Faithful Politics

Have a comment? Send us a text! (We read all of them but can't reply). Email us: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com Was America founded as a Christian nation, or has that story been repeated so often that it feels true?  Warren Throckmorton, retired professor of psychology and author of The Christian Past That Wasn’t and co-author of Getting Jefferson Right, joins Will Wright and Pastor Josh Bur...

Have a comment? Send us a text! (We read all of them but can't reply). Email us: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com Was America founded as a Christian nation, or is that question usually about today’s politics more than the eighteenth century?  John Fea, historian of early America and American religion, joins Will Wright and Pastor Josh Burtram to slow the conversation down. Fea explains why man...

Have a comment? Send us a text! (We read all of them but can't reply). Email us: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com Was the American Revolution really a fight for religious freedom?  Katherine Carté, Professor of History at Southern Methodist University and author of Religion and the American Revolution: An Imperial History, helps separate the national myth from the historical record. Carté expl...

Have a comment? Send us a text! (We read all of them but can't reply). Email us: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com How did Christianity become so deeply woven into the American story?  Matthew Avery Sutton, professor of history at Washington State University and author of Chosen Land: How Christianity Made America and Americans Remade Christianity, joins Will Wright and Pastor Josh Burtram to e...

Have a comment? Send us a text! (We read all of them but can't reply). Email us: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com How did Manifest Destiny become a Christian story about land, providence, and moral duty?  L. Daniel Hawk, Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Ashland Theological Seminary and author of Undoing Manifest Destiny, joins Will Wright and Pastor Josh Burtram to explain how theology...

Have a comment? Send us a text! (We read all of them but can't reply). Email us: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com Can America tell the truth about itself if it starts the story in 1776?  Mark Charles, Navajo writer, speaker, activist, and co-author of Unsettling Truths, opens Church and State 250 by arguing that America’s religious story begins with land, conquest, colonization, and theology....

Have a comment? Send us a text! (We read all of them but can't reply). Email us: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com Why do racial myths continue to shape American politics, religion, and culture long after people claim to reject racism?  Greg Garrett, author of White Lies: Dismantling Ten Cultural Myths About Race, joins Faithful Politics to explain how false stories about race have been used to...

Have a comment? Send us a text! (We read all of them but can't reply). Email us: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com What does conservatism mean when personality politics starts replacing policy, principle, and coalition-building?  Tim Chapman, president of Advancing American Freedom, joins Faithful Politics to explain how he thinks about the future of the conservative movement, the Republican Pa...

Have a comment? Send us a text! (We read all of them but can't reply). Email us: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com What should Christians do when global politics becomes personal, chaotic, and violent?  Dr. Robert J. Joustra, Professor of Politics and Spoelhof Chair at Calvin University and author of Christ and Covenant in Global Politics, joins Faithful Politics to ask what Christian theology...

Have a comment? Send us a text! (We read all of them but can't reply). Email us: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com Why do people stay in political movements even after they begin to have doubts? Rich Logis spent seven years as a committed MAGA activist, commentator, and organizer before ultimately leaving the movement and founding Leaving MAGA, a nonprofit that helps people who are questioning...

Have a comment? Send us a text! (We read all of them but can't reply). Email us: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com What does religious freedom actually protect when people are afraid of someone else’s faith? Maggie Siddiqi, Senior Advisor at Interfaith Alliance and former Director of the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the U.S. Department of Education, joins Faithful Pol...

Have a comment? Send us a text! (We read all of them but can't reply). Email us: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com How is Christian nationalism showing up inside the U.S. military chaplaincy, and why does it matter for religious freedom? In this episode, Will talks with Leigh Larson, a theologian, Air Force veteran, public scholar, and founder of Follow the Leighder . Larson’s research focuses...

Have a comment? Send us a text! (We read all of them but can't reply). Email us: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com What happens when feelings become the test of truth? Robert P. George joins Faithful Politics to talk about what he calls “the age of feeling,” a moment where many people treat personal emotion as the final word on what is true. George argues that this does not lead to tolerance. I...

Have a comment? Send us a text! (We read all of them but can't reply). Email us: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com What happens when people believe in religious pluralism, but still lean into Christian nationalism when they feel threatened? In this episode of Faithful Politics , Will Wright and Pastor Josh Burtram speak with political scientists Brooklyn Walker and Paul Djupe about their resear...

Have a comment? Send us a text! (We read all of them but can't reply). Email us: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com What happens when the justice system becomes one of the central battlegrounds of American politics? In this episode of Faithful Politics, Will Wright and Pastor Josh Burtram speak with Adam Klasfeld, veteran legal journalist and editor in chief of All Rise News, about several major...

Have a comment? Send us a text! (We read all of them but can't reply). Email us: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com What happens when LGBTQ students navigate faith, identity, and education inside religious schools? In this episode of Faithful Politics, Will Wright talks with Jonathan Sawyer, a PhD in education policy from the University of Colorado Boulder, about his research on LGBTQ students i...

Have a comment? Send us a text! (We read all of them but can't reply). Email us: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com In this episode of Faithful Politics, Will Wright and Pastor Josh Burtram talk with historian D.G. Hart about Christian nationalism, church-state separation, the American founding, and what can happen when Christianity becomes too closely tied to political power. Hart brings a dist...

Have a comment? Send us a text! (We read all of them but can't reply). Email us: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com Was America founded as a Christian nation? Warren Throckmorton joins Faithful Politics to unpack the historical myths behind that claim and explain why they still matter today. Drawing from his book The Christian Past That Wasn’t , Warren walks through stories about Ben Franklin, t...

Have a comment? Send us a text! (We read all of them but can't reply). Email us: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com David Daley joins Faithful Politics to explain how gerrymandering, mid-decade redistricting, and recent Supreme Court decisions are reshaping the 2026 elections. The conversation covers Virginia’s redistricting fight, the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais , the weake...

Have a comment? Send us a text! (We read all of them but can't reply). Email us: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com In this Faithful Politics POV episode, Will Wright and Pastor Josh Burtram examine the Trump administration’s anti-Christian bias report and ask whether it proves real discrimination against Christians or mostly reframes policy disagreements as persecution. They discuss the FACE Ac...

Have a comment? Send us a text! (We read all of them but can't reply). Email us: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com What did the Apostle Paul actually teach about heaven, resurrection, and the meaning of life on earth? Dr. Nijay Gupta joins Faithful Politics to talk about Paul, heaven, resurrection, and why Christian faith is not meant to function as an escape from the world. Drawing from his ne...

Have a comment? Send us a text! (We read all of them but can't reply). Email us: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com What if racism is not just a belief someone holds, but something people do through everyday choices, institutions, and patterns of behavior? Ainsley LeSure joins Faithful Politics to explain why racism cannot be reduced to personal belief, private intent, or what someone claims is...

Have a comment? Send us a text! (We read all of them but can't reply). Email us: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com What does religious trauma actually look like inside high-control Christian environments? In this episode of Faithful Politics, we sit down with Tia Levings, author of A Well-Trained Wife and I Belong to Me , to unpack her experience inside Christian fundamentalism and her journey...

Have a comment? Send us a text! (We read all of them but can't reply). Email us: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com What is the religious right, and how has it shaped American politics over the last 50 years? In this episode of Faithful Politics, we sit down with Peter Montgomery to break down the religious right and its influence on American politics. We trace the movement from its modern roots...

Have a comment? Send us a text! (We read all of them but can't reply). Email us: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com What if having good intentions alone isn’t enough? In this episode, we sit down with J.D. Bauman, Executive Director of Christians for Impact and author of All the Lives You Can Change, to explore a challenging question: are Christians stewarding their money, time, and influence in...