Culture, Faith and Politics with Pat Kahnke

Donald Trump now has a $1.776 billion settlement he plans to use to fund revenge for his political party. MAGA evangelicals held a MAGA cult worship service called Rededicate 250. Pat Kahnke discusses all this and more on Culture, Faith, and Politics live!

This weekend, the Trump administration spent millions in federal funds on a 9-hour worship rally on the National Mall. The event was organized by the same company that ran Trump's January 6 Ellipse rally — on a largely no-bid government contract. Eric Metaxas invoked the Sinai Covenant from the stage. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared to frame America's military posture in theological terms. And Trump sent a prerecorded Bible video. Rick Pidcock, a journalist and theologian who attended Rededicate 250, joins Pat Kahnke for a full eyewitness account of how MAGA theology went national on America's 250th birthday.

Joni Lamb, co-founder of Daystar Television Network — America's 2nd largest Christian TV network — died this week estranged from her own son. What he says happened inside that billion-dollar ministry is a disturbing story about modern Christian media. Pat Kahnke and Amy Hawk examine the Daystar story: a $3.9 million PPP loan used to buy a private jet, seven homes valued at $11.7 million, a honeymoon allegedly charged to ministry donors, and — most seriously — allegations that an abuse claim inside the Lamb family was pressured into silence. Daystar is classified as a church by the IRS. That means no financial disclosures. No accountability. And a billion-dollar operation that nobody is allowed to question. This is what the Fruit Test (Matthew 7:16) looks like when applied to Christian media empires.

Today we're talking about Adam Swenson's article on Stage 3 of Christian faith: Perplexity. And we're using Nick Kristof's article "This Is What Happened When Trump Abandoned the World's Poorest Children" as an example of what happens when the real world takes a wrecking ball to our assumptions.

The latest polls have revealed that Donald Trump is truly a record setter – his unfavorability is higher than Richard Nixon at the height of Watergate. Pat Kahnke is joined by Amy Hawk to discuss all this and more on Culture, Faith, and Politics live! (5/12/26)

Robert Jeffress told Fox News that Donald Trump understands the Bible better than the Pope. I can't let that stand. In this video, I do a full breakdown of Jeffress's Romans 13 argument — the same passage used by enslavers and apartheid defenders — and show exactly how it's being weaponized to silence Christian criticism of the war in Iran.

They called Trump and Mike Johnson "modern-day Esthers" — chosen by God, appointed for such a time as this. But the Esther Bible story doesn't say what they think it says.   Esther was a powerless Jewish exile who risked her life to protect her people from annihilation. She had no army, no legislation, no executive authority. She was a refugee at the mercy of an empire. MAGA theology has taken one of Scripture's most profound stories of courage against oppression and turned it into a permission slip for political domination.   In this video, I apply the Fruit Test (Matthew 7:16) to the MAGA Esther claim — examining how figures like Mike Johnson, Franklin Graham, and Dutch Sheets have weaponized this passage to sanctify Christian nationalism and the consolidation of state power.      

What happens to your faith when authority figures stop answering your questions? Pat Kahnke and Adam work through Stage Two of Brian McLaren's stages of faith — a conversation for everyone navigating the space between certainty and collapse. Whether you're deconstructing Christianity, wrestling with faith and doubt, or just trying to stay sane in the age of MAGA theology, this is for you. We're working through two essays: Adam's "Complexity Is What Happens When Authority Figures Stop Answering Your Questions" and David Brooks' New York Times piece "The Shock of Faith" — possibly the most honest account of faith deconstruction written by a public intellectual in years. Brooks describes himself as "a wandering Jew and a very confused Christian." He told a room full of conservatives "you're supposed to boo" — and kept going. That's Stage Two in real time.

The latest polls have revealed that Donald Trump is truly a record setter – his unfavorability is higher than Richard Nixon at the height of Watergate. Pat Kahnke discusses all this and more on Culture, Faith, and Politics live.

America can't plead ignorance — not when the evidence has always been right in front of us. Award-winning author Melvin E. Edwards joins Pat Kahnke to investigate how a nation chooses not to know, and what that moral choice actually costs. Edwards' debut novel Nuremberg, Mississippi asks the question that Nuremberg prosecutors put to Nazi officials: when what you're doing is legal — but legal is causing the deaths of people — did you ever think about just not doing that? From Jim Crow sundown towns to the patterns playing out today in the age of MAGA and Christian nationalism, this conversation draws a straight line from 1965 Mississippi to modern America. Purchase "Nuremberg, Mississippi" here: https://a.co/d/0gUiOpU3

Trump's administration released a 565-page report claiming 14 acts of "anti-Christian bias" by the Biden administration. Every serious follower of Jesus should be embarrassed by it. This isn't persecution. This is the loss of privilege — and the difference matters theologically.

The incident at the White House Correspondents' Dinner is just the latest example of the rising temperature in America. And that's all part of Trump's political strategy. Join Pat Kahnke for a live chat about all this and more on Culture, Faith, and Politics live!

How does tribalism shape our understanding of the shooting at the WHCD? Also, how does it fit into the 4 stages of belief? Adam Swenson and Pat Kahnke continue their discussion of deconstruction - with a focus on tribalism and false simplicity.

On May 17th, MAGA is staging a national Bible reading to "rededicate America to God" — and almost nobody is talking about what's actually happening. I sat down with Tihomir Kukolia, Executive Director of the Forum for Leadership and Reconciliation, to expose the Christian nationalist infrastructure hiding inside the "America Reads the Bible" event — and why it should alarm every American, Christian or not.

Deconstructing Christianity doesn't mean abandoning the faith — it means finally growing into one. In this video, we walk through Brian McLaren's four stages of faith and ask the question the Evangelical Church doesn't want to answer: why does MAGA Christianity keep getting stuck at Stage One? If you've spent years inside evangelical certainty only to find it collapsing under the weight of real questions, this is for you. Drawing on McLaren's Faith After Doubt, we map the journey from Simplicity through Complexity and Perplexity — and into what a mature, reconstructed faith actually looks like on the other side. Whether you're exvangelical, still inside the church but quietly questioning, or an atheist trying to understand why American Christianity went so sideways — this framework explains it all.

Adam Swenson joins Pat Kahnke for the first Culture, Faith, and Politics MORNING Live Stream!

Donald Trump read from 2 Chronicles at the America Reads The Bible event. What's going on with Mark Driscoll and his claim that he was asked to speak at the main event for the national rededication on the Mall on May 17th? And we debut our new segment, Christians Behaving Badly. Join Pat Kahnke for a live chat about all this and more on Culture, Faith, and Politics live!

Trump decides who is honored and who is shamed in MAGA — but Jesus had a radically different answer. This is where the two gospels collide. In this installment of The Bible vs. MAGA, we examine one of the most powerful and least understood forces driving Christian nationalism: the weaponization of honor and shame.

Pete Hegseth isn't just a bad Cabinet pick. He's a theological project — and silence is no longer an option. As Secretary of Defense, Hegseth has publicly glorified violence, renamed the Department of Defense the "Department of War," and invoked the name of God to justify military aggression. This isn't political theater. It's Christian nationalism in power — and it belongs to a specific movement with a specific ideology, rooted in Doug Wilson's network out of Moscow, Idaho.   In this episode, retired evangelical pastor Pat Kahnke examines what Hegseth's actions reveal about the theology driving MAGA: a version of Christianity that prays for maximum violence against enemies, treats empathy as sin, and seeks to build an authoritarian Christendom — not by following Jesus, but by ruling in his name. This is what happens when Christian nationalism stops being fringe and starts running the Pentagon.

Viktor Orbán lost in Hungary. JD Vance couldn't get a deal done with Iran. The White House fought with the Pope. And Trump shared an AI photo of himself as Jesus. It was a bad week for the MAGA movement – and even their leader can't save them. Join Pat Kahnke for a live chat about all this and more on Culture, Faith, and Politics live!

From the Duggar family to Pete Hegseth to the Oval Office — the pattern is the same. MAGA Christianity has built a theological permission structure that protects powerful men and silences women and children. Pat Kahnke and Amy Hawk trace the unbroken line from Bill Gothard's IBLP, to the Duggar family's protected abuse, to Doug Wilson's submission theology, to the men now running the United States government.

Trump and MAGA don't just disagree with Jesus — they are selling the exact system Jesus came to destroy. In this episode of The Bible vs. MAGA, we go straight to the Sermon on the Mount and let the Beatitudes do the work. A viewer comment defending MAGA's values of honor, winning, and dominance became the entry point for a deeper question: what happens when the church adopts a worldview that Jesus spent His entire ministry dismantling? The honor-shame system that runs MAGA — the obsession with strength, the contempt for the weak, the gospel of winning — is not a Christian value. It is the ancient power structure the Beatitudes were written to expose. If you are a Christian wrestling with the fusion of Trump and the Gospel — or trying to find the words to explain why it feels so wrong — this is the conversation you have been waiting for.

At Charlie Kirk's memorial, they didn't just grieve — they worshipped. And what happened in that room reveals something disturbing about how MAGA Christianity weaponized worship music to train a movement. Author Rick Pidcock (Weapons of Worship) joins me to expose the psychological and theological mechanics behind worship-as-warfare — from Sean Feucht's rallies to a Seattle service where a worship leader told the congregation to throw rocks at LGBTQ+ people. This isn't fringe. It's a pattern. And it's been building for years inside evangelical spaces.

Trump's Iran threats crossed a line that even seasoned political observers are calling genocidal. Charlie Sykes joins Pat Kahnke to break down what just happened — and why Christian nationalism is the theological permission structure behind it. In this conversation, Sykes and Kahnke analyze Trump's recent statements targeting Iran — statements that Sykes calls "the most deranged ever issued by a U.S. president" — and trace how evangelical Christian nationalism has moved from the fringes to the center of American foreign policy. From Pete Hegseth's holy war rhetoric to Doug Wilson's "sin of empathy" theology, this is what MAGA Christianity looks like when it has its hands on a nuclear arsenal.

Donald Trump threatened the nation of Iran with genocide this morning, and everyone seems to care except for his Christian supporters. Let's talk about that. Also: how did Trump and his MAGA followers desecrate the Holy Week? Pat Kahnke and the live audience dive into the words of Paula White-Cain, Pete Hegseth, Franklin Graham, and Trump's profane Truth Social post on Easter.

In Part 2 of my interview with Matthew Taylor, we move from defining Christian antichrists to exposing the movements trying to reshape American politics and religion in real time. We break down the three major wings of Christian nationalism now competing for power inside MAGA: the Reconstructionist Calvinist world associated with figures like Pete Hegseth, the New Apostolic Reformation orbit represented by Paula White, and the Catholic reactionary lane often linked to JD Vance. Matthew explains how these movements differ, where they overlap, and why Donald Trump remains the central political vessel holding them together. We also look at the theological shift from the old “Cyrus” language to something much darker: Trump as a violent avenger, even a Jehu-like figure raised up to punish enemies and restore power. That change matters, because it reveals how MAGA theology is increasingly willing to justify domination, cruelty, and authoritarian politics in the name of God. If you've been trying to understand Christian nationalism, MAGA theology, religious power, and the spiritual logic behind this movement, this conversation will help connect the dots.

Is it fair — or even biblical — to apply the word "antichrist" to a political movement? Visiting scholar Matthew D. Taylor (Georgetown University) answers that question from scripture and history. In this conversation, I sit down with Matthew Taylor, author of Defying Tyrants: Following Jesus in a World of Christian Antichrists, to explore one of the most uncomfortable questions in American Christianity today: when does a Christian movement begin to exhibit the spirit of antichrist? Taylor's answer draws on New Testament scholarship, the parable of the wheat and tares, and a deeply inconvenient argument — that the history of Christianity, from Constantine forward, is in part a history of Christians abusing power in Jesus's name. That's not a fringe claim. It's a scholarly one with serious biblical grounding. This is not a political hit piece. Taylor is careful, precise, and anchored in the text. But the implications for Christian nationalism are impossible to avoid. If Christians can be the persecutors — not just the persecuted — what does that mean for movements wrapping authoritarian power in a cross?

Pat Kahnke and Adam Swenson break down new polling data showing Donald Trump and the MAGA movement losing ground with the American public. They examine Trump's approval and disapproval trends, what the numbers reveal about key voter groups, and why more Americans are reacting negatively to the direction of MAGA politics. This conversation explores demographic shifts among younger voters, Black voters, Hispanic voters, and independents, along with the broader cultural and moral fallout surrounding Trumpism. Pat and Adam discuss why the movement increasingly feels exhausting, divisive, and politically corrosive to many Americans.

Franklin Graham spoke at the recent CPAC event and once again showed that his allegiance to Trump and power remains strong. Pat Kahnke takes a closer look at the words of Trump's unholy propagandist and more on this episode of Culture, Faith, and Politics live.

In this first installment of The Bible vs MAGA series, I'm asking a question that no one in evangelical leadership wants to answer: What happens when you hold MAGA values up against the words of Jesus — specifically the Beatitudes?  In Part 1, we begin at the beginning — with the Sermon on the Mount. The Beatitudes are Jesus's most concentrated ethical teaching. And they stand in direct contradiction to nearly every policy position and public posture of the MAGA movement and its religious defenders. But here's what I want you to hear: Franklin Graham made his choice. We don't have to make the same one.

I spent three hours at the Minnesota State Capitol this weekend with somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 people — and it changed something in me. This wasn't a political rally. It wasn't a hate rally. It wasn't a festival of grievances. The No Kings protest was something I haven't felt in a long time — a crowd of grown-ups who know who they are, fighting for something better, without a demagogue telling them what to believe. In this episode, I share what I witnessed, what it meant to me as a former evangelical pastor and lifelong Republican, and — most importantly — the single biggest lesson I took away from the weekend.

MAGA Christianity isn't a political stance — it's a theological crisis. In this first episode of The Bible vs. MAGA, retired evangelical pastor Pat Kahnke defines exactly what MAGA Christianity is, and why it represents a fundamental break from the historic Christian faith. Using the three core pillars of theology — Christology, Epistemology, and Eschatology — he exposes how MAGA Christianity has replaced Jesus with Trump at every level: as Lord, as the source of Truth, and as the hope for the future. Whether you're an evangelical, an exvangelical, or a Christian trying to make sense of how faith became entangled with political power, this series is for you.

What IS 'MAGA Christianity', anyway? And Why Is It Dangerous? Pat Kahnke takes a closer look at these questions and more on this episode of Culture, Faith, and Politics live.

Pete Hegseth didn't just bring his politics to the Pentagon. He brought his pastor. In this episode, I analyze a recent clip featuring Brooks Potteiger — Pete Hegseth's personal pastor from a CREC (Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches) congregation — and Joshua Haymes, calling for divine action against Texas State Representative James Talarico. As a pastor myself, I'm naming this for what it is: not prayer, not Christianity, and not faith. This is MAGA theology operating as a political weapon. This is the theological framework behind Christian nationalism — and it is now inside the U.S. Department of Defense.

Robert Mueller died on March 20, 2026. Donald Trump's response on Truth Social: "Good. I'm glad he's dead." This is my response. Mueller was a Bronze Star recipient, Purple Heart veteran, and the second longest-serving FBI Director in American history — a man who bled for this country in Vietnam and spent sixty years in public service under four presidents of both parties. Trump called him someone who "hurt innocent people." We need to talk about what that reveals. Not just politically — theologically. Because MAGA theology has a specific way of treating men of integrity: it destroys them. And what happened to the FBI after Mueller is the proof.

Was Trump's Iran war just? Pat Kahnke and Adam Swenson apply the five criteria of just war theory to the opening phase of the conflict — and the results are damning. From the bombing of a girls' school on Day One to Trump's personal vendetta against Khamenei, this conversation asks the question MAGA Christians won't: does this war pass any Christian moral standard? If you're a Christian wrestling with MAGA theology, an evangelical asking hard questions about war and conscience, or simply someone who wants moral clarity on the Iran conflict — this conversation is for you.

After 20 years as an evangelical pastor and church planter, I've reached a conclusion I never thought I'd reach: I will never vote Republican again — and as a Christian, I believe I have no other choice. This isn't a political rant. It's a theological reckoning. In this episode, I make the biblical case for why MAGA Christianity is incompatible with the teachings of Jesus. Using Scripture, history, and observable evidence, I walk through why the Republican Party has become a haven for religious grifters — men like Franklin Graham, Robert Jeffress, and Paula White — who have traded the Gospel for political power and access to Donald Trump. I also announce a new weekly series: The Bible vs. MAGA — a systematic, verse-by-verse refutation of Christian nationalism and the theology that props it up.

Senator Markwayne Mullin has built his political brand on toughness, Trump loyalty, and conspicuous Christian faith. But his Senate confirmation hearing revealed something more troubling: a man who glorifies violence and holds a view of justice that is, at best, sub-Christian. In this episode, I examine Mullin's confirmation hearing testimony, his documented history of glorifying physical confrontation, and a comparison to his predecessor Kristi Noem — the same pattern of evangelical branding paired with institutional brutality at ICE and Border Patrol. I also address the ongoing investigation into the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti — two individuals shot and killed by federal agents in Minnesota — and the federal government's deliberate obstruction of Minnesota state officials from participating in that investigation. This is what MAGA theology looks like when it has a badge and a budget. Not just a political position — a theological permission structure for cruelty that dresses itself in the language of faith.

Imagine for a moment that the attack on Iran was necessary. Donald Trump has proven why you don't put an ignorant, impulsive narcissist in charge of the most powerful country in the world. Pat and Ken Napzok discuss three foolish, avoidable mistakes Trump has made that will have lasting consequences on America's safety and prosperity.

There Are No "Good Guys" In This War!   Pete Hegseth says "We know who the good guys are." Most Americans don't agree — and the data proves it. When he made that claim, he was speaking for about a third of the country. This is not a patriotic war. There is almost no "rally around the flag" effect. When a majority of Americans can't identify the good guys in a war their own government started, that's not a media problem. That's a leadership problem.   As a retired evangelical pastor and former lifelong Republican, I'm calling this what it is: the MAGA church did not bring the kingdom of God closer. It handed the keys of power to the most corrupt cast of characters in modern American history. This is a theological reckoning. And it's long overdue.

Pete Hegseth isn't just unqualified — he's a weak man in the most powerful military position in world history, and his theology is the reason why that's so dangerous. In this episode, I break down how Hegseth's Christian nationalist theology — rooted in Doug Wilson's framework of domination, power, and violence — has nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus and everything to do with control. I examine the White House and Pentagon videos promoting the war in Iran as what they actually are: pornography of violence — content engineered to bypass rational thought, trigger a dopamine response, and manufacture consent for war among people who feel powerless.

Sean Feucht's ministry revenue jumped from $243,000 to $5 million in a single year — and whistleblowers say that's only part of the story. Pat Kahnke and Amy Hawk examine the public financial records, the F rating from Ministry Watch, and the allegations of spiritual abuse that MAGA's most prominent worship leader does not want his followers to see.

From tariffs to Iran, Donald Trump is often able to swing the markets with his decisions and his words, but at some point, the entire world will try to make the US less relevant to their lives. What will happen when Trump's luck runs out? Join Pat and Producer Ken as they dive into this question.

When a church that claims to be persecuted gains political power, who does it persecute first? We examine how the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) — the prophetic wing of the Christian nationalist movement — is weaponizing spiritual language to justify real-world political violence: from Paula White summoning angels from Africa to maintain Trump's presidency, to NAR prophets declaring spiritual curses over Trump's opponents in the 2018 midterms — curses whose physical expression arrived on January 6th.

Kristi Noem was fired by Donald Trump — via Truth Social — while she was on stage praising him. Tonight I'm asking the question the Bible actually raises: is it wrong to celebrate when the wicked fall? And more importantly — is this justice, or just the beginning of it?

She grew up singing Christian nationalist anthems on a bus at 17. She watched her own church members storm the Capitol on January 6th. Now, April Ajoy is using comedy and theology to tear the whole thing down — and thousands of people are watching. In this interview, April Ajoy — author of Star Spangled Jesus: Leaving Christian Nationalism and Finding a True Faith — shares her journey from preacher's kid raised in MAGA Christianity to one of the most fearless voices exposing Christian nationalism on social media. We dig into toxic empathy, the dog whistles your pastor might be using, and why humor might be the most powerful weapon against the MAGA church.

The President of the United States has led the country into a war with Iran. There are many questions to ask, but will the answers ever be made clear? Pat and Ken Napzok talk about that and more on an all-new episode of Culture, Faith, and Politics live!

Six Americans are dead. Congress wasn't consulted. NATO says they're not coming. And the nuclear program Trump said he "obliterated" in June is the reason we're at war in March. There's a button on the Resolute Desk — when Trump pushes it, someone brings him a Diet Coke. That's real. And I think that button explains his entire approach to governing: Iran, Venezuela, tariffs, TikTok. Complex problems. Push-button solutions. None of them solved. In this episode, I trace the pattern — from the first Iran strikes that didn't work, to the Maduro extraction that changed nothing, to the tariffs that made the trade deficit worse — and explain why applying that same instinct to a war with Iran, without Congress, without allies, is the most dangerous thing an American president has done in a generation.

In this conversation with Tihomir Kukolja — a pastor who grew up under actual communist persecution in the former Yugoslavia — we expose the dangerous gap between real persecution and the loss of cultural privilege that MAGA Christianity has rebranded as suffering. From Constantine to the Reformation to the American founding, history tells us exactly what happens when the church seizes political power: the persecuted become the persecutors. Every. Single. Time. We trace the theological roots of Christian nationalism's persecution complex, examine how "loss of privilege" gets weaponized as martyrdom, and ask the question no one in the MAGA church wants to answer: if your faith requires state power to survive, is it really faith at all?

In his State of the Union address, Donald Trump declared that America is experiencing a “tremendous renewal in religion, faith, Christianity, and belief in God” — especially among young people. He even suggested that when God wants to perform miracles, He chooses a nation like ours. But is there any evidence of a religious revival? Or is this just another example of political manipulation wrapped in Christian language?

In this episode, Tim Whitaker (The New Evangelicals) joins me to expose the direct theological line connecting Moscow, Idaho pastor Doug Wilson to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. We are witnessing the mainstreaming of a specific brand of Christian Nationalism—one that isn't just about "God and Country," but about implementing a strategy to capture American institutions. We break down the specific theology of the MOscow, Idaho movement, the influence of Stephen Wolfe's The Case for Christian Nationalism, and why Pete Hegseth's admiration for these ideas poses a unique threat to the U.S. military. This isn't just a political disagreement; it is a theological takeover of the most powerful military in the world.