Straight White American Jesus

Brad is joined by Dr. Charlie McCrary, postdoctoral researcher at Arizona State University and author of the new book, Sincerely Held: American Secularism and Its Believers. They discuss how SCOTUS determines what counts as religion, and thus what is deserving of protection under the 1st Amendment. Their conversation focuses on the "sincerity test" of religious belief, which has become a cornerstone of US jurisprudence, framing what counts as legitimate grounds for First Amendment claims in the eyes of the law. McCrary provides an original account of how sincerely held religious belief became the primary standard for determining what legally counts as authentic religion.

Charles McCrary at the New Republic: https://newrepublic.com/article/165942/sincerely-held-religious-belief-law

Charles' Book - Sincerely Held: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo135951072.html

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Brad and Dan begin by discussing last night's J6 hearing, focusing on the 187 minutes between when violence erupted at the Capitol and when Trump finally released a video telling his followers to go home. They focus on the callousness of the Commander in Chief watching Fox News for three hours while the Capitol was attacked, police were killed, and the peaceful transfer of power was disrupted.

Dan takes us through a leaked memo from AG Merrick Garland that states there won't be indictments before the midterms. Does this mean Trump will never be indicted? Is Garland too much of an institutionalist to pursue justice in this case?

Brad then takes us on a tour through extremist Christian nationalist policies from around the country with a focus on Maryland and Idaho. Some highlights: The John Birch Society, God granting the right to handheld killing machines, no exceptions for abortion when a woman's life is in danger, repealing the 16th amendment, and codifying originalism as an interpretive strategy.

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“Church Family”

What does it mean when a church or spiritual community refers to itself as a “family”? If this is intended as a statement of support and affirmation, why does it make some people feel uncomfortable? And how does it relate to common workplace ideas like being part of the “team” or “community”? Dan tackles all these questions in this episode.

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Brad and Dan discuss immigration, refugees, and White evangelicals with Dr. Janelle Wong, Core Faculty in Asian American Studies and Professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland. Professor Wong discusses her new book on evangelicals and immigration in an era of policy change.

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This week’s episode focuses on the intersections of cultural and political debates about race, history, sexual violence, and abortion. Dan and guest co-host Professor Sara Moslener discuss a Fox new claim that "wokism" has taken over Thomas Jefferson's legacy because tour guides at Monticello now highlight his sexual relationships with the people he enslaved. Sara recounts her recent visit to Thomas Jefferson’s home in Monticello, VA and the lessons for understanding current debates a race, history, and cultural memory.

They also discuss ongoing efforts to minimize and trivialize the findings about sex abuse within the Southern Baptist Convention, and some of the ongoing lessons that are being learned in the wake of SCOTUS’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.

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What does it mean when cultural and religious conservatives proclaim that they affirm a “culture of life?” We know it means that they oppose abortion and abortion access. But what else does it mean? In this episode, Dan dives in to decode this message to look at the racial, gender, and social positions that are encoded in this seemingly familiar slogan.

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Brad speaks with Stanford scholar of religion Dr. Kathryn Gin Lum about her new book Heathen. They discuss how White American Christians have used the label "heathen" in order to name those they deem not only different, but in need of saving. In this context, "saving" often meant the occupation of native lands, the overtaking of entire cultures, and the exclusion of those "unassimilable" to the American way of life. Race continues to operate as a heathen inheritance in the United States, animating Americans’ sense of being a world apart from an undifferentiated mass of needy, suffering peoples. Dr. Gin Lum reveals a key source of American exceptionalism and a prism through which Americans have defined themselves as a progressive and humanitarian nation even as supposed heathens have drawn on the same to counter this national myth. This is not a past phenomenon - it continues today in debates about reproductive rights and the rise of anti-Asian hate during the COVID pandemic.

Heathen by Kathryn Gin Lum: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674976771

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Brad is joined by guest co-host Dr. Leah Payne. They begin by discussing how many White Americans - especially White Christian nationalists - view the national body as straight, White, patriarchal, and American-born. This framework helps guide a discussion on the drastically different reactions law enforcement took in the cases of Jayland Walker, who was shot by police 60 times in Akron, Ohio, and the Highland Park shooter who was apprehended without violence after he allegedly killed 7 people at July 4 parade.

This leads to a discussion of Tucker Carlson's explanation for the Highland Park shooting: women lecturing men, government-backed weed, and medication. It is a case of refusing to look at the monster in the mirror--and doing anything possible to take the attention away from guns.

The episode finishes with analysis of the AZ rep who said she would kill her own grandchildren in order to protect them and how this ties into discussions of reproductive rights.

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What does it mean when Christians say that we “live in a fallen world”? Where does that language come from? Most importantly, what to different kinds of Christians do with that language? Dan tackles these topics in this episode, discussing what different kinds of Christians imagine when they describe the world as “fallen,” how they think we should respond to that, and exploring how that plays out in our contemporary culture.

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Brad speaks with Dr. Kelsy Burke, a sociologist from the University of Nebraska, who discusses her new book The Pornography Wars: The Past, Present, and Future of America's Obscene Obsession.

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/pornography-wars-9781635577365/

Burke spent the last five years researching and interviewing internet pornography's opponents and its sympathizers. She does a deep dive into the long history of pornography in America and then turns her gaze on our present society to examine the ways this industry touches on the most intimate parts of American lives. She offers a complete understanding of the major players in the debates around porn's place in society: everyone from sex workers, activists, therapists, religious leaders, and consumers. In doing so, she addresses and debunks the myths that surround porn and porn usage while showing how everything from the way we teach children about sex to the legal protections for what can be published is tied up in the deeply complicated battles over pornography.

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