Straight White American Jesus

Brad and Dan are back together. They begin by discussing the validity and significance of Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony at the J6 hearing this week. Brad implores us not to get distracted by claims that her account of certain episodes is being disputed by off-the-record sources who won't testify under oath in front of the nation.

They then turn to SCOTUS. Dan breaks down the religious freedom case in which the Court ruled that praying after football games is part of the free exercise of religion. He and Brad discuss why this is coercive, damaging to religious minorities, and just plain incoherent.

In the final segment, Brad previews Moore v. Harper, a case SCOTUS will hear next term. This case could give state legislatures full control over the electors they send to the Electoral College. What does that mean? It means votes - and democracy - could be nullified when state legislatures decide that election results are invalid and they are sending alternative sets of electors with no oversight from state courts or the governor.

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In this episode, Dan decodes a phrase that A LOT of listeners have contacted him about: the claim that Christians are called to “love the sinner, but hate the sin.” What does this mean? What kind of Christian claim is this? Why does it strike such a nerve among those who hear it? Dan tackles these questions in the episode.

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Brad is joined by writer R.L. Stollar who discusses his recent article on Voddie Baucham and the Stay at Home Daughter Movement. Baucham may not be a household name-but he was nearly elected the president of the largest Protestant denomination in the country just over a week ago. According to Stollar, Bacuham is a pillar in the SAHD movement, which "argues that girls should remain at home—even after they become adult women—and submissively serve their fathers until they’re married."

Here is how Christianity Today describes the movement:

"Essentially, adherents of SAHD believe daughters should never leave the covering of their fathers until and unless they are married. One SAHD father writes:

While they are preparing to be keepers of their own homes one day, until our daughters are married, they should serve as keepers at home in the house of their father. They are to be helpers to their mother and blessings to our entire family, as well as to our local church and community."

R.L. Stollar's article: https://religiondispatches.org/at-this-weeks-meeting-will-the-sbc-vote-for-voddie-baucham-the-homeschooling-star-who-embraces-the-right-wing-theology-at-the-heart-of-its-emerging-scandal/

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Brad is joined by guest co-host Annika Brockschmidt, a historian and journalist who has written a wonderful new book about Christian nationalism in the USA.

Brad and Annika begin by discussing the Texas GOP party platform, which claims Biden's election win was illegitimate, calls homosexuality "abnormal," promotes repealing the Civil Rights Act, denounces the ERA, pushes a total abortion ban, tries to set up an electoral college within Texas, and opens the door for secession from the Union.

They then analyze the Carson v. Makin SCOTUS decision, which opens the door for tax money to be used to fund and pay for religious schooling. This was a stunning decision that, in the words of scholar Finbar Curtis, revolutionizes the free exercise clause and essentially changes how religious freedom is conceived in this country.

In the third segment, Brad and Annika discuss an ad by Missouri Senate candidate Eric Greitens in which the candidate calls for hunting RINOs amidst a backdrop full of handheld killing machines. This dropped the week SCOTUS ruled a concealed carry law in NY unconstitutional, making it more likely that handheld killing machines will be carried in bars, restaurants, and other public places.

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Order Brad's new book, Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism and What Comes Next: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163

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In this episode, Dan decodes the admonition to “remember who you are,” as well as the related admonition to “remember whose you are” and the question “what would Jesus do”. What are these admonitions intended to convey? What do they presuppose about authority, control, and Christian identity? Decoding these admonitions helps us to answer these questions.

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Brad is joined by Dr. Joe Blankholm, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara. They discuss his new book, the Secular Paradox: On the Religiosity of the Non-Religious.

The Secular Paradox: https://nyupress.org/9781479809509/the-secular-paradox/

Blankholm argues that, despite their desire to avoid religion, nonbelievers often seem religious because Christianity influences the culture around them so deeply. Relying on several years of ethnographic research among secular activists and organized nonbelievers in the United States, the volume explores how very secular people are ambivalent toward belief, community, ritual, conversion, and tradition. As they try to embrace what they share, secular people encounter, again and again, that they are becoming too religious. And as they reject religion, they feel they have lost too much. Trying to strike the right balance, secular people alternate between the two sides of their ambiguous condition: absolutely not religious and part of a religion-like secular tradition.

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Brad and Dan begin this weekly roundup with takeaways from the J6 hearings. They focus on the ways the committee demonstrated how Trump and Eastman both knew the theory was illegal, but pushed it anyway. The question: Will it make a difference?

Dan then provides a helpful explainer on the difference between a nation and a state in response to a new statement on Conservative nationalism signed by a bunch of MAGA superstars like Charlie Kirk and conservative thinkers like Rod Dreher. He and Brad decode the words "assimilation" and show how nationalism is incompatible with democracy. This leads to a demonstration of how Christian nationalist rhetoric is leading to violence against the LGBT+ community.

In the final segment they dissect Lauren Boebert's AR-15 christology and the grave consequences it holds. Boebert claims that if Jesus had an AR-15 he wouldn't have been killed by the state. This brings dragging into light the incoherency of Christian nationalism in the face of a religious tradition centered on a crucified God.

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On June 11, 2022 31 alleged members of Patriot Front were arrested near the Pride celebration in Coeur d'Alene Idaho. Brad speaks with two people who were at the event--Alicia Abbott of The Idaho 97 and Chad Schobert, who was born and raised in the region. They talk about how even before Patriot Front arrived there were armed militia members circling the Pride event, how all of this fits into the radicalization of the region during the Trump years, and the experience of living in a Christian nationalist, anti-government, wannabe theocratic state.

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The Idaho 97 Project: https://www.theidaho97.org/

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Building from the previous episode, Dan explores what’s going on when people say that Christianity is “a religion, not a relationship,” when salvation is understood as requiring a “personal relationship” with Jesus, and so on. Like so many other uses of popular religious language, this language tells us a great deal about the identity of those who talk this way, who the “real” Christian are, and who they aren’t.

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In his recent article at Religion Dispatches, historian Thomas Lecaque writes: In the wake of every mass shooting in this country, we have a brief moment where we talk about the guns used and the need for gun control. And then rapidly, the gun lobby, conservative politicians, Second Amendment absolutists, and the rest find every conceivable other possible thing to focus on, starting with “thoughts and prayers” and moving on to hardening school buildings. The mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where the shooter used an AR-15-style weapon he’d purchased from the gun company Daniel Defense, has followed the same pattern—but with a recognition that the love of the AR-15 style weapon isn’t just about “freedom” or Second Amendment absolutism. It’s also about Christian Nationalism.

https://religiondispatches.org/christian-nationalists-and-the-holy-gun-crusade/

He speaks with Brad about this moment in our nation's history and what it means.

Thomas Lecaque is an associate professor of history at Grand View University. Twitter: @tlecaque.

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