Weekly Roundup: Dying on the Altar of Handheld Killing Machines
Brad and Dan are back after a week off. They begin by discussing SCOTUS and the very real possibility of Roe v. Wade being overturned. Dan distills the arguments of the Trump appointed judges. Brad points to the religious history and context that made this moment possible.
They then turn their attention to Oxford, Michigan and the school shooting from a few days ago. Brad argues that the reason we have not seen meaningful gun control in this country is that guns--handheld killing machines--represent White patriarchal supremacy.
They finish with a discussion of Uncle Ron DeSantis' COVID antics in Florida and his idea to build a Florida militia controlled by, you guessed it, the governor.
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Welcome to Straight White American Jesus.
My name is Brad Onishi, faculty at the University of San Francisco.
Our show is hosted in partnership with the Kapp Center, UCSB.
Here today with my co-host.
I'm Dan Miller, associate professor of religion and social thought at Landmark College.
Brad, it's good to see you.
I'm delighted to see that you continue to survive and thrive in early fatherhood.
So it's like a weekly check-in to make sure that you're still with us.
Thrive is a strong word.
Thrive is doing a lot of work there.
I would say survive is happening.
Thrive is a moment-by-moment question.
Good to be back with you, Dan, after a week off for the holiday.
I want to just say at the top, friends, how thankful we are for all of our new patrons and people who are supporting us.
You know, I said the other day, and I'll say it again, we're so happy to do this show.
It's a passion project for us.
We never expected to Kind of find the audience that we have and and for people to really find what we're saying is as helpful as as they say it is And we want to keep doing it.
And so we we do it three times a week And we're both sort of you know under pressure is one way I'll put it to Just kind of continue to spend time on this show in the very extensive ways that we do that while also attending to Job needs, and family needs, and income needs, and all that stuff.
So if there's any way for you to support us, we would be so grateful.
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So we're incredibly thankful for all of you.
Couldn't do this without you, and hopefully we can just keep doing it as we have been for the last three years as we get going.
One more thing, Dan.
There's like a couple spots left, two or three spots left for the seminar starting in one month from today, and that is Pure America Religion Raised Nation.
Class with Dan Miller.
So, if you haven't heard, you can go over to straightwhiteamericanjesus.com and go to the Seminars tab, and you'll find everything you need there.
All right, Dan, let's get into it.
So, we're gonna talk about just a lot of things that are happening this week, which are inevitably difficult, and that is the Supreme Court listening to arguments about abortion, namely a suit coming from Mississippi that has put Roe v. Wade in jeopardy, just period.
We'll also talk about guns and gun control in the wake of what happened in Michigan this week in the mass shooting, another mass shooting at a school, and then we'll finish up by talking about one of our Favorite people.
Uncle Ron DeSantis in Florida.
So we got a lot to say about him.
You'll see why in a second.
So Dan, let's start with SCOTUS.
This week, the Supreme Court heard initial arguments about Mississippi law that attempts to ban abortion at 15 weeks.
On its head, it seems like, you know, that's even sort of a little bit less lenient than what happened in Texas in the six-week ban.
But for many folks, this is basically a make-or-break case because it could lead to the end of Roe v. Wade, or overturning of Roe v. Wade, I should say.
Would you mind taking us through that?
How are we in a place where what SCOTUS is hearing arguments on may lead to essentially the repealing of protections of abortion at a federal level in this country?
Yes, so as everybody knows, as you and I have talked about, anybody who watches the news or follows American culture at all knows that conservatives for a number of years have worked really, really hard to get conservative justices to the Supreme Court and that for them, a litmus test has always been whether or not they think that those people would eventually vote to repeal Roe v. Wade or to overturn that precedent.
And we know that three Supreme Court picks were put on the court by the Trump administration, gives a conservative majority to the court.
And there was this spate still ongoing of states explicitly and purposely putting forward anti-abortion laws that would violate the precedent set by Roe v. Wade and reaffirmed in 1992 in Planned Parenthood versus Casey as well in the Supreme Court.
And with the explicit aim of getting to the Supreme Court and trying to overthrow Roe v. Wade.
Texas, as you say, is one of these, passes a law banning abortion after 15 weeks.
Why is 15 weeks important?
15 weeks is important because kind of the standard, I should say that Roe v. Wade has never, and it hasn't been a consistent ruling, that it's impossible to ban abortions, but usually the notion is That abortion before fetal viability that is before an infant could could conceivably live outside of the mother's body Unaided and so forth that that that that should be legal and protected.
That's about 24 weeks I'm not a doctor and people could probably quibble with that with medical technology one way or another but it's it's the kind of standard has been about 24 weeks So this is well before that So oral arguments, we don't know exactly where the court will go, but it was really, really clear to most observers that the conservative members of the court were very, appeared very open to letting this law stand, which would effectively go against the precedent of Roe v. Wade.
The arguments are worth sort of looking at I know that that you'll you'll say some things about this too, but Chief Justice John Roberts kind of tried to use liberal arguments against the liberals a little bit and said Basically, you know you liberals he didn't say liberals.
He said people say it's about choice right freedom of choice He says if it's about choice then viability is irrelevant and 15 weeks is plenty of time to make that choice so you can see trying to do the the end around where viability is no longer The major that needs to be taken account.
Brett Kavanaugh says that unborn fetuses and women both have legal interests and that they can't both be maintained in that, you know, essentially, if you have to prioritize one interest over another, it should be the interest of the unborn.
The liberal justices, for their part, tried to argue that the precedent is firm.
It's been in place for decades.
Dozens of court cases.
I mentioned Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 92, which is kind of the most significant.
But made the point and said, and you can hear the justices playing off of like what they know will resonate with the others, right?
The conservative justices try to say, no, no, no, we're just looking at the Constitution.
We're just being originalists.
We're being textualists.
This has nothing to do with political orientation.
When everybody in the world, including the sponsors of these laws in state houses, know that it has to do about political ideology, And religious ideology.
And so some of the liberal justices said, well, you know, if you overturn this precedent, you're just going to communicate to the American public that we are a completely politicized institution, that we just act along ideological lines.
And so you can see this this playing out.
But the simple fact of the matter is that conservatives have the numbers.
And if they want to let this stand, they can.
And it doesn't have to be as explicit as saying we're overturning this precedent or we're doing away with Roe v. Wade.
All they have to do is if they say, well, you know what?
Viability is not the issue, if they take Justice Roberts' line.
If they allow abortion to be banned sort of earlier and earlier and earlier, they can effectively gut the decision of Roe v. Wade without having to come out and say that that's what they're doing.
And just the last point I'll make, and then throw it over to you for some of your reflections on this, is that a number of places have looked and one sort of pro-choice organization has said that, you know, they think that if this is allowed to stand, or if Roe v. Wade is basically tossed out, that you'll pretty immediately have something in the neighborhood of like 26 states that will ban abortion outright.
I should make clear, I guess this is the last point, that states could still make the laws that they want, right?
So states where women have protections under state law would still have those, but the federal precedent would be undone by this.
So I throw it to you for sort of your thoughts or additional reflections on this.
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