Satanic Invocations Provoke Backlash (Hemant Mehta and Jessica Bluemke, The Friendly Atheist podcast #657)

— Texas school district cancels “Little Shop of Horrors” after girl is cast as Seymour. (0:15)

— The “pro-life” pastors who want America to watch a live-streamed execution. (19:22)

— Satanic invocation sends Iowa city council meeting into chaos. (34:48)

— A city overtaken by Christians wanted invocations. It got “Hail Satan” instead. (46:36)

— A pastor in an interracial marriage says he won’t let his daughter marry a Black man. (57:23)

— A Tennessee school board is putting Christian Nationalism ahead of students. (1:09:12)
Interview: 

• YouTube, with Jessica: https://youtu.be/w-7JqMpFqAM?si=NbNsAotet-yMWETU
• YouTube, without Jessica: https://www.youtube.com/live/o7EhdRDPkVE?si=sMU-p8wovxf58TTn
• Audio only podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/657-satanic-invocations-provoke-backlash/id888637335?i=1000796399592

Hegseth church allies backed plan for ‘public’ execution of Fort Hood shooter

Leader of CREC church – whose pastors have advocated death penalty – says he ‘prefers public executions to private’…

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/15/pete-hegseth-crec-church-execution-livestream

Trump calls off livestream of Fort Hood shooter’s execution - POLITICO

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plans to livestream the scheduled Dec. 3 firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan had drawn widespread backlash…

 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/10/15/trump-military-execution-livestream-canceled-01120035

Weekly Roundup: They Want to Rule, Not Govern: Live-Streamed Executions, “Enemy Combatants,” and the Midterm Panic (Bradley Onishi and Daniel Miller; Straight White American Jesus podcast)

They want to rule, not govern. 

This week on the Weekly Roundup, Brad Onishi and Dan Miller break down Trump’s “bomb LA” comments, the “enemy combatant” rhetoric aimed at Somalis in Minnesota, Hegseth’s plan to live-stream a firing squad execution, and Tucker Carlson and Curtis Yarvin’s Hitler comments. Then they close with some reasons for hope: Ossoff in the Georgia debate and a Satanic invocation in Ottumwa, Iowa.

With the midterms less than a month away, Brad and Dan argue the GOP is ramping up fear-mongering, race-baiting, and empty promises because it has little else left to offer.

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Intro: Iran, LA, Somalis, and the live-streamed execution
03:38 The thesis: ramping up the tactics before the midterms
06:43 Somalis as “the new Haitians”
10:46 JD Vance can’t define socialism
15:26 Ruling vs. governing
17:37 Hegseth’s live-streamed firing squad
27:34 “Pro-life” and “family values”? Bloodlust and the research on televised executions
33:16 Tucker Carlson on why the UK fought WWII
42:38 Curtis Yarvin, JD Vance, and the “engineering” view of society
50:58 Transit funding tied to birth and marriage rates
55:15 Reasons for hope: Ottumwa, Iowa, and Ossoff vs. Collins
1:01:14 Upcoming events and wrap-up

Interview: 

• Audio podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/weekly-roundup-hegseths-execution-livestream-bomb-la/id1441649707?i=1000794597256

• Video: https://axismundinetwork.substack.com/p/they-want-to-rule-not-govern-live

The Christian Nationalist Plan To Execute Gay Men | Doug Wilson

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_aBjvNBjeo

 

Trump has called for my execution because he didn’t like what I had to say

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UAg4g6Z-vcU

 

RWW News: Brian Sauvé Calls For Rebellious Young Black Men To Be Killed by The state

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JO9Jvu06Yk

 

Republican Arizona lawmaker makes post calling for execution of Democratic congresswoman | US politics | The Guardian

John Gillette on X called for 'people like' Pramila Jayapal to be 'hanged' in response to her video on anti-Trump protests…

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/26/john-gillette-pramila-jayapal-execution-post 

 

Fox News host apologizes for ‘extremely callous’ remarks on unhoused people

Calls rose for Brian Kilmeade to be fired after saying people facing homelessness and mental illness should be executed…

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/14/fox-brian-kilmeade-apology-homelessness-comments

 

Friendly Atheist News Roundup 10/31/2024 (Hemant Mehta)

— Pastor: The Bible says Harris can’t be president since her parents immigrated here. 

— An anti-abortion influencer insists she’ll continue her high-risk ectopic pregnancy.

— A popular NYC theater is owned by the Catholic Church. Now it’s being censored. 

— Pastor: If we “publicly execute a few women,” false rape allegations would end.  

— The problem with pleading “religious insanity” in court… and how to resolve it. 

— After lawsuit, Catholic hospital in California will provide emergency abortion care. 
Interview: 

https://www.youtube.com/live/WsoLldc4zF8?si=aiZ_sDiwuyzzoK-W

Marcellus Williams executed despite prosecutors’ push to overturn conviction

"We must all question any system that would allow this to occur. The execution of an innocent person is the most extreme manifestation of Missouri's obsession with 'finality' over truth, justice, and humanity, at any cost," Tricia Rojo Bushnell, Williams's attorney, said in a statement just before the execution. "Tonight, we all bear witness to Missouri's grotesque exercise of state power. Let it not be in vain. This should never happen, and we must not let it continue."…

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/24/missouri-executes-marcellus-williams

‘He didn’t do it’: days before execution in South Carolina, key witness says he lied

Two days before South Carolina is scheduled to execute a man on death row, the key witness for the prosecution has come forward to say that he lied at trial and the state was putting to death an innocent man. 

Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah, 46, is due to be killed by lethal injection on Friday. His attorneys filed emergency motions to halt the execution, citing new testimony asserting that Allah was wrongfully convicted, but the state supreme court denied the requests late Thursday, saying the execution should proceed...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/19/south-carolina-execution-freddie-owens

PSYCHO Influential Republican CALLS FOR KILLING of Joe Biden!!!

https://youtu.be/uL5fcPUlO5k?si=OsZnzNDJY1-wynBT

GOP nominee to run North Carolina public schools called for violence against Democrats, including executing Obama and Biden | CNN Politics

In other comments on social media between 2019 and 2021 reviewed by CNN's KFile, Morrow made disturbing suggestions about executing prominent Democrats for treason, including Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Hillary Clinton, Sen. Chuck Schumer and other prominent people such as Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates...

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/14/politics/kfile-gop-nominee-north-carolina-public-schools-michele-morrow-executing-democrats/index.html

White Nationalist Republican Senate Candidate Prepares for the SWIFT EXECUTIONS of Democrats!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1WG5WyTsgU

Ex-Trump Aide Reveals He Threatened To Execute A Staffer | HuffPost Latest News

"Right before I resigned, I was in an Oval Office meeting with a dozen other staffers, and somebody had, he thinks, leaked a story about him going to the bunker during the George Floyd protests," she said on Tuesday's broadcast. "And he said, 'Whoever did that should be executed.'" …

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/alyssa-farah-griffin-trump-execute_n_656ff488e4b0a10def8a8651

Trump Suggests That Mark Milley Deserves Execution - The Atlantic

The former president is inciting violence against the nation's top general...

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/trump-milley-execution-incitement-violence/675435/

Supreme Court’s GOP majority refuses to fix ‘indefensible’ death penalty ruling

The Supreme Court's Republican-appointed majority has effectively decided to allow a man's execution despite the jury that voted for his death potentially being misinformed...

https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/sotomayor-death-penalty-supreme-court-rcna81225  

GOP lawmaker decries state bill that could execute a woman over an abortion | The Hill

… they were going to give more rights to a rapist than the woman who had been raped. They were going to put women up to the death penalty who had abortions for any reason," Mace said…

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3922160-gop-lawmaker-decries-state-bill-that-could-execute-a-woman-over-an-abortion/

Russian Prisoners Executed for Not Advancing Into Ukrainian Fire: Report

"Those who disobey are eliminated — and it's done publicly," Yevgeny Novikov, a former inmate who was recruited by the mercenary group said, according to a translation of the report from the Daily Beast…

https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-prisoners-wagner-group-ukraine-executed-deserting-disobedient-report-2023-1