Humans are social animals. We’re not the strongest, fastest, or even best adapted to our environment. But what we excel at is our ability to work together, which means we’ve been able to adapt to every environment, a true outlier in the animal kingdom. And a big reason for that is our ability to empathize with others.
Basically, empathy is the ability to step into someone else's shoes, understand what they are thinking or feeling, and share in that emotional experience. The main types of empathy are cognitive, affective (or emotional), and somatic.
Derek looks at the first two in segment two through the lens of Paul Bloom’s work, but given a recent book by Lebanese-born Canadian marketing professor, Gad Saad (which Matthew covers in segment three), we thought we’d look at how empathy is being used, and potentially distorted, in modern society. Or, as Julian starts with, how it’s being weaponized on social media by Christian nationalists.
Interview:
In this episode of It’s In the Code, Dan Miller tackles a question from a Jewish listener that cuts to the heart of Christian theology: if Jesus established a new covenant that fulfilled the Old Testament law, why do so many conservative Christians continue to rely on Old Testament verses to make moral arguments?
Dan explores the New Testament's teaching on grace, the Apostle Paul’s insistence that Christians are no longer bound by the Jewish law, and the complicated relationship Christians have with the Hebrew Bible.
Along the way, he explains why many conservative Christians selectively appeal to Old Testament commandments—especially on issues like sexuality—while disregarding countless other laws they believe no longer apply.
I grew up evangelical. If you'd asked me back then, "are you religious?" — I would have said no. Not because I didn't believe in God, prayer, the Bible, salvation. I believed all of it. I would have said no because in evangelical culture, "religious" is basically an insult. It means you're going through the motions. It means you don't have the real thing.
It took me years — and a PhD studying the ancient world — to notice that this isn't just a quirk of vocabulary. It's a defense mechanism. And once you see it, you start seeing it everywhere: in how evangelicals talk about "conservative Bible scholars" as if that's a neutral category, in how they treat historians who study the resurrection, in how they frame prayer as something categorically different from what every other religious person on earth does when they pray.
In this video I break down the two core strategies evangelicalism uses to avoid admitting it's a religion like any other: rewriting history and science to make faith look like the product of neutral inquiry, and rebranding ordinary religious experience — hearing from God, feeling saved — as a unique phenomenon nobody else has access to. Both strategies point to the same underlying fear, and understanding it will change how you read a huge amount of apologetics, online debate, and evangelical self-description.
Writer Chrissy Stroop ("The Bugbear Dispatch," "Empty the Pews") accepts the Freethought Heroine Award and traces her journey from evangelical schools to leading counter-narratives about the Christian Right. Stroup unpacks creationist indoctrination, “post-truth” politics, DEI/CRT moral panics, trans rights backlash and why pluralism and storytelling are essential to democracy.
For many in these circles, it comes down to a simple calculus: Rubio has spent decades earning their trust on faith and policy — while Vance, despite his platform and base, has left key anti-abortion and pro-Israel constituencies on edge...
What happens when a U.S. president publicly attacks the Pope—and tries to justify war using theology?
In this episode of Straight White American Jesus, Brad and Dan break down the escalating clash between Donald Trump and Pope Leo, and why it’s about much more than a political disagreement. From the Pope’s condemnation of violence to reactions from figures like JD Vance and Mike Johnson, this episode traces how religion, war, and power are colliding in real time.
We take a deep dive into just war theory—what it actually is, where it comes from, and why its misuse matters. Along the way, we analyze viral moments (yes, including the Pulp Fiction references), unpack the theological claims being made by political leaders, and examine how Christian nationalism reframes power as divine authority.
This isn’t just about one news cycle. It’s about a larger shift:
Who gets to define Christianity in America?
What happens when political leaders claim moral authority over religious ones?
And why are some Christians being told to “stay out of politics” while politicians take over theology?
⏱️ Timestamps
00:00 Intro
02:15 What sparked the Trump vs. Pope conflict
08:40 What is Just War Theory?
18:30 JD Vance, Mike Johnson, and the political response
“Conservative Catholics who spent years building an alliance with evangelical Protestants, are waking up to find that their allies consider their faith a species of paganism and their sacraments a blasphemy.”
Despite Trump's apocalyptic rhetoric, and sensational online talk about "end times" and Armageddon, this immensely damaging, unjustified and shaming war may be forcing Americans to reassess their moral relationship with the world. Is Trump solely to blame? wondered the US columnist Lydia Polgreen. Or is he "the fulfilment of what America has always been – a self-satisfied nation, granted license by its myths about providence and exceptionalism to do whatever it wants". Trump's presidency, she argued, "has revealed a much older malady: America's unshakable faith in its ability to shape the world to its liking, indifferent to what others might want and supremely confident that its plan is the right one. Beyond Trump, it's this disfiguring mentality we Americans must face."…
How did the Republican Party become the "Christian" party? In this video, I break down the real history behind how the GOP turned the Christian community into its most loyal voter base, not through shared faith, but through calculated political strategy.
This isn't opinion. Everything in this video is historically documented.
"I wouldn’t label the evangelical community as extreme because I believe they are following the scripture and what the scripture says about Israel: “Those who bless Israel will be blessed.” They take it literal and I’m one of those people. . . I believe Jesus will come back and I’m going to be on his side."
U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, when asked about his religion’s influence on support for Israel.
