Culture, Faith and Politics with Pat Kahnke

In this clip from a recent Tuesday Night Live episode, Pat Kahnke and Ken Napzok break down how a 9-day flu absence turned into a conspiracy about the Lindner Center of Hope in Ohio, why Paxton's wanted poster stunt backfired, and what it reveals about the right's war on mental health. From stigmatizing therapy as weakness to claiming it's not a gun issue, it's a mental health issue while defunding care, this is the Fruit Test in real time — stated Christian values vs. documented behavior.

In this clip from Tuesday night's live stream with Ken Napzok, Pat connects the reported criminal immigration investigation into Ilhan Omar's citizenship to Donald Trump's decade-long attacks on the Somali community in the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota — home to 80,000+ Somali Americans, over 95% of whom are U.S. citizens.

Topics for this episode of the Thursday morning live stream included: James Talarico answering the people of Texas on CNN, and Adam Swenson remembers his father, Dr. Richard Swenson, on his passing.

Trump's new White House press secretary Katie Zacharia is darker than we knew. Amy Hawk joins Pat Kahnke to expose Zacharia's lawyer-bar controversy, deleted conspiracy tweets, childlike facade, and record at DHS with Kristi Noem. In her first briefing Zacharia made clear she's working for Donald Trump, not the American people, fawning over Trump while pushing cruelty behind a Christian mask.

The Markwayne Mullin-led Department of Homeland Security has gone after one of Donald Trump's most vocal adversaries -- Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. Homeland Security Investigators raided her DC-area house under the guise of an "investigation" into her immigration status. It's fascism in real time and must be discussed. Plus, right-wing voices tried to sell lies about James Talarico's mental health, and Robert Jeffress wants you to watch a live execution. Pat Kahnke and Ken Napzok discuss all this and more on Culture, Faith, and Politics live!

Does Pete Hegseth want you for his crusade if you're not a Christian? In part 3 of this conversation with retired pastor, Pat Kahnke, Dr. Brad Onishi, author of American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy, argues Pete Hegseth is the prototype for what theocrats want to do to the rest of the country.

Brad Onishi joins Pat Kahnke to explain why MAGA Christians and Christian nationalist leaders now say democracy is the problem and America must save Western civilization with a strongman king. Featuring Doug Wilson, Curtis Yarvin, Peter Thiel and JD Vance, this is Part 2 of our interview on the rise of Western Christian civilizationalism.

Pete Hegseth announced plans to livestream the Fort Hood shooter execution by firing squad. Retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling condemns the death penalty spectacle as depravity and war porn, and former pastor Pat Kahnke responds with a Christian critique of militant Christian nationalism.

Brad Onishi exposes the coming MAGA civil war over who controls Jesus' Kingdom in his new book American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords are Turning America Into a Monarchy. In part 1 of this conversation, Pat Kahnke and Brad Onishi break down Christian nationalism, the New Apostolic Reformation, and the fight for Trump's movement.

Christians are the death penalty's biggest supporters, yet capital punishment is cruel, ineffective and beneath the teachings of Jesus. Pat Kahnke talks with Tihomir Kukolja about Krista Pike's botched execution, what the Bible really says about the death penalty, and how to find wisdom for these difficult issues.

Ken Paxton's corruption is next level, but that might not stop Texas GOP voters from putting him in the Senate. Paxton is the best example of everything wrong with the Republican Party. The GOP playbook is to run absolute creeps and cretins in the primaries, and the worst people in America vote for them, forcing GOP voters into having to vote for that horrible candidate in the general election. It's then sold as a binary choice, and we'll lose our country if you don't vote against the Democrats. And it all keeps working. Plus, Pete Hegseth is continuing his religious war with his new Office of Religious Affairs, Trump wants us to say Super Intelligence, and who is Beni Rae Harmony? Pat Kahnke and Ken Napzok discuss all this and more on Culture, Faith, and Politics live!

Former evangelical pastor Pat Kahnke on Jon Ossoff, Christian nationalism, white evangelicals and Donald Trump — why despair is a luxury we can't afford in this MAGA politics marathon one month before the midterms.

Was Charlie Kirk worse in context? After 6 years tracking Turning Point USA, Tim Whitaker says yes — more hateful, more bigoted, and more dehumanizing in context than in isolated clips. In this conversation, Pat and Tim walk through Kirk's own words and show why this isn't about a few "mean tweets," but about rhetoric in service to a movement and worldview.

In this clip from Tuesday night's live stream with Ken Napzok, Pat and Ken discuss the controversy surrounding Life Surge, Tim Tebow, and other celebrities who are involved with this organization. Pat contends that while Tim Tebow might not have been fully aware of financial malfeasance being allegedly committed by Life Surge, he IS responsible for a grift of a higher sort -- preaching the prosperity gospel.

Fox News' Jessica Tarlov joins ex-evangelical pastor Pat Kahnke to ask: can you actually talk to Trump supporters and love your MAGA family while telling the truth? This Raging Moderates collaboration dives into her new book I Disagree: Winning Arguments Without Losing Friends. Tarlov, Democratic strategist and co-host of The Five, shares her playbook for winning arguments without losing friends — how to debate family in the MAGA echo chamber, why "when you're being criticized on style, you have won on the substance," and how to be ruthless and kind, sharp but not cruel. Pat responds from his journey out of evangelical Republicanism after 2016, plus what he’s learning about corruption, cruelty, and the 2026 midterms with candidates like Jon Ossoff, James Talarico and Rob Sand.

Jack Smith's explosive Senate hearing exposed the crisis of MAGA Christians and Christian nationalism as Senators Eric Schmitt and John Kennedy grilled the former special counsel to defend Donald Trump. Pat argues this moment revealed exactly who they are — and why we must never forget what they did when they had the power — even if Trump-era political power fades.

Jack Smith went before the Senate Judiciary Committee to defend his investigations into Donald Trump and the Republicans were embarrassed with their failed "gotcha" attempt. Plus, what's going on with Tim Tebow and the Life Surge scandal and have we found Noah's Ark... again? Pat Kahnke discusses all this and more on Culture, Faith, and Politics live!

How did MAGA turn evangelical worship music and worship songs into weapons of war for Christian nationalism? Author Rick Pidcock joins Pat Kahnke to expose how Trump rallies weaponize praise and worship to fuel extremism.

Pastor Adam Hamilton confronts Senator Roger Marshall in the Kansas Senate race after a devastating ad exposed Marshall suing 700 poor patients, with JD Vance defending Christian nationalism amid medical debt, Medicaid cuts and hypocrisy.

In this episode, retired pastor Pat Kahnke breaks down Ossoff's most devastating moral refutation yet. Ossoff, a Jewish Senator speaking in Black churches across Georgia, names what MAGA pastors will not preach: a government transformed into a tool of one man's vengeance and enrichment, corruption as a kitchen-table issue, and a spiritually broken president who digs the moral pit deeper and deeper.

In this clip from our live stream, Pat Kahnke and Adam Swenson unpack why the White House wants to ban real reporters while building its own North Korea-style propaganda channel, how anti-intellectualism and constant chaos wear the public down until they quit politics, and what Jason Stanley means by fascist. We also revisit the turning point at St. John's Church — when Trump tear-gassed peaceful protestors for that Bible photo op — and why that moment exposed everything about faith being used as a prop for power.

Abdul El-Sayed's viral response to a pro-life student on abortion shows why the Michigan Democrat is leading the Michigan Senate race. This 8-minute abortion debate moment is a masterclass in how Democrats can talk to pro-life voters with honesty and empathy — and win.

In this clip from Tuesday night's live stream with Ken Napzok, Pat and Ken refute Hegseth's use of Isaiah 6:8 as a Christian nationalist battle cry. Isaiah 6 doesn't start with "send me" — it starts with "woe is me." Isaiah's vision leads to confession, repentance, and a hard message to his own people about justice, not a crusade against external enemies.

Why are Christian women leaving evangelical churches in record numbers? In Part 2 of my interview with author Sarah Stankorb (Damned If She Does), we break down how Donald Trump endorsements, MAGA Christianity, Christian nationalism, purity culture, and church abuse cover-ups are driving women out of the pews for good.

MAGA Christians say love your neighbor, but what happens when ICE detains a church member and the church stays silent? Pat Kahnke talks with Tihomir Kukolja about the Good Samaritan, immigration, migrant injustice, and who is my neighbor.

Trump has attacked free speech. The Paul Bros speak at the Pentagon. ICE shoots a man in Texas. Lauren Boebert's ethics are called into question. Pat Kahnke discusses all this and more on Culture, Faith, and Politics live!

Why are 16 million women leaving evangelical churches? Journalist Sarah Stankorb talks about "Damned If She Does," MAGA pastors, soft patriarchy, complementarianism, and Christian nationalism driving women out of the church. In Part 1 of this conversation on Stankorb's new book Damned If She Does, we unpack the seismic exodus of Gen Z women and older evangelical women alike — from Promise Keepers to Mark Driscoll to Charlie Kirk — and why the evangelical obsession with chasing men broke trust with women. We dig into soft vs. hard patriarchy, why soft Christian nationalism is more dangerous than you think, and how the pipeline to extremism doesn't start at the extreme.

In this clip from Tuesday's live stream, Pat and Ken discuss the importance of Donald Trump Jr's Russian wedding benefactor and how the Russians and the Alt Right use Pop Culture spaces to divide us.

Mica Miller, pastor's wife of JP Miller of Solid Rock Church in Myrtle Beach, and Netflix's Death of the Pastor's Wife documentary raises a painful question: was this an affair or clergy abuse and spiritual abuse rooted in evangelical submission theology?

Is a blue wave building just in time for the 2026 midterms? Pat Kahnke and Adam Swenson break down the latest generic ballot polls and Trump approval ratings pointing to Democratic momentum in the House and Senate races, plus the real threats to election integrity in 2026. Then: why your vote matters for AI oversight, as an example.

Why did the Federal Reserve raise interest rates? Pat Kahnke breaks down how Donald Trump's tariffs, Iran war, and mass deportation policies fueled inflation, higher prices, and rising interest rates in the US economy. In this episode I cover the Federal Reserve's first interest rate hike since 2023 and Donald Trump's reaction.

Donald Trump Jr's wedding party was funded by Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev. Should we be concerned about one of Putin's most trusted allies being this close to the White House? Plus, Bo French goes full racist, but not all Republicans are speaking out against him, Kash Patel goes before the Senate, and Rep. Thomas Massie wants to impeach Pete Hegseth. Pat Kahnke discusses all this and more on Culture, Faith, and Politics live!

Former conservative Adrienne Larkin teaches me how Gloria Steinem changed her life, from 1950s limits for women to second wave feminism, women's rights history, feminist movement history and the fight for gender equality. Then we connect it to 2026: Trump as a Trojan horse against women, Christian nationalism and the patriarchal backlash, Pete Hegseth and threats to women voting, and why Adrienne says don't get caught in stupid disputes. If you lived through second wave feminism or want to understand it honestly, this conversation is for you.

In this clip from last week's Tuesday Night Live, Pat and Ken Napzok discuss the two Christianities being represented by today's politicians and political candidates. Who is looking to expand the definition of "neighbor" and who is out to protect their group from "the other"? Is the role of government to restrain evil, or to look out for the common good?

Pat Kahnke and Tim Whitaker react to MAGA attacks on James Talarico, Tim Scott's We Know Who God Is speech, Donald Trump Jr. on Charlie Kirk, and Christian nationalism on display at Trumpapalooza.

With Ken Paxton vs James Talarico in Texas, and Robert Marshall vs Adam Hamilton in Kansas, there are two brands of Christianity on the ballot. Plus, what will Trump be selling at his midterm convention in Texas? Pat Kahnke discusses all this and more on Culture, Faith, and Politics live!

Jennifer Welch said white evangelical Christianity is a cancer on our democracy. Bonnie Kristian’s In Defense of Evangelicalism defends the movement, even while MAGA Christianity still baptizes Trump, harsh immigration policy, and Christian nationalism. So the real question is not only whether Welch’s worst sentences failed the image-of-God test. They did. The question is why In Defense of Evangelicalism is the book this moment keeps demanding—while MAGA theology still runs so much of the witness.

In Part 3 of this conversation, cultural historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez joins Pat Kahnke and Renee Horsman to unpack how whiteness became the default for American Christianity. From Christian radio's "Becky" formula and K-Love's safe, suburban sound, to C. Peter Wagner's homogeneous unit principle and Rick Warren's Saddleback Sam, Du Mez shows how an entire industry marketed white evangelicalism as simply "biblical."

On Culture Faith and Politics Live, Pat and Adam connect today's disparate headlines through one question: who gets to belong? From Emmer's "assimilate or go the hell back" moment at the Faith & Freedom Coalition to vulnerable Republicans quietly distancing from Trump's Dallas midterm convention, from the Tarrant County polling place cuts (316 to 224) to a rare point of agreement with Franklin Graham on Samaritan's Purse refusing federal money — plus Adam's new Substack article on what assimilation really means and a look at the Nepal floods as a neighbor test.

The U.S. Postal Service's Federal Ballot Mail Portal was rushed through in a completely unmanageable manner — a system where a single scan error could reject thousands of vote-by-mail ballots. In this episode I break down why this federal takeover of state-run elections is not about election security, but about creating chaos and suppressing the vote, why states are suing to stop it, and what a federal judge just did to block the plan. You'll learn how the portal actually works, why software engineers say it will collapse under the weight of the 2026 election, and what you can do right now to protect your mail-in ballot.

In this second part of a friendly, wide-ranging conversation, Pat Kahnke and co-host Renee Horsman talk with historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez about her new book Live, Laugh, Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made — the companion to Jesus and John Wayne. Kristin shares the erased story of Elisabeth Elliot's deconstruction era, why evangelical women were not simply tricked but taught, mentored and formed, and why patriarchy in evangelicalism would not survive if women weren't its most effective enforcers, authors and publishers.

Pete Hegseth faces mounting Pentagon alarms as the Defense Secretary's own generals and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resign while Christian nationalism critics warn his leadership is a trainwreck under the Trump administration. Tonight on Culture Faith & Politics LIVE, Pat Kahnke and Ken Napzok break down 4 internal alarm bells — the Pentagon exodus, the secret influencer troll army on the DoD payroll, generals warning the Iran war is unsustainable, and Hegseth's body-shaming post in Canada — plus the USPS mail-in voting rule and what you can do, and the Nepal glacier collapse climate catastrophe through a Christian theology lens.

Historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez, author of Jesus and John Wayne, explains how Christian nationalism and evangelical culture formed white evangelical women through fiction, MLMs and the parachurch system behind MAGA politics. Part 1 of 3. In this friendly, wide-ranging conversation, Pat Kahnke and co-host Renee Horsman talk with historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez about her new book Live, Laugh, Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made — and how it completes the story begun in Jesus and John Wayne. Kristin traces how everyday religious objects, devotionals, and Christian media disciple women into patriarchy, why evangelical fiction like Jeanette Oke bypasses critical thinking, why MLM psychology fits so neatly inside evangelical culture, and how a parachurch system built on holiness theology created what Kristin calls "THE SYSTEM."

Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer biographer turned evangelical Trump defender, reveals the bizarre reason he flipped from Never Trump to MAGA in his debate with Ross Douthat — exposing the shallow theology behind Christian nationalism and evangelical support for Donald Trump. Pat and Adam argue this is an embarrassingly shallow and vapid foundation for a Christian intellectual — reducing character to "mean tweets" while diminishing the absolute wickedness of policies grounded in a self-absorbed and vengeful character. It's the Fruit Test (Matthew 7:16) in real time: stated Christian values vs. documented behavior, and the classic MAGA seduction of trading moral substance for owning the libs.

Trump's trade war with Canada gets even dumber as Trump pushes renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America and reignites the Great Lakes fight, while Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty says on Morning Joe she has enough evidence to make a charging decision in the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Jenn Pennington joins to discuss her guest essay "What Assimilation Cost Us And the benefits of recovering intergenerational narratives" — how America's push for "One Country, One Flag, One People, and One Speech" led to a catastrophic loss of culture and language, why that history fuels today's loneliness epidemic, and how recovering intergenerational storytelling and genealogy can rebuild belonging, identity and resilience.

In Part 3 of my interview for his new book, No Prophets, Huffman explains how a fringe end-times theology became the carpet of the MAGA movement: the belief that the modern state of Israel must expand and trigger the end times — with Jews as a means to an end who must ultimately convert. We get into what most Christians never tell Jewish allies (the fine print), why Speaker Mike Johnson says "there is no West Bank," how Ambassador Mike Huckabee can claim Israel can take "the entire Middle East," and why Sen. Ted Cruz says Genesis settles foreign policy.

In Part 2 of my conversation with Congressman Jared Huffman (D-CA), author of No Prophets, we expose the "shadow theocracy" operating inside the U.S. government: the Capitol-based ministries shaping policy, Speaker Mike Johnson's theology of power, and Russell Vought's plan to turn the federal government into an instrument of Christian dominion — the blueprint behind Project 2025. Is the separation of church and state quietly being dismantled from the inside? Huffman maps the machinery — who's funding it, who's staffing it, and what it means for American democracy when theocracy stops being a metaphor.

In this clip from Tuesday's live stream, Pat and Ken discuss the passing of Dolly Parton and how the legacy she leaves behind was defined by her actions, not what she claimed to be.

A MAGA psycophant is Trump's number one fan and his closest aid. What's the deeper story on Natalle Harp and her rise to her current position next to the President? Pat Kahnke discusses all this and more on Culture, Faith, and Politics live!

Congressman Jared Huffman — the only openly humanist member of Congress — sits down with Pat Kahnke to discuss his new book "No Prophets: The Fight to Save Democracy from Christian Nationalism". Along the way, we discuss what the final January 6 report left out. Huffman argues the report's own findings called it a "Christian coup" — and that the explicit role of Christian nationalism was scrubbed before it reached the public.

The viral clip is everywhere — Sean Duffy telling his daughter that Harvard would "corrupt her mind," and that "me and mom can say no." It's been shared as a parenting joke. But it's only half the story. Sean Duffy isn't just a reality-TV dad with cameras following his family down the highway. He's the Secretary of Transportation — and while America laughs at the clip, he's using that office to advance a very specific vision of Christian nationalism, one truck route and one immigrant trucker at a time.

Adam Swenson and Pat Kahnke contrast Lasso’s “no enemies, only not-yet-friends” and “be a goldfish” with Metaxas’s dark view of power, loyalty tests, and permanent political enemies. Adam’s thesis: adults still change based on who they absorb. Metaxas is the warning — change is real, and it’s not guaranteed to go toward Christ.

When Christian nationalist leaders frame worship as territorial conquest, a public act of prayer becomes a provocation. Rick Pidcock — author of Weapons of Worship — and I break down the theology behind Feucht's Chicago march: what "spiritual warfare" language really does, how evangelical worship music is being weaponized for political ends, and what this tells us about the direction of Christian nationalism in America.

Jon Ossoff continues to go after Donald Trump. What is the truth of the USS Abraham Lincoln? More on Eric Metaxas. A special annoucement for the live show! Pat Kahnke discusses all this and more on Culture, Faith, and Politics live!

Eric Metaxas says the political left has become "satanic wickedness." A viral airplane evangelist turns a captive cabin into her personal stage. Both moments look like bold Christian witness — but Amy Hawk and I argue they're something else entirely: performance.

Dashcam footage tells a different story than the official DHS statement — and the gap between the two is the story. In this episode, I break down the case of a Northern Virginia mental health therapist stopped by ICE, the agency's public account of what happened, and what the actual video shows. This isn't a one-off. It's a pattern of official narratives that don't survive contact with the evidence — and a test of whether public shame is the last real check we have left on ICE abuse.

Many American Christians have never questioned the rapture — they just assumed it was always in the Bible. It wasn't. In this episode, I walk through why the modern rapture doctrine is a 19th-century invention rather than the historic Christian hope, and why it quietly trains believers to root for the world's destruction instead of its restoration. If you've ever felt like end times prophecy made you dread the world instead of love it, this one's for you.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer taught that stupidity is not a lack of intelligence — it's a moral choice to surrender independent judgment to a slogan, a tribe, or a leader. Today, Pat Kahnke and Adam Swenson trace that choice across every scale of American life: David French's diagnosis of a "fire of stupidity" fed by historical amnesia and group polarization; the tribal virtue-ethics turning zeal and cruelty into false righteousness; a foreign policy run on hope instead of facts; a state Republican Party in Minnesota that chose demonization over decency; and ICE agents wielding unaccountable force — including a gun drawn on a woman whose own dashcam contradicts the official story, and new electric-shock gloves being tested for compliance. This is stupidity, defined biblically and historically, now armed and unaccountable.

Whitney Lynn went viral for preaching to a captive airplane full of passengers — then claiming she was persecuted for it. But she's not some random street preacher. She's a MAGA "evangelist". In this clip from Tuesday's live stream with Ken Napzok, I walk through her own words — on camera, in her own post — and then break down why calling a bad flight "persecution" isn't just embarrassing, it's theologically hollow. This is what happens when evangelical Trump support curdles into a full-blown persecution complex: it cheapens the Gospel and it cheapens real suffering.

Republican senators keep telling us they have "concerns" about Trump's picks — and then confirming them anyway. Todd Blanche, Trump's own former personal lawyer, is now on track to become Attorney General of the United States. In this video, I break down why senators like Bill Cassidy know exactly what they're doing when they cave, what Blanche's history — including his role in controversial legal settlements — reveals about his fitness for the job, and why "institutional integrity" keeps losing to political self-preservation and future lobbying paydays. This isn't just a Beltway story. It's a case study in what happens when the people meant to check power decide loyalty to Trump is worth more than the oath they took.

Maggie Haberman is one of the most connected reporters to Trump and his world and just released a new book with Jonathan Swan about the first year of Trump's second term. Pat Kahnke and Adam Swenson discuss issues raised during Haberman's recent appearance on the Ezra Klein podcast. We will ask, "Can the white Evangelicals who said Trump was chosen by God STILL justify that belief, given the fruit?"

Tim Whitaker (founder of The New Evangelicals, now host of Tim Whitaker Speaks and co-host of the Tim and April Show with April Ajoy) joined me and Ken Napzok for the most fun we've had on this channel in a long time — a full-blown Satanic Panic trivia showdown. If you grew up in an evangelical home in the 80s or 90s, this is the nostalgia (and reckoning) you didn't know you needed.

Todd Blanche's confirmation shows all Republicans are corrupt now. RFK Jr strikes again. And why are Evangelicals preaching on planes? Pat Kahnke discusses all this and more on Culture, Faith, and Politics, LIVE!

Jeanine Pirro prosecuted an innocent man — an Olympic athlete — for felony vandalism. Not because the evidence supported it. Because it served Donald Trump's narrative. Federal prosecutors eventually dropped the charges. And then Trump publicly humiliated her anyway. Isaiah 5 called this 2,700 years ago — those who "call evil good and good evil." Pirro's story is the illustration. The systemic problem is the sermon. This is what happens when loyalty to a man replaces fidelity to truth. It always ends this way. It will always end this way.

John Hagee calls it prophecy. The White House Faith Office treats it as orthodoxy. We call it weaponized eschatology — and it is doing real damage to the gospel, to American evangelicalism, and to real human beings on the ground. In this conversation with Tihomir Kukolja, former Executive Director of the Forum for Leadership and Reconciliation, we examine Christian Zionism from the ground up. Two things are not up for debate here: antisemitism is wrong, and Israel has a right to exist and defend herself. What IS up for debate is whether any modern nation-state — including the United States and Israel — earns a pass on justice because John Hagee drew it into a dispensational timeline.

In the midst of such an ugly timeline, here are a few rays of hope in American politics: Raphael Warnock's faith-informed brand of politics, James Talarico’s clear contrast with Ken Paxton in Texas, Jon Ossoff’s unmatched communication as he fights for reelection in Georgia, and Pete Buttigieg taking his case straight to Fox News. Pat Kahnke is joined by Adam Swenson to talk about the hopeful messages that are actually resonating with the American people — and why each of these matters right now.

Pat and Ken discuss all of this, and more, on this week's episode of Culture, Faith, and Politics, LIVE!

Senator Jon Ossoff’s speech at Berean Christian Church uses the biblical story of King Ahab, Jezebel, Naboth’s vineyard, and the prophet Micaiah to confront corruption, political power, and the danger of surrounding a ruler with people willing to lie for him.I examine why Ossoff’s argument about the rule of law, false prophets, voting rights, and reckless war carries such theological weight. The episode considers how Scripture can challenge authoritarianism rather than excuse it—and why the story of Ahab remains a warning about corruption, political sycophants, leaders who silence dissent, and the abuse of religious authority.

Can you be a Christian and reject the Rapture? In this second episode of our Rapture series, I explain what I personally believe about Jesus, the resurrection, the return of Christ, and the detailed end-times systems often called Rapture theology. We will also consider how dispensational theology and Christian nationalism have been used to support MAGA politics, why certainty can be politically powerful, and how teachers such as John Hagee have connected prophetic theology to contemporary political movements.

The Pentagon first reported that 18 American service members had been killed in the Iran war. One day later, the official casualty count dropped to 14—after four soldiers killed in Jordan and Iraq were removed from the public list. This episode examines what happened to Lt. Tyler James Feehan, Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, Sgt. Angel Rampersad, and Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, and asks why the Trump administration and the Department of Defense changed the public accounting of American war dead. It also places the controversy in the larger history of Donald Trump’s comments and conduct involving military service members, including Trump’s “suckers and losers” remarks about fallen soldiers.

Senator Jon Ossoff confronted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth with the facts he did not want to answer. During a Senate hearing, Ossoff questioned Hegseth about the cost and results of the Iran conflict—and about Hegseth’s earlier claims that Iran’s military had been “destroyed,” rendered “combat ineffective,” and defeated in a “historic and overwhelming victory.” But when Ossoff asked Hegseth to answer those claims with a simple yes or no, Hegseth deflected. In this episode, I examine Ossoff’s questioning, Hegseth’s shifting explanations, and the danger of cheerleading an irresponsible war

Doug Pagitt - a longtime pastor in the Twin Cities and the founder of Vote Common Good - joins Pat Kahnke and Adam Swenson to talk about the impact the Trump years are having on young people. We also hope to have a wide ranging discussion on the Emergent church, Doug's vision for Christians to engage in politics for the common good, and maybe even round it out with some guitar talk.

ICE agents have shot and killed two men during immigration enforcement encounters—Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine. This video examines the conflicting accounts, witness statements, and unanswered questions surrounding both ICE shootings. Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda depends on thousands of ICE agents carrying out increasingly aggressive immigration enforcement operations. But what happens when the people being targeted are not “the worst of the worst”—and when the agents involved are not wearing body cameras? For Christians, this is also a test of whether our stated beliefs about human dignity, justice, and the image of God can survive contact with political power.

Trump restarts the war, can't use Qatar Force One, and embarrasses himself at the World Cup: Pat and Ken discuss all of this, and more, on Culture, Faith, and Politics LIVE!

Pat Kahnke and Adam Swenson examine three expressions of the same “theology of strength”: Trump’s speech attacking election integrity, Pete Hegseth’s mandatory testosterone testing for soldiers over 30, and Doug Wilson’s theology of masculine domination. We’ll fact-check Trump’s claims about election security, Chris Krebs and CISA, the SAVE Act, the SAVE America Act, and mail-in voting. Then we’ll connect Hegseth’s obsession with military masculinity and lethality to Doug Wilson’s Christian nationalist vision of war, hierarchy, and male authority. What happens when power, aggression, and domination are mistaken for Christian virtue?

For 1,800 years, no Christian had ever heard of the Rapture. So how did a 19th-century idea become the engine driving MAGA's end-times politics — and why does it matter for the wars being fought right now? In this episode, Pat Kahnke and Ken Napzok trace the real history of the Rapture: where it actually came from, the man who invented it, and how a doctrine that started as private comfort got turned into a political weapon. This isn't about whether you believe in the Second Coming. It's about what happens when a specific reading of end-times prophecy gives political power a theological license to crave catastrophe instead of peace.

The death of Senator Lindsey Graham and the alleged death of Senator Mitch McConnell have kicked up a dust cloud of conspiracies and conversations on how to speak of the dead when you did not agree with them in life. Pat Kahnke discusses all this and more on Culture, Faith, and Politics live!

ICE shootings, mass deportations, and the MAGA Christians who defend all of it — that's what this episode is about.  Here's my argument: none of this was necessary. Every ICE shooting is the result of a choice — the Trump administration's choice to build a system of mass deportations, to pull the FBI off counterterrorism and counterintelligence, to inflate ICE's budget by tens of billions, and to put armed agents on our streets without body cameras. And 80% of white evangelicals voted for it. When brutal authority is aimed at their brown neighbors, they call it "law and order" and reach for Romans 13 like a magic incantation — the same people who called Trump's felony convictions a "weaponization of justice" and cheered pardons for the January 6 rioters who beat police officers. This is for everyone who's exhausted, grieving, and tired of being told they're crazy for it. You're not crazy. You're awake.

Tim Whitaker (The New Evangelicals) and Pat Kahnke are go live together to take your questions, discuss the big news topics of the week, and more on this special episode from Culture, Faith, and Politics and Tim Whitaker Speaks

Graham Platner is out. JD Vance just published a book. And somewhere in between, white evangelicals became the least likely Christians to welcome a stranger. This week, Pat Kahnke and Adam Swenson take apart three stories that share one spine: the gap between what MAGA Christians say they believe and what they actually do. We examine Vance's Communion — his four stated values, the ordo amoris debate, the papal rebuke, and why the immigrants he fears are already filling his own Communion rail. We look at the Platner reckoning as a live Fruit Test: one party moves against its own, one doesn't. And we run the immigration numbers that expose how Christian nationalism has quietly replaced the Great Commission with blood and soil.

This is Trump's world... and we're all trying to move past it. The Patriot Front marched unimpeded on July 4th, and Trump and FIFA are corrupt. There is a lot of bad out there, but we've found some Christians Behaving... Good! Pat Kahnke discusses all this and more on Culture, Faith, and Politics live!

A new Johns Hopkins ethnographic study followed 21 Trump voters to answer one question: what does MAGA actually want from democracy? Pat Kahnke and Adam Swenson break down the tension between Jonathan V. Last's read and the study authors' own interpretation — moral disgust or wounded faith? We cover why so many conservatives recoil at the word "democracy," the "Faith, Family, Freedom, Place" moral foundation driving it all, and why "save democracy" messaging keeps failing with MAGA Christians. A theological look at Christian Nationalism, the illiberal core underneath it, and what it means for your MAGA family and friends.

Amy Hawk talks with Pat Kahnke about what's happening to children inside the Dilley detention center — and what she shares dismantles the "Godly" framing MAGA Christians have wrapped around family detention. In this conversation, we walk through the evidence: the "Letters from Dilley" written by detained children, the near-total rate of PTSD among kids held there, the moldy food, the denied medical care, and the case of a father whose criminal record was fabricated to justify taking his son. We also examine the revocation of Temporary Protected Status that could make 1.3 million people "illegal" overnight, and the financial machinery that keeps private detention profitable. But this isn't only a story about policy. It's a story about theology. When a movement calls the caging of children "Godly," when Romans 13 becomes a shield for cruelty, and when "pro-life" politics stops at the border — the question every Christian has to answer is whether their conscience still belongs to Christ or to a political project.

Let's go inside two BIZARRO Freedom Fests -- the MAGA-fueled Freedom 250 fair at the National Mall and Freedom Con 2026 in George , Washington. Pat Kahnke discusses all this and more on Culture, Faith, and Politics live!

In this conversation, pastor and author Brian Zahnd makes the case that the doctrine of eternal conscious torment isn't the faith once delivered — it's a settlement that won a fight in church history. We trace where the idea actually came from: the Hebrew Sheol, the Valley of Hinnom (Gehenna), the Greek word aiōnios, and how Augustine and Dante's Inferno shaped the fire-and-brimstone hell we inherited.   We also ask the harder question: what does this doctrine DO to us? When you believe billions of your neighbors are already destined for an eternal torture chamber, does it become easier to stop seeing them as fully human? Drawing on his book "Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God," Zahnd argues the traditional view turns the gospel inside out — and reveals a chapter his own publisher refused to print. This is a discussion for believers, exvangelicals, and skeptics alike — anchored in scholarship, biblical languages, and church history, not fear.

For 30 years, Reverend Rob Schenck was one of the most powerful leaders inside the pro-life movement and the religious right. He was in the room. He knew the players. He helped build the platform. And now he's answering the question I've wanted to ask for a long time: Was it all a lie?

In this conversation, Pat Kahnke sits down with pastor and theologian Brian Zahnd — one of the most important voices calling the church back from its entanglement with partisan politics. Zahnd argues that MAGA theology has fundamentally misread Scripture: America is not God's chosen nation, not the New Jerusalem. The Bible gives her a different name — Babylon. This is a conversation about discipleship, allegiance, and what it means to follow Jesus in an era when the church has traded transcendence for political power.

Blue and Green make a MAGA mess! The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool chaos is the perfect metaphor for the Trump Era. Pat Kahnke discusses all this and more on Culture, Faith, and Politics live!

Senator Jon Ossoff recently walked into Beulah Missionary Baptist Church in Decatur, Georgia, opened the Book of Amos, and delivered one of the most theologically precise speeches I've heard from any political figure in years. In 8 minutes and 41 seconds, he did what MAGA pastors with massive platforms and full-time theology staffs refuse to do: name the corruption, place it in a 3,000-year-old prophetic tradition, and connect it to the suffering of real people in real zip codes. Ossoff is not pandering. He's not decorating a political speech with Bible verses. He's doing exegesis — and he's doing it in front of a Black Baptist congregation with a 60-year covenant to the civil rights movement. That matters theologically.

Peter Thiel and JD Vance are building a future that doesn't need God — and Pope Leo XIV is the one man with the standing to call it what it is. In this episode of the Culture, Faith, and Politics Podcast, Pat Kahnke sits down with Mark Ramm to unpack the collision between Silicon Valley's most powerful MAGA billionaire and the Vatican's vision of what it means to be human. Peter Thiel has openly framed anyone who wants to restrain technology — including the Pope — as a "Luddite," and in his own lectures, a force of the Antichrist. When a New York Times interviewer asked Thiel whether the human race should even survive, he hesitated. That pause tells you everything about the worldview now funding the MAGA movement through his protégé, Vice President JD Vance.

The MAGA project promises to restore a nation built on Christ's teachings — by systematically breaking every one of them. ICE raids. Alligator Alcatraz. Gutted USAID. Slashed Medicare. Banned Pentagon plaques honoring women and minorities. That's not a Christian program. That's heresy with a flag on it. We examine the 1950s nostalgia at the heart of Christian nationalism, who that era was actually great for, and why the evangelical church's wholesale embrace of Donald Trump may be the most self-defeating theological mistake in American history.

MAGA declared war on science. People died. And the body count is still growing. In this conversation, Pat Kahnke sits down with Rebecca Watson — science communicator, founder of Skepchick, and one of the most recognizable voices in the skeptic community — to follow the evidence wherever it leads. What they find is damning.

The Freedom 250 UFC event, recent comments from Stephen Miller, and the general actions of Donald Trump's MAGA movement are examples of performative masculinity -- and that quest for power is failing. Pat Kahnke discusses all this and more on Culture, Faith, and Politics live!

When the UFC came to the White House lawn, fighter Josh Hokit stepped up to a microphone and gave America a perfect picture of what MAGA Christianity has become — a religion of power, dominance, and spectacle that bears no resemblance to the Jesus of the Gospels. In this episode I break down the Josh Hokit White House UFC moment and what it reveals about Christian nationalism in the Trump era: a faith that worships the strong, mocks the weak, and mistakes brutality for blessing. We'll trace the "bread and circuses" parallel back to Rome — the empire that fed Christians to the lions in arenas just like this one — and ask how the followers of a crucified Savior ended up cheering for the coliseum.

One year after Melissa Hortman was assassinated in her own home, Vance Boelter has pleaded guilty — and the motive that MAGA spent a year denying is now a matter of federal record. Boelter, a self-described preacher and Christ for the Nations graduate, hunted lawmakers by name with a police disguise and a 70-person target list. This is the story of how spiritual-warfare theology stopped being a metaphor.

Yuval Noah Harari's conversation with Ezra Klein exposes something theologians have been slow to name: MAGA is not a political movement — it's a redemption narrative. And redemption narratives are the most powerful force in human history. Pat Kahnke and Adam Swenson break down what Harari gets right, where theology goes further, and why Christian nationalism has succeeded by replacing the Gospel with a story that feels better than the truth.

Mark Driscoll is one of the most documented bullies in modern American Christianity — so why do people keep following him? In this conversation, Amy Hawk and I dig into the pattern: from the collapse of Mars Hill Church to his current Trinity Church in Arizona, and the lawsuit he's now filed against a pastor who walked away. We play the clips and let Driscoll speak for himself — the pulpit rants, the "biblical manhood" that looks a lot more like intimidation than discipleship. Then we ask the harder question: what is it about this brand of domineering, fear-based leadership that still draws crowds, builds platforms, and gets a national stage? We look at the documented behavior, hold it up against the character Scripture actually calls for in a leader, and try to understand why so many Christians mistake cruelty for courage — and control for conviction. If you've ever sat under a leader like this, or watched someone you love get pulled in, this one's for you.

Booed at Madison Square Garden. Storming out of a Meet The Press interview. It's not been a great week for the President of the United States. Are we seeing the unraveling of Trump? Pat Kahnke discusses all this and more on Culture, Faith, and Politics live!

Eric Metaxas claims America's founders intended to organize the United States around the Old Testament's Sinai Covenant — a "Christian nation" built on biblical law. In Part 2 of this series, we put that claim under the microscope and ask a simple question: where are the receipts ?The answer, according to virtually every working historian, is that they don't exist. This is a careful, evidence-based refutation of the Christian nationalism narrative Metaxas is selling — and an honest look at why he's selling it now. We trace how the rhetoric works, who it's meant to mobilize, and what it actually does to the Christian witness when bad history gets baptized as theology. This isn't about scoring political points. It's about scholarship, the historical record, and the difference between what scripture says and what Christian nationalism needs it to say. Whether you're a believer, a skeptic, or somewhere in between, the goal is the same: sanity, sound reasoning, and a defensible account of where the United States actually came from.