Culture, Faith and Politics with Pat Kahnke

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.