Episodes

Brad and Dan dedicate this episode to discussing the state of reproductive rights, activism, and law one year since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Brad begins by going through the numbers on support for abortion in the country, policy and campaign surprises since Roe's fall, and the ways Democrats and Republicans have responded. In the second segment Dan outlines the American religious groups who are suing to have abortion bans overturned in their states on the basis of religious freedom. The a...

In this week’s episode, Dan explores and explains the practice of infant “dedications,” in contrast with the more familiar practice of infant baptism. Why do some churches reject infant baptism, but practice infant “dedication” instead? And what does this tell us about cultural “duplication” and its role within American evangelical subculture? Check out this week’s episode to find out. To donate: venmo - @straightwhitejc Paypal : https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BradleyOnishi Patreon: https://ww...

Brad shares the recording of a roundtable he hosted at Americans United's Summit for Religious Freedom. He asked Andrew Seidel, Katherine Stewart, and Rob Boston what they are worried about in the year ahead - and what gives them surprising amounts of hope as we careen toward 2024. They expound on SCOTUS, public schools, LGBTQ+ rights, and more. To donate: venmo - @straightwhitejc Paypal : https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BradleyOnishi Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/straightwhiteamericanjesus L...

Brad and Dan begin by discussing the reactions to Trump's arraignment in Miami - from congresspeople calling for war, to Kari Lake talking about 75 million Americans with guns, to megachurch pastors exhorting their congregations to emulate religious terrorists. Brad points out that the anger over Trump's arraignment coincides with the rise of anti-trans rhetoric - from Trump himself to the KKK. In the second segment, Dan provides a long list of ways to learn about trans issues and how to become ...

Why do conservative American Christians and Christian nationalists use the rhetoric of being “attacked” and “persecuted”? Why do they perceive themselves to be “suffering” in the contemporary United States, when they experience pronounced social, cultural, and legal privilege? And how do these ideas link up with the broader valorization of “suffering” within some forms of Christian identity? Dan takes on these issues in this week’s episode. To Donate: venmo - @straightwhitejc Paypal : https://ww...

Trans Hate, COVID Denial, and Christian Nationalism

Brad and Dan being by discussing Trump's indictment on federal charges. They then break down the life and death of Pat Robertson - an architect of the Religious Right and someone whose influence resounds in American Christian nationalism today, from media, to spiritual warfare, to queerphobia, and more. They finish the episode with a discussion of SCOTUS' surprising decision to defend voting rights and Oklahoma's move to create a Catholic public school. Chrissy Stroop on Pat Robertson: https://r...

With Dan still on vacation, enjoy this episode from the One Nation All Belief series: Brad speaks with Paul Southwick and Erin Green from the Religious Exemption Accountability Project. They explain REAP's mission: to help queer students on religious campuses and to get tax dollars out of institutions that discriminate against LGBT people. Through civil rights litigation, storytelling, oral history, research and public policy, REAP works toward a world where LGBTQ students on all campuses are tr...

Faith deconstruction - the intentional examination of one's religious faith and beliefs, leading to a profound change in, or even loss of, that faith - has received increasing attention in the past few years. But, who are the people who deconstruct their faith, what causes them to do so and where does the journey take them? Olivia Jackson's new book (Un)Certain is a collective memoir built on the stories and reflections of over 150 interviewees and nearly 400 survey respondents from all over the...

+ The New Alien Land Laws

Dan is on vacation this week, so we are happy to present Brad's interview with Rev. Alex McNeill, which is part of the special series ONE NATION ALL BELIEFS. Alex is a white, queer, transgender man, an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. Rev. McNeill served as the executive director of More Light Presbyterians for over eight years. There, he empowered faith leaders to welcome LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC neighbors into worship communities and to advocate for justice in their broader secul...

with Dr. Melissa Wilcox

+ "Diversity is Anti-White"

On this episode of ONE NATION, ALL BELIEFS (subscribe links below): Dave Warnock was caught up in the Jesus movement of the 70s and lived the bulk of his life as a Charismatic Evangelical, serving as a pastor on three different church staffs. Following several years of internal struggle, Dave came to the conclusion in 2011 that he no longer believed in a personal God. In 2019 he was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) , a progressive neurodegenerative disease with an average 3-5 year life ...

The previous episode explored how Christian churches, as well as other religious, non-profit, and volunteer organizations, exploit the idea of “having a servant’s heart,” or service or giving of one’s time and resources, for their own gain. In this episode, Dan considers how the idea of serving to the point of “suffering” elevates this abusive pattern within Christian organizations. Beginning with a discussion of the “suffering servant” idea in the Hebrew Bible, Dan traces how this idea of suffe...

What if told you 9% of Americans think only Christians should be eligible for citizenship? Or if 14% thought that their church should have veto power over American law? What if there was evidence that belief in modern day prophets is linked to political violence and extreme belief? This is exactly what sociologist Paul Djupe found in recent studies on the topic. https://religioninpublic.blog/2023/04/26/is-modern-prophecy-leading-its-followers-to-a-religious-state/ Merch: BUY OUR NEW Come and Tak...

Brad and Dan begin by analyzing the surge in vigilantism on the American Right. Brad discusses how vigilantism often rises in times when there is a question of who belongs in the community - and what it means to have a working social order. Dan discusses the ways that vigilantism rises when law and order no longer work - and the perceived need for violence beyond the law takes hold. In the second segment they argue that the bevy of far-right laws passed in Florida represent the attempt to make t...

On this episode of ONE NATION, ALL BELIEFS (subscribe links below) brad speaks with Dr. Allyson Shortle an associate professor at the University of Oklahoma, where she studies group identity in the context of American political behavior. She runs OU’s Community Engagement + Experiments Laboratory (CEEL), Oklahoma City’s Community Poll (Exit Poll), and OU’s Democracy Survey of OU freshmen. Dr. Shortle’s new co-authored Cambridge University Press book, The Everyday Crusade: Christian Nationalism i...

What do Christians mean when they refer to someone having a “servant’s heart”? How does this language, so foreign to those outside of a particular kind of religious context, connect to secular volunteer and non-profit organizations? Beyond the meaning of such language, what are its social effects? How is it often mobilized to manipulate and coerce individuals to “giving of themselves” beyond the limits of what is reasonable or healthy? Dan tackles these questions in this week’s episode. Merch: B...

with Cynthia Miller-Idriss

Brad and Dan begin by discussing the two massacres in one day that happened in Texas last weekend. They borrow from work by Umar Haique who summarizes the state of the USA as a country experiencing "ultraviolence" as a form of societal collapse. https://medium.com/eudaimonia-co/why-cnns-trump-town-hall-was-a-disgrace-and-an-insult-to-democracy-320738e60147 Brad links this to the Trump town hall hosted by CNN. He makes the case that this was the platforming of a fascist leader who has no interest...

On this episode of ONE NATION, ALL BELIEFS (subscribe links below) Brad speaks with Indu Kumar, a student fellow with Americans United who is organizing on the ground in Tennessee. She discusses the ways that students, Black churches, and other minoritized groups are building coalitions to fight gun violence and create sustainable movements. Indu explains how separation of church and state is a key issue for young people who care about reproductive rights and LGBT inclusion. She also shares her ...

In the previous episode, Dan looked at what’s going on when people tell us we are “right where God wants us to be.” But what does it mean when those same people DON’T tell us that? Why do they seem to say this at some times, but not others? What does it mean, and what effects does it have on us? In this episode, Dan explores this topic, arguing that this reflects bad theology and that it matters because of the damage bad theology doe to people. Merch: BUY OUR NEW Come and Take It and Election Af...

Brad interviews writer Scott Okamoto, author of Asian American Apostate, his wry and ironic story of leaving religion while teaching at an evangelical university. Okamoto’s often-chilling accounts reveal that such schools, where prayer and trite theological debate erupt in any lecture, demonstrate anything but higher education. Stories range from a classroom declaration against interracial marriage because it causes painful pregnancies, to grading a paper entitled, “Why Obama Is a Nazi,” and to ...