Is Our Gospel Big Enough to Handle RACE? Dr. Karen Johnson on "Ordinary Heroes of Racial Justice"
Is our gospel big enough to handle race? In this episode of the Culture, Faith, and Politics podcast, Pat Kahnke sits down with Dr. Karen Johnson, historian and professor at Wheaton College, to talk about her new book, Ordinary Heroes of Racial Justice.
Dr. Johnson’s scholarship explores how Christians have both shaped and resisted racial injustice in America. Together, we unpack stories of ordinary believers who stood against systemic racism, examine how evangelicals often struggle to see structures and systems, and wrestle with the question of whether personal salvation alone can carry the weight of Jesus’ gospel of the kingdom.
Along the way, we explore topics like:
Why many white evangelicals reduce racism to individual prejudice while Black evangelicals emphasize systems.
How redlining and housing policies continue to shape American life.
The fractured history of the “social gospel” vs. “personal salvation” — and why the Bible won’t let us separate justice from righteousness.
What it means to “do history” with love, humility, and awe.
This is a conversation for anyone wondering how faith intersects with race, justice, and American history — and for those tired of being told that seeking justice means you’ve sacrificed the gospel.
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“The Unlikely Alliance Between Mormonism and Christian Nationalism” with Dr. Benjamin Park
Why are so many Latter-day Saints embracing Christian nationalism—an ideology that once rejected them outright?
In this episode, Pat Kahnke sits down with historian Dr. Benjamin Park to unpack the surprising—and troubling—history of how Mormonism became entangled with Christian nationalism and right-wing politics in America.
From the Kingdom of Nauvoo to the Cold War era, from Glenn Beck’s obsession with The 5000 Year Leap to Trump-era culture wars, we explore how a once-persecuted religious minority became a core part of the religious right. We also discuss dissenters, myths about the Constitution, and why LDS support for Donald Trump is rising, even as the church leadership stays (mostly) silent.
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Compassionate Opposition Is NOT "Trump Derangement Syndrome."
Adam Swenson writes at https://substack.com/@friendlyneighborhoodphilosopher
Pat Kahnke's Substack page: https://culturefaithandpolitics.substack.com/
Pat Kahnke's books are available on Amazon:
"A Christian Case Against Donald Trump" (2024): https://a.co/d/iVSTqny
"MAGA Seduction: Resisting the Debasement of the Christian Conscience" (2020): https://a.co/d/1KNX3uQ
In this episode of Culture, Faith, and Politics, Pat Kahnke and Adam Swenson tackle a loaded label: Trump Derangement Syndrome. Is it a legitimate critique—or a tactic to silence moral and spiritual conviction?
Drawing from real-life stories—Facebook fights, global health missions, and encounters with cruelty—they explore how the Trump era is reshaping Christian identity, numbing compassion, and redefining what it means to love your neighbor. They confront the growing cultural pressure to suppress emotion, detach from injustice, and label empathy as weakness.
Rooted in James 1:27, they ask: What if caring deeply is actually obedience, not derangement?
With political honesty, biblical grounding, and a call to stay tender in a hardening world, this episode challenges listeners to resist authoritarian tactics and reclaim faith as a force for healing—not harm.
📖 Featuring themes of:
Christian nationalism
Emotional integrity vs. political gaslighting
The character cost of supporting cruelty
Why compassion is not derangement—but discipleship
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A Christian Leader's Warning on Trump: Tihomer Kukolja on Nationalism, Gaza, and the Way of Jesus
In this wide-ranging and deeply personal conversation, Pat Kahnke speaks with Reverend Tihomir Kukolja—a Christian leader shaped by war, steeped in reconciliation work, and unafraid to speak hard truths.
Kukolja reflects on the collapse of Yugoslavia, the rise of Donald Trump, the horrors of Gaza, and the dangerous theology driving evangelical silence and complicity. Drawing from decades of international ministry and firsthand experience in Sarajevo, he warns that the same forces that tore apart the Balkans are at work in America—and in the church.
Together, they explore:
• The emotional and political costs of evangelical eschatology
• How Christian nationalism mirrors religious extremism
• Why “criticizing Israel” is not antisemitism
• The model of Jesus vs. the model of Trump
• How truth-telling, not niceness, heals division
This is not abstract theology. It’s about how we lead, how we love, and whether our faith contributes to peace—or war.
“Christian nationalism and Islamic jihadism are two sides of the same coin—when faith is used to justify violence, it's no longer the faith of Jesus.” – Tihomir Kukolja
If you’ve been searching for faithful resistance and global Christian perspective, this episode is a must-listen.
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Facing Gaza as a Christian: I'm Afraid I've Been Silent For Too Long
Tihomir Kukolja's Substack page: https://substack.com/@tihackuk25
My Substack page: https://culturefaithandpolitics.substack.com/
For too long, I’ve stayed silent about what’s happening in Gaza—not because I didn’t care, but because I felt inadequate to speak. In this episode, I open up about that silence, the fears that kept me quiet, and the theology that I believe is fueling real harm in the region.
I’m joined by Rev. Tihomir Kukolja, a global Christian leader shaped by the war in the Balkans, who brings wisdom and moral clarity to this urgent conversation. Together, we talk about the role of American evangelicals, the danger of dispensationalist eschatology, and why criticizing Israel’s government is not anti-Semitism.
If you’re a Christian struggling to know how to talk about Israel, Palestine, or Gaza—or you’ve been afraid of saying the wrong thing—this episode is for you. It’s a beginning, not an end.
🔔 Subscribe for more episodes that go beyond partisanship and help us live with truth, courage, and conscience.
My books are available on Amazon: "A Christian Case Against Donald Trump" (2024): https://a.co/d/iVSTqny
"MAGA Seduction: Resisting the Debasement of the Christian Conscience" (2020): https://a.co/d/1KNX3uQ
Pat Kahnke is the author of the book ”MAGA Seduction: Resisting the Debasement of the Christian Conscience,” which was published before the 2020 election. He was an evangelical church planter and pastor for twenty years before retiring from church ministry in 2016. Planted a church in the inner city of St. Paul, MN - part of the Baptist General Conference (Converge) and Alliance for Renewal Churches. A lifelong conservative Republican until the party left him in 2016. Now a political independent, he has written off the Republican party until it completes 40 years in the wilderness for its capitulation to the MAGA movement.
This podcast contains political and social commentary related to issues at the intersection of culture, faith, and politics.
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