What Do Religion Scholars Think of Trump's Violent Bible Photo Op?

Straight White American Jesus

Axis Mundi Media: Bradley Onishi + Daniel Miller

News, Politics

4.7 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2020

⏱️ 92 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this emergency episode, Brad asks religion scholars to weigh in on Trump’s violent Bible photo op. He speaks with first with Dr. Richard Newton, Assistant Professor of Religon at the University of Alabama. They discuss how Christianity often offers a validation to racism and what he means by the term negrophobia. Christian nationalism is a prominent theme on Straight White American Jesus. Brad discusses how it played into Trump’s photo op with Samuel Perry and Andrew Whitehead, authors of "Taking America Back for God," a new and important text on Christian nationalism in contemporary USA. Using Christian nationalism as a lens helps clarify why Trump’s base is also populated by a good number of white Catholics. Brad discusses this with Matthew J. Cressler, Asst. Professor of Religion at the College of Charleston. They discuss his work on white Catholicism as a vehicle for segregation in the USA, and the work of black catholics who are working to dismantle the structures of racism in the church. Brad turns next to Dr. Matt Recla, Associate Director of the University Foundations program at Boise State, to get a view of Trump’s weaponization of the Bible from the eyes of a scholar of the Roman empire. Dr. Recla explains the ways Christians and politicians have done the same throughout the last 1700 years. Finally Brad asks his Skidmore college, Dr. Lucia Hulsether, author of the forthcoming book Capitalist Humanitarianism, to help him understand the term racialized capitalism. He finishes the episode with insight from his former colleague Dr. Charles McKinney Jr, professor of Africana studies at Rhodes College, who relays a lesson in how white people often view racist acts and how to begin doing anti-racist work. Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/ Linktree: https://linktr.ee/StraightWhiteJC Order Brad's new book: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163 SWAJ Apparel is here! https://straight-white-american-jesus.creator-spring.com/listing/not-today-uncle-ron To Donate: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BradleyOnishi Venmo: @straightwhitejc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're not going to be here. Welcome to Straight White American Jesus. My name is Brad O'Nishi, Associate Professor,
0:19.3	Religious Studies at Skidmore College. Today's an emergency podcast episode. We are talking about
0:26.0	Trump's photo op in front of St. John's Church in Washington, D.C. just a couple days ago. Just a quick recap, President Trump gave a
0:37.2	speech in the Rose Garden talking about law and order. He then left the Rose Garden and walked the short distance to the church, St. John's Church, which is a historical church in D.C.
0:50.0	And in order to make that walk, he had Attorney General Bill Barr and others order the
0:59.2	dispersal of peaceful protesters and that dispersal happened by way of tear gas and
1:06.1	and other methods and so there was a striking side by side image of Trump walking
1:11.4	and then holding a Bible in front of the camera while peacefully
1:14.9	protesting Americans were being tear-gassed in order to make a pathway for him
1:19.7	to do so. This is all taking place in the context of the ongoing protests against police brutality,
1:27.0	specifically in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and Brianna Taylor and so many others. I asked a number of
1:36.5	religion scholars to help us understand what was taking place with Trump's
1:41.7	photo op.
1:43.3	When Trump held up the Bible in front of St. John's Church,
1:46.8	what was happening there?
1:48.0	What did it symbolize?
1:49.4	What are the histories at play?
1:50.8	And how can they help us understand the larger context.
1:54.3	I am joined now by Dr. Richard Newton who is assistant professor in the Religious Studies Department at the University of Alabama and Professor Newton has a long CV and written many things.
2:13.0	One of those things we'll talk about now
2:15.1	is an article in the Journal of Religion of Violence
2:18.5	with the amazing title of Scared Sheikeless,
	...

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