Glad I Got Disillusioned || Retired Pastor Pat Kahnke on the Evangelical Trump Vote
Twenty years in the pulpit. Ten years of disillusionment. He says he’s better for it.
Pat Kahnke cast his first vote for Ronald Reagan, spoke on behalf of the pro-life movement, and picked his church because he walked in on Pro-Life Sunday. Then 2016 sent him back to rethink all of it. In this Substack Live conversation, Corey and Pat talk about why the “binary choice” argument falls apart in the primaries, what “if love is obedience” says about authoritarian faith, the Somali community and the ICE occupation in Minnesota, and Pete Hegseth’s push to livestream an execution.
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Key Takeaways
Disillusionment can be a gift. Pat has lost his illusions about the movement he came from, about the average voter and even about Minnesota. Seeing what actually is helps him get past most of the anger and try to be useful.
The binary choice is a myth. White evangelicals chose Trump over every other Republican in the primaries. Pat says that blows the “lesser of two evils” excuse out of the water.
Earned authority vs. positional authority. Pat’s biggest fights with his own church elders were over whether authority is owed or earned. He sees an authoritarian kind of Christian who will back anyone willing to exercise power over the people they fear.
Pick one issue. Instead of arguing with friends and family about everything, Pat suggests learning one issue well and discussing it calmly, with facts. For him, that issue is immigration.
About Our Guest
Pat Kahnke is a retired evangelical pastor who spent 20 years in ministry in the Twin Cities, including a church he planted in St. Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood. He’s the author of MAGA Seduction: Resisting the Debasement of the Christian Conscience (2020) and A Christian Case Against Donald Trump (2024), and he hosts Culture, Faith, and Politics on YouTube and Substack.
Links and Resources
- Culture, Faith, and Politics on Substack: culturefaithandpolitics.substack.com
- Culture, Faith, and Politics on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@culturefaithandpolitics
- “Religious Groups Differ Widely in Their 2026 Midterm Preferences” (Pew Research Center): www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/10/13/religious-groups-differ-widely-in-their-2026-midterm-preferences/
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