167: Straight White American Jesus (w/Bradley Onishi)

08/17/23 • 85 min

2 Listeners

Dr. Bradley Onishi, is the author of Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism - And What Comes Next. He is the co-host of the excellent Straight White American Jesus podcast. His work has appeared in the New York Times, NBC News, Politico, Rolling Stone, Huffpost, and many other outlets.

Bradley got personally drawn into evangelical Christianity as a teenager—and from a secular family—and had the strange experience of burying his part-Japanese heritage in a white coded, Christian Nationalist identity. It took him years of scholarship to see how this political ideology had been baked into the religious indoctrination. Now he’s a religious studies scholar, doing work in the world from that perspective. And his struggles with all of this stuff have brought his empathy and his humility up to the surface in really profound ways.

Bradley has a lot of family history in Maui, and on his behalf and for people there who have just survived a catastrophic fire and now must bury their dead and rebuild, we would like to encourage you to consider donating to the Maui Mutual Aid Fund.

Show Notes

Straight White American Jesus

Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism--and What Comes Next

Go to HelloFresh.com/50conspirituality and use code 50conspirituality for 50% off plus free shipping.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Show Notes

Straight White American Jesus

Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism--and What Comes Next

Go to HelloFresh.com/50conspirituality and use code 50conspirituality for 50% off plus free shipping.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Previous Episode

Bonus Sample: The Anxiety of Wellness

Are you ready to live your best life ever? Because if you’re not always on volume 10, eating the purest foods and shouting your truth at every turn, you’re certainly doing life wrong.

Derek looks at the ever-growing anxiety marketed as optimal health in wellness spaces, wondering when will enough be...enough?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Next Episode

Deep Cut: What Will Yoga Do to Our Children?

Deep Cut pulls from our bonus episode archive to unearth previous ideas that remain relevant today.

News from Alabama: after a 23-year ban on yoga in schools, generated by a Republican moral panic, Governor Kay Ivey signs a bill that lets kids do yoga again, but with some restrictions:

"All instruction in yoga shall be limited exclusively to poses, exercises, and stretching techniques. All poses shall be limited exclusively to sitting, standing, reclining, twisting, and balancing. All poses, exercises, and stretching techniques shall have exclusively English descriptive names. Chanting, mantras, mudras, use of mandalas, induction of hypnotic states, guided imagery, and namaste greetings shall be expressly prohibited."

Those who promote yoga as universal goodwill welcome this Indian art form being made more accessible for children in a State with terrible educational markers. Hindu nationalists, on the other hand, might be outraged at a secularized version of yoga, stripped not only of references to Hinduism but of signs of any type of Indian spirituality. And a lot of white yoga progressives will look at this policy—mostly from the urban North— and worry about authenticity and appropriation.

How will the children feel?

In considering who wins and loses with this new development, Matthew reviews recent U.S. yoga-war history: battles between the Hindu American Foundation and Yoga Journal, the rise of Christian non-yoga-yoga "Praise Moves", and Encinitas Union School District got sued for allegedly violating the Establishment Clause by contracting devotees of Pattabhi Jois to teach the kids yoga.

It's not a stretch to see an overlap between this theme and the medical-moral panic over vaccines. In both cases, the focus is on the imagined corruption of children, whether by poison, politics, or inner quiet.

Go to HelloFresh.com/50conspirituality and use code 50conspirituality for 50% off plus free shipping.

Deep Cut Intro Music

Single Origins — Pete Kuzma

Show Notes

Alabama lifts three-decade-old ban on yoga in public schools—with a catch.

New study ranks Alabama as 43rd for student achievement, grade of D+

12 Reasons Why Yoga is NOT Good for Christians

Hindu Group Stirs Debate in Fight for Soul of Yoga

Hindu American Foundation: Hindu Roots of Yoga

Shukla's letter: Is Hindu a bad word?

Explained: The Hindu American Foundation’s defamation case against Hindus for Human Rights founders

Audrey Truschke's tweet