Ep 77: The War Crimes of Bush and Obama

Ep 77: The War Crimes of Bush and Obama

In this episode I critique a recent episode of Phil Vischer’s podcast The Holy Post, in which his co-hosts Skye Jethani and Katlyn Schiess discuss the Christian faith of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. I argue that they dramatically miss the most important aspect of their presidencies, during which both men committed horrendous war crimes. I review the war crimes of Bush and Obama and contrast that record with the casual conversation they had about their faiths. I also critique a conversation that took place on the show about Oliver Anthony’s Rich Men North of Richmond, where a nuanced discussion about welfare is collapsed into an unfounded theory of racial ‘dog-whistling’ as well as how Oliver’s commentary on Jeffery Epstein is dismissed as ‘Q-Anon’ adjacent. Both of these claims demonstrate my main point that even when admirably breaking with the right-wing trajectory of American evangelicalism, the commentators on The Holy Post still conform to the parameters of acceptable discourse set by the corporate press and fail to address the most important issues facing our society.

Additional Resources

The Holy Post Episode: https://www.holypost.com/post/579-how-the-bible-is-used-abused-in-politics-with-kaitlyn-schiess

Scott Horton, Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terror: https://a.co/d/0TVOy5w

Laurie Calhoun, We Kill Because We Can: https://a.co/d/0aDohMn

Obama Is a War Criminal: https://harvardpolitics.com/obama-war-criminal/

The Intercept Article: https://theintercept.com/2017/01/30/obama-killed-a-16-year-old-american-in-yemen-trump-just-killed-his-8-year-old-sister/

TPLP Episode on the torture programs: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/against-george-w-bushs-cia-torture-program-roundtable/

Laurie Calhoun on the ‘Just War’ Theory: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/critique-of-the-just-war-theory-laurie-calhoun/