Culture, Faith and Politics with Pat Kahnke

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.