Dear Listeners,
For many of us who grew up Catholic—especially in high-control, conservative spaces—persecution wasn’t just something that happened to the early Church. It was a lens. It shaped how we learned to see the world, how we understood goodness and danger, faithfulness and threat. Resistance meant righteousness. Disagreement meant suffering. And “standing firm” often mattered more than listening, repair, or accountability.
We take a deep dive into history, tracing the roots of the Christian understanding of persecution—from the early martyrs of the Roman Empire to the Puritans in New England, and into the formation of American Catholic and conservative Protestant political power. These stories show how ideas about suffering, faithfulness, and moral authority became central to how Christians have understood themselves in the world. Over time, these narratives didn’t just preserve memory—they shaped expectations, instincts, and reactions. When the social and cultural center begins to shift today, when old assumptions of unquestioned authority are challenged, the response is often not reflection but fear. Sometimes it’s outrage. And very often, it’s cast as persecution.
🎧 Listen to the podcast here on Substack (where you can toggle between video with subtitles and just the audio file, and read a transcript by clicking the button on the top of the episode page on the web), Spotify (which has video and in-app transcripts), Apple Podcasts (which has in-app transcripts), and YouTube.
What we’re interested in here isn’t attacking anyone’s faith. Emma and I are both white. We both grew up Catholic. We both understand how sincere these feelings can be. But sincerity doesn’t make a story true. And in this case, claims of persecution often reveal more than they defend. They tell us what kind of power is being lost, what authority is being challenged, and what harm is being resisted being named.
We also look at how ordinary accountability can be transformed into spiritual crisis narratives, where disagreement becomes hostility and limits become oppression. When that happens, accusations start functioning like confessions: they expose the fear of losing moral authority without having to reckon with how that authority was built or used.
This episode is an invitation to ask harder questions about faith, power, and what Christianity looks like when it’s no longer at the center of everything. An invitation to imagine a faith that doesn’t need dominance to survive—and doesn’t confuse being challenged with being crucified.
As always, we’re grateful you’re here, listening with us.
With care,
Max & Emma
Related: Check out our episode Fighting Fascism with Dr. Joan Braune, where we examine how fascist movements organize, radicalize, and appeal to religious identity (and a related essay unpacking the themes episode further: How Christian Nationalism and High-Control Catholicism Shape Extremism)
