GOP's Desperate and Dangerous Midterm Closing Message + MAGA Wants A Dictator in Brazil

In this episode of the Straight White American Jesus Sunday Interview, host Leah Payne speaks with political scientist Melissa Deckman about 2026 PRRI’s American Values Survey and what it reveals about religion, political power, and American identity. With Americans increasingly pessimistic about the economy and concerned about threats to democracy, Deckman examines whether dissatisfaction is fracturing Trump’s coalition—and whether it will translate into changes at the ballot box.

Two weeks before the midterms, Brad Onishi and Dan Miller break down the GOP's growing desperation as Cook Political shifts 19 House races toward Democrats and James Talarico polls ahead of Ken Paxton in Texas. They cover the DOJ's push to block certification in Alaska, federal agents visiting California residents flagged as non-citizens from an error-filled list, and Todd Blanche's non-answer on whether the DOJ would step into the election.

“Is God eternal?” The claim that God is eternal is a central feature of orthodox Christian teaching. But what does it mean? And what consequences follow from affirming that God is eternal? And what happens if we suggest that God is not eternal? Join Dan for this week’s episode to find out.

Tommy Teepell asked Abdul El-Sayed about the Muslim Brotherhood, and the clip went viral. But Teepell's ties to Christian nationalist networks run deeper than the reporting so far has shown. Matthew D. Taylor has tracked Teepell and Sean Feucht since 2024, and in this episode he and Brad Onishi lay out what that research shows.

On this Sunday Interview, Annika Brockschmidt talks with scholar of religion and theologian Matthew Taylor about his new book, Defying Tyrants, Following Jesus: In a World of Christian Antichrists. Writing as a Christian to other Christians, Taylor argues that the propaganda fueling MAGA and the authoritarian turn in American politics is theological, and that the response must be too. He explains why he sees Christian supremacy, the belief that Christians are better than others and entitled to power, as an older and deeper problem than Christian nationalism, tracing it through Constantine, Christendom, the Crusades, and colonialism. Taylor then offers a close reading of 1 and 2 John, where "antichrist" appears mostly in the plural and refers to people who broke away from the community and abused others in Christ's name, which leads him to argue that Christian antichrists are Christians who abuse power under Jesus's banner. They also discuss how to reckon with Christian awfulness without retreating to the "no true Scotsman" defense, what kind of king Jesus actually is, and the personal cost of the book: Taylor lost his job at an interfaith institute because of it. He explains why he refused to withdraw it, and what ordinary Christians can do to resist Christian supremacy in their everyday lives.