Brief: The Spirituality of Vaccine & Mask Panics

In this first installment of Antifascist Christianity: Black Jesus, Matthew revisits Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s journey from the theological classrooms of Berlin to the Black churches of Harlem — where he encountered a Jesus entirely unlike the imperial figure of his upbringing. Bonhoeffer arrived in New York a servant of white European Christendom, and left transformed by the radical, suffering, and liberatory presence of Black Jesus. Matthew connects Bonhoeffer’s awakening to today’s spectacle of white nationalism in worship — from the triumphalist religion on display at Charlie Kirk’s memorial to the enduring cultural power of “white Jesus” as theology for empire. Drawing on Reggie Williams’s Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus, Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism, and Jeanelle Hope and Bill Mullen’s The Black Antifascist Tradition, the episode traces how colonialism created a Christ built to bless domination, and how the Black church reclaimed him through solidarity, suffering, and resistance. The contrast between the fortress hymn A Mighty Fortress Is Our God and the spiritual Were You There becomes the turning point in Bonhoeffer’s faith — from triumph to trembling, from power to empathy. Part 2, out Monday on Patreon, explores how liberal Christianity tried to stand between these poles, and why it failed. Show Notes Hope, Jeanelle K., and Bill V. Mullen. The Black Antifascist Tradition. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books, 2023. Robinson, Cedric J. Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. Revised and Updated Third Edition. Foreword by Robin D. G. Kelley. Preface by Damien Sojoyner and Tiffany Willoughby-Herard. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2020. Williams, Reggie L. Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus: Harlem Renaissance Theology and an Ethic of Resistance. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2014. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

11 Loka 202535min

Our podcast is not actually illegal—yet. Thanks to Trump’s recent Security Presidential Memorandum, NSPM-7, or “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,” it soon could be. Today we talk about one of the starkest moves into fascism Americans have yet seen from MAGA: what it is, how pre-crimes can soon be reality, and the fear factor this memo is designed to inspire. We’ll also discuss some possible responses to the next phase of MAGA authoritarianism. Show Notes Trump’s NSPM-7 Labels Common Beliefs As Terrorism “Indicators” What Is NSPM-7? Over 3,000 Nonprofits Sound Alarm on New Trump Directive Trump Orders Broad Effort to Root Out Groups He Says Organize Political Violence The meme-ification of political violence The Upside of Collapse Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

9 Loka 202556min

The People’s Temple in Jonestown, Heaven’s Gate, The Order of the Solar Temple. All cults that ended in tragic mass suicides. How could such lofty aspirations end so badly? For today’s self-contained installment of The Roots of Conspirituality series, Julian explores the shadow side of the anxiety-relieving religious notion that death is just a doorway into a better place. How do charismatic prophets indoctrinate believers into ending their lives, and often the lives of their children, in the name of spirituality? Julian briefly examines each of these groups, along with Paul Nthenge Mackenzie’s Good News International Ministry—450 of whose followers starved themselves to death in a Kenyan forest in 2023. Then he transitions into exploring philosophical, psychological, evolutionary, and neuroscience-based ways of understanding the elements that make these spiritualized perversions of our survival instincts possible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

6 Loka 20256min

RFK Jr posted a seven-minute video earlier this week that assures us that vaccines aren't all that great, actually. Derek reads the studies Kennedy references as proof. You might be surprised to learn the HHS Secretary has very selective reading. Show Notes Annual Summary of Vital Statistics: Trends in the Health of Americans During the 20th Century The Questionable Contribution of Medical Measures to the
Decline of Mortality in the
United States in the Twentieth Century Infectious Diseases and Social Change Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

4 Loka 202526min

Did you hear about the pregnant woman who ingested too much Tylenol just to “own Trump” and is now on a ventilator and will likely not wake up, offing both herself and her baby? If you were tapped into social media at all this past week, you likely saw dozens of wellness and right-wing influencers sharing it, each with their own hot take. One problem: there’s still no proof this woman exists.  Mallory DeMille returns to discuss this cursed game of telephone, as well as unpack the mad rush that wellness influencers have been on to sell you their completely legitimate acetaminophen alternatives. Science rocks, y’all. Show Notes Meet The ‘American Frontline Nurses’ Telling Parents To Give Kids Ivermectin Homeopathy is a scam that causes real harm Kelly Brogan's Conspiracy Machine Giving Birth in Yogaland Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2 Loka 20251h 2min

Listen to the full episode here. When RFK Jr announced that Tylenol might be implicated in autism, he forefronted correlative research that has yet to prove causation. That didn’t stop a number of MAHA-pilled wellness influencers from running with the narrative. Derek looks at their posts, as well as the immediate pushback, after breaking down Kennedy’s slipperiness during the press conference. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

29 Syys 20254min

MAGA congressman Clay Higgins recently sent a letter to top tech executives demanding subservience when it comes to "acceptable" speech. This comes two years after Higgins co-sponsored a bill protecting freedom of speech. Given recent capitulations to the Trump administration by tech CEOs, we shouldn't write off Higgins's aggressive push. Derek and Julian discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

27 Syys 202527min

Charlie Kirk became the latest victim of gun violence in America on September 10. And he wasn't the only person shot on a school campus that day, nor was he the only political figure killed this year.  Unlike Melissa Hortman and her husband, the motivation for Kirk’s murder remains unclear. That hasn’t stopped right-wing pundits and politicians from framing it as typical extremist left-wing violence.  In between calls for civil war and censorship, the ramping up of police-state authoritarianism, and painting of the slain Christian Nationalist activist as a noble martyr, anti-racist icon Ta-Nehisi Coates called out the strange reflex from some left-of-center figures (like Ezra Klein) to participate in whitewashing Kirk's hateful politics. Today we discuss what happened and what it might mean. Show Notes ⁠From Secular Activist to Christian Nationalist⁠ ⁠Doug Wilson on Abortion, Gays, Women Voting⁠ ⁠Meet The New Apostolic Reformation⁠ 167: Straight White American Jesus (w/Bradley Onishi)⁠ ⁠129: White Christian Nationalism (w/Philip Gorski and Samuel Perry)⁠ ⁠Stealing Democracy for Jesus⁠ ⁠Blackpill Aesthetics: A Crash Course in Meme Extremism⁠ ⁠Charlie Kirk, Redeemed: A Political Class Finds Its Lost Cause Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

25 Syys 20251h 10min