Inside purity culture and Christian nationalism with Monte Mader

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Monte Mader (0:59)

I believe that the arc of progress, the arc of justice, it bends the way you bend it.

Hope is where your hands are. So the world that we want to have is possible if we build it.

Dan McClellan (1:17)

Hey, everybody, I'm Dan McClellan.

Dan Beecher (1:19)

And I'm Dan Beecher.

Dan McClellan (1:20)

This is Data Over Dogma, where we increase public access to the academic study of the Bible and religion, and we combat the spread of misinformation about the same. How are things today, Dan?

Dan Beecher (1:31)

Things are fantastic, in part because someone much smarter than me is here to come on the show, and we get to hear her thoughts and things, her musings about the world, and that is always a delight. So, Dan, why don't you introduce our guest?

Dan McClellan (1:53)

Yeah, we are very excited and honored to be joined today by Monte Mader, another social media superstar and also rock and roller. Thank you so much for being with us today on the show, Monte.

Monte Mader (2:05)

Thank you so much for inviting me. Thank you for your work. I was very, very excited to get this invitation.

Dan McClellan (2:10)

Well, I had thought about it many times in the past. Like I got to reach out to Monte. I think she would make a lovely guest on the show. And then finally was like, maybe I ought to do it actually.

Dan Beecher (2:22)

Maybe stop thinking about it, Dan, and start actually taking some action. That's not a bad idea.

Dan McClellan (2:29)

I'm working on it. I'm working on it.

So yeah, we're ecstatic to be able to talk to you today. And here, lots of things are going on in your life, lots of changes, and that's great. But we want to start off by just, if you don't mind, letting our audience, I'm sure there are an awful lot of people in our audience who already know more about you than Dan and I combined. But would you mind talking a little bit about how you got to be where you are? Because we talked earlier about the fact that it was almost a year ago today that we first met in DC at one of the-

Dan Beecher (3:03)

Yeah, but Dan, what we should be saying is that there's a whole cool conversation about all of us that only our patrons get. And if you want to hear that-

Dan McClellan (3:13)

You always want to bring it back to business, but yes.

Dan Beecher (3:15)

I'm just saying, it's not a bad idea to become a patron right now and go and check out our conversation with Monte about how we met and everything on patreon.com.

Dan McClellan (3:26)

We talk a lot about that. I was using that as a springboard into-

Dan Beecher (3:30)

Yeah.

Dan McClellan (3:30)

That was only evidently three months after you splashed onto social media.

Dan Beecher (3:37)

Became the queen of the internet? Is that what you're trying to say, Dan?

Dan McClellan (3:40)

So can you tell us a little bit about what's happened?

Monte Mader (3:44)

So, yeah, so I mean, I've obviously had social media for a long time. I was not a big user, especially with Instagram. I typically used it to promote music. I wasn't really a regular creator of any kind.

And then as 2024 had continued to happen, there were certain topics that kept coming up, certain talking points that I felt uniquely qualified to have a discussion on with my background. But it wasn't a big thing. But in December of 2024, I made a video kind of cheekily saying, why are we trying to put the Bible in schools when it's not working in churches?

And many people were not a fan. And I'm also someone that I don't read the comments very often, part of it's just time. I'm so busy. I don't have time, but also mental health as well, because for their good comments and there's a lot of also really vitriolic ones. But for whatever reason, one day in February of last year, a notification on that video popped up and it was from this guy named Derek, who's like, when have you been to church? I'm guessing never.