichrists by Matthew D. Taylor — out October 6: https://www.broadleafbooks.com/store/product/9798341900370/Defying-Tyrants

Live events:

Full tour dates: https://axismundinetwork.substack.com/p/the-american-caesar-book-tour

🔗 axismundi.us

www.quo.com/SWAJ - Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months

www.groundnews.com/SWAJ 40% off the Vantage Subscription!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Peter Thiel says that if you're evil, maybe you're actually good. Brad Onishi (author of American Caesar) and Matthew D. Taylor (author of The Violent Take It by Force) break down the viral clip: what Thiel means by "bad" versus "evil," why he frames progress as an all-or-nothing choice, and how his Antichrist theology, technological accelerationism, and contempt for the "mimetic sheeple" shape his influence on J.D. Vance and the tech right.
Then Rev. Mara Richards Bim, a Baptist pastor and plaintiff in the lawsuit against Texas's Ten Commandments classroom law, joins to explain why she calls the Texas version sacrilegious, how teachers and principals are resisting, and what gives her hope.
Timestamps
0:00 Intro
1:11 The Thiel clip and first reactions
4:16 Thiel's worldview: progress and the "middle class compact"
9:51 The hubris of deciding for eight billion people
11:37 Monarchism, mimetic desire, and Silicon Valley
15:04 The Pope, AI, and the one-world-government argument
17:03 Why Thiel rejects Hegel
19:38 Why it matters: Thiel and J.D. Vance
24:15 Decoding "bad," "evil," and "good"
29:24 Thiel's Nashville Antichrist lectures
32:09 Rev. Mara Richards Bim on the Texas Ten Commandments lawsuit
57:03 Reason for hope
If you enjoy our work, please subscribe.
Paid subscribers get bonus content, ad-free listening, access to the entire 1k episode archive, an invite to our Discord community, and access to the Axis Daily Brief.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
🔔Subscribe - Substack: www.axismundi.substack.com
Books mentioned:
📕 American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy by Brad Onishi — out September 15: https://static.macmillan.com/static/e...
📗 Defying Tyrants: Following Jesus in a World of Christian Antichrists by Matthew D. Taylor — out October 6: https://www.broadleafbooks.com/store/...
Live events:
Full tour dates:

https://axismundinetwork.substack.com...

🔗 axismundi.us
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www.groundnews.com/SWAJ 40% off the Vantage Subscription!

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This week on The Sunday Interview, Brad revisits a conversation with sociologist of religion Paul Djupe (Denison University) on two ideas shaping the current political moment: the myth of the persecuted Christian and the inverted golden rule. Djupe unpacks the data behind the persecution narrative — a claim that has intensified under the second Trump administration through initiatives like the Anti-Christian Bias Task Force and the White House Faith Office, and that spiked further after Charlie Kirk’s assassination — and explains how it functions to fuel a persecution complex, particularly among white Christians. He also names something Brad argues is missing from most discussions of the right’s turn against empathy: an “inverted golden rule,” where the instinct to preempt perceived aggression — do unto others before they do unto you — replaces the biblical mandate to do unto others as you’d have done to you.

If you enjoy our work, please subscribe.

Paid subscribers get bonus content, ad-free listening, access to the entire 1k episode archive, an invite to our Discord community, and access to the Axis Daily Brief.

🔔Subscribe - Substack: www.axismundi.substack.com

Books mentioned:

📕 American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy by Brad Onishi — out September 15: https://static.macmillan.com/static/essentials/american-caesar-9781250427922/

📗 Defying Tyrants: Following Jesus in a World of Christian Antichrists by Matthew D. Taylor — out October 6: https://www.broadleafbooks.com/store/product/9798341900370/Defying-Tyrants

Live events:

🎤 Brad in Portland at Annie Bloom’s Books — September 16, 7 PM: https://annieblooms.com/event/2026-09-16/reading-bradley-b-onishi

Full tour dates: https://axismundinetwork.substack.com/p/the-american-caesar-book-tour

🔗 axismundi.us

www.quo.com/SWAJ - Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months

www.groundnews.com/SWAJ 40% off the Vantage Subscription!

Discussion about this episode

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Does God change his mind? CAN God change his mind? The traditional theological answer to both of

these questions is “no.” But what if the answer is “yes”? Why would this represent such a threat to high-control religion and traditional Christian teaching? Check out this week’s episode to find out!

If you enjoy our work, please subscribe. 

Paid subscribers get bonus content, ad-free listening, access to the entire 1k episode archive, an invite to our Discord community, and access to the Axis Daily Brief. 

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/axis-daily-brief/id1896931494

🔔Subscribe - Substack: www.axismundi.substack.com

Books mentioned:

📕 American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy by Brad Onishi — out September 15: https://static.macmillan.com/static/essentials/american-caesar-9781250427922/

📗 Defying Tyrants: Following Jesus in a World of Christian Antichrists by Matthew D. Taylor — out October 6: https://www.broadleafbooks.com/store/product/9798341900370/Defying-Tyrants

Live events:

🎤 Brad in Portland at Annie Bloom's Books — September 16, 7 PM: https://annieblooms.com/event/2026-09-16/reading-bradley-b-onishi

Full tour dates: https://axismundinetwork.substack.com/p/the-american-caesar-book-tour

🔗 axismundi.us

www.quo.com/SWAJ -  Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months 

www.groundnews.com/SWAJ 40% off the Vantage Subscription!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices