Weekly Roundup: A Majority of Americans Think This is a Christian Nation
Brad and Dan begin by discussing the brand new survey data from Pew Religion and PRRI about faith, politics, and American values. Dan brings up the numbers on how many people think the USA is a Christian nation and what that means. Brad discusses the high number of Christians who think that patriotism is an important part of faith - and why that feeds Christian nationalism on an everyday level.
After the break, Dan brings up the PRRI data that shows how many Americans think the country has been a force for good in the world without exception. Brad talks about how White Christians, according to the data, see newcomers to the country as a threat to it. They finish by discussing the 50 point divide in how Republicans and Democrats feel about the "femininity" of American society.
Pew Research
PRRI American Values Survey
In the final segment, Brad brings up how Trump, Tucker Carlson, and local offiicals are setting the stage to cast doubt on the election results in the state - and fuel the fire for another violent political event.
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Welcome to Straight White American Jesus.
My name is Brad Onishi, faculty at the University of San Francisco.
Our social is in a partnership with the CAP Center, UCSB, and I'm here today with my co-host.
Dan Miller, associate professor of religion and social thought at Landmark College.
And it's good to see you, Brad.
How are you doing?
Good.
This is one of those weeks, Dan, where, do you remember when you were a grad student?
Like I remember when I was a grad student at Oxford and basically my whole job every day was to like wake up,
Read, take notes, maybe write an essay about what I'm reading, go to the library, check out some sources that I need to like put together for my project, you know, go home and write a little bit, maybe go to like a lecture, you know, go to a reading seminar where people are talking about some cool stuff, and then like maybe go have a pint of beer and talk with a friend about all the cool stuff we're learning, or like this theological issue, or we can't believe so-and-so said that in that lecture.
And I just thought, you know, it's going to be so great.
A whole life as a professor of just this kind of contemplation and reading.
And here we are, Dan, just like in the middle of the semester.
And I feel like my life as an academic and as an intellectual is about meetings, and then more meetings, and then maybe meetings about meetings, and then maybe emails about meetings.
And it's a whole thing.
I don't know.
Do you feel this way?
Yeah, after we finish this, I'm literally going to a meeting about meetings.
That's literally what it's about.
It's a meeting about how some other meetings next semester should be scheduled.
And the real reason I became an academic, Brad, is to help students register for classes every semester.
That's the real joy that gets me up in the morning.
So that's mine is lots of making meetings with students who don't show up and then wonder why they can't get in classes when they miss their registration deadline or who haven't looked at courses at all.
I want to come and I guess have me read to them.
Yeah, these are the real reasons.
It wasn't the life of the mind.
It wasn't that I enjoyed learning or teaching or writing.
Nope, it was that stuff.
So no, actually, in all seriousness, this, as I'm sure it is for you, is this nice kind of respite when we get to kind of do the kind of stuff that we thought academia might be, talking about things that matter to people who might be interested in learning about those things.
So yeah, this is a nice break from the meetings about meetings and those other things.
It's not as bad as we're making out.
I think it's just, it's a particularly tough time in the semester, and it can feel that way.
Obviously, this is not how it always is.
But, you know, we should maybe start a spin-off podcast from the life of the mind to the life of the grind.
What do you think, Dan?
No?
All right.
I think you're better at titles than I am.
That's what I think.
Okay.
Can y'all tell we're tired?
We're tired.
It's been a long week, but you know what?
We got so much important stuff to talk about.
There's so many things to dig into.
Yesterday, we had a survey data drop.
We had new stuff come out from Pure Religion and from PRRI, which means there's just all this new statistics about how Americans think about religion in the country.
So, we want to talk about that.
I want to talk about also what's happening in Pennsylvania and the ways that Trump and Tucker Carlson and others are priming the pump, setting up a situation where general election results will be challenged and perhaps Republican and MAGA voters will not be willing to accept them.
And then what happens next?
That's where we're at.
Before we go there, I want to say, Dan, I've seen a ton more signups for our Denver event.
Every time I kind of check it out, there's people who are coming and excited to be there.
And I can't wait.
Some of you all need to get your tickets and you're waiting.
And what's going to happen is you're going to have Halloween and, you know, you're going to eat so much candy.
You'll be like candy drunk for like a week and you're going to wake up and be like, oh, my God.
There's like four days before the Swag Event, and I haven't even picked out my outfit yet.
What am I going to wear on the Zoom?
You're going to be really stressed out.
Just get your ticket now, so you don't have to do that.
All right?
So, November 18, Denver.
You've seen the flyer.
You know we got amazing speakers.
Catherine Stewart, Robert Jones, Phil Gorski, Sam Perry, Kiaty Joshi, myself, Dan, Sarah Malsiner.
It's going to be really good.
So, Check it out.
Come to Denver.
Come hang out with us.
We're going to go after the event and have a beer.
Megan and Cortland from the Thereafter podcast are coming, and so I suggested that we call it the Thereafter Party.
I think that's pretty good, Dan.
Nobody pays for these titles or these slogans, but you know, I just give them to the world for free.
I'm a generous guy.
You're a giver.
I am.
I am.
All right, Dan.
Let's play popcorn.
So, there's all this new data.
Pure Religion has some stuff.
PRRI dropped their big thing, their big survey yesterday.
You checked it out.
I checked it out.
So, I'm going to, I don't know what you're going to say.
You don't know what I'm going to say.
This is kind of popcorn to, we'll do a couple each.
First to you, what's one thing that stuck out either from Pure or PRRI yesterday?
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