Star Spangled Christian Nationalism With April Ajoy

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April Ajoy (1:32)

Like, when I take a step back, I'm like, no, y'all are demonizing me, and you're celebrating this man as someone that Jesus would choose to lead our Christian nation? I'm like, are you reading the Gospels at all?

Dan McClellan (1:53)

Hey everybody, I'm Dan McClellan.

Dan Beecher (1:54)

And I'm Dan Beecher.

Dan McClellan (1:56)

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

Dan Beecher (2:08)

It's a Star Spangled Day here on the Data Over Dogma show.

Dan McClellan (2:12)

I noticed you're wearing a red sweatshirt. And my first impression was a Buffalo Bills jersey. I was like, it can't be that.

Dan Beecher (2:21)

No, it's not that. I mean, you should be happy. These are Denver Bronco colors.

Dan McClellan (2:26)

Yes.

Dan Beecher (2:26)

Mostly. I'm just kind of an orange and orangey red and blue. Anyway, let's get off of fashion because most of our listeners, at least our YouTubers can see, but our listeners can't see what I'm wearing. And let's get on to our guest this week. Do you want to introduce her, Dan?

Dan McClellan (2:45)

Yeah, absolutely. Today, we are very privileged to have with us April Ajoy. Welcome to the show, April.

April Ajoy (2:51)

Hello. Thank you for having me.

Dan McClellan (2:54)

Thank you for being here. We appreciate it very much. And April is the author of a new book, Star Spangled Jesus, Leaving Christian Nationalism and Finding a True Faith. April is another content creator, a podcaster who hosts the Friday shows of the New Evangelicals and is also has been working in journalism to one degree or another for for quite some time. She has been featured on BuzzFeed, CNN, Newsweek and more. And she's been married to Beecher for 10 years. And they have two daughters together, which is wonderful.

I am a girl dad with three daughters, but some people might be a little more interested to hear about this Beecher connection.

Dan Beecher (3:38)

Well, I mean, I'm going to save it. We're going to save it, save some of the Beecher talk for the for the after party. There we go. So if you're really interested in some wacky name talk about Beecher, make sure that you're a patron and come over on Patreon.

April Ajoy (3:58)

It's not that common of a name.

Dan Beecher (4:00)

No, it isn't. No, it is not. It is not. And even less common, I think, as a first name. So yes, your partner is in rarefied air, but I have met one other person with the first name Beecher. And I will tell that story later. And April, you also are a TikToker.

You put a lot of content out into the world. I think a lot of our listeners probably follow you on TikTok and in other places.

April Ajoy (4:33)

Yeah, that's kind of where it all started on TikTok. So I don't know what the future of TikTok looks like.

Dan Beecher (4:41)

You two TikTok people are screwed, but that's why we have a podcast.

Dan McClellan (4:48)

Yeah, well, and I know April mainly from a lot of thought-provoking content on social media, particularly TikTok and elsewhere, but also a lot of comedy. You like to do some role-playing skits and use comedy to kind of, I don't know, break down walls of defenses, but at least get a little bit of joy out of what you're doing, which is primarily combatting Christian nationalism, combatting a lot of the harm that is inherent in Christian nationalism and the kind of fundamentalist, conservative, evangelical Christianity that is so prominent these days. Can you talk a little bit about, we'll get to the content creation later, but can you get everybody up to speed on your background? Sure. All right. If that's not too big an ask.