Weekly Roundup: “MLK Was a Bad Guy” + Fallout from Iowa
Brad and Dan begin by discussing the ways White evangelicals pushed Trump to victory and Iowa – and then dispel a bunch of myths about why White Christians keep voting for him. They also dig into reactions to a mainstream media source calling out Christian nationalism (hint: White Christian nationalists weren’t happy). In the second […]
It’s In the Code Ep. 82: “The Proof of Inerrancy”
The claim that the Bible is inerrant is a claim that it is the sole and absolute authority in matters of religious truth. For millions of American Christians, that also means that it should be the source of social policy and legislation that shape public life for every American. Those are BIG claims. So what […]
Evangelical Trumpism: Then and Now Part II. w/ Tim Alberta
Part II of Brad’s interview with journalist Tim Alberta, author of the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: Evangelicalism in an Age of Extremism. In his intro, Brad goes through his criticisms of the book. They come down to three main points: It is a normative project in a journalistic format; it reproduces the theological […]
Ep. 8: The Myths and Martyrs of White Christian Nationalism
In this final episode of Pure White analyses how myths of white women’s innocence are deployed to demonstrate national innocence. The events of January 6, 2020 included several white women who willfully disobeyed the law. When arrested, many claimed innocence despite evidence of their illegal behavior. Ashli Babbitt became well-known as a martyr to the […]
Weekly Roundup: God’s Chosen Is Above the Law
On the eve of the Iowa caucuses, Brad and Dan first take stock of two wild but related claims by Trump: He is immune from the law and chosen by God to enact it. Sounds more like a medieval monarch than a democratically elected president . . . In the second segment, the two hosts […]
It’s In the Code Ep. 81: The Inerrant Bible
“The Bible is without error.” This claim, the claim that the Bible is “inerrant,” is what lies behind most Christians’ claims when they insist they are “preaching the Bible,” that they attend a “Bible church,” that “the Bible is true,” and so on. When most conservative Christians claim to be “literalists,” what they mean is […]
Evangelical Trumpism: Then and Now Part I. w/ Tim Alberta
Part I of Brad’s interview with journalist Tim Alberta, author of the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: Evangelicalism in an Age of Extremism. In his intro, Brad goes through what he learned from the book – and hints at his criticisms of it (those are coming next week). In the interview, Brad asks Tim […]
Episode 7: Purity Culture and Welfare Reform
Season 1: Episode 7
Weekly Roundup: J6 3 years Later + 14th Amendment Originalism
More Americans think J6 was not big deal than ever. Why? Because the myth of the Big Lie has festered in the three years since the Insurrection, creating an alternate reality in which Donald Trump is not responsible for what happened – and the event wasn’t that violent. Brad and Dan break down the statistics […]
It’s In the Code Ep. 80: “I’m a Biblical Literalist”
“I believe the Bible is literally true.” Such is the claim of many self-professed biblical “literalists.” Academics and journalists who study American religion also often describe conservative Christians, in particular, as “literalists.” But in this episode, the first of several related to the understanding of the Bible within popular American Christianity, Dan argues that no […]