Straight White American Jesus

The Catholic Church is officially against abortion. But there are millions of Catholics around the world--including President Joe Biden--who are pro-choice politically. Only the 2nd Catholic president in our history, one would think that the Church, especially the Conference of Bishops, would be ecstatic to have Biden in the White House. But in a vote that portends an escalating culture war, recently the American Bishops took a vote that many saw as the first step in denying Biden and other pro-choice Catholics communion. Many see this as a fool's errand that could end up alienating even more young people, women, and members of the LGBTQ+ community than before. A group of pro-choice Catholic members of congress has already signed a letter warning against the escalation of this issue within the American Church.

The question is why this move and why now? Why attack the first Catholic President since JFK? Why alienate so many American Catholics who hold complex political and social identities while remaining faithful to the Church?

In order to figure out why the US Conference of Bishops decided to make this move now and what it means for the Biden administration and American politics going forward, Brad spoke with Dr. Annie Selak, Associate Director of the Women's Center at Georgetown University. Dr. Selak is an ecclesiologist by training whose work focuses on power relations within the Catholic Church. Her work has appeared at the Washington Post, America Magazine, Commonweal, and in several edited volumes.

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Brad and Dan do close readings of statements made by Insurrectionist Senator Josh Hawley and Representative Matt Gaetz in order to deconstruct the logic of their attacks on CRT, their resistance to facing the inconvenient truths of American history, and their rage against investigating the 1/6 Coup. Both of them use binary thinking, false dilemmas, and straw man arguments to mount attacks that amount to nothing more than what Dan calls "toddler epistemology."

They then turn to the remarks made by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley who provides a counter to the close-minded, fabricated war on CRT by stating clearly that he wants to understand white rage and why white people attempted to overthrow the US Constitution.

The last major segment examines the Christian nationalist origins of the new law in Florida, just signed by "Uncle Ron" Desantis, requiring university employees and students to register their political views with the state. It is straight out of an authoritarian regime, and backed by Christian nationalist lobbyists who want to "preserve" the Christian heritage of the country.

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We are thrilled to announce Straight White American Jesus's first affiliate podcast: Out of the Closet and Into the Pews, a show by Rachael Borthwick that asks what it means for religion to be a vehicle for liberation and freedom for queer people. Rachael is a burgeoning scholar of religion at the University of Pennsylvania who has written on queer communities of faith in the USA and beyond, served as a research assistant to our show, and worked as a campus activist.

Out of the Closet and Into the Pews includes interviews with leading scholars in queer studies, religious studies, and gender studies, along with conversations with activists and practitioners.

Brad and Rachael discuss it all in this conversation.

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Brad speaks with Kyle J. Howard, a theologian and counselor trained at a Southern Baptist Seminary. He discusses his conversion at 18 at a Black Church in Georgia, his journey to ministry as a counselor of racial and spiritual trauma, and his insider perspective of the calculation made by leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention.

It goes like this:

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Brad asks Dan to explain how the Southern Baptist Convention is a barometer for White American Christianity and what it means moving forward. They then discuss how the White panic over CRT has led to dangerous legislation and lawsuits. In AZ, a new law stipulates that teachers will be fined 5k if they discuss divisive topics without giving time to "both sides." In PA, a family is suing a school district for teaching about White privilege and BLM because is supposedly infringes on their "majority White religion," of Christianity.

Their discussion finishes with a damning investigation of how MAGAites and QAnons are taking over election sites and polling places, leaving our democracy less stable and under threat.

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Brad speaks again with journalist Jonathan Krohn who is covering the Southern Baptist Convention for the New Republic. Krohn takes Brad through all the major events at the convention:

From an SBC presidential candidate leaving a sexual abuse survivor and activist in tears to the war on CRT and the surprise victory of Ed Litton in the presidential election. While the Southern Baptist Convention is a niche topic, Brad argues that what is happening in the country's largest Protestant denomination is a window into the present and future of American Christianity and politics. The SBC is deeply divided. There are already rumors of schism. In many ways, the Southern Baptist Convention mirrors the American political landscape as it grapples (or doesn't) with issues related to race, gender, sexuality, history, and authority.

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Brad talks with Dr. Matthew Boedy, Associate Professor of English at the University of North Georgia, about the rising young star of Christian nationalist circles and the GOP writ large--Charlie Kirk. Dr. Boedy traces Kirk's "conversion" from young conservative to staunch Christian nationalist. According to him, one of the reasons Kirk has become America's Christian nationalist youth pastor is his marriage of traditional conservative talking points with apocalyptic rhetoric surrounding the fate of the nation and its departure from the Founders' vision for a "Christian" country. The scary thing: Kirk's organization is a 30 million dollar enterprise that is implementing Christian nationalist curricula in youth groups and schools all across the country in order to radicalize young people in the name of a Republican Jesus.

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Brad and Dan begin with insight from Prof. Jason Stanley: “History shows that propaganda can make a dominant group mad with panic and fear about the threat of a small minority subjugating them, supposedly by seizing the institutions and doing things to their children.”

They use this idea to explore the myths that are inciting panic and fear in White Americans, including White Christian nationalists, across the nation: the Big Lie, the propaganda against Critical Race Theory, the GOP's Myth of the Real American, and so on.

The conclusion: If you tell the story a certain way, it becomes history. It becomes a factual record of the past in the minds of the people who tell the story over and over again. 

The danger: when history becomes open to distortion by the will to power, it opens the door for authoritarian leaders to create the story of the past--and the projection of the future--in dangerous ways. 

They finish by discussing the DOJ's approach to protecting LGBTQ+ students in a recent court case.

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Brad speaks with Jonathan Krohn ahead of the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting. Jonathan is an investigative journalist and essayist whose work has appeared at Mother Jones, the Washington Post, and many other outlets. He also grew up in the SBC and was once considered a teenager star in the denomination. He will be covering the annual meeting for the New Republic. He and Brad discuss what he expects will happen at the convention. It appears that the USA's largest Protestant denomination is going to shift even further rightward by embracing Christian nationalism explicitly, by continuing the demonization of critical race theory, by ignoring sexual abuse allegations, and by cementing even deeper the commitment to patriarchal theologies. All in all, this is a startling window into one of the most influential Christian communities in the country.

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/

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

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