It's In the Code 206: What the Hell? (Part 2)

Can God be perfectly good and perfectly just and still send people to hell? What’s at stake with questions like these? How do adherents of high-control religion respond to questions like these? Check out this week’s episode to hear Dan’s discussion of why the doctrine of hell fundamentally calls God’s goodness and justice into question. If you enjoy our work, please subscribe.  Paid subscribers get bonus content, ad-free listening, access to the entire 1k episode archive, an invite to our Discord community, and access to the Axis Daily Brief.  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/axis-daily-brief/id1896931494 🔔Subscribe - Substack: www.axismundi.substack.com Books mentioned: 📕 American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy by Brad Onishi — out September 15: https://static.macmillan.com/static/essentials/american-caesar-9781250427922/ 📗 Defying Tyrants: Following Jesus in a World of Christian Antichrists by Matthew D. Taylor — out October 6: https://www.broadleafbooks.com/store/product/9798341900370/Defying-Tyrants Live events: 🎤 Brad in Portland at Annie Bloom's Books — September 16, 7 PM: https://annieblooms.com/event/2026-09-16/reading-bradley-b-onishi Full tour dates: https://axismundinetwork.substack.com/p/the-american-caesar-book-tour 🔗 axismundi.us www.quo.com/SWAJ -  Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months  www.groundnews.com/SWAJ 40% off the Vantage Subscription! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brad Onishi on "American Caesar": Inside the Movement to End American DemocracyToday is release day for Brad Onishi's new book American Caesar, and Matt Taylor sits down with him for a deep dive into the ideas inside it. Together they trace how three seemingly separate strands of the American right — Protestant Reconstructionism, radical traditionalist Catholicism, and Silicon Valley technocracy — are converging around a shared vision: an end to liberal democracy and the rise of an American strongman, an "American Caesar."If you enjoy our work, please subscribe.Paid subscribers get bonus content, ad-free listening, access to the entire 1k episode archive, an invite to our Discord community, and access to the Axis Daily Brief.🔔Subscribe - Substack: www.axismundi.substack.comBooks mentioned:📕 American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy by Brad Onishi — out September 15: https://static.macmillan.com/static/essentials/american-caesar-9781250427922/Live events:🎤 Brad in Portland at Annie Bloom's Books — September 16, 7 PM: https://annieblooms.com/event/2026-09-16/reading-bradley-b-onishiFull tour dates: https://axismundinetwork.substack.com/p/the-american-caesar-book-tour🔗 axismundi.uswww.quo.com/SWAJ - Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 monthswww.groundnews.com/SWAJ 40% off the Vantage Subscription!American Caesar is out today — grab a copy and leave a review if you can.Upcoming events with Brad:📍 Sept 16 — Annie Bloom's, Portland, 7 PM📍 Sept 22 — Amherst College📍 Sept 23 — Northeastern University (with Sarah Ricardy Swartz)📍 Oct 1 — NYU Religion and Media Center (with Emma Goldberg, NYT)📍 Oct 11 — Knoxville, TN📍 Oct 12 — Nashville, TN📍 Oct 14 — Memphis, TN Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brad Onishi previews his new book American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy, out this week, and shares its audiobook introduction. He explains the book's central argument: an unlikely alliance has formed between Protestant reconstructionists, radical traditional Catholics, and Silicon Valley technocrats, united by five shared beliefs — hostility to liberalism, a post-libertarian embrace of strong government, rejection of democracy in favor of a strongman "American Caesar," and a shared rhetoric of "saving Western civilization." He thanks listeners for their support in making the book possible and runs down his upcoming tour stops, including Portland, Amherst, Boston, New York, and several stops in Tennessee. If you enjoy our work, please subscribe.  Paid subscribers get bonus content, ad-free listening, access to the entire 1k episode archive, an invite to our Discord community, and access to the Axis Daily Brief.  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/axis-daily-brief/id1896931494 🔔Subscribe - Substack: www.axismundi.substack.com Books mentioned: 📕 American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy by Brad Onishi — out September 15: https://static.macmillan.com/static/essentials/american-caesar-9781250427922/ 📗 Defying Tyrants: Following Jesus in a World of Christian Antichrists by Matthew D. Taylor — out October 6: https://www.broadleafbooks.com/store/product/9798341900370/Defying-Tyrants Live events: 🎤 Brad in Portland at Annie Bloom's Books — September 16, 7 PM: https://annieblooms.com/event/2026-09-16/reading-bradley-b-onishi Full tour dates: https://axismundinetwork.substack.com/p/the-american-caesar-book-tour 🔗 axismundi.us www.quo.com/SWAJ -  Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months  www.groundnews.com/SWAJ 40% off the Vantage Subscription! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Brad breaks down Donald Trump's false claims about his experience that day, Rudy Giuliani's attacks on Mayor Zohran Mamdani for attending the memorial as a Muslim, and newly released documents showing NYC officials knew Ground Zero air was toxic but told the public otherwise.Then Brad welcomes former CIA officer Holly Berkley Fletcher to unpack how the "national malaise" of the 1990s — after the Cold War ended and the country turned inward — set the stage for 9/11 to be reframed not as a fight against a terrorist group, but as a civilizational battle against Islam itself. They trace how that shift accelerated Christian nationalism, fractured America's foreign policy consensus, and set the country on a path that runs through the Iraq War, January 6th, and the rise of MAGA Christianity today.📕 American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy by Brad Onishi — out September 15: https://static.macmillan.com/static/e...Live events:🎤 Brad in Portland at Annie Bloom's Books — September 16, 7 PM: https://annieblooms.com/event/2026-09...Full tour dates: https://axismundinetwork.substack.com... 🔗 axismundi.uswww.quo.com/SWAJ - Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 monthswww.groundnews.com/SWAJ 40% off the Vantage Subscription! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The idea of “hell” is a central focus within conservative, high-control Christianity (with analogues in some other traditions as well). But what, exactly, is the teaching concerning hell? And where does it come from? Does the Bible actually teach what religious conservatives say it does about hell? If not, why do they teach it? Why is hell so central to their understanding of Christianity? And what happens if we ask uncomfortable questions about hell? Join Dan for this week’s episode to find out! If you enjoy our work, please subscribe. Paid subscribers get bonus content, ad-free listening, access to the entire 1k episode archive, an invite to our Discord community, and access to the Axis Daily Brief. 🔔Subscribe - Substack: www.axismundi.substack.com Books mentioned: 📕 American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy by Brad Onishi — out September 15: https://static.macmillan.com/static/essentials/american-caesar-9781250427922/ 📗 Defying Tyrants: Following Jesus in a World of Christian Antichrists by Matthew D. Taylor — out October 6: https://www.broadleafbooks.com/store/product/9798341900370/Defying-Tyrants Live events: 🎤 Brad in Portland at Annie Bloom’s Books — September 16, 7 PM: https://annieblooms.com/event/2026-09-16/reading-bradley-b-onishi Full tour dates: https://axismundinetwork.substack.com/p/the-american-caesar-book-tour 🔗 axismundi.us www.quo.com/SWAJ - Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months www.groundnews.com/SWAJ 40% off the Vantage Subscription! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the first time since 1945, a far-right party bordering on Nazism has won real power in Germany. Brad Onishi and Matthew D. Taylor break down the AfD's stunning election result, Elon Musk and JD Vance's public support for the party, and what this signals about the global retreat from liberal democracy. Then, religious historian Warren Throckmorton joins to unpack Southern Baptist leader Al Mohler's growing alignment with Doug Wilson and Christian Reconstructionism — and why it marks a striking departure from historic Baptist commitments to church-state separation and religious liberty. Preorder American Caesar at bn.com from Sept. 9th to Sept. 11th and get 25% off with code PREORDER25. Note, this discount is only available to B&N members but free memberships are available—learn more & sign up here: barnesandnoble.com/membership/ Mixed: https: https://redcircle.com/shows/b09749cc-fdf8-4230-8234-b90e3f11a1c9 Guest: Warren Throckmorton, author of The Christian Past That Wasn't: Debunking the Christian Nationalist Myths That Hijack History If you enjoy our work, please subscribe. Paid subscribers get bonus content, ad-free listening, access to the entire 1k episode archive, an invite to our Discord community, and access to the Axis Daily Brief. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... 🔔Subscribe - Substack: www.axismundi.substack.com Books mentioned: 📕 American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy by Brad Onishi — out September 15: https://static.macmillan.com/static/e... 📗 Defying Tyrants: Following Jesus in a World of Christian Antichrists by Matthew D. Taylor — out October 6: https://www.broadleafbooks.com/store/... Live events: 🎤 Brad in Portland at Annie Bloom's Books — September 16, 7 PM: https://annieblooms.com/event/2026-09... Full tour dates: https://axismundinetwork.substack.com... 🔗 axismundi.us www.quo.com/SWAJ - Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months www.groundnews.com/SWAJ 40% off the Vantage Subscription! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In PART II A conversation between Robert P. Jones and Brad Onishi, whose books—Backslide and American Caesar—arrive one week apart from the same publisher. Jones traces how "backsliding" carries both theological and political-science meanings, citing survey data showing measurable democratic erosion (from a rating of 67 down to 54, with a projected drop to 47) and arguing white Christianity, not just American democracy, is in "apostasy," pointing to majority white evangelical support for immigrant detention camps as a bright line. Onishi then walks through American Caesar's core argument: that Reconstructionist Protestants, radical traditional Catholics, and tech-world figures have formed a loose coalition around "saving Western civilization," a discourse he argues is really about excluding Muslims, African and Latin American migrants, and anyone outside a narrow white Christian identity, while reaching back not to the 1950s but toward a fantasy of medieval Christendom. The two discuss Hannah Arendt's writing on inner resistance versus external compliance, the media's reluctance to scrutinize Christian nationalism the way it would Islam, and the resurgence of arguments for restricting women to domestic roles. They close on a note of qualified hope: polling suggests a majority of Americans favor religious pluralism and multiculturalism even though a minority currently holds power, and both authors call for renewing—rather than simply restoring—a democratic and theological imagination for a generation to whom "democracy" no longer means much on its own. If you enjoy our work, please subscribe.  Paid subscribers get bonus content, ad-free listening, access to the entire 1k episode archive, an invite to our Discord community, and access to the Axis Daily Brief.  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/axis-daily-brief/id1896931494 🔔Subscribe - Substack: www.axismundi.substack.com Books mentioned: 📕 American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy by Brad Onishi — out September 15: https://static.macmillan.com/static/essentials/american-caesar-9781250427922/ 📗 Defying Tyrants: Following Jesus in a World of Christian Antichrists by Matthew D. Taylor — out October 6: https://www.broadleafbooks.com/store/product/9798341900370/Defying-Tyrants Live events: 🎤 Brad in Portland at Annie Bloom's Books — September 16, 7 PM: https://annieblooms.com/event/2026-09-16/reading-bradley-b-onishi Full tour dates: https://axismundinetwork.substack.com/p/the-american-caesar-book-tour 🔗 axismundi.us www.quo.com/SWAJ -  Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months  www.groundnews.com/SWAJ 40% off the Vantage Subscription! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In PART I of this conversation, Brad Onishi and Robert P. Jones (author of Backslide: Reclaiming a Faith in a Nation after the Christian Turn Against Democracy) discuss what they call the "war on empathy" within segments of white Christianity in the United States. Robert argues that voices like Allie Beth Stuckey, Joe Rigney, and Elon Musk framing empathy as sinful serves as a theological retrofit that gives people permission to support policies—like mass deportation and detention—that their deeper moral instincts would otherwise reject. Drawing parallels to 1933 Germany, the civil rights era (Emmett Till, Birmingham), and more recent events (George Floyd's murder, January 6th), the two explore how this ideology trains people to override empathetic responses to visible suffering and even to deny documented reality altogether, a phenomenon they tie to Hannah Arendt's writing on self-deception under authoritarian regimes. The conversation closes with a brief teaser about Robby's book concept of "embracing division," which argues polarization is not the core problem in American politics but rather a symptom of a broken system and rising anti-democratic forces. Books mentioned: 📕 American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy by Brad Onishi — out September 15: https://static.macmillan.com/static/essentials/american-caesar-9781250427922/ Live events: 🎤 Brad in Portland at Annie Bloom’s Books — September 16, 7 PM: https://annieblooms.com/event/2026-09-16/reading-bradley-b-onishi Full tour dates: https://axismundinetwork.substack.com/p/the-american-caesar-book-tour 🔗 axismundi.us www.quo.com/SWAJ - Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months www.groundnews.com/SWAJ 40% off the Vantage Subscription! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brad and Dan break down JD Vance's wide-ranging interview with Gen Z podcaster Bryce Crawford, unpacking his comments on the end times, the possibility that the Antichrist is "living among us," and his oddly deflated answer about whether he's going to heaven — reading it all as Vance clumsily blending incompatible evangelical premillennial and Christian nationalist post-millennial theologies to court an audience he doesn't quite understand. They also examine the wave of right-wing attacks on Gloria Steinem following her death, using her own words on the "traditional family" to explain why pluralism in family structures is treated as an existential threat by the Christian right. Finally, they dig into new USPS mail-voting rules — including a whistleblower complaint and a tense court hearing before Judge Talwani — that could result in ballots being rejected over postmark delays ahead of the midterms, before closing with reasons for hope in independent medical groups' vaccine guidance and an unusually real consequence for a billionaire sports owner. If you enjoy our work, please subscribe. Paid subscribers get bonus content, ad-free listening, access to the entire 1k episode archive, an invite to our Discord community, and access to the Axis Daily Brief. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... 🔔Subscribe - Substack: www.axismundi.substack.com Books mentioned: 📕 American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy by Brad Onishi — out September 15: https://static.macmillan.com/static/e... 📗 Defying Tyrants: Following Jesus in a World of Christian Antichrists by Matthew D. Taylor — out October 6: https://www.broadleafbooks.com/store/... Live events: 🎤 Brad in Portland at Annie Bloom's Books — September 16, 7 PM: https://annieblooms.com/event/2026-09... Full tour dates: https://axismundinetwork.substack.com... 🔗 axismundi.us www.quo.com/SWAJ - Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months www.groundnews.com/SWAJ 40% off the Vantage Subscription! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Even people have never set foot in a church have probably heard of “baptism” and know that it’s something…well…Christian. But what exactly IS baptism? Why do Christians do it? How do they do it? Who get baptized? And why don’t Christians all think the same thing about baptism? Why has it been so divisive and such a hot-button issue over time? Join Dan for this week’s episode as he untangles this familiar, but still baffling, practice. SUPPORT US: www.axismundi.us www.irmce.org - our supporting nonprofit Books : 📕 American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy by Brad Onishi — out September 15: ⁠https://static.macmillan.com/static/essentials/american-caesar-9781250427922/⁠ 📗 Defying Tyrants: Following Jesus in a World of Christian Antichrists by Matthew D. Taylor — out October 6: ⁠https://www.broadleafbooks.com/store/... ⁠Live events:🎤 Brad in Portland at Annie Bloom's Books — September 16, 7 PM: ⁠https://annieblooms.com/event/2026-09...⁠ 🎤 Brad, Matt Taylor, Robert P. Jones, in Denver — November 20 Full tour dates: axismundi.us🔗 axismundi.us Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices