Straight White American Jesus

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In the first segment, Dan breaks down the mess at NBC where Ronna Romney McDaniel was ousted from her position after protest by numerous on-air figures. While some have labeled this a travesty of a biased news environment, Dan explains why McDaniel should not be on any credible news network because of her track record of undermining elections, democracy, and the free press.

In the second segment, the attention turns to a new bill in South Carolina that provides life insurance for embryos.

In the final segment, the hosts spend significant time on the news that Trump is selling the God Bless USA Bible - the "only Bible endorsed by President Trump." It's blasphemous. It's craven. And it's another watershed moment in a decade of political and religious embarrassments. But, what will its impact be on voters?

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In this final episode exploring the idea that the Bible is without error, that it is “inerrant,” Dan looks at what happens if this doctrine is abandoned. The doctrine of inerrancy appears as a key foundation supporting high-control religion’s house of cards. When that foundation is removed, that house collapses, paving the way for communities where disagreement and dissent are affirmed as valuable faith dimensions. Inerrancy is bad theology, and like all bad theology, it has the potential to hurt people. Check out this week’s episode to learn more.

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/StraightWhiteJC

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At the height of the John Birch Society’s activity in the 1960s, critics dismissed its members as a paranoid fringe. After all, “Birchers” believed that a vast communist conspiracy existed in America and posed an existential threat to Christianity, capitalism, and freedom. But as historian Matthew Dallek reveals, the Birch Society’s extremism remade American conservatism. Most Birchers were white professionals who were radicalized as growing calls for racial and gender equality appeared to upend American life. Conservative leaders recognized that these affluent voters were needed to win elections, and for decades the GOP courted Birchers and their extremist successors. The far right steadily gained power, finally toppling the Republican establishment and electing Donald Trump.

Buy Birchers here: https://bookshop.org/lists/swaj-books-for-2024

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Brad and Dan begin by discussing a terrifying law in Texas that would allow law enforcement to detain people based on any suspicion of them being undocumented. This is frightening in itself, but even more so that the presumptive GOP nominee for president recently said some migrants aren't "human."

In the second segment the hosts break down new research from Dr. Paul Djupe on how those who refute the Christian nationalist label identify Christian nationalism as the phenomenon that will save the country. In other words, they refuse to be labeled Christian nationalists while expressing the idea that Christian nationalism is the greatest hope for the country.

Read it here: https://religioninpublic.blog/2024/03/18/christian-nationalism-is-both-smear-and-savior-to-many-christians/

In the final segment, Brad responds to criticisms of his Politico article where he points out that the idea of human life beginning at conception is not a settled matter in the history of Christian doctrine.

Read it here: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/03/21/life-conception-christian-theology-00147804

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High control Christian communities often claim that the Bible is without error, that its teachings are absolute, and that if we read our Bibles we can learn about God for ourselves. But is that how it really works? What if, instead, claims that the Bible speaks with “inerrant” authority are actually mechanisms of religious control and coercion? What if those claims really boil down to the insistence that the teaching of pastors and other church leaders are absolute or beyond question? Dan dives into these themes in this week’s episode, and shows why claims that the Bible is inerrant are a powerful mechanism to control and coerce members of religious communities.

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/StraightWhiteJC

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Brad goes into a deep dive into Charles Haywood, the self-proclaimed "warlord" who is using his fortune to lead the United States into a medieval Christian oligarchy. Haywood started the Society for American Civic Renewal, which Brad and Dan talked about last Friday. SACR, as it is known, is a secretive male-only group of White Christian men who want to renew American society by returning it to a medieval form of virtue and governance. These are men of influence - with millions to spend and a raging resentment about having their country taken from them by those "who don't deserve it."

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/StraightWhiteJC

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Brad and Dan break down the revelations surrounding the Society for American Renewal, which according to the Guardian is "an exclusive, men-only fraternal order which aims to replace the US government with an authoritarian “aligned regime”, and which experts say is rooted in extreme Christian nationalism and religious autocracy. It includes Harvard grads, millionaire industrialists, the president of the Claremont Institute, financiers, and other upper-crust right-wing men (and they are all men).

In the second segment, they turn to more toxic masculine Christianity in the form of a call for violence and spiritual warfare from Oklahoma State Senator Dusty Deevers - an abortion abolitionist who is trying to outlaw pornography.

To finish the episode, the hosts discuss the tragic news about Nex Benedict's death - the non-binary teenager who died by suicide after bullying at school.

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/StraightWhiteJC

Order Brad's book: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163

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One of the effects and purposes of the doctrine that the Bible is “without error” is to provide assurance that when we read it, we have unmediated access to divine teachings. But do we? Can the Bible provide the kind of “immediate” access to God this doctrine promises? In this week’s episode, Dan talks about why this isn’t possible, highlights some of the intermediaries that intervene between readers and their Bibles, and discusses what’s at risk if we don’t recognize this.

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/StraightWhiteJC

Order Brad's book: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163

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From a smattering of ominous right-wing compounds in the Pacific Northwest in the 1970s, to the shocking January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, America has seen the culmination of a long-building war on democracy being waged by a fundamentally violent and antidemocratic far-right movement that unironically calls itself the “Patriot” movement.

 So how did we get here? Award-winning journalist David Neiwert — who been following the rise of these extremist groups since the late 1970s, when he was a young reporter in Idaho — explores how the movement was built over decades, how it was set aflame by Donald Trump and his cohorts, and how it will continue to attack American democracy for the foreseeable future.

Buy the Age of Insurrection on the SWAJ Bookshop List: https://bookshop.org/lists/swaj-books-for-2024/edit

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Brad and Dan begin by discussing the State of the Union speech by Pres. Joe Biden and the GOP response by Sen. Katie Britt (AL). They analyze the theatrics of the civic ritual - and how the chamber has turned into something more like the comments section on a YouTube video than a stately affair where all three of our branches of government gather. Brad draws on the work of Sara Moslener and Megan Goodwin to explain how Britt's response was a manifestation of the innocent White women myth and a form of contraceptive nationalism.

In the second segment, Dan breaks down new data from PRRI on Christian nationalism. The two hosts explain how and why White Christian nationalists differ from their Black and Hispanic counterparts.

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Buy Abusing Religion by Megan Goodwin: https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/abusing-religion/9781978807785/

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