Faithful Politics

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 an Oklahoma craft business to the 2014 Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Supreme Court case, which held that closely held corporations could receive protections under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
We also examine the Museum of the Bible, the Green family’s controversial acquisition of antiquities, relationships with conservative Christian organizations, Dominionism, Christian nationalism, and Blanding’s reporting on the museum as a gathering place for religious and political networks in Washington.
The conversation asks a larger question running through Blanding’s book: what happens when sincerely held religious convictions are backed by billions of dollars and an effort to shape a pluralistic democracy?
BOOKBook: The Gospel According to Hobby Lobby: Inside a Billionaire Family’s Quest to Craft a Christian Nation
Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/a/112456/9781541703940
GUEST BIOMichael Blanding is an investigative journalist and author whose work has appeared in The New York Times, WIRED, Smithsonian, Slate, The Nation, and other publications. He is the author of The Map Thief, In Shakespeare’s Shadow, and The Gospel According to Hobby Lobby, which examines the Green family’s religious, cultural, and political influence. Blanding is a former senior writing fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights and a former senior fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism.

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 Apostolic Reformation, Heyes shows how demonic language has repeatedly been used to explain political conflict and social change.
We also explore why conspiracy theories thrive when complicated problems are reduced to cosmic battles, how suffering can make people more susceptible to othering, and what happens when Christians begin seeing themselves as soldiers fighting human opponents on God's behalf.
The conversation ultimately raises a larger question: How do we recognize genuine evil without turning our neighbors, political opponents and fellow citizens into monsters?
BOOK
Book: Devils of Democracy: America's Love Affair with Political Demons from the Revolution to Today
https://bookshop.org/a/112456/9798341900936
The book was published September 15, 2026, by Broadleaf Books.
GUEST BIO
Michael E. Heyes is associate professor of religion and chair of the Department of Religion at Lycoming College. His research focuses on Christianity, demonology, monsters, religion and culture, including the ways ideas about demons have shaped American religious and political life. He is the author of Demons in the USA, Margaret's Monsters, and Devils of Democracy: America's Love Affair with Political Demons from the Revolution to Today. He earned his PhD in religious studies from Rice University.

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 should independently select the nominee rather than simply accepting the presidential candidate’s choice. His campaign publicly describes delegate selection of the VP nominee as its central proposal.

Josh and Mike discuss Republican convention rules, the modern vice presidency, and whether a VP with an independent political base could provide another check on concentrated presidential power. They also examine ter Maat’s move from the Libertarian Party into the Republican liberty movement, his critique of both major parties, and his broader argument that political institutions need stronger internal checks and more room for disagreement.

GUEST BIO
Mike ter Maat is an economist, former police officer, and the Libertarian Party’s 2024 vice-presidential nominee. Libertarian delegates selected ter Maat as their vice-presidential nominee at the party’s May 2024 national convention, where he received a majority on the second ballot.
After the 2024 election, ter Maat moved into Republican politics and is now seeking the Republican Party’s 2028 vice-presidential nomination. His campaign is built around giving Republican convention delegates an independent role in choosing the party’s VP nominee. Earlier in his career, he worked as an economist, including at the White House Office of Management and Budget, and later spent more than 11 years in law enforcement in Broward County, Florida.

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 how Congress would pay for it.

The conversation then turns to the Republican Party and a question many conservatives are wrestling with: when should a Republican member of Congress be willing to disagree with Donald Trump? Wittman points to his vote to override Trump’s veto of the National Defense Authorization Act and his opposition to proposed cuts to Chesapeake Bay funding as examples.

We also discuss political division, his bipartisan relationships in Congress, and what he believes Washington can do to rebuild some level of trust across party lines.

Finally, with Wittman seeking another term representing VA-01, we ask him directly why voters should choose him over Democratic nominee Shannon Taylor. Wittman discusses his record in Congress and raises several criticisms of Taylor’s record as Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney.

LINK MENTIONED IN THE INTERVIEW
 SoftShannonTaylor.com 

Guest Bio:
Rep. Rob Wittman has represented Virginia’s 1st Congressional District since 2007. He serves as vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and chairs its Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee, giving him a central role in debates over national defense and military readiness. He also serves on the House Natural Resources Committee, with a particular focus on the Chesapeake Bay and Virginia’s coastal communities. Before Congress, Wittman worked in state government and served in local and state elected office. He holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Administration from Virginia Commonwealth University.

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, political polarization, and the growing influence of Christian nationalism. 

Stankorb explains why leaving is rarely about a single event. For many women, questions and contradictions accumulate until the institution they trusted becomes impossible to reconcile with the faith and values they were taught. Some leave Christianity entirely. Others reach a different conclusion: they never lost faith in God. They lost faith in the church.

The conversation also looks at Gen Z women, deconstruction, the Christian Right, and what the continued departure of women could mean for the future of American religion. Stankorb's book documents this trend through women's stories from the 1980s through today

Book: Damned If She Does: Why Women Quit Church and What It Means for the Future of Religion
https://bookshop.org/a/112456/9798889837091

GUEST BIO
Sarah Stankorb is an award-winning journalist and author whose reporting focuses on religion, politics, gender, and power. She is the author of the national bestseller Disobedient Women and Damned If She Does: Why Women Quit Church and What It Means for the Future of Religion. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Vogue, and Elle. She studied religion and philosophy at Westminster College and ethics and South Asian religion and history at the University of Chicago Divinity School.