Culture, Faith and Politics with Pat Kahnke

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?