The Beached White Male Podcast with Ken Kemp

Ken Kemp

Religion and Politics - subjects we avoid in polite society. But not here. Stories and people who challenge our assumptions and blaze new trails. Inspiring. Challenging. Out of the box. For Blog and Official BWM site, go to www.thebeachedwhitemale.com.

  1. 5d ago

    S7E38 - The 2KENS - When Trumpism Comes Home: Faith, Family, and the Politics of Division

    Send us Fan Mail What happens when politics becomes more than politics - when it shapes our identity, our faith, and our relationships with the people we love? In this episode of Two Kens, my longtime co-host, Ken Fong, and I begin with a lighter subject: Ken Fong’s previous interview with Arasha Lalani, the Indian-American actress and comedian known professionally as Arasha, has gone viral. We reflect on what makes a conversation come alive. Acting and preaching, we suggest, are not monologues. At their best, both are active, engaging dialogues that invite us to listen, respond, and discover something new. From there, we turn to a more sobering subject: Natalie Harp, one of Donald Trump’s most devoted supporters, often called his “human printer.” Recent reporting about Natalie and her family raises difficult questions about the intersection of faith, politics, grief, and family relationships. Natalie’s father, Robert Harp, was a respected business professor at Biola University who, according to her brother Preston’s accounts cited in reporting, was skeptical of Trump’s claims to Christian faith. Following his tragic death by suicide, Natalie’s political profile grew. Her brother pursued a very different ideological path. Their story offers a glimpse into the complicated ways political commitments can intersect with family life. As two former evangelical pastors, Ken and I explore the tensions between traditional evangelical convictions and MAGA politics, the challenges of discussing mental health and grief in religious communities, and the human longing for belonging, certainty, and protection. We don’t presume to know all the private motivations behind this family’s experience. Instead, we ask what its story might help us understand about a nation increasingly divided by political identity. Join us for a candid, compassionate conversation about faith, family, Trumpism, and the search for common ground. SHOW NOTES Support the show Become a Patron - Click on the link to learn how you can become a Patron of the show. Thank you! Ken’s Substack Page The Podcast Official Site: TheBeachedWhiteMale.com

    S7E38 - The 2KENS - When Trumpism Comes Home: Faith, Family, and the Politics of Division
  2. Sep 29

    S7E35 Dr. Peter Enns: Curve-ball - When Your Faith Strikes Out

    Send us Fan Mail REPRISE - Dr. Peter Enns returns to the podcast to discuss his brand new book Curve-ball - When Your Faith Takes Turns You Never Saw Coming* or How I Stumbled and Tripped My Way to Finding a Bigger God. Pete admits it's the longest title in the history of publishing. The popular professor, author (see show notes for his many other books), and podcaster (The Bible for Normal People) drops his guard like never before sharing his spiritual and intellectual journey from his days as an aspiring baseball player to progressive Christian thinker. "Wrestling with God and Scripture is very old and completely normal. Actually, it's God-activated," he says. In reviewing the book, Ken and Pete talk about Noah, Jonah, and Jesus as archetypes in the struggle. Richard Rohr, David Bentley Hart, Thomas Oord and Rachel Held Evans get honorable mention as guides. Evolution is a major "curveball" for many Christians. Pete is especially interested in the chaos and "weirdness" of physics and quantum mechanics, all of which have opened Pete's mind and heart to a much bigger and more profound notion of God. While Pete avoids the clichéd use of the overused and misappropriated descriptor, "deconstruction," he traces a normal, natural, and healthy evolution in our understanding of faith and our relationship to the God of the Universe. SHOW NOTES This program first aired May 19, 2023 Support the show Become a Patron - Click on the link to learn how you can become a Patron of the show. Thank you! Ken’s Substack Page The Podcast Official Site: TheBeachedWhiteMale.com

    S7E35 Dr. Peter Enns: Curve-ball - When Your Faith Strikes Out
  3. Sep 22

    S7E33 Why Religion Went Obsolete: A Conversation with Sociologist Christian Smith, Ph. D.

    Send us Fan Mail REPRISE: Today, we welcome a conversation with Dr. Christian Smith, one of America’s leading sociologists of religion. He studied at Wheaton and Gordon College, earned an M.A. and PhD at Harvard, and currently serves as the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. You may know him from his groundbreaking research on adolescent spirituality, but in this episode, we dive into the sweeping themes of his current book, Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith in America, released in April 2025 from Oxford University Press. We examine the profound cultural and generational shifts that have contributed to the decline of religion in America—what Dr. Smith refers to as a slow but steady obsolescence. From the rise of the “nones” and the “spiritual but not religious,” to the scandals, the loss of clergy credibility, and the overwhelming politicization of faith, especially within evangelical circles, we unpack it all. Dr. Smith is data-driven, deeply thoughtful, and committed to honesty—he doesn’t just describe the trends; he interprets them with nuance and care. We also talk about the fears that drive some religious communities to build protective bubbles—Christian schools, worldview camps, media silos—and how those moves may be accelerating the very decline they fear. This is a conversation about cultural change, generational transitions, science, sexuality, and what it means to seek moral grounding in a rapidly shifting world. This episode invites us to ask: When has religion truly been good? And can it be good again? As James Baldwin once said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” SHOW NOTES Support the show Become a Patron - Click on the link to learn how you can become a Patron of the show. Thank you! Ken’s Substack Page The Podcast Official Site: TheBeachedWhiteMale.com

    S7E33 Why Religion Went Obsolete: A Conversation with Sociologist Christian Smith, Ph. D.
  4. Sep 8

    S7E32: 9/11 at 25: What Have We Become? - the Two Kens

    Send us Fan Mail Twenty-five years ago, we woke up to a terrible tragedy. We remember the images. The first plane. The second plane. The towers collapsing. The Pentagon burning. The field in Pennsylvania. We remember the smoke, the sirens, the stunned faces—and the terrible realization that the most powerful nation on earth was suddenly, frighteningly vulnerable. But we also remember something else. For a brief moment, we seemed to remember how to be Americans together. We stood in line to give blood. We gathered in churches and synagogues and mosques. We put flags on our cars. We embraced strangers. We grieved together. And then something changed. Twenty-five years later, the question for us isn't simply what happened on September 11, 2001. We know what happened. The harder question is: What happened to us afterward? How did the trauma of that morning reshape our understanding of God? How did it change American Christianity? How did fear of terrorism become fear of Islam—and eventually, perhaps, fear of one another? We went to war. We expanded government surveillance. We embraced a doctrine of preemptive military action. We spent trillions of dollars. And somewhere along the way, the extraordinary unity we experienced after 9/11 began to fracture. So today on this special edition of the Two Kens, Ken Fong and I go back—not simply to the morning America was attacked, but to the 25 years that followed. We two former pastors are asking questions that are both political and deeply personal: Where was God? What did we become? And what, if anything, can we learn from 9/11 before fear teaches us the same lessons all over again? SHOW NOTES Support the show Become a Patron - Click on the link to learn how you can become a Patron of the show. Thank you! Ken’s Substack Page The Podcast Official Site: TheBeachedWhiteMale.com

    S7E32: 9/11 at 25: What Have We Become? - the Two Kens
  5. Sep 2

    S7E31 A Life Guided by Curiosity with Scott Chesebro Part 2

    Send us Fan Mail In Part One of my conversation with Scott Chesebro, we talked about a life shaped by curiosity - by people, places, questions, and a willingness to look beyond the boundaries of his own religious and cultural experience. Scott has never understood faith as simply a system of beliefs about heaven and hell. For him, it has been a way of being in community and of remaining open to the lives and experiences of others. In Part Two, our conversation becomes more intimate. Scott is living with an incurable lung disease and has made the deeply personal decision to enter hospice. Yet this is not simply a conversation about illness or dying. It is about how a person looks back on a life well lived - and what he hopes to leave behind. We talk about Norene, his partner in marriage and tireless companion; about raising their two sons on Chicago’s South Side and now watching their grandchildren grow up there; about race, public schools, faith communities, and the former students who continue to visit him. We talk about travel, including a journey through West Africa and along the Slave Road, and the curiosity that has guided Scott since childhood. And eventually, we arrive at the question all of us must face: What do you want the people you love to remember? Scott’s answer is both simple and profound: “I’m not afraid to die. I just don’t want to leave.” SHOW NOTES Support the show Become a Patron - Click on the link to learn how you can become a Patron of the show. Thank you! Ken’s Substack Page The Podcast Official Site: TheBeachedWhiteMale.com

    S7E31 A Life Guided by Curiosity with Scott Chesebro Part 2
4.4
out of 5
41 Ratings

About

Religion and Politics - subjects we avoid in polite society. But not here. Stories and people who challenge our assumptions and blaze new trails. Inspiring. Challenging. Out of the box. For Blog and Official BWM site, go to www.thebeachedwhitemale.com.

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