Weekly Roundup: Christian Privilege and Raced Religion
Brad and Dan briefly touch on three stories: MAGA rebellion in Georgia, Obama on "Defund the Police," and the federal government's abandonment of the American people in the face of COVID.
We then dig deeper into two stories about religion and politics:
-the attacks on Raphael Warnock as part of a long history of White Evangelical castigation of Black faith and movements.
-the Supreme Court's ruling that religious gatherings override COVID health measures
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
My name is Brad Onishi, Associate Professor, Religious Studies, Skidmore College.
Our show is hosted in partnership with the Kapp Center at UCSB, and I'm glad to say after two weeks, I'm back with my co-host.
I'm Dan Miller, Associate Professor of Religion and Social Thought at Landmark College, and it's good to talk to you, Brad.
It was a nice break, but, you know, it always makes my day to hear your voice.
Yeah, I appreciate that.
People are going to be wondering if you're being sarcastic now, you know, I think, but I think you're being sincere, so I appreciate that.
Being sincere, in fact, my reason for hope over the last week was hearing your voice again, knowing that that was in my future, so.
Well, I think both of us are tired.
The end of the semester is upon us.
For those of you listening, this week has also been the American Academy of Religion Conference, so that's a gathering usually of about eight or ten thousand religion and theology profs and other folks, grad students and stuff.
It's been online, so there's been a lot of Zoom meetings and a lot of Presentations and things.
So anyway, all that to say, friends, we're in the midst of it.
We're grading.
We're finishing the semester.
We are trying to be smart on panels at national conferences.
But we're also here.
And I agree with Dan.
This is a highlight of my week and something I look forward to.
So it helps me get to Friday.
And with all that said, Dan, we have a bunch of stories we need to cover that are not so happy and not so cheery.
I think we're going to start today by talking about mainly newsy stuff.
And that means what's going on in Georgia in terms of the Senate runoffs and some MAGA controversy there.
We're going to talk about some recent comments by former President Obama about the slogan, defund the police.
Talk about COVID, which is raging in ways that are unprecedented in terms of our pandemic.
Talk about General Flynn's recent call to suspend the Constitution.
So we'll go through those, Dan, and then the second half of our episode today, we're going to talk, dig in to a little bit, two stories that a little bit more deeply, and that is attacks on Raphael Warnock, who is one of the candidates in the Georgia runoff.
And we're going to set that in the context of evangelical views on the civil rights movement over the course of the last 75 years.
So we want to link up Warnock and the attacks on him to attacks on Martin Luther King Jr.
and others.
We're then going to jump into a recent Supreme Court decision that allows religious gatherings over and above COVID health measures, and we'll talk about that too.
So that's what's on the docket.
I'm going to turn it over to you, Dan.
What is happening with MAGA and the Senate runoffs in Georgia?
Yeah, so the thing with this, people will have seen some of this.
I'm not going to dig too far into like the specific names.
They're all like kind of nutty Trump like legal representatives or quasi representatives people that sometimes the campaign has distanced itself from but of course they're still sort of there but the long and short of it is they're fully still drinking the Kool-Aid on you know that the only reason Trump lost is because the election was rigged and he was robbed and he actually would have won or better stated for them that he actually did win it's only because he was cheated that he didn't win Georgia
And as everybody knows, there are two Senate runoffs in Georgia.
I should say runoffs for both senators from Georgia taking place in January.
Everybody on both sides needs all the votes they can get.
But there's this wing in MAGA world that is calling for a boycott of the election, essentially saying that it's rigged, that it's not fair, that Republicans should not participate and vote for the GOP candidates because it's not a fair election.
And this is creating a lot of consternation among Republicans that their own discourse that they were happy to have Trump trot out for months and weeks leading up to the election and since then could actually suppress voter turnout.
Trump himself is doing what Trump does and like living in contradiction and on one hand still talking about how he was robbed in Georgia and how it was unfair And on the other hand, telling, you know, Georgians that they should go out and vote.
But there is this kind of fractured piece of MAGA world that is out calling for a boycott.
And I don't know, we'll see where that goes and how that works out.
I don't personally think that... I think the Democrats are probably sunk in Georgia, but if somebody had told me what people did say before the election that Biden was going to win Georgia, I never would have believed it.
Uh, the Georgia Secretary of State has told the Trump administration that they essentially suppressed Republican voter turnout with their, uh, attacks on, uh, mail-in voting and so forth.
And that if they hadn't done that, he thinks that they would have won the election.
So this could be, could be really significant.
I don't know, but it's, it just, it's a telling, a telling commentary, I think, on I think from an analytical perspective, here's the point, right?
since the election.
And it bears watching and maybe is a source of hope for those of us who aren't so hopeful about the Democratic candidates in these races.
I think from an analytical perspective, here's the point, right?
If you're going to call into question Democratic processes and norms and institutions and tell people that elections were stolen and elections were taken from you, and then in the next breath say, but you know what you all need to go do is get out there and vote in these two Senate runoffs because these are really important.
You can definitely see people who are going to think to themselves, why would I do that?
Why would I go do another election?
Why would I go make the effort?
If A, you're telling me, I agree, Dan.
democratic process is undermined and B, if you yourself, Trump lost and are saying that there's no reason to be involved anymore.
So I agree, Dan, that this could have drastic consequences.
We're not sure.
But it is one of those moments where if you're going to play the Trumpist game and you're going to prop up a person and follow a person who's undermining democratic institutions, processes and norms, then it's really hard then to turn to your base and say, hey, friends, you know what we need to do? then it's really hard then to turn to your base Trust the democratic processes, institutions, and norms, and get out there and vote for Loeffler and Perdue.
So, I don't know if it's going to make a difference, Dan, but look, neither of us thought the Democrats were going to win Georgia in the presidential election.
So we will see.
We'll come back to Georgia later in this episode and talk about Warnock and some of the attacks on his faith and his place as a preacher, a black preacher.
But anyway, any final thoughts on the MAGA boycott of Georgia or you want to jump into some things President Obama said recently?
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.
