Host Sarah Posner examines Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s escalating campaign to remake the Pentagon in the image of a militant, hyper-masculine Christian nationalism—from dismantling small-business contracting as “DEI,” to purging diversity programs, hosting monthly Christian prayer meetings inside the Pentagon, and framing U.S. military power as divinely sanctioned. As Trump rattles the global order with threats against NATO allies and Greenland, Posner traces how Hegseth’s theology and politics blur the lines among biblical law, domestic authority, and international norms—raising urgent questions about religion, war, and state power.

Posner is joined by Dr. Julie Ingersoll, professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Florida and author of Building God’s Kingdom, for a deep dive into the radical Christian Reconstructionist movement shaping Hegseth’s worldview. They unpack the influence of Doug Wilson and the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, including beliefs about biblical law, patriarchy, Christian dominion, and a “God of war” theology that legitimizes violence and conquest. The conversation explores how once-fringe theocratic ideas have quietly moved into the corridors of power—and what it means when U.S. military leaders see themselves as carrying out God’s will, at home and abroad.

Julie Ingersoll is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, where she teaches and writes about religion in American culture, with a particular focus on religion and politics and the religious right.

Originally from Maine, she earned a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, along with degrees in history from George Washington University and political science from Rutgers College. She began studying religion as an undergraduate because of her interest in politics, which she saw as deeply intertwined with religious life—an understanding that only deepened as her studies continued.

More about Dr. Ingersoll: https://julieingersoll.weebly.com/about.html

Additional Resources:

Julie Ingersoll, Building God’s Kingdom: Inside the World of Christian Reconstruction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015)

Julie Ingersoll, “Why the religious beliefs of Trump defense pick Pete Hegseth matter,” The Conversation, December 12, 2024, https://theconversation.com/why-the-religious-beliefs-of-trump-defense-pick-pete-hegseth-matter-245601

Brian Kaylor, “Hegseth Shares War Psalm He Prayed During Venezuela Attack,” A Public Witness, January 21, 2026, https://publicwitness.wordandway.org/p/hegseth-shares-war-psalm-he-prayed

Brian Kaylor, “At Pentagon Christmas Service, Franklin Graham Praises ‘God of War’,” A Public Witness, December 17, 2025, https://publicwitness.wordandway.org/p/at-pentagon-christmas-service-franklin

Government Worship Watch, A Public Witness, https://publicwitness.wordandway.org/p/government-worship-watch

“The Christian nationalist pastor with ties to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth,” CNN, August 8, 2025, https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/08/politics/video/christian-nationalist-doug-wilson-pam-brown-digvid

Creator: Sarah Posner: https://www.sarahposner.com/

Producer and Engineer: Dr. Ger FitzGerald

Executive Producer: Dr. Bradley Onishi

Production Assistance: Kari Onishi

Generous funding provided by the Henry Luce Foundation.

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In this episode of Straight White American Jesus, Brad is joined by Sarah Moslener, author of After Purity: Race, Sex, and Religion in White Christian America and creator of the Pure White podcast. Together, they explore purity culture not as a narrow fixation on teenage abstinence, but as a powerful religious and political system that has long shaped ideas of belonging in the United States. Moslener traces purity culture back to 19th-century slavery, Victorian gender norms, and Protestant theology, showing how it functions to define “good bodies” and “bad bodies,” determine moral worth, and police the boundaries of citizenship. White womanhood, in particular, emerges as a national symbol of innocence and virtue that has been central to sustaining racial hierarchy and social control.

The conversation turns to how these myths are playing out in the present, from the aesthetics and behavior of women aligned with Trump-era politics to the legal and media treatment of women involved in January 6. Brad and Moslener examine how white innocence is protected when it reinforces authority and withdrawn when it challenges power, contrasting the treatment of compliant figures with white women who resist authoritarianism and women of color who face state violence. From ICE raids to the killing of Renee Good, the episode highlights how authoritarian systems rely on fear, spectacle, and constantly shifting lines between “good” and “bad” to enforce obedience. The discussion ultimately underscores the high cost—and the necessity—of defecting from whiteness in moments of moral and political crisis.

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 In this episode of Straight White American Jesus, Brad Onishi—author of American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy —is joined by co-host Dan Miller, Professor of Religion and Social Thought at Landmark College. They begin by unpacking the ongoing ICE operations in Minnesota, framing the federal crackdown as a clash between authoritarian state power and a deeply organized, nonviolent response by ordinary Minnesotans. Drawing on political theory and on-the-ground reporting, Brad and Dan argue that what’s unfolding in the Twin Cities is not a partisan skirmish but a vivid example of democracy in action: neighbors mobilizing to protect one another against coercion, violence, and the erosion of basic rights.

The conversation then turns to two deeply troubling developments with national implications. First, they examine the killing of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse and legal gun owner, and the Trump administration’s sudden hostility to Second Amendment arguments—revealing how rights are selectively applied depending on political loyalty. Finally, they analyze the FBI raid on a Georgia election office, tracing its roots to Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 election results and warning of the chilling precedent this sets for future elections. Taken together, these stories reveal a pattern: the criminalization of dissent, the dehumanization of political opponents, and an accelerating effort to use state power to intimidate, suppress, and control.

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Like many right-wing commentators, Josh Hawley argues that men’s use of pornography represents one of the most significant and pervasive social ills plaguing American society. What dangers does he believe pornography poses? And what does this fear of pornography reveal about the religious ideology expressed in his thought? What do his views reveal for us about American high-control religion? Check out this week’s episode to find out!

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Josiah Hesse grew up in northern Iowa during the farm crisis of the 1980s, a moment of economic collapse, rising poverty, and quiet desperation across the rural Midwest. In this episode, he joins Straight White American, Jesus to talk about his new memoir, On Fire for God: Fear, Shame, Poverty, and the Making of the Christian Right. Through his family’s story—parents who poured everything into a prosperity-gospel church, even giving dollar-for-dollar what they earned—Hesse traces how faith, trauma, and economic pressure collided in a home and a church marked by dysfunction, scandal, and exploitation. What emerges is not a caricature, but a deeply human portrait of people searching for meaning, stability, and hope in a system that ultimately consumed them.

Our conversation moves from the intimate to the national, mapping Hesse’s personal journey onto the rise of the Christian Right from the 1980s to today’s Christian nationalist movement. We talk about fear of the end times, purity culture, religious trauma, sexuality, and the long road out of evangelicalism—alongside the compassion required to reckon honestly with the people and places that shaped him. Hesse, a journalist based in Colorado, brings unflinching analysis and rare empathy to a genre crowded with deconversion stories, showing how the forces that shaped his childhood are now shaping our public square. Subscribers can stick around for an extended discussion on how his story illuminates the political and moral crises we’re living through right now.

www.axismundi.us

www.straightwhiteamericanjesus.com

Hesse, On Fire for God: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/721105/on-fire-for-god-by-josiah-hesse/

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Straight White American Jesus digs into the Minnesota church protest that’s been framed as “anti-Christian”—and explains why that framing collapses on contact. Brad Onishi and Dan Miller connect the dots between City’s Church, ICE, Doug Wilson’s theological orbit, and the ideology behind The Sin of Empathy, showing how a strain of Christian nationalism produces pastors who see no contradiction between pulpit ministry and state violence. What looks like an isolated protest turns out to be part of a much larger story about power, theology, and the weaponization of “law and order,” with unsettling links that stretch from Minneapolis to Washington, D.C.

From there, the conversation widens to the ICE occupation of the Twin Cities, the general strike, and the moral backlash unfolding across religious lines—Catholic clergy, mainline Protestants, and everyday residents standing watch in subzero temperatures to protect their neighbors. Brad and Dan confront the human cost of these policies, including the detention of a five-year-old child and the warrantless arrest of a U.S. citizen, and ask what it means when empathy itself is declared a sin. The episode closes by zooming out to Davos, Trump’s open flirtation with dictatorship, and what it means to live in a moment of rupture—not transition—where democracy is being tested not in speeches or elections, but in the streets.

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Josh Hawley identifies six roles that men are called to play. The first is that of “husband.” But what, exactly does that mean? And what is the point or purpose of marriage? For Hawley, marriage holds the promise of countering all the evils that confront contemporary American society. But who, exactly, is called to play this role of husband? And how can marriage possibly be everything Hawley says that it is? And perhaps most importantly, why does he argue that marriage is so significant? Listen to this week’s episode as Dan dives into these issues.

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MLK Day, Postliberalism, and the Assault on Civil Rights

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2026, Brad Onishi reflects on the legacy of civil rights in a moment when those rights are under unprecedented threat, one year into Donald Trump’s second term. From Trump’s humiliating and dangerous letter asserting U.S. control over Greenland to the escalation of ICE abuses in Minnesota, this episode argues that the core idea of civil rights—inalienable human dignity promised to all—has entered a period of open attack. Drawing on King’s own words, Brad frames civil rights not as radical demands, but as a fight for what the United States has always claimed to promise: equality under the law, due process, and freedom regardless of race, religion, immigration status, or identity.

Brad then introduces the real engine behind this moment: postliberalism. Joined by theologian and political theorist Dr. David Congdon, the episode unpacks how postliberal movements—rooted in both Christian theology and Silicon Valley technocracy—reject liberal democracy, individual rights, and pluralism in favor of hierarchy, authoritarian power, and state-enforced moral order. From JD Vance to Catholic integralists to tech elites dreaming of CEO-rule, these movements converge in their hostility to democracy and civil rights. This conversation situates Trump’s second term as the first sustained experiment in federal postliberal rule, explaining how backlash to the Civil Rights Movement itself helped fuel today’s authoritarian turn—and why understanding postliberalism is essential to grasping what is happening to American democracy right now.

David Congdon, Who is a True Christian? https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/who-is-a-true-christian/2DA88468C8824BD55EBE9AE94CFCDF73

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Brad and Dan examine the escalating ICE presence in Minneapolis following the fatal shooting of Renee Good, situating the operation within a broader pattern of authoritarian governance under the Trump administration. They unpack how federal immigration enforcement has begun to resemble occupation style tactics, including minimal vetting of ICE agents, sweeping immunity claims for officers, and the use of overwhelming force in civilian spaces. Drawing on historical parallels to fascist regimes and social psychology experiments like the Stanford Prison Experiment, the conversation explores how power, dehumanization, and impunity reinforce one another when federal agencies are weaponized against dissent.

The episode also interrogates the gendered and racial dynamics at play, particularly the demonization of white women protesters framed by right wing media as dangerous or hysterical. Brad and Dan discuss how white femininity functions within white Christian supremacy, why Renee Good’s identity as a queer woman posed a threat to patriarchal power, and how Fox News and Christian nationalist figures have celebrated or justified state violence. The conversation widens to include federal overreach beyond immigration, including pressure on the Department of Justice to investigate Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, threats to institutional independence, and the administration’s seizure of Venezuelan oil revenue. Throughout, the hosts connect these developments to a coherent ideological project rooted in Christian nationalism, racial hierarchy, and authoritarian control, warning that the expansion of state power rarely stops with its initial targets.

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Josh Hawley offers us a story about men, masculinity, and American society. But his patriarchal vision, with its appeals to Rome and medieval Christendom, is not a popular story—it’s not a story that most Americans are eager to hear. So how does Hawley try to make that story more attractive? How does he make it feel more inviting and reasonable? He does it the same way other storytellers might—he creates antagonists that an audience will hate and fear. Check out this week’s episode to hear more.

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