Monte Mader

Yeah.

So I grew up very much at the intersection of Republican politics and religion.

That was always a married thing for me.

There was never a point in my life where that wasn't in the conversation.

It was always you cannot be a Christian and vote Democrat.

That was that was a baseline.

So there's a couple of things that happen simultaneously.

I grew up out in Wyoming in a really rural area.

My family was the type of family that we stockpiled arms against the government in case they ever Ruby Ridged us.

There was a lot of paranoia, a lot of if the government does this after the Columbine shooting, a lot of conversations around, well, the Democrats are going to hold you at gunpoint and it's your job to die for your faith.

These were very much conversations that I grew up with as a kid.

And the hard part about it is because I not only was part of the church and my dad and his brother, my cousin were all involved in Republican politics.

My dad was a state house representative later in his life.

His brother was a state senator.

My cousin was the county commissioner.

My grandfather was kind of someone who was behind the scenes pulling a lot of strings.

And so I never had an opportunity to see a separation of those things.

But also I went to all Christian nationalist schools.

I was privately tutored in theology and Christian apologetics by my dad.

So you're not just getting this information from your parents.