Episodes

Why do those on the religious and cultural right often describe transgender or gender-nonconforming identity as a mental illness? What is the relationship of “gender dysphoria” and trans or gender-nonconforming identity? Why would some who target trans and gender-nonconforming people claim that they are doing it because they care for them? And finally, how can we support trans and gender-nonconforming people and address the concrete effects of gender dysphoria? Dan takes on these issues in this ...

Brad speaks with veteran journalist Sarah Stankorb about her new book Disobedient Women. Disobedient Women is not just a look at the women who have used the internet to bring down the religious power structures that were meant to keep them quiet, but also a picture of the large-scale changes that are happening within evangelical culture regarding women’s roles, ultimately underscoring the ways technology has created a place for women to challenge traditional institutions from within. To Donate...

303 Creative Fallout, Tuberville, the Long Term Effects of Protest

The language of “religious freedom” is often used as a code for the preservation of traditional White Christian privilege in the US. But it is also used as a code for efforts to use religious ideology to influence the secular government, so that the beliefs of a minority of White conservative Christians in the US is forced onto the population as a whole. Dan explores this dimension of the contemporary code of “religious freedom” in this week’s episode. To Donate: venmo - @straightwhitejc Payp...

Last weekend Moms for Liberty held their national conference in Philadelphia. Annika Brockschmidt attended the conference. She talks to Brad about the protests outside the conference, conversations with rank and file members, and speeches from Trump, DeSantis, Haley, and many others. To Donate: venmo - @straightwhitejc Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BradleyOnishi Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/straightwhiteamericanjesus Linktree: https://linktr.ee/StraightWhiteJC Order Brad's new ...

Brad begins with a long discussion of the Moms for Liberty conference in Philadephia. He centers his comments on the long history of "housewife populism" that goes back to the 1950s. Drawing on work from Gill Frank and Melissa Deckman, Brad argues that Moms for Liberty stands in a long lineage of grassroots movements led by women using the mantle of motherhood to advance an anti-LGBTQ and often White supremacist agenda. Piece by Gillian Frank: https://wearethemeteor.com/moms-for-liberty-history...

Myths, Data, Predictions

The Latest from SCOTUS

What does the SCOTUS decision on affirmative action have to do with the Don't Say Gay bills, book bans, and attacks on school curricula all over the country? How is is part and parcel of a certain White supremacist libertarianism? What are the ramifications for how we think of education and the ways our professional and legal domains are organized? Brad and Dan answer these questions and more in the Weekly Roundup. To Donate: venmo - @straightwhitejc Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/Br...

The language of “religious freedom,” “religious freedom restoration” laws, and so forth makes many of us uncomfortable. What does this language mean? Who deploys it? For what reasons? Where did it come from? In this first of a two-part episode, Dan explores these issues, looking at the emergence of the idea of religious freedom and how those who deploy it on today’s political and religious right have departed from its historical meaning. To donate: venmo - @straightwhitejc Paypal: https://www...

Jon Ward on "Testimony"

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 ...

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://...

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...

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://...

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://...

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 t...

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 secu...

with Dr. Melissa Wilcox

+ "Diversity is Anti-White"