Straight White American Jesus

In the early 1960s, Orange County became the hub for both white evangelical Christianity and libertarian politics. It was the epicenter of the John Birch Society and the Goldwater campaign. This history is crucial for understanding the rise of the Religious Right throughout the 80s and beyond. It was from this soil that Reagan and his evangelical coalition took over the GOP. The racism, conspiracies, and extremism of 1960s libertarian evangelicals in Southern California has remained part of the GOP and the Religious Right from Goldwater to Reagan to the Tea Party and the presidency of Donald Trump. -

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You might be surprised to learn that the history of sex ed in the USA is a religious history. Christians were not always the enemies of science-based sex education programs. But during the 1960s, the Religious Right began a war against comprehensive sex education. Since then, it has been able to implement abstinence-only sex ed programs through tens of millions of dollars in federal funding. Where did this war start? Who are its major players? And why are evangelicals so afraid of condoms? This episode include an interview with Dr. Kristy Slominski, Assistant Professor of Religion, Health, and Science at the University of Arizona, and the author of the forthcoming book Teaching Moral Sex: A History of Religion and Sex Education in the United States. 

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If you want to take the country back for God, if you want to have dominion over every level of society, if you want to ensure a white Christian patriarchy rules over the land--you have to start with the children. Christian school movements are part of the fabric of the Religious Right. On this episode, Brad examines why the Christian schooling movement--including homeschooling--took off in the 60s, how it has shed government oversight, and what effects its having on our public education system and our public square. This episode features interviews with Dr. Chrissy Stroop and Scott Okamoto.

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Brad explores the alliance between the alt-right and the Religious Right in and through Trump's presidency. In tracing this story, he uncovers how and why the Religious Right now looks to Putin's Russia, Orban's Hungary, and other autocratic regimes as the City Upon a Hill that the USA used to be. This episode features an interview with the renowned journalist Sarah Posner, author of Unholy: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump.

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On the series finale, Brad reflects on his departure from Orange County and evangelicalism. This provides a jumping off point for reflecting on what we've learned through the series, and, perhaps most importantly, how Orange County's politics and culture provides a window into the contemporary moment.

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Many evangelicals are single-issue voters when it comes to abortion. Brad and Dan discuss the historical development of this trend, and why it represents more than just a concern for the unborn. Dan goes through the history that shows evangelicals were in favor of certain types of abortion all the way into the 1970s. The abortion myth, as Randall Balmer calls, it is that abortion has been a perennial issue in this community. That is a lie.

Brad talks about how this kind of myopic focus on abortion led him out of evangelicalism because it's cover for cruelty and selfishness in a myriad of ways.

Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/

Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/

Brad's talk at UCSB's Capp's Center: https://twitter.com/GregJoh81863873/status/1518663300409483264/photo/1

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In the wake of news that Roe v. Wade will likely be overturned, Brad and Dan begin this episode with a history of how evangelicals have transformed on the issue of abortion. In the 1960s and 1970s many evangelical pastors, theologians, and politicians were in favor of abortion in many cases and without too many restrictions. This changed when political operatives began to use abortion as a wedge issue that could give them control of the GOP--and the country as a whole.

They then discuss what this looks like in states and communities across the country. There are already bills up for debate that would make abortion a homicide in Louisiana, and ideas to ban IUDs and other contraceptive methods in Idaho.

Will this have an effect on the 2022 midterms? Yes . . . and no.

They note that Roe could be codified as law if Dems would kill the filibuster and pass the bill that was already moved forward in the House. But . . . Manchin and Synema.

In the future, the overturning of Roe will only further the cultural divide. The cold civil war will ramp up, leading to two different lived experiences for Americans.

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The American Christian landscape is littered with “Bible churches.” It is full of churches that use the word “Bible” in their name, or that claim to be “Bible believing,” and affirm that they “preach the Bible,” and so on. What meaning can we discern behind this code? What can we know about the kinds of Christians who define themselves in this way? This episode considers these questions, cracking the code of the “Bible church” and what it tells us about the profile of those who attend such churches and the Christian identity they express.

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Linktree: https://linktr.ee/StraightWhiteJC

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

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Why are white evangelicals the most skeptical major religious group in America regarding climate change? Previous scholarship has pointed to cognitive factors such as conservative politics, anti-science attitudes, aversion to big government, and theology. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork, scholar Robin Globus Veldman reveals the extent to which climate skepticism and anti-environmentalism have in fact become embedded in the social world of many conservative evangelicals. Rejecting the common assumption that evangelicals' skepticism is simply a side effect of political or theological conservatism, the book further shows that between 2006 and 2015, leaders and pundits associated with the Christian Right widely promoted skepticism as the biblical position on climate change. 

Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/

Brad's talk at UCSB's Capp's Center: https://twitter.com/GregJoh81863873/status/1518663300409483264/photo/1

To Donate: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BradleyOnishi

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