Where is the Religious Left? Dissecting the American Theocracy.
Unf*cking The Republic
UNFTR Media
4.9 • 683 Ratings
🗓️ 7 May 2022
⏱️ 72 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Since the Civil War, white Christians in this country have swung wildly between advancing a social doctrine of equality and promoting outright racism, nationalism and hatred of the poor. Since the Eisenhower years, however, Christians of all stripes have decidedly split along similar fault lines to our politics. While secularists and the so-called religious left represent the majority of Americans, the fervent white Christian nationalist wing of the country seems to be fully in control of the national agenda. We invited Brad Onishi from the Straight White American Jesus podcast to help us unpack the divide between the religious right and left in the United States.
Chapters
A note about our episode collaborator: 00:00:08
Intro: 00:01:04
Chapter One. Framing the Inquiry: Capitalism as Religion: 00:06:16
Brad One: 00:15:34
Chapter Two: Thou Shalt Not Feed the Poor: 00:20:56
Chapter Three: White, Right and Organized as Fuck: 00:30:12
Brad Two: 00:37:17
Chapter Four: Splintering Alliances: 00:39:21
Brad Three: 00:41:25
Chapter Five: Bring it home, Brad and Max. But mostly Brad: 00:46:19
Brad Four: 00:46:44
Brad Five: 00:49:50
Post Show Musings: 00:57:33
Outro: 01:09:13
Resources
PRRI: The American Religious Landscape in 2020
Pew Research Center: Republicans account for a small but steady share of U.S. Muslims
Pew Research Center: U.S. Jews’ political views
Pew Research Center: Party affiliation among Hindus
Pew Research Center: Party affiliation among Buddhists
Pew Research Center: Party affiliation among atheists
The New Republic: Whither the Religious Left?
UNFTR Episode Resources
Book Love
Terrence L. Johnson + Jacques Berlinerblau: Blacks and Jews in America: An Invitation to Dialogue
Jeff Sharlet: The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power to Collections
Benjamin M. Friedman: Religion and Capitalism
Kevin Kruse: One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America
Howard Zinn: A People’s History of the United States
Pod Love
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Unf*cking the Republic is produced by 99 and engineered by Manny Faces Media (mannyfacesmedia.com). Original music is by Tom McGovern (tommcgovern.com). The show is written and hosted by Max and distributed by 99.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, unfuckers. I am really excited for this episode. It's been a while in the making, and we |
| 0:04.9 | once again called in the big dogs to help us pull it across the finish line. Today's episode |
| 0:09.8 | is in collaboration with the Straight White American Jesus podcast, Swage, for short, an amazing |
| 0:15.6 | show that launched in 2018 and is consistently smart and revealing. Today we're joined by one half of the dynamic hosting duo |
| 0:23.3 | Brad Anishi from University of San Francisco. Prior to becoming a religious studies professor |
| 0:28.7 | and launching Swage, Brad was a pastor at a California megachurch and attended Oxford University |
| 0:34.8 | Le Institute Catholic de Paris and the University of Santa Barbara. |
| 0:40.0 | In other words, you're a smart motherfucker. That's right. So without further ado, here's where is the |
| 0:45.7 | religious left dissecting the American Theocracy? Thank you to insane level members, Sam C, |
| 0:53.3 | cringy, Cindy S, Corius, Nathan E, Michelle H., W. Jeremy D., Eric Wagner 101, and Rob Nasby for sponsoring Unfucking the Republic. |
| 1:05.6 | Would you permit me the privilege of uttering a little private prayer of my own, and I ask it to bow |
| 1:14.5 | your heads. |
| 1:17.6 | Almighty God, as we stand here at this moment, my associates in the, my future associates |
| 1:25.3 | in the executive branch of government join me in beseeching that thou |
| 1:30.3 | will make full and complete our dedication to the service of the people in this throng and their |
| 1:37.3 | fellow citizens everywhere. Give us, we pray, the power to discern clearly right from wrong and allow all our words |
| 1:47.0 | and actions to be governed thereby and by the laws of this land. |
| 1:55.0 | Especially we pray that our concerns shall be for all the people, regardless of station, race or calling. |
| 2:03.3 | May cooperation be permitted and be the mutual aim of those who, under the concepts of our |
| 2:10.8 | Constitution hold to differing political faiths, so that all may work for the good of our beloved countries and thy glory. Amen. |
| 2:23.3 | It seems innocuous in this day and age that a U.S. President would offer a prayer at an inaugural |
| 2:28.4 | address. But the clip you just heard of President Dwight Eisenhower asking the nation to join him in |
... |
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