Back in the fall, Trump's NSPM-7 redirected the FBI, DOJ, and IRS toward "left-wing political violence," opening the door to labeling domestic groups terrorist organizations — despite three independent datasets (New America, CSIS, even the ADL!) showing right-wing violence outpacing left-wing violence by factors of 9-to-1 or greater. Last week, Rubio's "Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism" internationalized this McCarthy reboot.
Central to the rhetoric of Rubio and Miller is framing leftist politics as being driven by envy and resentment rather than a response to inequality. Matthew traces this rhetoric, empirically contradicted by relative deprivation research, back through Nietzsche, Scheler, Schoeck, and Rand.
Four days after the Ministerial, the State Department's Cuba report named 70+ Americans — from spies to wedding guests — as one undifferentiated network, a scapegoat machine now churning out congressional subpoenas, a federal grand jury, and a widening dragnet. Interview:
On the Weekly Roundup, Brad Onishi and Dan Miller breakdown three stories:
1. The GOP pursuit of Anthony Fauci over COVID era decisions and funding.
2. A new poll that shows 66% of MAGA supporters would continue to push for a candidate accused of sexual assault + Elon Musk's lawsuit against a law that bans nudifying AI.
3. The State Department's humiliating mistake in using an error-filled AI-generated map of Africa.
The thesis: You can't have democracy without shared facts, shared reality, and universal accountability.
(00:00) – Introduction and technological mishaps
(01:03) – The significance of shared facts and democracy
(04:12) – Democracy, truth, and trust: Maria Ressa’s insights
(08:39) – McCarthyism and the obsession with prosecuting Fauci
(12:14) – GOP's distraction tactics: From Fauci to election interference
(14:47) – The decline of literacy and its societal consequences
(19:23) – The post-literate society and the rise of influencers over facts
(22:46) – The crisis of accountability and the patriarchal narrative
(27:00) – Support for scandal-ridden politicians among GOP voters
(35:52) – The monstrous support for domestic abusers in politics
(44:42) – The suppression of free inquiry and Western civilization myths
(50:04) – AI, geography errors, and neglect of global health issues
(52:47) – Musk, deepfakes, and the devaluation of human life
(56:38) – Hope amid chaos: Reflections on political resilience and potential for change
This is a weekly podcast for those who want to WATCH it via YouTube to discuss stories from the past week involving religion and politics.
0:00 Intro
1:20 Nearly half of Gen Z says Trump makes them less likely to attend church.
15:45 Christian preachers are turning airplanes into unwanted worship services.
22:51 Kim Davis still owes $565,000. A new lawsuit says she hid her inheritance to avoid paying it.
30:30 A Trump judge redefined "diversity" to excuse an almost entirely Christian "religious liberty" panel.
40:45 The Justice Dept's new “religious liberty” memo gives Christians more power to discriminate.
50:53 In 2026, atheists make up only 0.066% of the federal prison population.
57:45 New survey suggests Australia's Census may dramatically undercount the non-religious.
Climate reality keeps colliding with denial, erasure, and rebranding — across media, politics, and religion. Temu conspiritualists weave melted stories about the origins of wildfires, while the high-class guys run meditation-and-regenerative-farming spectacle backed by Exxon money. Julian’s on that angle.
Derek will be telling us about how climate journalism is collapsing faster than the climate itself with mass environment reporting layoffs at NPR, CBS, the Washington Post, and the LA Times. Trump gutted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. EPA webpages have been scrubbed of human-caused warming language.
Are religious institutions doing any better? In 2015, five world religions — Jewish, Catholic, Islamic, Hindu, and Buddhist — independently issued climate statements ahead of the Paris COP21 talks. Matthew looks at how they struggled to challenge the global economies they depend on. Interview:
Does the Bible say anything at all about masturbation? Short answer: no — and this episode's Data After Dark digs into why. We take on Onan (not your guy), Matthew 5:30, the "wasting seed" argument, and the crucial difference between ritual impurity and sin, before tracing how a whole lot of Greco-Roman philosophy — not ancient Israelite thought — shaped the shame so many of us grew up with.
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:01 Data After Dark
1:44 Onan & Genesis 38
3:18 The Levirate Duty
4:16 "Cut Off Your Hand"
6:35 Prohibited Unions
8:36 The Wasted-Seed Argument
9:05 Impurity vs. Sin
12:02 Ancient Ideas About Semen
13:15 "Pearls Before Swine"?
16:05 She Contributes Half
18:41 But... Song of Songs
18:59 Greco-Roman Influence
21:36 Purity as Boundary Marker
24:25 The Verdict
Jesus tells eleven disciples to go make disciples of all nations, and somehow that became a guy with a guitar in row 14.
This episode, we dig into what the Great Commission actually says in Matthew 28, what "make disciples" meant to a first-century audience, and why the word translated "witness" in Acts 1 is the same word that gives us "martyr."
Along the way: costly signaling, the medieval shortcut of just converting the king, and why celebrity endorsements are doing far more conversion work than anyone at baggage carousel nine.
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:15 The Great Commission
1:41 Matthew 28, Read Aloud
2:52 All Authority, Daniel 7
3:42 From Commission to Annoyance
4:40 The Airport Evangelist
6:01 Was It Only the Eleven?
7:07 What "Make Disciples" Means
8:27 Convert the King
9:21 Evangelism as Identity Marker
10:33 Costly Signaling
12:03 Performing the Concern
14:28 When Kids Get Hurt
17:50 Witnesses in Acts 1
19:21 The Greek Word Is Martyr
20:13 A Good Example
21:22 Servers, Tracts, and Fake Twenties
23:00 God Gives the Growth
25:15 Does It Actually Work?
26:08 Celebrity Conversions
27:56 If the Dans Turned Heel
30:18 Coexist Versus Convert
31:50 The Official Stance
This is the 21st Century folks.
Time to stop believing in magic.
Come and discuss!
Timestamps
00:05:30 – Rimas – Argues that religion is more dangerous than a bedtime story because children are taught myths as reality, sharing examples from Islamic schooling where science and religious claims directly conflicted.
00:11:08 – Jack – After audio glitches, atheist caller asks about divine command theory; the hosts explain why God’s commands would still be subjective preferences and cut the technical friendly discussion short.
00:19:13 – Leaf – Says God is more like a horror story than a bedtime story, leading to discussion of children’s credulity, religious fear, and why indoctrination depends on teaching stories as fact.
00:33:02 – David – Challenges the bedtime-story framing, asks about agnostic atheism versus atheism, then debates God as tradition, definitions, burden of proof, and fine-tuning/design arguments.
00:58:43 – Dr. Digg – Noticed in the queue after David’s call, but missed before joining; the hosts invite her to try again later.
00:59:14 – Jerbear – Asks about The Satanic Temple; discussion covers secular pushback against religious power, Baphomet displays, religious freedom versus religious preference, and trolling religion through equal access.
01:05:11 – Six Spiritual Six Scribe Six – Challenges the claim that atheism is the default by describing early memories of a spiritual connection; the hosts discuss false memories, child development, born-atheist language, imagination, and testing ideas against reality.
01:20:48 – T – Briefly joins to point out the Pigeon Lady fundraiser link is in Discord, joke about John being an AI/cyborg, and help with stream logistics.
01:24:56 – Austin – Offers a taste analogy for subjective morality, arguing that rejecting objective morality does not make harm arbitrary; the hosts discuss shared values, wellbeing, empathy, and evaluating actions within chosen goals.
01:41:29 – Matthew – Returns to discuss theist claims that God grounds objective morality and how morality, God’s nature, free will, heaven, and “because God says so” fail to escape deeper problems.
01:52:59 – Nicholas – Initial audio attempt fails, then he reconnects to explore a non-tri-omni God, divine subjective morality, hell as coercion, and whether weakening God’s properties makes the concept any more useful.
02:13:26 – Too Skinny To Be Fat – Discusses deconstruction and a worried Christian mother; the hosts advise boundaries, love, therapy, and accepting that some family religious differences may remain unresolved.
02:21:50 – Pigeon Fluff / Darvi – Introduces herself as the Pigeon Lady, thanks the community for fundraiser support, defends pigeons, and shares that reading the Bible as a Christian-raised child helped make her an atheist.
02:26:19 – Mikhail – Muslim-raised caller deconstructing his faith asks why the channel focuses on belief being involuntary; discussion covers willful denial, genuine disbelief, religious guilt, repeated debate topics, and objective morality.
02:43:41 – Aether – First attempt to reconnect fails due to audio/video problems.
02:45:29 – Aether (return 2) – Discusses hell, annihilationism, resistant versus non-resistant nonbelievers, proportional punishment, mortal sin, church doctrine, and whether “resistant” nonbelief really deserves annihilation.
03:05:42 – Greg – Starts with evolution and religious demographics, then slides into Muslim/white-population conspiracy claims; the hosts distinguish genetics from culture and end the call over racist framing.
03:30:46 – Mullers – First TikTok attempt fails when the platform cannot bring him in.
03:31:31 – Kelly Weber – Responds to Greg by discussing religion, high birth rates, cultural reproduction, and indoctrination without turning demographic concern into racism.
03:37:12 – Mullers – Asks what “God is a bedtime story” means, then discusses symbolism, Jesus’ message, inner voices, morality without God, humanism, and why symbolic readings do not make religious claims true.
04:12:30 – Steph – Briefly thanks the hosts and raises concern about chat moderation during bigotry call-outs; the hosts suggest handling mod criticism by DM and acknowledge how difficult moderation is.
04:16:11 – DMC – Debates materialism, consciousness, free will, objective morality, divine purpose, the God of Israel, suffering, skin cancer, and the “seesaw” problem for God’s goodness and power.
04:51:46 – Esspresso Jack – Responds to Greg by explaining white nationalist/replacement-theory signals, racist misuse of statistics, and the difference between social causes and racial explanations.
04:56:34 – PVG – Briefly notes that Scientific Snitch/Ella was in the queue and recommends her and Dr. Digg as strong science voices on race, biology, and pseudoscience.
04:59:33 – Dang the Host Does Exist – First attempt fails because the mic/audio does not work.
05:00:09 – David Timson / Tim Davidson – Friendly caller reveals he is Tim Davidson from chat, thanks the hosts, jokes about his bad-joke lineage and M’s distinctive voice, and praises the community.
05:05:04 – Dang the Host Does Exist (return 2) – Christian caller argues God must be good and eternal, then debates omniscience, omnipotence, young-earth creationism, Genesis, Exodus archaeology, Noah’s Ark, and whether biblical myths undermine Bible-based claims.
05:47:27 – Kradrol – LDS caller says God would be a terrible bedtime story, agrees atheists are rational without personal experience, explains reliance on testimony and Book of Mormon claims, and outlines an LDS afterlife as teaching/reeducation rather than torture.
05:55:12 – Rasol – Challenges the bedtime-story metaphor as unjustified; discussion turns to Bible mythology, talking donkeys, magic, whether mythic stories justify skepticism, and ends in a hostile crash-out.
06:12:05 – Marquise GT – Questions calling biblical miracles “magic” when modern technology can also seem amazing; the hosts distinguish explainable technology from miracle claims and discuss coincidence, miracles, and biblical magic.
06:28:21 – Anna Banana – Brought in from TikTok, but appears to have joined accidentally and does not respond before being dropped.
06:29:00 – Shorebag – Questions how confidently the hosts reject biblical miracles, then discusses certainty, evidence, teleportation, alien-tech possibilities, mockery, tone, anger, and the distinction between miracles and magic.
06:54:39 – Gohan – Returns to discuss natural evil, fine-tuning, earthquakes, tsunamis, childhood suffering, God’s power, logical possibility, and why the hosts think fine-tuning does not solve the problem of evil.
07:26:37 – K – Challenges the implication that God is fictional, asks about evidence and probability, then tries to present a composition/essence argument before the hosts end it due to time and complexity. Interview:
Former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar joins the show for a wide-ranging conversation that quickly turns to life under Trump — the crew and Salazar touch on immigration crackdowns, tariffs on wildfire-stricken countries, and how the sheer volume of Trump-era news drowns out everything else that matters, public lands and conservation included.
From there it gets personal: Salazar talks about his debut book and swaps old stories with Tim about pickup basketball games at the Department of the Interior — including the time he tried to recruit Reggie Love and had to be talked into building Interior's first digital program back when he could barely turn on an iPad. Interview:
It can't be morally wrong to fail to be convinced by a claim.
Come and discuss this one!
Timestamps (sorry for the delay, I had technical problems)
00:01:24 – Mister Mister – Agnostic theist caller agrees that atheism as a lack of belief cannot be morally wrong, then discusses definitions of belief, epistemic humility, the Old Testament God, and why belief itself should not be punishable.
00:14:56 – Silly Cat – Shares a difficult family and religious background, being labeled atheist/rebellious, panic around family conflict, and emotional frustration with claims that God or the divine is good.
00:18:58 – Not Your Valentine – Agnostic/deity-believing caller from Nigeria cites rituals, blood sacrifices, and rain-stopping claims as evidence for deities; the hosts challenge anecdotal reasoning, correlation, prayer efficacy, and gullibility.
00:26:30 – Heinrich – Asks about causation, the Big Bang, afterlife, agnostic atheism, double-slit experiments, and simulation theory; the hosts clarify that atheism is lack of belief, not a claim to know no God exists.
00:31:51 – Doberman – Christian caller argues from Jesus, Romans 1, nature, design, the devil, and a “reprobate mind”; the hosts challenge his claim that atheists are refusing God and argue that Romans 1 leaves no room for honest nonbelief.
00:58:31 – VA David – Raises an evolutionary-argument-against-naturalism / presuppositional-style challenge about how atheists can trust reason and sense data; the hosts respond with natural selection, pragmatic assumptions, solipsism, certainty, logic, and TAG-style apologetics.
01:29:42 – Vitor Sarano – Noisy TikTok caller argues that God exists beyond space and time, questions the Big Bang and beginning of time, and claims the greatest minds believe in Jesus; the hosts challenge his cosmology and the claim that “outside time” explains anything.
01:41:32 – Steve – Attempted TikTok call fails when Steve does not respond after being brought in.
01:41:56 – JD Tallproof – Practicing Christian asks about the Big Bang, Genesis, God as explanation, free will, hell, and whether God revealing himself would violate choice; the hosts argue that explanatory power is not evidence and that honest nonbelief should not be punishable.
02:04:04 – Big Vaz – Debates whether “atheism cannot be wrong” is just a word game about belief states, then discusses strong versus weak atheism, Christianity, moral culpability, hell, belief as involuntary, and whether people can choose to reject evidence.
02:36:14 – Snowflake – Briefly agrees with the prompt and says they are atheist toward other people’s gods, but the hosts move on quickly because the stream is focused on debate.
02:37:18 – Fro – Mentioned as waiting on the YouTube side, but the stream ends before they are brought in.
02:37:30 – TrueJoy – Christian caller asks what atheism offers compared with Christianity, then debates worldview replacement, hope, morality, moral obligation, nihilism, divine command theory, and whether God’s commands could justify atrocities.
02:54:40 – Jam-M – Seen waiting in the TikTok queue, but the hosts say they cannot take the call because the stream is ending.
The Justice Department had its worst day so far as it was forced to withdraw subpoenas of journalists and their families after a contentious hearing in Manhattan.
The Justice Department is denying it told the FBI to stand down investigating ICE shootings despite a memo saying otherwise.
A US Attorney appointed by the court who was fired by Donadl Trump in under an hour has filed a first of its kind lawsuit challenging his termination.
Jim Jordan - who still hasn’t responded to his subpoena regarding January 6th - has made a criminal referral to the Justice Department for Jack Smith on perjury grounds.
The Trump administration is whitewashing American history in Philadelphia. Federal Judge John E. Jones tells the behind-the-scenes story of the 2005 trial leading to his landmark decision barring “intelligent design” from public school science classes.
Brad Onishi hosts a live event panel with Sarah Posner, Dr. Julie Ingersoll, and Dr. Matthew D. Taylor on the religious dimensions of the Iran conflict and its effects on Christian nationalism and MAGA. Posner explains how influential Christian Zionists have long sought U.S. confrontation with Iran, tying it to end-times prophecy, unconditional support for Netanyahu, and Republican foreign policy influence through figures like John Hagee, Paula White, and ambassador Mike Huckabee. Ingersoll contrasts this with postmillennial Christian Reconstructionism linked to Doug Wilson and Pete Hegseth, noting no special theological role for Israel and emerging internal fissures over the war. Taylor describes Iran as a Shiite religious nationalist state and argues religious extremism on both sides amplifies escalation, highlighting NAR “spiritual warfare” against the “Prince of Persia.”
As the discussion unfolds, the panel explores fractures within the religious right, including tensions between evangelicals and far-right Catholics, generational divides among Reconstructionists, and the uncertain political future of figures like J.D. Vance. With attention to media ecosystems, ideological alliances, and the role of key influencers, the episode situates the Iran conflict within a broader struggle over power, identity, and the future of American politics. The result is a nuanced portrait of a movement that is far from monolithic—and whose internal contradictions may prove as consequential as its external ambitions.
Christian nationalist pastor Joel Webbon says the state should seize churches that fly pride flags and auction the buildings to "faithful" churches — then tells politicians who agree with him to keep quiet about it until after they've won office.
This episode we take issue with the whole scheme: it isn't biblical, it isn't American, and it leans on a Hebrew Bible king (Josiah) precisely because the New Testament won't cooperate. But then things get strange, because when you ask whether the Bible actually forbids deception, the answer — right up to God himself — is a whole lot messier than "thou shalt not bear false witness."
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:48 Can You Lie for Jesus?
1:30 Who Is Joel Webbon?
3:43 Josiah's Purge (2 Kings 23)
6:08 Propaganda, Not History
6:39 Depose the Pride-Flag Pastors
7:51 Hide Your Power Levels
9:19 Echoes of Project 2025
10:11 Is It Biblical?
13:08 Kings vs. the New Testament
14:15 No Religious Test for Office
16:25 Is It American?
18:27 Can You Lie for Good?
20:26 Jacob and the Divine Trickster
22:12 When God Lies
23:53 Why Is Lying the Line?
26:02 Is Webbon Consistent?
28:18 Deception in Real Politics
30:38 Wrap-Up
In a post on Truth Social, Trump referred to Regime Change as "mostly made up, Fake News, largely fiction, as have been most of the things [Haberman] has written about me for so many years."...
The conversations are non-linear. Trump will get fascinated about one thing that has nothing to do with the topic and that can derail a meeting. We have a scene in the book where he's having a conversation, a very small meeting, which is highly classified about a defense program, and this guy comes in, just walks into the Oval, salt of the earth, kind of country looking guy, and he's holding stone samples for the Rose Garden ... and the two go off and sort of start conferring, looking out the window, talking about the paving and the stone and this and that, gets on the phone with another contractor. And before time's up, the meeting's ended, they haven't actually resolved the issue they were going to resolve. Interview:
Donald Trump floated recycled false 2020 election claims during a national address Thursday night.
Kash Patel fired two FBI intelligence analysts that refused to join the investigation into Georgia elections.
The Justice Department finally shared evidence with Minnesota law enforcement 6 months after the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Todd Blanche sat for his confirmation hearing before the senate judiciary committee and testified that his justice department does not target political enemies.
In this final episode of the season, there are three parts which support the concluding chapter of The Christian Past That Wasn't. The first part is former Secretary of Health and Human Services Ben Carson's false telling of Ben Franklin's call to prayer during the Constitutional Convention in 1787. Carson said the delegates stopped and prayed after Franklin called them to prayer. They didn't. This is the kind of folklore which I correct in The Christian Past That Wasn't.
The second part of this segment is a brief analysis of Al Mohler's admission that the Constitution doesn't acknowledge any Christian foundation. This significant admission came in a short video this week. Even though Mohler is honest about one aspect of the Constitution, he considers the lack of explicit Christian language to be an error on the part of the founders. Here is where he is wrong and I respond to Al Mohler's opposition to the American Constitution.
The third and final part tracks with the Conclusion of The Christian Past That Wasn't. I discuss separation of church and state in light of the golden rule and the moral teachings of Christ. I end the podcast where I started it by examining the issue of posting copies of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. I come down on the side that posting the Decalogue is an imposition of one faith over others and thus an improper establishment of religion. As such it violates the golden rule. If I don't want someone to impose their faith on me, I shouldn't do that to others.
In the words of Texas state legislator John Bryant from the podcast, "That's not fair, and that's not American." Interview:
0:01:26 - Marquise GT - Claims Jon and Sean are not open minded for rejecting old epistemic methods of ancestors that led them to conclude there is a God
0:26:55 - Bouldur - claims religion is all about hope to some people and questions why theists cannot accept some people cannot believe in God even if they tried but endorse their punishment.
0:34:56 - Shahed - Shares his personal ethical dilemma around islam and asks for advice on how to deal with close friends and family with religious beliefs.
0:46:12 - Soldierick - Claims evidence of God in the 2nd law of thermodynamics & that atheist physicists are biased. Gets educated by Dr.digg on fine tuning.
1:27:12 - AdamTaylor - Discusses the nuances of goldilock zone, universe as not being a closed system, life in the universe & fundamental laws in physics.
Superchats & bingo
1:50:37 - Moakmeister - Collective Brainstorming session on the argument points used by critical thinking rationalists like Sagan, Hitchens & theists that oppose them
Superchats
2:01:53 - John Mondragon - Argues that jon is making a positive claim in saying 'atheism makes sense in the absence of evidence for God'. Inquires what rationality and truth means.
2:16:07 - Dr.Joe - Asserts that inductive reasoning by humans can infer that supernatural claims were always debunked by scientific ones and not the other way around.
2:26:02 - Mark - Asks how atheists account for logic & what ontological stance they take to prove atheism. Claims logic (logos) comes from God and are uncreated.
2:40:31 - Kirby Newkirk - Asks for advice in dealing with judgemental theists in his network that look down upon him for his atheism.
Superchats
2:52:39 - Cameron - inquires about the special stream on deconstructing mormonism. Also shares about a police case in the united states that is related to people from mormonism
Superchats
3:05:01 - Common Ground - Discusses common fallacious arguments and inconsistent, hypocritical narratives in the bible.
Superchats & youtube hate comments.
3:31:33 - Sober - Discusses if a God can exist in concept and about the epistemic & cognitive limitations of humans & animals
3:43:59 - Dr.pepper - Posits that Universal constants & naturalistic phenomena, life all point to a design.
4:21:41 - Herb - Deep-dives into his deconstruction story and ethical inconsistencies in christianity.
4:36:17 - Buzz & superchats - Buzz shares a bit about his theistic past & reprimands the common motivated reasonings christians use.
4:45:46 - Christopher - Shares personal experience of an all good God and claims that eucharistic miracles happen in the world.
5:28:16 - Slytherinprefect - Argues that the bible is a codex, and that God does necessary evils for a greater good. Claims he believes in a monad.
5:32:42 - Dcs47 - Explains nuances in probability that debunks fine tuning arguments.
5:36:16 - Dustin k - Argues the bible is entirely symbolic & stories in it ought not to be taken literally.
Superchats
6:03:49- PVG - catch up & acknowledgement to the community.
6:08:21 - Marzby - Catch up. Discusses cognition in theists & AI psychosis.
Superchats
Member credits, member questions/comments, bingo, caller rankings conclusion. Interview:
