Special Episode: When We All Get to Heaven Ep 1

Straight White American Jesus

Axis Mundi Media: Bradley Onishi + Daniel Miller

News, Politics

4.7 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this special episode of 'Straight White American Jesus,' the host introduces the podcast series 'When We All Get To Heaven,' which chronicles the history of the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco during the AIDS epidemic. The series, produced by Lynn Gerber and available on Slate, uses an archive of 1200 cassette tape recordings from the church to explore themes of grief, joy, faith, and community amidst the crisis. The episode features reflections from church members, including Reverend Jim Mitulsky, detailing personal and collective struggles and resilience. The series celebrates the church's inclusive theology and its unyielding commitment to supporting its queer congregation through the darkest times. https://www.heavenpodcast.org/#home-section Donate: https://axismundi.supercast.com/donations/new Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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1:34.8	Okay. Welcome to Straight White American Jesus.
1:40.1	Today I get to share with you a special episode from one of our friends, and I'm pretty excited.
1:46.7	Some of you probably have already heard and listened to We All Get to Heaven, which is a 10-episode series that tells the story of one of the first gay positive churches, the Metropolitan Community
1:52.4	Church of San Francisco, and how the church faced every aspect of the AIDS epidemic, including
2:00.8	the deaths of hundreds of its members. This was a church that in the middle of the AIDS epidemic, including the deaths of hundreds of its members.
2:03.0	This was a church that in the middle of the epidemic was facing sorrow, grief, mortality, and death at every turn.
2:13.5	This series is running on slate, and it's produced by Lynn Gerber, who's an independent scholar and somebody who's become a colleague and friend of mine, somebody who writes about religious responses to the HIV-AIDS epidemic in the 80s and the 90s, somebody who's just a great person and who's put their heart and soul into this
2:35.6	along with their team at Eureka Street Productions, and that includes Siria Cullum and Arianna Needleman
2:41.6	as well. What they found, and this is something that I think is unique to this show, and if any of
	...

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