The Church Where Defying COVID Orders Takes on a Holy Aura with Sam Kestenbaum

Straight White American Jesus

Axis Mundi Media: Bradley Onishi + Daniel Miller

News, Politics

4.7 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 9 March 2021

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sam Kestenbaum is an award-winning freelance journalist who regularly contributes to the New York Times. He recently wrote a feature on Godspeak, a Calvary Chapel church in Ventura County, CA. At Godspeak, Sam writes, defiance to COVID mandates takes on a holy aura. It is the reason business is booming--attendance has tripled during the pandemic and the head pastor, Rob McCoy, is a rising star in the Right-Wing influencer world. Sam shares his experiences reporting on Godspeak and how it is a nexus for understanding what's happening in conservative churches all over the country. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/straightwhiteamericanjesu/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/straightwhiteamericanjesu/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://swaj.supportingcast.fm

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Straight White American Jesus. I'm Brad Onishi, Faculty and Religion. It's
0:16.8	given more college. Our show is hosted in partnership with the Cap Center at the University
0:21.0	of California, Santa Barbara. And I'm joined today by Sam Kessenbaum, who's a freelance
0:25.3	journalist, writes about North American religions for The New York Times and other outlets.
0:30.3	His reporting is one of the number of awards, The Rock-A-Ware Award for Excellence in
0:33.5	Feature Writing in the Solerian's Press Club Award. 2020, a series of his profiles
0:39.2	on religious figures was awarded a first place prize by the Society for Feature's Journalism.
0:44.5	And for The New York Times, he's written about amazing sort of diverse array of things,
0:48.4	from Mary Ann Williamson and of course, in Miracles to an End Times Evangelist, who says
0:53.0	the Bible foretold Donald Trump, the revival of a forgotten 19th century scripture called
0:58.1	The Osp and a Poet Turn Psychic, Jane Roberts, Seth Chaneling and NBA star Amari Stautamire
1:05.6	in his turn towards Judaism. That's a lot. And Sam, I'm excited. I wish I could ask about
1:10.7	all those things, but I'm going to ask you just about one thing. So first of all, let
1:13.4	me say, thanks for being here. Happy to be here. Thank you for having me.
1:16.8	You wrote a piece recently in the Washington Post about something that really caught my
1:21.3	eye and the piece is great. And it's basically about a Southern California church called Godspeak,
1:27.4	part of the Calvary Chapel network that has been flouting COVID restrictions and COVID
1:33.5	mandates. And this sort of like resistance to COVID prohibitions and mandates about indoor
1:39.8	gatherings and so on and so forth, has basically led to attendance skyrocketing. There's
1:45.3	about a thousand people attending the church in person these days. There are many more
1:50.3	attending online. And it seems that the pastor, Rob McCoy, who is a big character and
1:56.3	somebody we'll talk about, has really tapped into something here. Here's where I'd love
	...

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