Amanda Moore spent a year undercover attending rallies, events, and conferences in the trenches of MAGA Nation. She hung out with Proud Boys, got up close and personal with QAnon grifters, and got invited to join a fascist grassroots organization while attending a Turning Point USA event. She was also present at January 6th. She joins Brad to share what she saw and heard. They play clips she recorded secretly while at these events and talk about why we should all be worried about the future of t...
Dec 06, 2021•12 min
Brad and Dan are back after a week off. They begin by discussing SCOTUS and the very real possibility of Roe v. Wade being overturned. Dan distills the arguments of the Trump appointed judges. Brad points to the religious history and context that made this moment possible. They then turn their attention to Oxford, Michigan and the school shooting from a few days ago. Brad argues that the reason we have not seen meaningful gun control in this country is that guns--handheld killing machines--repre...
Dec 04, 2021•12 min
Brad and Dan are joined by Professor Kristin Kobes du Mez, author of Jesus and John Wayne, and an expert on evangelical masculinity and culture. They discuss why evangelicals imagine Jesus to be a heterosexual strong man, how evangelical pastors prime their congregations for fear, the trappings of gender complementarity, the #churchtoo movement, and the damaging effects of patriarchal church cultures. Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-...
Nov 30, 2021•11 min
Brad speaks with Dennison University political scientist Paul Djupe. They discuss Djupe's findings that those Christians who live in homogenous Christian communities are most likely to believe that Democrats, atheists, and others are trying to take their rights away. They also discuss data that shows a large majority of Evangelicals are willing to strip rights from nonbelievers. Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discor...
Nov 26, 2021•11 min
Dan speaks with author and constitutional lawyer Andrew Seidel. They discuss his new book, "The Founding Myth," and dissect the idea that the USA is a Christian nation. 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/ Linktree: https://linktr.ee/StraightWhiteJC Order Brad's new book: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163 SWAJ Appar...
Nov 24, 2021•10 min
In his new book, Profaning Paul, USC Professor Cavan Concannon takes an unflinching look at the letters of Paul through the metaphor of excrement--or shit. "The letters of Paul have been used to support and condone a host of evils over the span of more than two millennia: racism, slavery, imperialism, misogyny, and anti-Semitism, to name a few. Following the lead of feminist, queer, and minoritized scholarship, Profaning Paul asks what would happen if we stopped recycling Paul’s writings. By pro...
Nov 23, 2021•8 min
Brad and Dan discuss the censuring of Rep. Paul Gosar for his tweet depicting him as an anime character killing Rep AOC. This leads to a bold, but evidence-based thesis: There is no good Republican party. If it ever existed in the first place, it is now gone. What has taken its place is a party founded on Trumpism, grievance, and fascist tendencies. After providing evidence for this thesis, Brad and Dan ask two questions: What happens in parties and states where contradicting the leader is the o...
Nov 20, 2021•8 min
On Mourning the One and the lessons about love you never learn in church. 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/ Linktree: https://linktr.ee/StraightWhiteJC Order Brad's book: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163 SWAJ Apparel is here! https://straight-white-american-jesus.creator-spring.com/listing/not-today-uncle-ron To...
Nov 17, 2021•7 min
A life long social activist, Obery Hendricks is one of the foremost commentators on the intersection of religion and political economy in America. He is the most widely read and perhaps the most influential African American biblical scholar writing today. Dr. Hendricks’ appearances include CNN, MSNBC, CBS, Fox News, Fox Business News, the Discovery Channel, PBS, BBC, among others. Dr. Hendricks has served in the Religion and Foreign Policy Working Group at the U. S. Department of State under Sec...
Nov 16, 2021•11 min
Brad and Dan begin by discussing the case of Aaron Rodgers, who was recently found out not to have been vaccinated. They discuss the various components at play in the case--from becoming an anti-vaxxer wiithout realizing it, to blaming the "woke mob" for cancel culture, and the politics of scientific authority. This leads to a discussion of Ted Cruz's criticism of Big Bird's immunization. Yes, Big Bird. Staying with Ted Cruz, Brad and Dan then analyze how and why our nation's freeways and other ...
Nov 13, 2021•8 min
Brad uses recent comments by Josh Hawley to talk about what people mean when they say that the country (and the church) needs to return to masculinity. Brad argues that this is a common trope in Christian nationalism and the theme opens the door for seeing how Christian nationalism is the original purity culture. 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/ Linktree: http...
Nov 11, 2021•7 min
Brad's spirited and at times contentious interview with Daniel Silliman, the news editor for Christianity Today and the author of Reading Evangelicals:: How Christian Fiction Shaped a Culture and Faith. Their discussion of Silliman's book includes rumination on the themes of race, class, politics, and the contours of evangelical culture. Where Silliman sees diversity, Brad sees a narrow focus on suburban White evangelicals whose homogenous,, Trumpian politics are reflected in the fiction Sillima...
Nov 08, 2021•10 min
Brad and Dan begin by debating the fallout of the gubernatorial election in Virginia. Dan points out that historically the party in power doesn't perform well in midterm and off-year elections. This is especially true in Virginia. Brad takes a different approach by discussing the ways that the GOP has made extremism mainstream in the past and how Glenn Youngkin, who ran on a Trumpian platform without Trump as the mascot of his campaign, may be the next iteration of making racism and prejudice "r...
Nov 06, 2021•10 min
Brad takes a break from Mild at Heart to talk to writer, podcaster, and organizer Cindy Wang Brandt, the person behind Parenting Forward. Cindy discusses her journey from Evangelical convert to the go-to person helping folks navigate parenthood after deconstruction and in the wake of purity culture. Her new children's book, You Are Revolutionary, provides an inspiring child-affirming message that is poignant and timely. You are Revolutionary: https://www.beamingbooks.com/store/product/9781506478...
Nov 04, 2021•12 min
Dr. Brett Krutsch is the editor of the Revealer and the Director of the Center for Religion and Media at NYU, He speaks to Brad about his book, "Dying to Be Normal: Gay Martyrs and the Transformation of American Sexual Politics." In Dying to Be Normal, Krutzsch argues that gay activists have in the past enacted a political strategy to present gays as similar to the country's dominant class of white, straight Christians. Through an examination of publicly mourned gay deaths, Krutzsch counters the...
Nov 01, 2021•9 min
Brad and Dan begin by discussing three trials happening right now: the Charlottesville Unite the Right Trial, the Kenosha Shooter Trial, and the Murder of Amaud Arbery. They analyze the racial, legal, and historical dynamics of each, pointing to the failure of our legal system to reckon with the baked-in White supremacy of our system. They then dissect the revelations about January 6th planning meetings and Trump's War Room. This leads to a discussion of myth making in real time and how everyone...
Oct 30, 2021•12 min
Why does love feel like death? Brad continues to reflect on the soulmate myth and purity culture's vision of love. He analyzes how the model of love in these stories sees it as the end of life--the completion of one's journey, and thus something like death. With help from Plato and the Odyssey he explains why it is such a toxic, and potentially abusive, vision of love within the purity culture context. Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500...
Oct 28, 2021•8 min
Calvary Chapel started in Southern California in the 1960s. From the beginning, the aesthetic was laid-back, casual, and welcoming--the type of place barefoot hippies and wet-haired surfers could find a church home. But below the surface a militant conservative theology and politics took shape. Fast forward half a century and Calvary Chapel is now a nation-wide network that is at the forefront of shaping the contemporary culture wars. By offering a ready-made circuit for Christian nationalist sp...
Oct 26, 2021•10 min
Brad and Dan begin discussing the MAGA freakout over Mayor Pete's paternity leave. They use this to ask what kind of families and what kind of fathers conservatives envision when they talk endlessly about family values. Using the work of George Lakoff, this leads to examining the metaphor of the nation as a family and the political leader as the nation's father. Brad and Dan connect the outrage over paternity leave to the way conservatives value authoritarian styles of leadership based on punish...
Oct 23, 2021•10 min
Brad shifts to the theme of love and explains the toxicity of the soulmate myth in purity culture. 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/ Linktree: https://linktr.ee/StraightWhiteJC Order Brad's book: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163 SWAJ Apparel is here! https://straight-white-american-jesus.creator-spring.com/listi...
Oct 20, 2021•8 min
Alex DiBranco is Executive Director and Founder at Institute for Research on Male Supremacism. Alex stops by to discuss "Male Supremacist Terrorism as a Rising Threat". According to Dibranco, male supremacism is a right-wing extremist ideology that has contributed to terrorist attacks, primarily in the US, but also in Canada and Europe. Within male supremacist communities, the motivation for terrorist attacks stem predominantly from two core misogynist beliefs: 1) the belief that men are entitle...
Oct 18, 2021•9 min
Brad and Dan begin by discussing a rally for VA gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin where supporters pledged allegiance to a flag carried at the January 6th Insurrection. To top it off, Steve Bannon--who is ignoring a subpoena to testify about January 6th--appeared at the rally to support Youngkin's campaign. They then discuss an ongoing debate in a school district near Forth Worth Texas, where libraries have been closed surrounding the need to teach "multiple perspectives" on the Holocaust. ...
Oct 16, 2021•10 min
Brad discusses the fact that masculinity is often a performance for other men. Men fear what other men think of them, creating the need to constantly live up to an ideal of masculinity that is neither rooted in reality, nor healthy. Purity culture exacerbates this phenomenon by setting up God as the Ultimate Masculinity who every man mimics, but cannot live up to. This leads to anxiety and insecurity under the scrutiny of what Brad calls "the masculine gaze." Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get b...
Oct 13, 2021•8 min
Brad speaks with Dr. Jessica Johnson, research fellow at the College of William and Mary and author of Biblical Porn: Affect, Labor, and Pastor Mark Driscoll's Evangelical Empire. They discuss the ways that Christianity Today's podcast, "The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill," primes its audience using similar tactics to Driscoll and other megachurch pastors, how it refuses to center abuse victims, and how it acts as a covert reclamation project for evangelicalism. Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bo...
Oct 11, 2021•11 min
Brad and Dan begin by discussing the Senate Judiciary Committee's findings on how Trump sought to overturn the election by pressuring the DOJ. Dan relates these revelations to the concepts of populism and nationalism, showing how Trump used tactics used by populist leaders who take control of every aspect of government in order to take complete control of a nation. They then turn their attention to a brand new interview with the president of the Claremont Institute, the MAGA think-tank that help...
Oct 09, 2021•1 hr 1 min
Brad shares an episode from his deconstruction when he began to date again. It was the first time he was out of church and single since he converted. What ensued was a crisis of self image and a crisis of masculinity. While he was overjoyed to be outside the narrow confines of the Evangelical fold, he also had no tools with which to understand himself in the world. When he tried to date "out there in the world," he immediately felt worthless, empty, and full of self doubt. Subscribe for $5.99 a ...
Oct 06, 2021•7 min
Blake Chastain, host of #Exvangelical and Powers and Principalities, and the author of a recent piece on the recent Christianity Today podcast on the downfall of Mars Hill, stops by to talk about why religious leaders and thinkers refuse to listen to ex-evangelicals. He and Brad discuss the excuses that the Christianity Today podcast and other sources make about why people leave high demand religions. What becomes clear throughout the conversation is that the refusal to listen is a refusal to se...
Oct 04, 2021•12 min
Brad and Dan discuss American values in relation to the ongoing debates among Democrats about the Biden administration's infrastructure bill. They discuss why Joe Manchin has been willing to vote for 9 trillion in military spending over the last decade, but doesn't want to invest in education, fighting climate change, or American families. The bulk of the episode focuses on how White Christians use the feeling of discomfort as a justification for their exclusionary politics. Dan walks us through...
Oct 02, 2021•12 min
Brad continues his analysis of sex and masculinity in purity culture. He focuses on how it teaches men to hate themselves twice. First, they hate themselves for continually giving into lust and sexual temptation. It is a losing battle that can't be won. Second, they hate themselves because men are supposed to be sexual barbarians. So, when they get married, if they don't want to engage in sexual activity all the time, then they aren't real men. This hurts women because they are asked to be the g...
Sep 29, 2021•8 min
Constitutional Originalism is the idea that one should read the Constitution, not interpret it. It endeavors to implement the "original" intent of the Founders. The goal is to limit renovation and innovation in order to stick with the "fundamentals" of the United States. Sound familiar? It should. The origins of this strategy are found in biblical inerrancy--the idea that the Bible should be read, not interpreted. That it is the errorless Word of God. That it is 100% accurate in terms of history...
Sep 27, 2021•11 min
