How Politics Hijacked the Pulpit with Ryan Burge

In this episode of Being Human, host Steve Cuss speaks with political scientist and pastor Ryan Burge about his book The Vanishing Church. They explore how American Christianity has become increasingly radicalized by political partisanship, the role of social media algorithms in amplifying extreme voices, and the disappearance of moderate congregations. Burge discusses how partisanship now shapes religious identity rather than the reverse, the impact of COVID had on churches, and how the church has become a "hospital for the healthy."

Episode Resources:

• Ryan Burge’s The Vanishing Church: How the Hollowing Out of Moderate Congregations Is Hurting Democracy, Faith, and Us (amazon.com/Vanishing-Church-Hollowing-Congrega…)

• Michael Wear’s CT review of Ryan’s work on the “big church sort (christianitytoday.com/2026/01/the-vanishing-ch…)”

• Pew research: How the Pandemic Has Affected Attendance at U.S. Religious Services (pewresearch.org/religion/2023/03/28/how-the-pa…)

• A Look at The Donatist controversy (churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/a-painful-lo…)

• Who was Count Zinzendorf (zinzendorf.com/content/who-was-count-zinzendorf)?

Scripture Referenced:

• 1 John 1:5 (esv.org/verses/1+John+1:5) (ESV)

• Matthew 20:16; Luke 13:30; Mark (esv.org/Matthew+20:16;Mark+10:31;Luke+13:30) (ESV)

• Mark (esv.org/verses/Mark+2:17) (ESV)

How Politics Hijacked the Pulpit with Ryan Burge

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