Faithful Politics

Constitutional law scholar Stephen M. Feldman argues that the Roberts Court has changed the meaning of religious freedom and who fully belongs under the Constitution. Drawing from his book  Who Belongs: White Christian Nationalism and the Roberts Court , Feldman traces the fight over “We the People” from the founding and Reconstruction through the New Deal, the Warren Court, and today's conservati...

Law professor and former prosecutor Corinna Lain returns to Faithful Politics to examine two disturbing developments in America's death penalty system: the botched lethal injection of Christa Pike in Tennessee and the Trump administration's proposal to publicly livestream the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan. Drawing on her book  Secrets of the Killing State , Lain explains why lethal in...

Pew Research Center's Greg Smith joins Faithful Politics to explain why Christians who share similar religious beliefs often vote for opposing political parties. With the 2026 midterms approaching, we examine the differences between white evangelicals, Black Protestants, Catholics, and religiously unaffiliated voters, and what those differences could mean for the election. Smith also explains why...

Votebeat Editorial Director Jessica Huseman returns to Faithful Politics to discuss the security of America's elections andthe challenges facing voters and election officials ahead of the 2026 midterms. We examine concerns about federal interference at polling locations, voter registration problems in Texas, turmoil within Georgia's State Election Board, and allegations of widespread noncitizen vo...

Democrats are favored to take back the House in the 2026 midterm elections, but does that mean the country is becoming more Democratic? And could Republicans still hold on to the Senate? Kyle Kondik, Managing Editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, joins Faithful Politics to break down the congressional election map and explain why 2026 could be an especi...

Republicans are facing a difficult 2026 midterm election, and even traditionally conservative states like Texas, Kansas, and Iowa are becoming competitive. But if Democrats win, will it be because voters support their agenda, or because Americans are increasingly frustrated with both political parties? Jessica Taylor, Senate and Governors Editor for The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, joins...

Jeff Schoep spent 27 years in the neo-Nazi movement, eventually becoming the leader of the National Socialist Movement, one of the largest white supremacist organizations in the United States. After decades of promoting an ideology built around racial hatred, Schoep began questioning his beliefs following a series of unexpected encounters with people he once considered enemies. Today, Schoep works...

Can America confront its history of racism and political division without forcing everyone to choose a side? Pastor, author, and Civil Righteousness founder Jonathan Tremaine Thomas joins Faithful Politics to discuss his book  Make Straight the Path  and his vision for what he calls "holy activism." Jonathan shares how the 2014 Ferguson protests following Michael Brown's death transformed his unde...

EPISODE DESCRIPTION Young men and women are growing apart - politically, socially, and romantically. Daniel Cox joins Faithful Politics to explain why that divide is widening and what it could mean for relationships, community, and American politics. Cox is the director of the Survey Center on American Life and a senior fellow in polling and public opinion at the American Enterprise Institute. His...

For our October POV live show, Dr. Michael E. Heyes, religion professor at Lycoming College and author of  Devils of Democracy , joins Will Wright and Pastor Josh Burtram to explore the history of demons and how beliefs about them have shaped Christianity, culture, and political movements. We trace the evolution of demonic imagery from the Bible and early Christianity through medieval monasteries,...

The religious vote is often treated as shorthand for white evangelical Christians. PRRI CEO and political scientist Melissa Deckman says that misses much of what is happening ahead of the 2026 midterms. Deckman joins Faithful Politics to examine which religious voters may actually be moving, including white Catholics, white mainline Protestants, Hispanic Catholics, and Hispanic Protestants. She ex...

What if America’s political polarization is connected to the decline of traditional religion? Christian theologian Matthew Kaemingk and Muslim political scientist Shadi Hamid make a provocative argument in their new book, Can Religion Save Democracy?: as religious participation has declined, Americans have increasingly looked to politics for identity, meaning, community, and even a struggle betwee...

Albert Mohler has spent decades as one of the most influential voices in conservative evangelical Christianity. Now he is arguing that America’s Constitution should explicitly acknowledge Christianity - a position Warren Throckmorton says represents a major departure from the Baptist tradition of religious liberty. Throckmorton joins Will Wright and Pastor Josh Burtram to examine Mohler’s evolving...

Latino Christians are often discussed as a voting bloc. Rev. Dr. Cristal Silva-McCormick and Dr. Daniel Montañez explain why that misses much of what is actually happening. Silva-McCormick, a professor at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary who researches Latino Christianity and Christian Zionism, and Montañez, founder and executive director of the Center for Public Theology and Migration, ex...

Most Americans know Hobby Lobby as a craft store. Investigative journalist Michael Blanding says the bigger story is how the Green family has used the fortune behind the company to advance its understanding of the Bible in American law, culture, education, and politics. Blanding joins Faithful Politics to discuss his new book,  The Gospel According to Hobby Lobby . We trace the family’s rise from...

What happens when your political opponent becomes more than wrong and starts to look like an agent of evil? Religion scholar Michael E. Heyes joins Faithful Politics to trace America's long history of mixing demons with politics. From spiritualists, abolition and Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War era to Billy Graham, the Satanic Panic, modern spiritual warfare, C. Peter Wagner and the New Apost...

Who should choose a party’s vice presidential nominee - the presidential candidate or the delegates? Mike ter Maat, the Libertarian Party’s 2024 vice-presidential nominee, joins Faithful Politics to explain why he wants to change how the Republican Party chooses its VP candidate. ter Maat is now seeking the GOP’s 2028 vice-presidential nomination while arguing that Republican convention delegates...

For Faithful Politics, this conversation is especially local. Rep. Rob Wittman represents Virginia’s 1st Congressional District, the same district where our Josh lives. We ask Wittman, in this shorter interview, what Congress can do about the cost of living, including energy, housing, health care, and grocery prices. We also press him on President Trump’s proposed $5,000 payment to Americans and h...

Why are millions of women walking away from American churches, and what finally pushes them to leave? Journalist Sarah Stankorb, author of  Damned If She Does: Why Women Quit Church and What It Means for the Future of Religion , traces an exodus she says has been building for decades. The conversation examines purity culture, sexual abuse and institutional cover-ups, racism, LGBTQ exclusion, polit...

What happens when moderation becomes a political liability inside your own party? Filmmakers Meg Griffiths and Scott Faris join Faithful Politics to discuss  The Life of the Party , their documentary following three Republican women in Texas whose careers reveal a party undergoing significant change. Former State Rep. Sarah Davis was once the last pro-choice Republican in the Texas House and repre...

The Department of Homeland Security sent undercover agents into churches to monitor anti-ICE activists. In at least one case, an agent entered a Baptist church that was already protected by a federal court order restricting certain DHS activity on the property. Brian Kaylor, president and editor-in-chief of Word&Way, joins us to walk through the court documents behind his reporting. We discuss...

Robert P. Jones argues that the crisis facing American democracy is also a crisis inside white Christianity. In this conversation, Jones, president and founder of PRRI and author of Backslide: Reclaiming a Faith and a Nation After the Christian Turn Against Democracy, explains why he believes white Christian support for Donald Trump and Christian nationalism represents both democratic backsliding...

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s fight over Muslim wudu stations at Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth airports opens into a much larger question: who gets protected by religious liberty in America? Washington Post religion reporter Michelle Boorstein joins Will Wright and Pastor Josh Burtram to explain why facilities that existed for years suddenly became a political target, how legal experts view Abbott’s Fi...

Why would a parent take their child on a dangerous journey to the United States? Gabrielle Oliveira argues that one of the most overlooked answers is care. Oliveira, a Harvard professor who studies immigration, education, and family migration, spent years following 16 migrant families from Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. She explains how violence, insecurity, and a lack of opportunit...

Historian Joseph Kelly argues that the roots of American fascism reach much further back than Nazi Germany or Mussolini’s Italy. They can be found in the antebellum South and the political system built to defend slavery and racial hierarchy. Kelly, author of  The Biggest Lie: The Prehistory of American Fascism, 1818 - 1915 , traces how the promise that “all men are created equal” collided with a g...