The Sunday Interview: Paul Pressler, the SBC Takeover, and a Culture of Power and Abuse

Straight White American Jesus

Axis Mundi Media: Bradley Onishi + Daniel Miller

News, Politics

4.7 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 10 May 2026

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Brad Onishi interviews Texas Monthly senior writer Robert Downen about his 12,000-word feature on Paul Pressler, a key architect of the Southern Baptist Convention’s conservative resurgence alongside Paige Patterson. Downen outlines how the takeover, framed around biblical inerrancy, gender hierarchy, abortion, and weakening church–state separation, helped align the SBC with the GOP and built a broader culture-war mindset, aided by sophisticated internal tactics such as tracking pastorates, spying on professors, and manipulating convention rules. He traces Pressler’s privileged Texas lineage and early political training through his grandfather’s Texas Regulars ties and shows how Pressler leveraged SBC power into national influence via the Council for National Policy and Republican politics. The conversation centers on longstanding allegations that Pressler abused young men and how institutional deference and fear of “liberal” attacks enabled silence, shaping SBC responses to the later denomination-wide sexual abuse crisis and ongoing membership decline. Subscribe for $3.65: ⁠https://axismundi.supercast.com/⁠ Subscribe to our free newsletter: ⁠https://swaj.substack.com/⁠ Order American Caesar by Brad Onishi: ⁠https://static.macmillan.com/static/essentials/american-caesar-9781250427922/⁠ Donate to SWAJ: https://axismundi.supercast.com/donations/new Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	AXIS Mundi.
0:12.5	What's up everyone? Brad Onishi here with the one and only Reza Oslon, and we've got something
0:19.5	you do not want to miss.
0:21.1	That's right, Brad. The brand new season of Our Seven Neighbors from the Interreligious Institute
0:26.0	at Chicago Theological Seminary is live right now. And this year, the United States marks its
0:32.7	250th anniversary. We're stepping back to ask a big question. What is the real story of religion in America?
0:41.3	This season, we're lifting up the deep history of spiritual diversity in the United States
0:45.3	and revisiting the founders' very different visions for the role of religion and public life.
0:50.3	The truth is, there's never been just one religious story in this country.
0:53.3	There have always been many.
0:54.2	Exactly. From the earliest days of the Republic, debates about faith, freedom, pluralism,
0:59.8	and power shaped the nation. Some founders imagined a country with strong protections for religious liberty.
1:06.0	Others had narrower visions. And alongside them were native traditions, enslaved African spiritual
1:11.6	practices, immigrant faith communities, all shaping America in ways that often go untold.
1:18.6	Instead of repeating a tidy, mythic narrative, this season tells a braver, more accurate
1:22.6	story, one that honors the breathtaking diversity that's always been here.
1:26.6	If you care about how religion has shaped American democracy,
1:30.0	if you want to understand how spiritual communities have fueled movements for justice,
1:35.1	if you're ready for a fuller account of our shared history,
1:38.1	this season is for you from the Axis Mundi Podcast Network and Chicago Theological Seminary.
1:43.8	The new season of Our Seven Neighbors is streaming now wherever you get your podcasts.
1:49.0	Welcome to Straight White American Jesus.
	...

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