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PODCAST

Straight White American Jesus

Bradley Onishi + Daniel Miller

An in-depth examination of the culture and politics of Christian Nationalism and Evangelicalism by two ex-evangelical ministers-turned-religion professors. If you have ever wondered what social and historical forces led white evangelicals to usher Donald Trump into the White House this is the show for you. As former insiders and critical scholars of religion, Dan Miller and Bradley Onishi have a unique perspective on the Religious Right. Guests have included Chrissy Stroop, R. Marie Griffith,

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All Episodes

70:25

Weekly Roundup: A Battle of Fonts and Freedoms:...

Straight White American Jesus ·

2025/12/12

Brad and Dan return to unpack another week of chaos, contradictions, and creeping authoritarianism in American politics. They open with what seems like a small story but carries outsized symbolic weight: the State Department’s decision to ditch Calibri and return to Times New Roman. It’s a font change driven not by aesthetics but by politics, revealing how the Trump administration is using even bureaucratic details to signal exclusion, target accessibility, and roll back DEI efforts. What looks

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30:50

Special Episode: When We All Get to Heaven Ep 1

Straight White American Jesus ·

2025/12/11

In this special episode of 'Straight White American Jesus,' the host introduces the podcast series 'When We All Get To Heaven,' which chronicles the history of the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco during the AIDS epidemic. The series, produced by Lynn Gerber and available on Slate, uses an archive of 1200 cassette tape recordings from the church to explore themes of grief, joy, faith, and community amidst the crisis. The episode features reflections from church members, including

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35:22

It's in the Code ep 172: “Projecting Enemies”

Straight White American Jesus ·

2025/12/10

Josh Hawley argues that “man’s mission” is to combat evil. Defining men in this way makes evil necessary, and it transforms every political, social, and cultural disagreement into a moral conflict of cosmic significance. In this episode, Dan shows how this leads Hawley to distort the “modern culture” and “liberals” he opposes. He also looks at the ways in which Hawley, and those who share his worldview, accuse their opponents of doing exactly the same things they do in practice, and he discusses why

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38:07

Olivia Nuzzi, Mormon Wives, and the Death of Democracy

Straight White American Jesus ·

2025/12/08

Brad is joined by Alan Elrod, CEO and founder of the Pulaski Institute, for a wide-ranging conversation about what happens to democracy when entertainment values replace empathy. They start with the Olivia Nuzzi scandal and what it exposes about journalistic ethics, voyeurism, and the public’s fascination with watching someone fall apart in real time. From there, Brad and Alan zoom out to look at the rise of reality TV and algorithmic social media, tracing how both have shaped a political culture

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66:25

Weekly Roundup: Cultural Crusades: From Hegseth's...

Straight White American Jesus ·

2025/12/05

Brad and Dan return with a packed Weekly Roundup that cuts through the noise of culture war headlines to get at what is really happening in American politics and religion this week. They start with the bizarre story dominating Congress: alleged Venezuelan narco boats, U.S. military strikes, and the growing scrutiny around Pete Hegseth’s involvement. Brad and Dan unpack the legal and ethical questions raised by the operation, the bipartisan concerns over potential war crimes, and the way Hegseth’s

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33:24

It's in the Code ep 171: “A Man Like God”

Straight White American Jesus ·

2025/12/03

Josh Hawley builds his account on masculinity and manhood on the idea that men are created in God’s image and, as such, are his representatives on earth. But what is Hawley’s God like? What kind of God does Hawley worship? Who is this God that is the pattern for human manhood? In this episode, Dan argues that Hawley’s God’s insecurity drives him to exercise his power to dominate others. Check out the episode to hear why.Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus content most Mondays, bonus episodes

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28:47

National Guard Shooting Reveals the Right's Dangerous...

Straight White American Jesus ·

2025/12/01

Brad takes a hard look at the American right’s response to the recent shooting of two National Guardsmen in Washington, DC, and shows how the rhetoric around the tragedy signals a shift from overt Christian nationalism to something even broader and more dangerous: Western supremacy. He traces how this worldview draws from older ideas about civilizational conflict and cultural hierarchy and how it is now being revived by politicians, pundits, and tech billionaires who frame immigration and diversity

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24:51

SWAJ Rewind: Give Thanks

Straight White American Jesus ·

2025/11/28

This week Dan talks about the popular praise and worship song, “Give Thanks With a Grateful Heart.” What is the message of this song? Written as a song of solace and hope, how does it also express an attitude that denies the reality of the things about this world and our places in it that should change? And what is the significance of expressing this attitude in the form of a song? Take a listen and find out.Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus content most Mondays, bonus episodes every month,

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69:51

Weekly Roundup: Kristi Noem Implicated, Erika Kirk’s...

Straight White American Jesus ·

2025/11/26

Brad and Dan are back from the American Academy of Religion conference in Boston and kick off this episode with some love for the folks they met there before diving into a wild week in American politics and religion. They start with the viral moment between Erika Kirk and JD Vance at a TPUSA event, unpacking the media frenzy, the rumors about Kirk’s political aspirations, and what this says about the internal dynamics of a GOP that’s trying to blend celebrity, piety, and power. From there, they

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48:08

Pulitzer Winner on How the End of the Cold War...

Straight White American Jesus ·

2025/11/24

Brad Onishi sits down with Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Starr to dig into his new book, American Contradiction, and the idea that the United States is less a shining city on a hill and more a city built on a fault line. Starr traces how the nation’s promise of liberty has always coexisted with exclusion, hierarchy, and inequality, and how those tensions erupted in new ways during the 1990s. Together they unpack how the end of the Cold War, the rise of culture wars, and the shockwaves of policies like

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21:56

Short Weekly Roundup: Donald Trump is the...

Straight White American Jesus ·

2025/11/21

In this episode of 'Straight White American, Jesus,' Brad Oishi discusses the Trump administration's paradoxical treatment of Christianity. Highlighting the arrest of Christian clergy during a protest at the Broadview immigration facility, Oishi critiques the administration's selective support for certain Christian ideologies while persecuting others. He explores the historical prominence of Evangelical Christianity in American politics and critiques the intersection of this with Trump’s deportation

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40:48

It's in the Code ep 170: “Order, Chaos, and Evil”

Straight White American Jesus ·

2025/11/19

[CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains references to, and discussion of, death by suicide]. In this episode, Dan begins exploring what Josh Hawley calls “a man’s battle.” Hawley argues that what defines men, what gives them purpose, is fighting and confronting evil, and maintaining order in the face of chaos. But what exactly does this mean? And how does it make “evil” necessary? Why is this a tragic and dangerous view of the world? And what is the alternative? How can we understand “order” and

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37:53

ICE is Detaining Holocaust Survivors

Straight White American Jesus ·

2025/11/17

Brad takes listeners through two heartbreaking stories that reveal how religion, immigration policy, and selective notions of freedom collide in today’s political climate. He first looks at the attempted deportation of a Holocaust survivor born in a refugee camp after World War Two who has lived in the United States for decades.Brad shares details about the survivor's health struggles, the harsh conditions he has faced in detention, and what his case says about the cruelty baked into ICE’s

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67:35

Weekly Roundup: MAGAworld Splinters: Epstein...

Straight White American Jesus ·

2025/11/14

MAGAworld Splinters: Epstein Revelations, Civilizational Populism, and the Future of the GOPIn this episode of Straight White American Jesus, hosts Brad O’Ri and Dan Miller discuss the tumultuous week surrounding U.S. politics, including the recent government shutdown, infamous Epstein emails, and the ensuing so-called 'MAGA Civil War.' They delve into the escalating division within MAGA ranks, highlighting the civilizational populism driving figures like JD Vance. Additionally, they explore the

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76:16

American Unexceptionalism: K-Pop Demon Hunters IRL Korea

Straight White American Jesus ·

2025/11/12

Dan is off this week. So we are pleased to bring you a feature from our new limited series American Unexceptionalism: Global Lessons on Fighting Religious Nationalism with Dr. Matthew Taylor and Rev. Susan Hayward. South Korea is a nation that is deeply entwined with the United States. From the Korean War (which never technically ended) to Korean pop culture to the deep ties between Korean and American evangelical communities, what happens in the US affects South Korea and vice versa. But most

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45:30

The Librarian Who Fought Christian Nationalist Book...

Straight White American Jesus ·

2025/11/10

One of the things small town librarian Amanda Jones values most about books is how they can affirm a young person's sense of self. So in 2022, when she caught wind of a local public hearing that would discuss “book content,” she knew what was at stake. Schools and libraries nationwide have been bombarded by demands for books with LGTBQ+ references, discussions of racism, and more to be purged from the shelves. Amanda would be damned if her community were to ban stories representing minority groups

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66:58

Weekly Roundup: Mamdani Wins and Dems Sweep - Blame...

Straight White American Jesus ·

2025/11/07

Brad and Dan unpack the historic election of Zohran Mamdani as Mayor of New York City and the predictable right-wing meltdown that followed, complete with claims that he’s somehow both too weak to lead and an existential threat to America. The hosts explore what this reaction says about the American right’s obsession with demographic change, the symbolism of Mamdani’s win for younger voters, and the generational shift redefining leadership in U.S. politics.They also dig into the backlash against

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31:38

It's in the Code ep 169: “It’s the Same Story”

Straight White American Jesus ·

2025/11/05

Josh Hawley argues that American “liberals” (anyone who isn’t a conservative Christian) don’t have a story to tell about men’s purpose in the world. But it turns out things are a lot more complicated than he lets on. It turns out that those “liberals” just might have a story worth telling after all. And, even worse for him, it turns out that his story actually isn’t so different from theirs after all. What is this story? How is it similar to and different from the story Hawley wants to tell? And

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55:48

The Intellectual Forces Behind JD Vance + Vance...

Straight White American Jesus ·

2025/11/03

Brad Onishi is joined by Dr. Laura Field, author of Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right, for a fascinating look into the intellectual roots of the MAGA movement and its rising political stars, including JD Vance. Together they trace the philosophical and theological threads that tie together the Claremont Institute, National Conservatives, and Postliberal Catholics—three camps shaping the hard right’s challenge to American liberalism. From Patrick Deneen’s critique of modernity to Adrian

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70:23

Weekly Roundup: We May Never Vote Again + JD Vance...

Straight White American Jesus ·

2025/10/31

Dan’s “demon” costume sets the stage for a serious warning: Americans may not be able to vote freely in 2026. Brad argues that authoritarian tactics and election interference are accelerating, pointing to SNAP benefit cuts, ACA premium hikes, and the creation of a National Guard “quick reaction force” as tools of social control. The hosts connect these developments to historical examples of militarized regimes and discuss how Trump loyalists embedding on military bases signal deeper threats to

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