81% WTF (Re-release): The Historical Receipts on Evangelical Leaders Hypocritical Support for Trump
The episode that started it all! On one of our very first shows, we went to the historical record to quote all the evangelical leaders who did everything possible to decry Bill Clinton after his sex scandal/impeachment. They called for integrity, morality, and virtue in the White House. They feared for a country without a godly leader. Those same leaders are remain Trump's most vocal supporters. Weeks before the election, a great episode to remind us of where we have been and what's at stake.
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 Apparel is here! https://straight-white-american-jesus.creator-spring.com/listing/not-today-uncle-ron
To Donate:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BradleyOnishi
Venmo: @straightwhitejc
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Axis Mundy Hello, my name is Brad Onishi, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Skidmore College.
This is Straight White American Jesus, hosted by the Kapp Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Today, we are re-releasing one of our very first episodes.
In fact, going back to listen to it feels like visiting a more innocent me in a more innocent time.
It was just about two years ago, and Dan and I had just started the show.
And we wanted to provide a kind of guide as to why it was so shocking for 81% of white evangelicals to vote for Donald Trump.
Well, what we did there was kind of go through a historical record that shows just the absolute flip-flop that many evangelical leaders have taken on Trump.
And what's nice about this historical example is that it's a little over two decades old.
And so a lot of the same players Are on the record and yet they have very different reactions and so For some of you this this episode might be familiar.
You might have listened to it already but there have been many of you who've been emailing me asking about it and Wanting me to re-release it.
In fact when we switched over to anchor about a month and a half ago For some reason this episode did not Transfer so it kind of disappeared from our feed.
So I thought this was a good week to re-release it because There's a couple reasons one We're ramping up to the election.
We're two weeks from the election.
Two and a half.
Or, well, a little bit more, actually.
But still, we're weeks away.
And all that to say, the rhetoric from President Trump has only become more extreme as time has gone on.
Well, what you'll see, or at least hear in this episode, is a clear delineation by evangelical leaders in the 90s that the president must be a leader of great moral character.
Okay?
So the second thing you'll learn about is an open letter signed by many of the who's who of evangelical leaders of the time, and many of whom are still around today in our public square, decrying the actions of then-President Clinton.
In 1998, he was, of course, impeached for the affair with Monica Lewinsky.
And after Clinton tried to sort of apologize and backtrack and whatever else, he just ended up saying, I'm sorry.
I messed up and it's time to move on.
Well, that was not good enough for many of the leaders.
They continued to decry his moral character and there was a sort of full on assault on him.
They also said that regardless of whether or not he's a good president and whether or not he's getting things done, that kind of means and logic is not sufficient.
That regardless of the results, we have to have a leader in the White House who has upstanding character, is full of integrity, and is a person of virtue.
Well, as you can imagine, this episode has become one of our most popular because it provides anyone who listens a very nice set of evidence as to how that kind of That many of those same leaders who called for integrity and virtue and honesty in the White House back then and would never back down and would just never accept anything Bill Clinton said in terms of remorse or apology.
Many of those same figures continue to be Trump's loudest supporters, even four years into his presidency.
Well, it's hard to forget all the facts of that presidency.
One of the Unfortunate results of this administration has been to flood the zone with so much mistruth, distortion, flat-out lies that we often forget all the conspiracies, all the scandals.
I can't name all those here.
I'm not going to do that in this introduction.
But I will say that we have a president who's been accused of sexual assault by just about four dozen women.
We have a president who has been Sort of caught on the record lying dozens and dozens and dozens of times.
We have a president who has been impeached and who continues to just demean anyone in his way, whether that be the press or debate moderators.
Somebody who has overstepped every norm and every boundary of the presidency.
Somebody who has shown no mercy, no compassion.
When it comes to COVID-19 and the quarter of a million Americans who have died from it.
We have a president whose scandals are so numerous that we can't keep up with them.
And what you'll hear on this episode, and the reason I wanted to re-release it today, is Something that sounds like out of a Twilight Zone.
Evangelical leaders unable to stomach one more minute of a Bill Clinton presidency because of a sexual scandal.
And yet those same leaders today, just about a quarter of a century later, still on board with this president.
Still fighting for his second term.
Still thinking that he is the greatest blessing the country has ever seen.
I mean, just today, Pat Robertson said, God has told him that the end times are near.
Trump will win re-election, and then something like the rapture will be pretty imminent.
He's not the only one.
Over the weekend, President Trump attended a large megachurch service in Las Vegas, not wearing a mask, and there was an infamous picture of him receiving a blessing from that Congregation and their leaders.
All that to say, when you learn about how the evangelical pastors and leaders and influencers spoke about Clinton in the 90s, it'll sound like it's just not true or alternative history.
So with all that said, I'll leave it there.
I'm going to queue up our episode from right at the beginning of Straight White American Jesus.
We were just getting our feet underneath us.
Our sound quality was pretty bad.
We were trying to figure it all out.
But I will say that when I listen to this episode, I'm pretty proud of the way that we've, I think, provided evidence that is so clear-cut that it's undeniable when it comes to the evangelical flip-flop.
And if you're new to our show or just found us, this is what we do.
We provide analysis and scholarly approaches to these kinds of issues that go beyond simple opinion or just ranting.
With all that said, as always, find me on Twitter at Bradley Omnishi.
Find the show at Straight White JC.
You can find us at our website, www.straightwhiteamericanjesus.wordpress.com, where you can join our Patreon or donate via PayPal.
Find all of our past episodes.
One last thing I'll say is if this interests you, this topic from today, then you need to check out the Orange Wave.
We did basically 10 part series that expands everything we're doing right now in this episode into a very expansive investigation of the history of the religious right.
And we cover themes from sexuality to masculinity to homeschooling to Purity culture all the way to presidential elections and racism, sexism, so on and so forth.
So check that out.
For now, I'll leave you to our episode from almost two years ago titled 81% WTF.
Thanks for listening to this free preview of our SWADGE episode.
In order to get access to the full episode and so much more, become a Straight White American Jesus Premium Subscriber by clicking the link in the show notes.
It'll take you like two clicks, I promise.
In addition to getting access to this episode, you'll have access to the entire SWADGE archive, over 550 episodes.
You'll also get an extra episode every month, ad-free listening, Discord access, and so much more.
All that for less than six bucks a month, and it helps us keep our flag up and continue to safeguard democracy from religious nationalism, extremism, and rising authoritarianism.
