john birch society

Ken welcomes professor, fellow podcaster, and author Dr. Brad Onishi back to the podcast to talk about his new book - Preparing for War - The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism and What Comes Next (release date: January 3, 2023). A long-time friend of the podcast, Brad has been busy after a major event in Denver focussed on Christian Nationalism last month with a large audience both live and virtual. It featured major influencers and thinkers including Robert P. Jones,  Sam Perry, Katherine Steward, Larycia Hawkins, and his podcast partner, Dan Miller. In addition to his regular podcast, Straight White American Jesus,. Brad is releasing a series on The New Apostolic Reformation with Professor Matthew Taylor, Ph.D. It's an expose on a growing movement advancing an extreme dominion version of Christianity. Brad introduces his book which traces what we now know as Christian Trumpism from the 1960s to the present in the context of his own personal journey - beginning with his conversion in high school in Orange County (CA); the great mid-west and Southern migration to California, the John Birch Society, The Crystal Cathedral and Robert Schuller, his own Friends Church (predominantly white) and Friendship Baptist Church (predominantly black), to Dr. James Dobson and his secular eugenicist mentor, Dr. Paul Pompenoe. Onishi fills in the background on two Jericho Marches, featuring Eric Metaxas, Michael Flynn and Alex Jones,  which were a prelude to the January 6 Insurrection. Finally, the two discuss the ways in which American Evangelicalism finds its roots in The Lost Case Narrative of the South. SHOW NOTES

Originally aired December 2022

Purchase Brad's new Book: Preparing for War - The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism--and What Comes Next   

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“Asia First was an insistence that Pacific affairs receive as much, if not more attention than European Atlantic relations in the cold war. Its proponents, its supporters, many of whom were very powerful, conservative voices in the Senate and in Congress felt like U.S. foreign policy after World War II was neglecting mainland Asia and therefore imperiling the whole cold war.”  — Joyce Mao

In this episode (2), Mark Williams, director of the Rohatyn Center, talks with Joyce Mao, Middlebury College associate professor of history, about the Asia First initiative and, in particular, the effects that US-China-Taiwan relations had on American domestic politics.  Why were American conservatives so interested in Asia after WWII and in China particularly? In what ways, if any, did conservative concerns over China influence US foreign policy, and how did conservatives’ interest in China help shape the development of the political right in the United States? These are some of the issues examined in this New Frontiers episode "China and the American Right."

Joyce Mao’s book, Asia First: China and the Making of Modern American Conservatism, was published in 2015 by the University of Chicago Press.

Show Notes:
Presented by the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs at Middlebury College.

Music Credits

• Forte by Ketsa - Summer with Sound Album
• Soul Zone by Ketsa - Light Rising Album

Produced by Margaret A. DeFoor and Mark Williams.

Sometimes you have choose between inherently evil and stupid organizations. Sometimes it's this week. The Greek System at U.S. Universities is known for just about every kind of baked-in racism, sexism, and classism; the John Birch Society is known for being a paranoid anti-Communist horse shit factory of the type that was generally laughed out of town back before we entered the stupidest timeline ever. Come find out which is worse!

Humorous Reference Materials

Chad Mitchell Trio: "The John Birch Society"

Bob Dylan: "John Birch Paranoid Blues"

The First Episode continues and thus The Spice Melange as well.  We must continue to do our part to keep the cogs moving.  The Choamcast: The John Birch Society, Ron Paul, & True Believers.  This is how it must be.  Long live CHOAM.