Brad is joined by guest co-host Dr. Leah Payne. They begin by discussing how many White Americans - especially White Christian nationalists - view the national body as straight, White, patriarchal, and American-born. This framework helps guide a discussion on the drastically different reactions law enforcement took in the cases of Jayland Walker, who was shot by police 60 times in Akron, Ohio, and the Highland Park shooter who was apprehended without violence after he allegedly killed 7 people at July 4 parade.
This leads to a discussion of Tucker Carlson's explanation for the Highland Park shooting: women lecturing men, government-backed weed, and medication. It is a case of refusing to look at the monster in the mirror--and doing anything possible to take the attention away from guns.
The episode finishes with analysis of the AZ rep who said she would kill her own grandchildren in order to protect them and how this ties into discussions of reproductive rights.
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Axis Mundy Axis Mundy You're listening to an Irreverent Podcast.
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Welcome to Straight White American Jesus.
My name is Brad Onishi, faculty at the University of San Francisco.
Our show's hosted in partnership with the Kapp Center UCSB.
And once again, my co-host Dan Miller is out being healthy and with his family.
I don't know what's wrong with that guy.
I'm going to talk to him about it.
So I have an amazing return co-host, guest co-host, and that is Dr. Leah Paynes.
Leah, thanks for coming back.
Oh, thank you so much for having me.
It is a great honor.
You are a faculty up at Portland Seminary.
You are an amazing scholar who is finishing a book, as we talked about last time, on contemporary Christian music.
You've written many places.
You just had an op-ed at NBC, which was great.
I've cited you in my book, which is coming out, about Epiphars and Pentecostal Christians and other folks, so super thankful for your work there.
And because You are working on Christian contemporary music.
I'm going to have to throw some deep cuts at you before we get started.
Oh, please do.
Last time you really brought it.
And before I do that, I have two announcements, though, friends.
One, our next Straight White American Jesus Seminar is up and available for registration.
And that is once again with Sarah Mosliner, Purity, Culture, Race, and Embodiment.
It is amazing.
You can see the description and all the kind of topics at StraightWhiteAmericanJesus.com.
There's limited spots.
We're going to keep this one smaller than we have before.
So people are already signing up if you'd like to do that.
Check it out in the show notes.
These seminars have been great.
Sarah is just a dynamic teacher and is a world expert on this topic.
So if you'd like to participate, check it out.
Four weeks in August and September, four classes, two hours each, videos, readings, discord server.
It's really cool.
And, as I just mentioned, I'm really excited.
My book, Preparing for War, The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism and What Comes Next, is now available for pre-order.
And pre-orders matter!
They really signal to publishers and to journalists and others like that book is kind of something people are interested in.
So, if you are interested, Go ahead and check out the show notes and you can pre-order the book.
And if you're like, you know, I'm interested, Brad, but not that much, probably, you know, maybe contact your library or your university and maybe they want to order it.
So, all right.
Those are our announcements, Leah.
Here we go.
I was thinking last night of Christian musicians.
I'm going to put Christian in quotes because this is the debate.
Who we debated in youth group.
Were they still or ever a Christian, Christian artist?
So I think Amy, I'm going to throw these at you and then I want you to give me the ones I missed.
So I think Amy Grant, Amy Grant was like one of the biggest.
Right, right.
I remember, I'm going to throw some others at you here, Switchfoot made it big.
And yeah, right.
They were they were Christian rock band, alternative, whatever.
Yeah.
Here's one I'm going to throw people that you may not realize, Creed.
Creed.
Oh, yeah.
Creed, many of you know, as the wannabe version of Nickelback.
But nevertheless, in 90s youth group culture, There was a lot of talk of whether Creed was a Christian band.
And then I'm going to give you one more.
This is the big one.
You two, there was a time Bono was like Mr. Jesus.
And then do those hit for you?
Am I, you know, are there ones I missed?
What do you got here?
You know, I would say yes, those hit for me.
And just the whole question of what is a Christian band is such an important one because it, it teases out all of these assumptions about Who counts as Christian and what is the messaging of quote-unquote Christian music?
And that's a huge part of what my book's about.
I would say the only person I'd add to that would be kind of the original is he or isn't he, which would be Bob Dylan.
So yeah, Dylan had kind of a gospel experience.
And a Boardigan-ish kind of experience.
Sing about it.
Really one of my favorite Dylan songs, you got to serve somebody.
It may be the devil.
It might be the devil.
It might be the Lord, but you got to serve somebody.
So yeah, I think you had, I wish I could have been a fly on the wall.
You know, when young Brad Amnesia was having those conversations.
Did you, I got to ask you though, like which side of the line were you on?
Was it like Amy Grant is no longer or Or did you think that she still?
You know, I was I was less invested in Amy because I didn't I wasn't like that wasn't my jam in terms of music.
We were a little young for Amy to maybe being like.
You know, the one to ask about that, Switchfoot, right?
I think you're right.
Switchfoot, definitely we, we, we claimed as our own.
We were like, no, Switchfoot is the real deal.
They're still into Jesus.
And Creed, we weren't sure.
Like, you know, if you really looked at the lyrics, you could make the case about, you know, he, there's these verses about still small voice and... Right, right.
And hiya!
Yeah.
Wait, I got to tell you.
So I, I...
I think I tweeted about this a while ago that I was doing work on just research and stuff.
It was late.
I went, I went to bed like a classic academic.
I have probably 60 or 70 tabs open and I forgot that I had had Creed up and I opened my computer and it was just like, won't you take me higher?
And it was like, that is a weird way to wake up.
So that's my research story.
That's my alarm.
That's what I have as my alarm.
It's really, that's what I use.
So we're in good company.
There's also one, all right.
Some of you are listening and you're like, guys, please stop.
What are they talking about?
I just want the weekly roundup.
Please give us the depressing news.
Okay.
One more thing and then I'll be done.
A lot of youth group crushes on the young Mandy Moore because Mandy Moore was supposedly a Christian artist.
And and then by the time I was like in college, Mandy Moore was doing Saved with Macaulay Culkin and was very clearly was not on Team Jesus anymore.
So.
Yeah.
She's a huge Switchfoot fan.
Put their music in her movie.
Yeah.
Yeah.
She's borderline, I'd say.
Yeah.
What was that movie she was in?
They used Only Hope from Switchfoot, and now I forget the name.
I can't believe I'm blanking on the title, but it'll come to me halfway through the news roundup.
But yeah, Switchfoot's Only Hope.
Yeah.
She does a beautiful rendition of it in the film.
Yeah.
I hope your next book is on how all of those young girls slash women of the 90s who were stars came up in period culture and CC, like Britney.
Oh yeah, I've been there.
Mandy Moore.
You got it all.
Okay, Jessica.
I mean, all of those folks.
I'm sure you're on it already, but yeah.
Pretty major, and I'm so glad you brought up Sarah Mosliner because I'm a huge fan of her work.
And so, yes, I'm building on a lot of the stuff that she's done in her excellent Virgin Nation.
Such a great book.
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