Culture, Faith and Politics with Pat Kahnke

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.