Dan tell us why he hates the beach. Brad finishes his weeping on election night story. Then, they discuss Trump's Christian nationalist Confederate strategy (5:03), the Ministerial Exception expanded by SCOTUS (20:46), Religious Institutions receiving COVID relief money (29:24), Betsy Devos' attempt to weaken public schools, Dominionism, and the Religious Right's claim that abortion = slavery.
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My name is Brad Onishi, Associate Professor, Religious Studies, Skidmore College, and I'm back with my co-host this week, Dan Miller, Associate Professor of Religion and Social Thought at Landmark College.
Good to be back, Brad.
I was out last week doing Fourth of July stuff, so thanks for holding down the fort.
So, Dan, you and I have been friends a long time.
We get along in just most ways in life.
We overlap on politics, theology, a lot of stuff.
But you know, my dad's from Maui, grew up in California.
I love nothing more than the sand in my toes.
I used to go surfing as a kid and at times, like when I was 16, like 16 year old me would not shower after surfing and therefore there would be like sand in my bed and I just didn't bother me.
I thought it was great.
And you went to a little trip with the family this week, went to the beach, and this is just the place where we diverge.
You are not a beach person, is that fair?
I am not a beach person.
I went to Narragansett, Rhode Island.
For those who aren't sort of familiar with New England, we do have beaches that get hot and warm, and you can actually swim in them and stuff.
Yeah, I basically, I feel like humans spent like billions of years evolving to escape the sea, and I just, I kind of I don't get the appeal.
No, like I like the ocean.
I love sitting by the ocean.
I love sitting somewhere and like hearing the surf and feeling the breeze and maybe like Reading a good book because I'm a nerd and that's my favorite thing to do and whatever but like sitting on the beach just like I'm good for like you know 20 minutes.
My family, my kids and my wife are like part fish and we'll do it for just hours.
So like here's my story as long as we're doing story time.
A few years ago my first like proper beach experience I think really with my family.
I grew up in a landlocked state that's got to be part of this right?
We go to the beach.
We go to Narragansett.
My wife and at the time young kid is one and the other one is like still in diapers and like has this death wish.
Every time you set him down he will crawl.
He would like crawl into the sea like a turtle and just sort of prepare to die if you didn't fish him out.
And we're meeting my wife's parents there and we get there.
We've rented this house.
It wasn't ready until that afternoon.
It's like 11 o'clock or whatever.
We get there and I'm like cool we're at the beach.
What are we doing?
And Nicole's like we're at the beach.
I'm like yeah but like what are we doing?
She's like well like we're at the beach and I was like like this this is it?
She's like yeah we're at the beach and I'm like well for how long?
She's like well till like dinner and I'm looking at my watch like that's like six hours like what are we doing for six hours and she's like this is it and so for six hours that's all I did was like retrieve my child from the water because I was ill prepared.
I didn't have Any kind of shelter to sit under.
I'm just melting in the sun.
I would get wet some, but I don't like the sand.
I don't like the salt water.
And I'm just like, this kind of sucks.
And I didn't have a book to read, anything.
So I'm much better prepared now.
I do my time.
I try to be the faithful parent.
But no, I am not a beach person.
Give me like a cabin in the woods and a campfire.
I'll sit and stare at that for like 12 hours.
But no, not the beach.
So.
All right.
Yep.
We can, you know, we are too civil.
I still affirm your authentic American identity.
I won't go full populist and say you're not a real American if you like the ocean or something like that.
Coastal elite who actually likes the ocean.
I did want to update listeners.
Last week I told a story about crying on election night, 2008, Barack Obama.
And some of you are wondering what happened on the first date in that story.
And so it was fine.
We ended up dating for a while.
That was not our first and only date.
She did not look at me in disgust and say, you know, please, weeping man, get out of my sight or anything.
We did date for a while, and that was fine.
Some of you asked, that person is not my current partner, my wife, so it is not one of those happy endings in that sense.
Anyway, that's about all there is to say about that part.
Alright, Dan, you're back, and I just want to say, friends, it feels like the world is on fire.
I don't know about you, but I've had to step back a couple times this week and just Catch my breath and step away from the computer and from the news because life is really, really, really...
Uncertain at the moment.
So I hope that you're all taking care of yourselves.
I hope you are all finding small sources of joy and ways to take care of you and your family during this difficult time.
With that said, Dan, we are going to jump into just a lot of the issues that are coming down this week.
So the first thing I think we should talk about is basically Trump's overall, what some have called Confederate strategy.
It might be a renewal of Nixon's Southern strategy.
And this was really evident at Mount Rushmore last week.
The Mount Rushmore trip happened right after I recorded last Friday, so it now feels like a month ago, but I don't want to forget the kind of stunt that Trump pulled there.
He had a rally at Mount Rushmore, he gave a speech that was very Christian nationalist, and it was also very confederately tinted.
And so Jim Wallace, writing at Sojourner, some of you will know who Jim Wallace is.
He's He's one of those progressive evangelicals that has, in many ways, been sidelined by the rise of the religious right, but Jim Wallace is a social-minded, progressive evangelical who's been on that train for half a decade now, to be honest with you.
Here's what he wrote at Sojourners.
So here's part of Trump's speech.
This is Trump.
Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrate our children.
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