Is Christian Nationalism inherently racist? In today’s episode of Talk Heathen, ObjectivelyDan, and the wonderful Cynthia McDonald from our flagship show, The Non-Prophets, tackle the answers to this question and others.

First caller is Phoebe from the UK who is looking for ideas on how to push back against pushy clients, particularly Jehovah Witnesses, at work. Cynthia shares a personal story of how she dealt with this when asked why she was not a Christian, and how important it is to remind colleagues to focus on work, and not these types of discussions. Dan also shares a helpful story on how to handle this.

Charles from Canada calls with a position that Christianity is good for society. He argues that the abolition of women and slaves came from Jesus, and that can be humane to own a human being. Cynthia calmly gives a history lesson including the Baptist preachers that would use the Bible to justify slavery. Even when the civil rights movement was happening, preachers used Christian principles to uphold segregation. How many times did Jesus mention not using slaves? We will give you a hint, it was none. What did Paul say about slaves being obedient? If Jesus did not say certain things about slavery, how do you rectify the specific instructions in the Bible about how to own slaves? Jesus talked about all kinds of things but why did he never say it is not cool to own slaves?

Steve from AZ is freaked out about the recent SCOTUS decision. He started watching a popular show that seems like a playbook for the Christian Nationalists. Cynthia describes Operation Blitz, which is an actual playbook these people use by installing theocratic law on the local and state level to influence federal law. We can see how harmful the state laws have become since this recent SCOTUS decision. It is all about power, not pleasing Jesus or the good of the people. We hope that people wake up and take action against the propaganda which is strong.

Patrick in FL has a question about a supernatural god vs a natural god being falsifiable. How do we know for sure if something is supernatural or just advanced using the laws of nature? We would first have to know what is meant by natural god. There is nothing that we can point to and describe as supernatural. Things that we have thought were supernatural in the past, now are understood to have natural explanations.

Sam, a physics major from CA, wants to know how miracles are explained. She gives an example of a pastor who was stung by a scorpion, almost died, and then is doing okay now. We can’t verify this claim because it is a call in show, but it does boil down what a lot of claims are: stories. A lot of these stories in the medical world can be attributed to treatment. When these claims are tested, they happen to not be miracles. When we can’t find out why someone survived after we think all other possibilities have been ruled out, we have a god of the gaps fallacy.

Thank you for watching the show! We will see you next week! Remain skeptical, ask a lot of questions, and try to seek out the truth.