Brad talks with Dr. Matthew Boedy, Associate Professor of English at the University of North Georgia, about the rising young star of Christian nationalist circles and the GOP writ large--Charlie Kirk. Dr. Boedy traces Kirk's "conversion" from young conservative to staunch Christian nationalist. According to him, one of the reasons Kirk has become America's Christian nationalist youth pastor is his marriage of traditional conservative talking points with apocalyptic rhetoric surrounding the fate of the nation and its departure from the Founders' vision for a "Christian" country. The scary thing: Kirk's organization is a 30 million dollar enterprise that is implementing Christian nationalist curricula in youth groups and schools all across the country in order to radicalize young people in the name of a Republican Jesus.
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Welcome to Straight White American Jesus.
My name is Brad Omnishi.
Our show is hosted in partnership with the Kapp Center at UCSB, and I'm joined today by Dr. Matthew Bode, who is Associate Professor at the University of North Georgia.
And we're here to talk about his recent piece on Charlie Kirk.
He's been writing about Charlie Kirk for some time now.
So this is right in his wheelhouse.
Dr. Bodhi teaches in the English department at University of North Georgia, and has published some amazing things.
One is a book called Rhetoric and the Responsibility to And for language.
And that book is actually quite interesting, folks who are listening, because it touches on the problem of evil and the question of why God would allow for the existence of evil in the world.
And it does so through a rhetorical approach.
So check that out.
I'm also jealous because Dr. Bodhi's done something that I would love to do someday, and that's write a very cool historical novel.
And that's called Murder Creek.
And it's a about the last man to die in the electric chair in Georgia.
So all of that to say, Dr. Bodie, really grateful to have you and really grateful that you've taken the time.
Thanks for being here.
Yeah, I'm happy to be here to talk about everything Charlie Kirk.
Not a lot of people can say that, but you're one of them.
So we are here to talk about your new piece, which is at Flux, and the title of that piece, Charlie Kirk Wants to Save America in the Name of Republican Jesus.
So it's a great title, first of all.
And you really go into how Charlie Kirk, this rising star of the GOP and the right, has risen the ranks in part due to a kind of Big transformation in his public sort of persona.
Let me just start by asking you this.
I think a lot of folks know the name Charlie Kirk.
I think a lot of folks listening saw his face that go, oh, yeah, that guy.
But would you just give us a quick sort of rundown?
Like, who is Charlie Kirk?
Why is he so well known?
And what does he do exactly?
I mean, other than just sort of be stand next to the likes of James Dobson or Donald Trump or anyone else?
Charlie Kirk is the president and founder of Turning Point USA, which, depending on the different billings you get, it's the largest youth conservative group or the fastest growing one.
The last time I checked, though, it was a $30 million organization.
So it has money to spend and staffers to employ, and it does that through chapters, mainly on college campuses, but they have certainly moved into high school campuses.
And it puts on several events during the year, regional events, but also a summer student action summit this year in Tampa and all the big names that you would think go there.
Trump has appeared several times.
This year, they just announced speakers such as Secretary of State or former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Fox News, you know, stars there.
And what Turning Point USA does is it claims to be an educational organization, 501c3, that promotes limited government, small government, freedom, religious liberty, free speech, those sort of things.
And you probably, again, have known who he is because he appears on Fox News.
He has a now a national radio program that was before a podcast.
He certainly appears on a lot of different platforms, but has a big platform himself.
And I would say that.
Post-Trump, he has become one of the go-to people to energize the party, the base, whatever group you want, the MAGA-ites, because he speaks in such a way.
That they understand or they follow.
He's very good on social media with different takes and his short videos and things like that.
And mainly, he is a GOP darling because Trump embraced him during his administration.
Like I said, he spoke several times at Charlie Kirk's organization.
Kirk was on many a commission, most recently the 1776 Commission, which is sort of the anti-1619 Commission.
But Charlie Kirk is a branch to youth and youth movement and youth voters, but he is now also a branch to a white evangelicals, which fits into your themes.
Yeah, well, one of the things I took away from reading your piece is I think I knew that Kirk was sort of the darling of the young GOP because he is that person who they see as being able to reach everyone from high school to the college age folks to the 20-somethings.
I mean, he's kind of like the cool high school, college youth pastor of the movement.
Yeah, there you go.
He kind of has that look that boyish look but he is very good in front of the camera.
He's very good in like short sound bites and he is a digital native like many young people are and so he knows how to work social media very well.
I think one of the things though I'd love for you to help us understand is he didn't start this pathway as a kind of Christian nationalist persona.
He had a different approach and he had a different sort of set of talking points when he started.
Can you help us understand how that worked?
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