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Straight White American Jesus

Weekly Roundup: The Sin of Empathy and the Theology of Terror From Minnesota to Davos

Straight White American Jesus

Axis Mundi Media: Bradley Onishi + Daniel Miller

News, Politics

4.7 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 January 2026

⏱️ 62 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Straight White American Jesus digs into the Minnesota church protest that’s been framed as “anti-Christian”—and explains why that framing collapses on contact. Brad Onishi and Dan Miller connect the dots between City’s Church, ICE, Doug Wilson’s theological orbit, and the ideology behind The Sin of Empathy, showing how a strain of Christian nationalism produces pastors who see no contradiction between pulpit ministry and state violence. What looks like an isolated protest turns out to be part of a much larger story about power, theology, and the weaponization of “law and order,” with unsettling links that stretch from Minneapolis to Washington, D.C. From there, the conversation widens to the ICE occupation of the Twin Cities, the general strike, and the moral backlash unfolding across religious lines—Catholic clergy, mainline Protestants, and everyday residents standing watch in subzero temperatures to protect their neighbors. Brad and Dan confront the human cost of these policies, including the detention of a five-year-old child and the warrantless arrest of a U.S. citizen, and ask what it means when empathy itself is declared a sin. The episode closes by zooming out to Davos, Trump’s open flirtation with dictatorship, and what it means to live in a moment of rupture—not transition—where democracy is being tested not in speeches or elections, but in the streets. Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus content most Mondays, bonus episodes every month, ad-free listening, access to the entire 1000+ episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/ Linktree: https://linktr.ee/StraightWhiteJC Order Brad's book: https://bookshop.org/a/95982/9781506482163 Subscribe to Teología Sin Vergüenza Subscribe to American Exceptionalism 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

0:10.0

Welcome to a world of infinite worlds, a world of adventure, possibility and happily ever afters. It's all waiting for you

0:22.9

at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. Book selected 2026 packages by the 31st of March and get up to 25%

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0:36.9

Book now at Disneypackages.co.uketuk.

0:40.0

Selected 2026 arrivals in Disney resorts, conditions and exclusions apply.

0:45.0

Welcome to Straight White American Jesus. I'm Brad Ornishi, author of American Caesar,

0:49.2

forthcoming in September about technocrats and theocrats turning America into a monarchy,

1:15.9

founder of Axis Moody Media, here today with my co-host. Dan Miller, Professor of Religion and Social Thought of Landmark College. Good to be with you, Brad. You too. And we just did our bonus episode. So if you're a subscriber, look for the bonus episode on Sunday. A bunch of you were there with us live. And so you already know what we talked about. But we did talk at length about Minnesota and the City's Church protests, but there is more to say, and there's actually a lot to say that the media has seemingly missed. So

1:22.2

we'll get there and flesh out the connections between City's Church and Doug Wilson, not to mention Pete

1:28.9

Hexeth, which you may not expect. Talk about the ongoing ICE occupation of Minnesota,

1:35.1

Minneapolis, the general strike, and the religious criticisms coming at Trump and ICE from the Catholic

1:41.4

Church, Catholic leaders, I guess I should say,

1:45.1

and many other clergy who are participating in a general strike in the Twin Cities today,

1:51.8

or at least Minneapolis today.

1:53.8

We'll also talk about Davos.

1:55.4

Trump's comment that sometimes he need a dictator,

1:57.7

his overall fitness for office, and much more.

2:01.4

Lots to do.

2:02.7

Let's go.

2:21.8

All right, Dan, as I do, I was hanging out on Twitter today.

2:22.8

As one does.

...

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