Beliefs: Recent Episodes
Religion News Service
This week on Beliefs, we return to a conversation with one of our favorite guests, scholar and writer Susan Jacoby.
Secularism and atheism finds a full-throated defense in this episode. Jacoby takes us on a journey of where we were just one year ago: presidential politics on the rise, the rise of secularism, no pandemic in sight, and a world less complicated.
Jacoby brings together the threads of various moments in history to identify her view that religion and politics have never comfortably coexisted.
From Our Archives:
We revisit a conversation from our first season with the Rabbi of Congregation Beth Elohim. She describes the clarity she feels from what she calls the unfinished business of America. Reparations for slavery, the rights of women to control their bodies, and opposition to xenophobic oppression; all a part of the central moral character Rabbi Timoner feels is her purpose. As a rabbi, as a Jew, and as a social justice activist.
Speaker, Pastor and Scholar Dr. Christopher A. House resigned from Liberty University recently in protest of President Jerry Falwell Jr’s deleted tweet featuring both blackface and KKK characters.
To speak to us about the moment when belief becomes action, Beliefs producer Jay Woodward asked Dr. House for a conversation.
Writer and historian Jemar Tisby, Pastor Tyler Burns of New Dimensions Christian Center in Pensacola, Florida co-host the podcast Pass The Mic for their organization The Witness - A Black Christian Collective.
We gratefully thank Religion News Service reporter Adelle Banks for leading the conversation.
The steady call to reopen churches –amplified by Presidential encouragement- is thrilling to some and alarming others. How do we return to worship when the act of group singing, chanting, and praying can be so dangerous?
How can churches be told to cease their primary function?
Beliefs producer Jay Woodward spoke with RNS opinion columnist Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin, and RNS Editor-In Chief Bob Smietana to assess the tensions facing churches across the country.
A ministry of song and service, with devotion to the most invisible among us.
The husband and wife singer-songwriting team of Al and Andi Tauber, Urban Mennonites:
They seek and value the simple life – in much the same way as their Amish and Quaker spiritual cousins, but their calling returns them to urban spaces; to pressing societal concerns. This episode of Beliefs was produced by Monique Parsons in collaboration with KALW's The Spiritual Edge, the University of California’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture, and Religion News Service.
We all have Beliefs on where our soul goes upon death. What remains is just that – remains. How do we honor the vessel that held the person we used to know? From earth to water, and even to the sky, delivering the body back to dust contains deep ritual for many faith traditions.
Bill Baker speaks with Hamilton College Professor S. Brent Rodriguez-Plate to find guidance on the comfort of the ritual of passing.
To understand who we are, and what our numbers signify, we turn to the math, to the staticians.
Some among us combine psychology, algebra, opinion, and faith to read the rivers of American opinion.
Greg Smith is associate director of research at Pew Research Center. He helps to coordinate the Center’s domestic polling on religion.
As the world gets stranger, we look for answers - from the divine, and from the numbers...
For decades, the political influence of faith has been seen in the might and the dominance of the Religious Right.
A new book from Religion News Service political correspondent Jack Jenkins called American Prophets, The Religious Roots of Progressive Politics and the Ongoing Fight for the Soul of the Country charts the so-called Religious Left.
Beliefs producer Jay Woodward and I spoke with Jack about his new book and the emergence of a powerful new political identity.
Houses of worship across the world are adapting to the challenges of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Keeping congregants feeling tied to their faith, themselves, and one another has been a challenge felt by all. But what if faith isn't at the center of the congregation? How are humanist, atheist and agnostic spiritual communities handling the isolation caused by the pandemic?
James Croft, a clergyman at the Ethical Society of St. Louis, spoke with Beliefs producer Jay Woodward this week to share insight on how his congregation has handled the past several weeks.
On Feb. 3, 1943, the U.S.A.T. Dorchester - carrying 902 service men, merchant seamen and civilian workers was sunk in the cold Atlantic. Among those lost were four Army chaplains whose rescue efforts became the foundation of post-war interfaith activism. Our guest today is Eboo Patel, Founder and President of the Interfaith Youth Corps. He sees the beginnings of a new interfaith understanding coming with the trauma and international struggle against the novel coronavirus. Religion News Service Editor-In-Chief Bob Smietana spoke with Eboo Patel for Beliefs.
Last episode we spoke to Father James Martin to ask simple questions about God, suffering, and the pandemic. His episode is the anchor of a daisy chain of conversations taking us around the world – faith to faith, place to place.
Father Martin nominated our next guest, Sister Norma Pimintel, the Executive Director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley. Her position servicing immigrants and refugees in the borderlands gives her unique perspective. If the pandemic can come for anyone from Prime Ministers to Louisiana Parishioners... what will we learn about human equality in the face of such a threat?
Sister Pimintel spoke to Beliefs Producer Jay Woodward from her office in Texas.
This episode is part of a series of interviews speaking to the moral, ethical and spiritual takeaways from the global pandemic experience.
It’s a personal note from me this week. Not usually appropriate for news the way I prefer it, but these are very different times. My friend Father James Martin wrote a short piece that ran in the New York Times called, ‘Where Is God In A Pandemic’. Like so many other people, I wanted to know what this man – whom I admire – would say to me, to us, during a moment of universal human suffering. We spoke, as everyone must these days, on the phone.
Asking how ethics occur naturally, or emerge through faith takes us to speak to Professor Christine Firer Hinze. Hinze is a professor of Christian Ethics at Fordham University and the director of the Francis and Ann Curran Center for American Catholic Studies.
This week's guest, Martin Doblmeier, is a documentary filmmaker specializing in content touching on faith, religion, and spirituality. He joined me for a discussion on his recent PBS film: "Revolution of the Heart: The Dorothy Day Story”.
'Revolution of the Heart: The Dorothy Day Story' traces Dorothy Day's journey from a young communist journalist, to a Catholic convert, to the co-founder of The Catholic Worker newspaper and the first "houses of hospitality," which sheltered New York City's homeless during the Great Depression.
Bishop John Michael Botean is the head of the Eparchy of St. George in Canton, Ohio. Botean's diocese, which permits priests to marry, is the only one of its kind outside of Romania. This week on Beliefs, host Bill Baker interviews Botean at his cathedral in Ohio.
Jana Riess is a senior commentator and author of the popular column, Flunking Sainthood for Religion News Service.
Sharing her personal experience with writing critical commentary on an aspect of her Church’s teachings, Riess stumbled into a strong backlash and an opportunity to re-think her opinion.
Then she did what sometimes seems unthinkable in the public sphere – she apologized and reconsidered.
Jana Riess spoke with Beliefs producer Jay Woodward to sort through the experience.
Spiritual advisor to President Trump Paula White was recently filmed in her church giving a sermon that employed idiosyncratic and fiery rhetoric. What is the new language of spiritual warfare? Where is it coming from and where is it taking us?
Andre Gagne is Associate Professor in the Theological Studies Department of Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. His work focuses on the Christian right, charismatic Dominionism, fundamentalism, religious violence and the interpretation of the Bible.
This week on Beliefs, Gagne discusses spiritual warfare rhetoric through the lens of Paula White's recent sermons.
Stephen Johnston has narrated and sold more translations of the Bible than any other person in history. He graduated from college with a BA in Radio and Television and planned to become a news announcer. In 1976 he was approached about narrating the New Testament on cassette. The rest is scripture.
He has international reputation as a narrator; receiving many awards including an Emmy, the New York Film Critics Award, the National Silver Microphone Award and the Army Commendation Award.
Stephen joins Beliefs from his home in California.
The Rev. Mary Bredlau officiates 350 to 500 funerals a year.
For Bredlau, an Episcopal priest and former Roman Catholic nun, there’s nothing more important than this painful ministry. Bredlau is a thanatologist, certified by the Association of Death Education and Counseling.
Beliefs producer Jay Woodward sat down with her in her adopted hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Author and minister Rebekah Simon-Peter presents a bold vision for houses of worship seeking to embody the heroic spirit of Jesus. Her ambitious model for deepening the spiritual engagement of entire congregations has produced her recent book, ‘Dream Like Jesus’.
Her message is one of big, bold visions of empowerment, strength and dynamic worship. I spoke with Reverend Simon-Peter in Atlanta to explore her roadmap for enthusiastic and heartfelt engagement with faith.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the arrival in America of Paramahansa Yogananda – widely considered to be the father of yoga in the West. Yogananda devoted his life to traveling and speaking across America, bringing a message of spirituality and unity between religions.
He introduced millions to the practice of meditation and Kriya Yoga. His influence was vast. His book, Autobiography of a Yogi was deeply influential in the lives of figures from George Harrison to Elvis Presley.
Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computers arranged for every attendee at his funeral to receive a copy – a book he is said to have read every year.
To learn more about Paramahansa Yogananda, Beliefs producer Jay Woodward went to the Self Realization Fellowship International Headquarters on top of Mount Washington overlooking downtown Los Angeles. Our guests were Sister Draupadi, Brother Prafullananda, Brother Bhumananda, and Brahmachari Andy of the Self-Realization Fellowship.
Around 9am on January 27th, 1945, the Red Army liberated the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz in south-western Poland. Over 1 million Jews and tens of thousands of others were killed at this sprawling complex of 48 concentration and extermination camps.
The Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust has mounted a groundbreaking exhibition - bringing together more than 700 original objects and 400 photographs from around the world.
Beliefs Producer Jay Woodward visited the exhibit - “Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away” and spoke with Museum president Jack Kliger.
India: a nation of 1.3 billion souls in an area a third the size of America.
An ancient civilization with ancient traditions, deities, and beliefs. Often, amid the Western media political stories of Hindu nationalism and anti-Muslim discrimination in India, a background picture of Hinduphobia and anti-Hindu bias lurks. Many Hindu-Americans are caught between narratives, feeling themselves misunderstood or poorly depicted in these stories.
To understand this dynamic, Beliefs producer Jay Woodward talked with Hindu-American scholar, activist and writer Indu Viswanathan. Viswanathan is a doctoral candidate at Teachers College. Her research focuses on the transnational consciousness of second-generation Indian-American teachers.indu-Americans are caught between narratives – both emotionally fraught.
To understand this dynamic from absolute square one, Beliefs producer Jay Woodward talked with second generation Hindu-American scholar-activist and writer, Indu Viswanathan. She is a doctoral candidate at Teachers College. Her research focuses on the transnational consciousness of second-generation Indian-American teachers.
Observations on religion and faith on an international stage.
Finding the ways that religion has served people through history, but also finding ways that religion makes itself irrelevant. That's what our guest is exploring this week.
Since retiring from a career in international financial consulting based in New York City, Robert Henrey has devoted time to writing and travel in Asia and the Near East, as well as to community involvement. An ordained Catholic deacon, he served over a decade as a hospital chaplain. More recently he has embarked on a series of lectures sharing his experiences and reflections with community groups on a number of his lifelong interests. These include the richly paradoxical histories of the major religious traditions and the impact of different languages on culture.
His most recent book Bloodshot Mountain published in the UK recounts the profound social and economic impact on early colonial Latin America of the discovery in the remote Andes of the world’s richest silver mine. He is currently working on a writing project involving early linguists who set out to explore and find common ground with faraway cultures.
He is a graduate of Oxford University where he studied language, history and literature.
The practice of circumcision is as ancient as Abraham himself. Established as Covenant between God and Abraham, it is mandatory for Jews, almost universally practiced by Muslims, and adopted as common practice in many other communities, both religious and secular.
In the Jewish tradition, circumcisions are performed by a Mohel. To discuss the ritual and significance of circumcision, Beliefs producer Jay Woodward spoke with Dr. Leslie Solomon. In addition to being an Emergency Room doctor, he is both a rabbi and mohel. This interview was recorded on New Year’s Eve of 2019.
Nativity Church in Bethlehem in the West Bank is the oldest Christian Church in the world and believed to be the birthplace of Jesus. For a glimpse into the Holy Land at Christmas, Bill Baker speaks with Greek Orthodox Priest, Father Issa Thaljieh, of Nativity Church to get the history and feel of this famous, sacred ground.
On Beliefs we like to share the work of others who work with Religion News Service and other organizations to educate and report on religion, ethics, and belief.
One such person is Michael O’Loughlin who joins us from Chicago. Michael is the journalist behind the the new Podcast miniseries from America media, ‘Plague: untold stories of AIDS and the Catholic Church.’
We are entering the holiday season, and while that means many different things to many different people, there is one universal commonality – food! Ritual and food and worship are deeply intertwined and make up a critical part of the story of faith, worship, and observance.
Beliefs producer Jay Woodward speaks with food anthropologist and archaeologist Professor Maureen Costura of Culinary Institute of America.
This November marks the 550th birthday of the founder of Sikhism: Guru Nanak. T he belief system he developed is based on oneness, open-hearted love, and justice. To reflect on the birth of this remarkable prophet, Beliefs sits with Simran Jeet Singh – author, scholar, Religion News Service contributor and Senior Fellow at the Sikh Coalition.
Tom Junod was assigned to write a profile for Esquire magazine on beloved kids television icon Fred Rogers, and the two became close friends.
That friendship became the subject of a movie about the remarkable inner journey Tom made as a result of this unexpected pairing.
The film, ‘A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood’ starring Tom Hanks and Matthew Rhys opens in theaters this week.
Our guest this week is Austen Ivereigh, here to discuss his second book on Pope Francis, called Wounded Shepherd, Pope Francis and His Struggle to Convert the Catholic Church.
Struggling with both broad respect and popularity, but also deep institutional suspicion, Pope Francis enjoys adoration and resistance in equal measure. Ivereigh’s book distills the contradictions and successes of Francis’ pontificate.
Much has been made of the increasing number of people who don’t identify with an organized religion. Statistics behind millennial flight from church and religion is also a big topic in the news. But what’s behind these numbers? To explore some of the less measurable influences – Religion News Reporter Emily McFarlan Miller joins Beliefs producer Jay Woodward.
Our guests this week are Naz Georgas, Executive Director of Cordoba House, and Rabbi Josh Stanton of East End Temple in New York. These two faith leaders have forged a unique bond and faith partnership of shared values, convictions, and commitment to empathetic compassion.
Beliefs producer Jay Woodward met with them at East End Temple in Manhattan.
By all accounts, the trends are clear. Religion is in decline in modern American society. The rise in the number of people who declare themselves as unaffiliated to a religious community, or self-identify as belonging to no religion at all, is a trend that is reinforced with every passing poll.
Here to discuss the length and breadth of Belief in America is Alan Cooperman, Director of Religion Research at Pew Research Center. Alan recently appeared at a symposium at Fordham University’s Center On Religion And Culture.
How can one know a pope? Even now, in an age when every word spoken is recorded, every homily delivered archived, and every act of penitence or fury witnessed, it’s still possible to find we know nothing about Pope Francis. Pope Francis guides the practice, dreams, and consciences of over XXX million Catholics worldwide. Our guest, Father Patrick Ryan S.J., has written the foreword to the book: “In Your Eyes I See My Words” official homilies of Jorge (Hoar-Hay) Bergoglio, Pope Francis from his days in Buenos Aires. He joins me to discuss the underpinnings of the man who would become Francis.
Our guest is a philosopher, professor, and author James K.A. Smith.
On the front line of the human hunger for meaning. Liberty and freedom are woven into a modern story of the human experience. But is liberty a good ingredient for happiness? Our guest is a philosopher, professor, and author of the recently published’ “On The Road with Saint Augustine: A Real World Spirituality for Restless Hearts”
James K. A. Smith spoke to me about emerging tensions in a modern age before a talk at Fordham University's Center for Religion and Culture.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is the largest country in sub-saharan Africa. The area has struggled with outbreaks of both ebola and measles, and the province of Kivu has seen broad conflict and the UN’s largest and most expensive peacekeeping mission that's been in operation since 2010.
When government and social systems fail, it's often the church that steps in to save the people. This is an example in one of the world's poorest places.
Host Bill Baker met Bishop Djomo in New York to learn about the role the Catholic Church plays in supporting the stability of Congo.
Our guest this week serves in an unexpected ministry – volunteer chaplain at a reproductive health clinic. Scholar, activist, and Presbyterian minister Reverend Marvin Ellison is professor emeritus in Christian Ethics at Bangor Theological Seminary. He has spent a career working for a more nuanced understanding of of the awesome power of human reproduction.
Beliefs producer Jay Woodward met with Rev. Ellison at his home in Portland, Maine.
Tracking the path of religion through childhood, relationship, and parenting.
Naomi Schaefer Riley is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute focusing on issues regarding child welfare, as well as a senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum. She also writes about parenting, higher education, religion, philanthropy and culture.
Naomi and I met to look back across her work and research to explore the relationship between children, partners, and religion.
Faith and Politics – Debate Prep with RNS National Reporter Jack Jenkins
The third round of Democratic party debates on September 12th shrinks the field of candidates down to ten. To break down how faith and religion is affecting the debates we’re speaking with RNS reporter Jack Jenkins, about what voters of faith are seeking in their candidates, and what candidates are trying to say to voters.
A new national reporter, Alejandra Molina, is joining the newsroom at RNS. Molina will be reporting on Latinx religion in the U.S. Molina most recently served as Journalist in Residence at the University of Southern California and as Equitable Cities Fellow at Next City. In 2018, she was named one of the 15 most influential Latina journalists by Latino Journalists of California.
Achieving Discomfort – An Interfaith Agenda of Change and Disruption
Our guest is interfaith activist Tahil Sharma. Tahil is an interfaith activist based in Los Angeles who was born to a Hindu father and a Sikh mother. He currently serves as one of three Interfaith Ministers in Residence for the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and is a member of the NextGen Task Force for the Parliament of the World's Religions.
A community in service of the value of every human and the profound significance of respect. Our guest is Mary McDougall, the Spiritual Life Coordinator for L’Arche Community in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. L’Arche is an intentional community that develops homes, programs, and support networks with people who have intellectual disabilities.
Our guest is Adelle Banks, national reporter for Religion News Service. Her series of articles on the anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in the historic settlement of Jamestown puts a religious lens on the abduction, enslavement, and struggle for civil rights of African-Americans over the last 400 years.
RNS reporter Adelle Banks joined Beliefs producer Jay Woodward from her home in Maryland.
Rev. Angela Denker is a sportswriter - turned Lutheran pastor, writer, and speaker. She is a contributor to various publications, including Religion News Service, The Washington Post, and Sports Illustrated. Denker’s also the author of the forthcoming book, “Red State Christians: Meet the Voters who elected Donald Trump” available August 6th from Fortress Press.
Susan Jacoby is an independent scholar specializing in the history of reason, atheism, secularism, and religious liberty. Her best-known books include Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism and the New York Times best-seller, The Age of American Unreason in a Culture of Lies.
At turns passionate, ardent, funny, and defiant, Jacoby lives her truth and embodies the vibrance of her beliefs.
In 2011 Chip Skowron was sentenced to five years in prison for conspiracy to commit securities fraud. It was a spectacular fall for a hugely successful hedge fund manager and medical doctor. As he prepared for prison, he found comfort in the Bible. Surrounded by supporters and skeptics, financiers and felons, Skowron has embraced a new way of living, and a late-blooming faith.
Skowron has embraced a new life, even as he misses the past. And it’s not the life of a Greenwich, Connecticut titan of capital he misses. He misses the simplicity and fellowship of life in prison.
As we look back on our first six months of Beliefs, we’ve noticed some themes in the stories and topics we’re bringing you...We’ve covered origins and practices, abuses and pain, and hate speech and bigotry.
One bright theme we’ve seen is the enduring commitment in all religion to social justice and community. This week on Beliefs, we’re returning to three compelling moments that speak to the way religion asks us to help and protect each other.
Political activist and social justice advocate, Rabbi Rachel Timoner from Congregation Beth Elohim is our first guest on the inherent responsibility she feels toward social justice she feels as a rabbi and Jew.
Continuing our review of community and social justice is our conversation with the senior minister of the 350-year-old First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, speaking with guest host Karen Hayward about a Puritan approach to modern society.
Our last conversation is with a respected and thoughtful voice in the Catholic Church. Fr. James Martin is a Jesuit priest, scholar, author, and editor-at-large of the Jesuit magazine “America.”
He has turned his attention to a social justice issue that has moved to the front of many faith’s consciousness in recent years. Methodist, Episcopalian, and Evangelical Covenant Churches – just to name a few recent examples - have wrestled with LGBTQ inclusion.
Fr. Martin is the author of the book, “Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter Into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity.”
A priest from Montana who became Archbishop of Seattle during the height of the Cold War, made his mark challenging our government's atomic and military policy and the Church's support for the poor and marginalized.
Raymond Hunthausen died last year after leaving his mark on our society and the Church he loved and served, which often didn't support him.
Scholar Frank Fromherz joined us from Portland, OR to discuss his new book, "A Disarming Spirit, The Life of Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen"
Independence Day gives us another opportunity to reflect on the ideological tug-of-war of religious freedom in America. The Declaration of Independence is our topic today. What can we make of the four references to god in the text? Should we listen? Our guest is author and academic Ira Stoll. He's the author of the books - Samuel Adams: A Life, and JFK, Conservative. He's also the managing editor of Education Next - An education policy journal published by Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
Ira Stoll joined Beliefs producer Jay Woodward from his office in Boston.
An old debate resurfaces around this year’s Souther Baptist Convention. Complementarianism is a theological view that men and women fulfill separate and complementary roles in life.
Central to these conversations is renown Bible teacher Beth Moore.
Pastor? Teacher? Preacher? Disobedient? What kind of complementarian.
Emily McFarlan Miller is a national reporter for RNS based in Chicago. She covers evangelical and mainline Protestant Christianity. She joined Beliefs producer Jay Woodward to see what people are saying about complementarianism today.
As they will tell you - two great comedians and two great religions come together in a stand-up comedy show that doesn't pull punches... and they swear that's what gives the show power and mission.
Ashley Blaker and Imran Yusuf are united in their devotion to God and Comedy. Of self-awareness and observation.
Jesuit Priest Father James Martin. A thoughtful and respected voice in the Catholic Church.
He’s the author of the book, Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter Into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity.
Known for his progressive theological views on a variety of subjects, he has turned his attention to homosexuality. Father Martin is a passionate advocate for embracing a community often shunned by the Church.
The Holy month of Ramadan is marked by a well-known 30 day fast from sunup to sundown.
When the sun goes down the fast is traditionally broken with water and three dates.
To tease out some deeper meaning behind this rigorous and difficult ritual fast, Beliefs producer Jay Woodward sat with Dr. Hussein Rashid, Islamic scholar and educator.
Quaker Friends have been meeting and worshipping in America since 1656. The religion is defined by its emphasis on a personal relationship to the Divine; and to each other. Our guest this week is Climate Justice Activist and Author Eileen Flanagan speaking on how her Quaker faith became the engine that propelled her into a career as an international environmental activist.
The past week began with a tremendous loss. The funny, generous, and spirited Rachel Held Evans passed at the heartbreaking age of 37. Held Evans was an influential Christian author and speaker who challenged traditional thinking in evangelical spaces. Today on Beliefs we’re listening to stories about her influence, her magic, and her impact on Christian life.
Our guests are
Aaron Monts, a pastor from United Church in Seattle, WashingtonJana Riess - Senior Columnist at Religion News Service, and Brian Estrella, senior pastor at Evangelical Covenant Church in Riverside, Rhode Island.
Our guest is Tom Gallagher, Publisher and CEO of Religion News Service – and the Beliefs Podcast.
This week Religion News Service announced a partnership with the Associated Press and The Conversation. Their mission is to create a joint global religion news desk. Tom joined me to discuss the effort and what it means for religion reporting worldwide.
Shanghai Faithful by Jennifer Lin is a chronicling of the emergence of her family's Christian identity in post-revolutionary China. Five generations of the Lin family worship and pray through a remarkable change in the world’s most populous nation.
This interview was edited for clarity.
Jennifer, welcome.
Thank you Bill for inviting me to your show.
Tell me how all of this started… How did you begin the massive research of your family in China and tell us about their faith and and their story.
I can actually pinpoint Bill the precise moment where this odyssey began. It was 1979.
My father is Chinese. He was raised in Shanghai and he was part of the great diaspora of Chinese who left China at the tail end of the Civil War when it became obvious that the Red Army would be successful. He left China in 1949 in 1979. It was just after President Carter had normalized relations with China and it became very easy for families like ours to travel back to visit relatives. So, my dad was able to go back to Shanghai to see the sister and the brother who stayed behind.
The first morning in Shanghai when I woke up, I was in my father's family home. I will never forget the look on my father's face when he came down the steps. He turned to me and he said, 'My God this is so depressing.' What happened is the first night we went to bed, my father's uncle pulled him aside. He said to him, 'Do you have any idea what has happened to us since you've been gone?'
And the truth of the matter was my father was clueless. This one uncle started to tell my father what happened to his parents during the Cultural Revolution. This was a very brutal period in Chinese history. It was 10 years of anarchy. Society turned on its on certain groups of people. If you were a capitalist if you were educated. If you had western ties, you were described as being an enemy of the people.
And this happened to my grandparents. And for my grandmother in particular, life was very difficult. Her brother was a very prominent religious leader in China. His name was Watchman Nee and to this day people still read his books. There are millions of followers around the world [and he] was declared an enemy of the people. In China during the Cultural Revolution - it was guilt by association. For my grandparents it was very difficult.
My grandmother was tormented persecuted on a daily basis - treated as a pariah by her neighbors. My grandfather was an Anglican priest. He was accused of being an American spy. For the family it was very difficult and my father was only learning this during that first night of our first trip to China in 1979.
I was a reporter for four decades for the Philadelphia Inquirer, so I just used my reporting skills to begin peeling back the layers. What was it about Watchmen Nee - this religious figure, that made them such enemies of the people?
Once I figured out that question, I just had more and more questions. One of the things that really intrigued me was the fact that both of my grandparents were third generation Christians. I began to really wonder you know how unusual that was like that in a culture like China which is steeped in its own philosophies and religions. Why would anyone back in the late eighteen -hundreds turn to Christianity?
I kept getting pushed further and further into the past. I needed to know, who was the first [to convert]? Why did they convert to Christianity? This was like a 40-year odyssey to try to figure out the answer to all these questions. At some point, like in the past six years I guess, I sat down to start writing their story and that's what Shanghai Faithful is it's answering all those questions. It's a look at the Lin family going back to the very first convert in the family. He’s a character I call old Lin who was really just an uneducated fisherman in the province of Fujian.
And through my family someone can really understand the evolution of Christianity in China, in particular because of my grandfather, the Anglican priest and my great uncle Watchman Nee, who again was one of the most prominent Christian religious figures in China in the 20th century.
He was not associated with any of the denominational mission churches. He very much led what is called an indigenous church movement in China. He was really at the vanguard of the whole house church movement. Watchman Nee spurned the denominational churches. He did not want to be aligned with the Anglicans or the Presbyterians, or anyone. He was building a kind of a grassroots Chinese religious movement. And they didn't build churches with steeples and crosses. They met in houses. Hence the house church you know phrase.
And that's how they would congregate as like-minded religious people.
So these Christian house churches all over China develop, kept operating even though they were technically outlawed and viewed as crimes against the people, and conspirators etc.. How many of them were there? How long did they go on? They are still going on today is that correct?
So Watchman Nee was very active in the 1930s and 1940s in China. In 1949 when China became the People's Republic of China, a communist nation, at that time there were an estimated 80000 people who were followers of Watchman Nee. They were in house churches all over the country in every major city. When China became a communist nation, the government the regime tried to assert control over churches and they were required to register with the government.
There were many that didn't want to do that. Many were the house churches. They were always kind of operating kind of beneath the radar. Watchmen Nee was arrested in 1952. He was sent away to a labor camp in 1956 died there. The house churches had to go underground in the 50s and the 60s during the Cultural Revolution. Though - all churches were closed, not only Christian churches and Catholic churches, but also mosques and temples.
Everything was shut down. They didn't start to revive the churches until 1979. I was actually in China then. In June when the news came out there were those who were still very suspicious of the government.
I mean today you can go to a Chinese city and there are house churches in hotel ballrooms or in offices. They're not as secretive as they used to be but there are house churches all over China. Some of them have just a few followers, and some of them have hundreds. There's a real struggle in China today between the house churches and the Chinese government which would like for all churches to be registered. Many of the people who are aligned with the house churches really push back against that.
There’s tension in China today. You know there are new rules and regulations for churches and the government would like to assert more control over all churches - including house churches. It’s hard to see how many house churches are because there are because no one really knows, but you can go really to any Chinese city or town and you'll find house churches.
The expectation after the Cultural Revolution where religion was basically outlawed was that religion - when it did come back, really wouldn't come back. Nobody would care. It's been a surprise. There really is kind of a rebirth and fast growth of religion particularly Christianity.
What happened in China is during the 1980s Chinese society was just undergoing a tremendous revival. All aspects of society. There was a great economic boom. People were told: to be rich is glorious. That was the motto, but as time went on over the decades, people began yearning for something more. There was a vacuum in their spiritual lives. People worshipped Mao, and after Mao died in 1976 there was this this vacuum created and people began turning more and more to religion.
There was a real flourishing of not only Christianity but all religions. Interest in Buddhism, interest in the philosophies of Daoism and Confucianism. It's the eternal man's search for meaning in their lives.
There's not like there's a Presbyterian church or Methodist Church. They're just “Christians” and no one really knows how many. It is estimated that it could be close to 100 million Protestants and Catholics in China. There are some people who estimate that in the next decade the number could actually double to 200 million.
Tell us about your grandfather the Anglican priest.
My grandfather Lin Pu-chi was a third generation Christian and he went to a mission school.
The missionaries knew they had a problem in China because if Christianity was really going to take root and flourish, the church needed Chinese clerics. My grandfather was sent to Philadelphia in 1918 to attend the Episcopal seminary there. He returned to China in 1920 and began working for the Anglican Church. So he was just what the church needed: an educated Chinese cleric.
And in 1927 there was there was something called the northern expedition. It was when the Communists and the nationalists were trying to battle the war lords to bring unity to China. But this was also a period of a lot of anti-foreign sentiment. There was an incident in March of 1927 where some of these communist anti foreign agitators were holding a protest.
It was a mob and my grandfather unfortunately was seized and paraded through the streets of Fuzhou.
They tied his hands and they dragged him through the streets like a dog on a leash. They had a dunce cap on his head and a placard on his chest that said ‘Running Dogs of the Foreigners’. They were trying to bully him into renouncing his faith, but he refused.
And what was really interesting is no one in my family knew this story. No one - not my father not his relatives in this story would have been lost to history if I hadn't stumbled upon it.
What happened to your grandfather after he refused to renounce his faith?
The mob gave up. They finally let him go. He continued to try to do his work, but Fuzhou was a much smaller city than say Shanghai. And he was really a marked man. There was another incident two years later where again another anti-foreign, anti-Christian mob attacked him, so he moved the family to Shanghai in 1932 and went to work for a and became principal of the school.
So, he moved on.
I assume these house churches are a powerful experience. Have you witnessed any of them?
When I was doing my research, I went to Fuzhou. because that’s not only where my grandfather came from, but also Watchman Nee and I wanted to try to gauge their legacy. A cousin of mine actually took me to a house church in an apartment in Fuzhou. What was very interesting is that the people who were there still read the books the writings of Watchmen Nee. They still sang the hymns that he had written.
Jennifer Lin, thank you for the story. Thank you for the book. The book is called Shanghai Faithful.
Thank you Bill, for giving me the opportunity to tell you about my family.
A book coming out this month takes us through the play-by-play of the election of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio to the papacy. Upon election, he became the first Latin American pope, the first Jesuit pope, and the first pope to choose the name Francis.
America Media’s Vatican Correspondent Gerard O’Connell is Bill's guest. Talking about his remarkable account of the election of Pope Francis.
Easter is upon us – an ancient Christian holiday to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus, and a pilar of Christian faith. An ancient tradition, in a young country.
This week on Beliefs, a conversation with Senior Minister, The Rev. Dr. Steven Jungkeit of the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, Connecticut. This year they celebrate their three hundred and fiftieth anniversary.
Our guest interviewer this week is Karen Hayward.
TRANSCRIPT
The First Congregational Church of Old Lyme was established in 1665. What do you imagine the Easter message in this meeting house was 350 years ago?
One of the interesting features of Puritans and early colonial America was that they were reluctant about celebrations like Easter and Christmas. So they may not have had an actual Easter celebration… One of their deep beliefs was the holiness of every single day such that to separate out a separate day like Christmas, like Easter, is somehow sanctified as different than those other days was a troubling thing for them.
So, they may not have marked the day at all in the way that we do at this point in time. That's a relatively recent invention. Having said that there are a lot of features that I think we can recognize from the Puritans that establish a kind of continuity between then and now such that we can speculate about what might have been important to them. One of the things that was deeply important to them was the life of the mind. They would have taken seriously what it means to read scripture to interpret it carefully to be incorporating the deepest and best and broadest learning of the day into their messages.
They had, I would say, a wide understanding of the goodness of the world that the world was created by God, as good. And so that's what led them into that notion that every day was sanctified, every day was holy, and they had a sense of the fallibility of human lives. The sense that there are moments when we need corrective boundaries around our discourses around our communities to help to help bring out the best in us.
I think they give us really helpful perspective on the fact that human beings are not always at their best. That sometimes they are indeed fallible and that indeed we may need things like laws things like norms - strong communal norms in order to shape our lives together. These are things that I think they would have been thinking about not only on Easter Sunday, but every day.
And I think that broadly speaking, we’re deeply continuous with those understandings. And that represents some of what my -our- messaging is every single Sunday and something of what will be happening here on Easter Sunday as well.
You mentioned that the theologian Harvey Cox in one of your recent sermons. Cox has famously stated that, “Sermons remain one of the last forms of public discourse where it is culturally forbidden to talk back.” In this age where Twitter and naked incivility are rampant in our culture. How do you respond to this?
Well I have to say I think Harvey Cox's is right about that. And it's for me a profound moment of humility and gratitude to be able to stand in a in a in a pulpit and to have a crowd of people who are interested in what might unfold in that moment.
I take it very seriously I think it's a sacred moment.
So, I think there's a there's a humility that comes with that. I think there's a responsibility that comes with that. Insofar as it is this privileged moment. One of our former ministers here some hundred years ago said that for him that little space of the pulpit was the most sacred piece of real estate. That he knew insofar as there is a privilege and a responsibility that comes with that - I feel beholden to say something that's going to be of value.
But that's also going to be respectful of the people who are listening. That's not to say that it won't be challenging. I am frequently very challenging in my in my messages. But I want to respect the dignity and the beliefs of the people sitting in the pew.
There is a freedom of the pulpit, but I also respect the freedom of the Pew. But for that moment, for that moment, there's this long you know 15-20 minute discourse where we have to pay attention. Where it involves linear thinking. Where it involves imaginative thinking, and where I hope moments of empathy and compassion and grace can be stirred. That's the hope. So, thank God it still exists. And I don't know. There are places all around all around the country and indeed all around the world where that particular moment anchors communal lives.
Here is another quote from Harvey Cox “We live in a post Christian America. Christian ideals no longer dominate social thought and action.” How does this resonate with you?
I've given this one some thought because I think that's from a book that Harvey wrote in the late 60s, when indeed it seemed as though Christian thought was not going to dominate America in the way that it once had. And in many ways that has held true. We are indeed a more pluralistic society. We are indeed I think a society which has increasingly recognized and incorporated other forms of religious belief, other forms of practice other life systems.
And I think that's a wonderful thing.
It's something that I feel passionately about helping our congregation, and helping our region, helping wherever I can… To it's to establish links of communication with these other forms of belief. But in other ways I think what's happened in America is the opposite of what Harvey has diagnosed there. Because indeed it seems that there is a strain of Christianity which has remained very dominant, and very I would say, chauvinistic, in its attitude toward others.
That's not the kind of Christianity we practice here. That's not what I want to put out into the into the world. But it is true that it does have a kind of cultural hegemony that I feel very strongly about countering in some way with a different kind of Christian discourse or a different kind of religious identity. So, on one hand yes, I think we're a different America than we were when Harvey wrote that.
On the other hand, there is this virulent strain of Christian thought which I think is preventing that pluralism from actually taking shape, and those dialogues and those conversations from actually happening. And I worry about that greatly.
What about the raw secular nature of our times that we're living in.
Well I would wonder how deeply secular the secular actually is.
When I look at American culture I see religion all around us I see forms of religion all around us that may or may not travel under the name of religion.
But I see religious orientations and beliefs happening all around us. Now whether or not that translates into our raw selfishness, I think is a really, really good question. I don't know necessarily that selfishness corresponds to the religious content. And I would say that I want to draw us as a community into these forms of religious expression that contest that form of selfishness.
I think the most perverse phrase in all of the Bible, “Am I my brother's keeper? Am I my Sister's keeper?” with the implication being that we're not attached to one another. We have no communal bonds we have no communal attachments. I want to say we do. They exist across our town lines. They exist across our national lines. They exist across our religious and cultural lines. We're attached to one another. And I want to figure out ways that religion and religious stories can help us connect in that way.
The Puritan leadership integrated their version of Protestantism into their political structure. What vestiges of Puritanism’s severe reputation actually linger in our communities today? And are they helpful to our spiritual growth in today's world?
Well I think Puritanism has gotten a bad rap over the years. And there is a strong piece of me that wants to salvage the reputation of the Puritans and do a kind of counter reading of the Puritans. Marilyn Robinson's novels have been really helpful in redirecting our public imagination back to the Puritans and helping us to understand that there's something there that's worth lingering with even if we're doing something different now. It's okay to do something different but it's also there's also something there so what are the vestiges…
Well, it pertains to some of what I was saying before: I think they did have a strong life of the mind. They were strongly words-centered so they believed in the power of writing, and the power of oratory, and the power of rhetoric, to shape lives to shape minds to shape communities. Thank God for the power of rhetoric. Thank God for the power of words they believed in the goodness of the world. Ultimately they thought that the world was God's gift and that they had a duty to use their lives well.
They were consumed with a sense of wonder and all at the natural world - again this is something that I think we in an age of climate change can learn from - there's this awe and wonder that many of them evince over the course of their discourses, that we do have from them. And again, they also have this sense that human beings and that human communities can sometimes be broken. And this is where they enter this language of sin. And it's not a popular language for many of us.
Now, however, I think underneath that word there's this sense that human beings are frail. We're prone to error and we're we need to remain humble and open to correction. I think that's a profound gift that the Puritans give to all of us in the world that we fail sometimes politically, personally, and that we need to be open to correction and open to new direction new openings.
There are some vestiges that I wouldn't want to bring into the modern world or bring into the contemporary world. They were more severe than I might have liked. They were more… Oh, I don't know, limited in their geographical, spatial imagination than I might have liked. Or their religious orientation than I might have liked.
But I don't know this is sort of an anachronism; to take our understandings of the, you know today, and project them back onto the past. Then you know they owned slaves. I mean one of the features of living In Old Lyme is to realize that there are gravestones where slaves are buried in the local cemetery. Here I live in a house across the street from the church where a slave lived in the attic.
This is a part of our history that I think we must grapple with. And we must grapple with it publicly. So, these are some of the vestiges not only of the puritans but of America.
What is the biggest challenge that you face as a minister in today's world.
There are enormous challenges and it's hard to even whittle down what the biggest one is. But if I had to if I had to pick one, I would say that it's the shrinkage of the imagination
…Of all of us, as Americans these days. And it might not just be Americans it might be the world where we somehow seem to be bounded by the borders - of our geographies, the artificial boundaries of nations, of towns, of communities, without the ability to imagine the lives of people who live outside of those borders beyond where we might exist.
We have a president right now who is declaring that our country is full; that our borders are full. And indeed, I think we're having to contest that sort of thinking on all up and down the chain. We're dealing with a problem right now here in our community where we have a food pantry that operates out of our basement, which wants to limit its distribution to the people only of a certain geographical region but not people outside of that region.
And so, what happens when these border crossings happen? Are we are we our brothers and sisters keepers or not? That to me is the biggest challenge to get people to imagine what it might be like living in South Africa. What it might be like living in Honduras, or what it might be like living in Mexico, or what it might be like living in Syria.
So, in order to help with that, we have done a lot of work around immigration over the last few years. We've done a lot of work in resettling refugees over the last few years, and indeed that's been a feature of our community's work for a long, long time now. It's to bring people here into Old Lyme who have had to flee their countries for whatever reasons whether it's food insecurity or war or economic insecurity.
They've had to flee. We try to be a place where they can feel as though they can rebuild their lives here. I want us to be a window to the rest of the world; to allow border crossings- if you will- to happen all around us wherever we go.
Steve, you've mentioned so many broad issues, complex issues. How does that distill down to your Easter message in 2019?
That's a great question for me.
Christianity, and my understanding of faith in general, is this sense of opening, this sense of continually being expanded. I call it stretch theology. I want to porousness in the boundaries of our theologies in the sense, and in the boundaries of our lives together. So, I understand it to be at the center at the heart of the Christian message.
So when it comes to Easter, I think about I think about the tableau of people that are described in that biblical scene where they go to the tomb on Easter morning. And there are several people there. And I think we're all invited to take a place among those several people.
And they look at this tomb which has somehow been opened and they don't know what to make of it.
And the scriptures tell us in particular the gospel of Luke tells us that Peter went inside the tomb went into this space of death and stayed there for a little bit. And witnessed what that space of death might look like, feel like, what it might be doing to him.
I want us his congregants on Easter morning to be willing to go into that tomb into that space of death, and consider all of the tombs all of the spaces of death that human beings are sometimes asked to enter and to live in, and then ultimately to try and get out of.
So, what I want to also then emphasize is that Peter at a certain moment turns around and looks at the open door of the tomb. There is an opening there. There is an opening out of the tomb. Out of that space of death.
And he exits. He goes out.
So, whatever it is that people might be struggling with whatever forms of social or personal metaphorical death that people might experience in their lives. I want to say that there is an opening out of it. I want to invite people to consider what it is to be inside that place, but I also want them to glimpse that opening that leads out of it, and into life, into community, into connection, into the best form of human life that we can we can imagine that we can exist in.
That's my Easter message. That's what I want to get at.
Well that's a beautiful message and we want to thank you for your thoughts and your wisdom that you've offered today.
Thank you it's so so good to be able to be in conversation with you Karen. And I'm grateful for the work that you're doing. So, thank you.
Thank you, Steve.
Two virtually back to back conflicting decisions by the Supreme Court on the right of prisoners to have a spiritual guide of their own choosing in their death chamber highlight a new frontier on the separation of church and state. In one case a black Muslim man was refused an imam in his final moments and the Supreme Court did not stop the execution. Domenique Ray was put to death on February 7th. Less than two months later a white Buddhist in Texas is also refused a spiritual advisor in his execution chamber, and this time the Supreme Court halts the execution.
The Joint Baptist Committee for Religious Freedom is a faith-based lobbying and advocacy group based in Washington DC that seeks to preserve and defend the separation of church and state. To understand what these decisions mean, Executive Director Amanda Tyler spoke with Beliefs producer Jay Woodward via Skype.
Transcript:
Amanda thank you for joining us on Beliefs. Thank you and welcome.
Oh thanks so much for having me
We asked you to come to Beliefs this week because you recently wrote an opinion article for Religion News Service about two Supreme Court decisions on religious freedom and the death penalty. Tell us about the first case, the execution of Domenique Ray.
Sure. So The issue there was Mr. Ray who had committed a heinous murder back in the 90s while he was in prison. He had converted to Islam and he had been working with a spiritual adviser with an imam who was provided through the Alabama Department of Corrections for several years. A few weeks before his scheduled execution date, the prison official came to talk to him about what was going to happen on the day of execution. And at that point he learned that the Alabama's policy was to have a Christian chaplain accompany him into the execution chamber and be with him at the moment of death. He objected to this practice. He said I don't want a Christian chaplain with me in that moment I do want to see mom who's been working with me I would like him in the chamber and at that point the state denied his request and when it came to the Supreme Court the majority justices said that Mr. Ray had waited too long to race these claims and Mr. Ray was was executed on February.
So so that's Dominique Ray. He's scheduled to be executed on February 7th and 10 days prior to which he learns that his mom will not be allowed in the chamber with him at his moment of passing. So tell us about the second case Patrick Murphy.
Yeah. So this case comes out of Texas. Patrick Murphy again committed a heinous crime. And while he was in prison, I believe, he also converted to Buddhism. And so Texas had a similar policy to Alabama that they would only allow state officials who were chaplains into the execution chamber and the only chaplains the at the state employed for this purpose were Christian or Muslim no Buddhists.
So you know he requested to the state that his that he have his Buddhist advisor present with him in the execution chamber. Again the state denied that request. He did not file his claim his with the federal court in this case until two days before his scheduled execution. So this time the courts said that his execution could go forward. On the same sort of reasoning from the Ray case that he had just waited too long this time it works its way up to the Supreme Court and they come up with the opposite decision. They say no that the state of Texas cannot go forward with this execution until it allows a Buddhist spiritual adviser in the chamber with him.
Well that doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense..!?
This is really shocking to a lot of court watchers. We felt like this court which has been very solicitous of free exercise claims very interested in protecting religious liberty in in other contexts that they would deny this prisoner. His imam was very shocking.
And then less than two months later the Court issued, basically, the exact opposite opinion.
Yeah. So we had 10 days in the Ray case two days in the Murphy case so it can't be that that it wasn't an issue of timing. And so I think a lot of people then ask the question you know what. What's the difference between these two cases right?
So that leaves us with only a couple possibilities for what that means, right? One, that the court took on board some of the public outcry regarding this decision and it affected their thinking so much that they made a contrary decision. Or two, we have to acknowledge that Dominic Ray was a black Muslim whose execution was allowed to proceed, but Patrick Murphy is a white Buddhist and so in considering his situation, the court reversed itself inside of two months.
Yeah… I tend to think it is more the first. That the justices who changed their votes in these cases were really swayed by the public outcry and the advocacy both by their colleague Justice Kagan who wrote the dissenting in the Ray case which she called the court's ruling that the execution could go forward as profoundly wrong. But the fact that the court got it right to me on the second case is small solace for Mr. Ray of course who was killed without a spiritual adviser at his side.
Now in addition to this being a fascinating moment for Supreme Court watchers, it also is important for understanding what is the state’s role in the spiritual lives of US citizens, specifically a conversation on the separation of church and state. Your organization, the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty advocates and lobbies in this space. Can you tell us about what you do?
Sure. So at B.J.C. see we defend and extend religious freedom for all people. We do it from a uniquely faith based perspective from the Baptist faith tradition and in doing so we are the only denominational based organization that works solely on religious freedom and separation of church and state. We're located in Washington right across the street from the Supreme Court. We've been doing this work for more than 80 years and a lot of our work is done with the Supreme Court filing friend of the court briefs in nearly every church state case that comes before them as well as working in advocacy with Congress and doing education with groups around the country.
A faith based perspective on religious freedoms cases is a unique perspective isn't it? There aren't many faith based organizations that so actively pursue the separation of church and state, and the rigorous enforcement of the Establishment Clause like you do. Is that correct?
I think that's true I think because we see religious freedom as uniquely protected in this country by robust protection of both of our First Amendment protections that government will not establish religion that government will stay neutral in matters of religion and that that will lead to the greatest freedom possible for all faiths and for people of no faith at all that both of those are equally important and protecting religious freedom that that serves well both people who are in a majority religion status and those in a minority status including people who don't claim a faith tradition.
So, as I understand it, that’s how we’ve been looking at these cases for the past 10 or 20 years, that we are exploring the distinctions between the freedom TO… exercise freely, and the freedom FROM interference with our practice. Are those things in tension? Are they harmonious? Is one becoming more prominent?
Yeah. I think religious freedom requires both… that they're not mutually exclusive and that in order to have freedom to practice your religion you also have to have government not taking a side in that, and that view that government must remain neutral in matters of religion is not anti-religious. If we look back at the founding of the country and the drafting of the First Amendment it was people of faith including many Baptists who insisted on government neutrality in matters of religion as a way to protect their religious exercise. That's because when governments take sides they necessarily pick and choose and religion is best left in private hands and that the government's involvement will only dilute religious practice and could of course harm it for those who are being persecuted.
So then what do the decisions in these two cases mean for your work at the Baptist Joint Committee and where are we as a country in this new turn in the conversation about how religious liberty should affect not just prisoners, but convicts on death row?
Well one I think we're having a pretty robust conversation about what religious freedom means and what it means in a pluralistic society and it's been heartening to see groups that don't always agree on these issues coming together really in defense of allowing all faiths to have representation there in the death penalty chamber. I do think it's important to look at what Texas did after the court's decision and Murphy the decision from the court again which was unsigned just said that the state may not carry out Mr. Murphy's execution unless they permit his Buddhist spiritual advisor or another Buddhist referent of the state's choosing to accompany Murphy into the execution chamber during the execution. I was reading the entirety of the opinion there was that one statement. In Justice Cavanaugh's concurrence. Again this isn't the force of the whole court it's what he thought. He gave the state kind of he thought the state might have two options. They could either allow a Buddhist Reverend or they could say no Reverend at all. And it's that second option that the state has said. They said look you know if this is gonna be the law then we're just not going to have any spiritual advisers in the chamber. And I think that's the exact wrong direction we B.J.C. say when anyone's religious freedom is denied everyone is threatened and I think that's what we see here. You know here we saw Mr. Murphy is having his religious freedom denied when his request was refused. But the state's response isn't to accommodate that religion. It's to say well if we have to provide it to you then we just won't provide it for anyone. And that of course hurts not only Mr. Murphy but every other prisoner who might be executed now without a spiritual adviser at his side.
That seems strangely petulant... As though you could say Justice Kavanaugh provided an absurd alternative by saying either provide for all faiths or no faiths. Do you suppose it was imagined that Texas would actually turn around and say well we'll choose no faith guide comfort for prisoners being put to death?
I think we see courts having a strong deference to the state in matters Prison Control and particularly in matters of execution. And so I think the Justice cabinet suggestion there was a sign of deference because of course the state's arguments in both of these cases have been, this is all about prison security. Their argument isn't that that these other faiths don't deserve representation but they say well it would somehow impact the security of the execution process. And so I think to see Texas go in that direction they're really just hunkering down on that argument. I think many of us in the religious freedom world think that that's not right. So it will be interesting to see if we see future litigation of this case as it relates to Mr. Murphy and what impact that might have. And if the court will indeed say there is actually a first amendment or a statutory right under something called the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act that provides extra protection for prisoners that they actually have an affirmative right to have a spiritual adviser in the death chamber. That could be a question that we'll be seeing in the coming weeks or months the court address.
Well that was my next question: What is the horizon for death penalty cases religious freedom cases what are we going to be talking about for the next three to five years.
Well I do think that this kind of situation where we're finding policies that are both written and then executed in a way that show a preference for a majority religion… Christianity are going to be challenged in this way by minority religions and by people who ascribe to people who identify with minority religions. It'll be interesting to see if the states respond in a similar way that instead of accommodating minority religions will just take away the accommodation for all this Supreme Court has been very solicitous of free exercise rights, but those cases have been coming up recently mostly in the context of Christians raising those claims. When we start saying free exercise rights cases coming from minority rule elections in will be it'll be interesting to see if the court is consistent in its application of the law for them.
But this particular controversy about religious freedom in the death chamber - it feels like we haven't heard the end of this because the justices are having conversations with each other in these opinions. And I think they might be reflective of conversations they're having inside and with each other at the court. And we'll see if we see future. Arguments or decisions. I do think this is an evolving area. It's. It's an interesting one and it's one that has gripped the attention of court watchers and in everyday Americans as well.
Is there anything else that you think we’ll be talking about in religious freedoms coming up? What’s going to be next?
Well the Supreme Court has another church state case pending right now. It's called American Legion vs. American Humanist Association. It's also known as the Bladensburg cross case
And this is the World War One Memorial Cross that sits at a traffic intersection, right?
That’s right. And the question before the court is whether a 40 foot cross on government land constitutes an establishment of religion. The parties who are looking to keep this cross in place have made an argument that the cross is a secular symbol. and a secular symbol that it just stands for death in general and honoring war dead, and therefore it can stay on government land.
And it's in the middle of a very busy intersection and the American Humanist Association challenged this crosses and establishment as the government taking sides and sponsoring a Christian symbol. And so the justices will have to decide the fate of this particular cross. But also. They're asking the question would you know future such memorials be allowed. So we'll see the decision on the court in this case probably this June. And it will be the BJP has been involved in this case we filed a brief saying that yes this is an establishment of religion because the cross is a religious symbol and we were responding to arguments from the other side that the cross is just a secular symbol. We say the cross is a religious symbol in fact it is the preeminent symbol of Christianity and for the government to claim that it is merely a secular symbol is offensive to Christianity as it attempts to strip the cross of its religious meaning.
Amanda Tyler thank you so much for joining us and beliefs.
Thanks so much for having me.
Roberta Green Ahmanson is a writer and philanthropist whose public activities are focused on the role of religion in public life, using history to understand the present, and the role the arts play in shaping human experience. She is also a journalist with a wide range of interests, and a longtime friend.
Where do religion and politics intersect? Should they? How?
Roberta Ahmanson joins us to discuss.
This week an Instagram star became the most recent object lesson in prejudice and bigotry. Influencer Jess Hilarious publishes a raft of posts to her social accounts reaching millions of people - telling the story of how 4 men in turbans made her feel 'threatened'. The posts were met with intense backlash.
Jess responded first with angry defense. When she tried to apologize and made things worse, the fallout only grew.
What is known: Four Sikh men were removed from the plane. Unknown is what airline they were flying or what became of them from there. To unpack the variety of moving parts, Beliefs producer Jay Woodward met with Simran Jeet Singh of the Sikh Coalition in New York to discuss this layer cake of cruel mistakes and prejudice.
Christchurch, New Zealand. 49 people shot dead at two mosques in a terrorist attack. A man has been charged with murder, having streamed the killings live on Facebook published a racist manifesto online.
This week on Beliefs we are turning the show over to our friends and colleagues at the Religion News Foundation podcast Re-Sight Islam, hosted by Qasim Rashid and Salaam Bhatti.
This talk has been edited for length - for the whole talk, visit: religionnewsfoundation.org/resightislam/
Rabbinical activism and Jewish identity. Senior Rabbi of Brooklyn's Congregation Beth Elohim Rabbi Rachel Timoner weighs in on the crosswinds and squalls for American Jews durning the Trump Administration.
A pattern of abuse by clergy widens. A series of articles in the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News reveals an investigation showing over 700 victims of sexual assault and abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention over the past 20 years.
The predators were deacons, pastors, youth pastors and other church leaders. Lead reporter Robert Downen joins us from Houston to talk about the latest round of spiritual leaders using their positions of spiritual intimacy and influence to commit significant damage to the people who seek divine guidace.
The United Kingdom is weeks away from a forced exit from the European Union that will bring unknown changes to the economy, politics, logistics, and everyday life. In advance of the Church of England General Synod in London, producer Jonathan Woodward speaks with Bishop Martin Warner of the West Sussex Diocese of Chichester.
Why do the bishops generally support the Remain campaign, while 66% of Anglicans voted Brexit?
What changes, responsibilities, and concerns does the church anticipate meeting?
Is this the first time the Isles have parted ways from the power structures on the Continent?
Will the Catholic Church's sex abuse crisis ever end?
In her new podacst Deliver Us, Maggi Van Dorn speaks as a Catholic committed to healing the church from the inside. Van Dorn and her producer Eloise Blondiau talk with our host Bill Baker on the origins of the podcast and what they hope to accomplish.
Norman Vincent Peale was one of the most famous ministers of the 20th century as one of the first radio, and later television, preachers. His program "The Art Of Living" aired for 54 years. Peale was very much at the intersection of religion and politics. He was a close friend of Richard Nixon, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Ronald Reagan, and many presidents spoke well of him.
Donald Trump attended his church, Marble Collegiate, with his parents. Both he and his two sisters were married there. Reportedly, he cited Peale as a formative influence on his life.
Who was this famous preacher and author? We're joined by someone who should know. His daughter Elizabeth Peale Allen, Chairman of the Board of Guideposts, The Blanton-Peale Institute and Counseling Center and other not-for profit organizations.
The Fordham Center on Religion and Culture was established to confront the questions arising at the intersection of religious traditions and contemporary culture. Director David Gibson came to the helm of the Center last year after a long and distinguished career as the one of the nation’s top religion reporter.
Beginning with his first beat working in Rome for Vatican Radio, Gibson wrote for various magazines and national media, such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and for Catholic publications like America magazine and Commonweal.
Charismatic Christians are spiritually related to Pentecostals through certain spiritual practices, including divine healing, prophecy and speaking in tongues. Pew Research Center estimates there are just over 300 million Charismatics worldwide.
Religion News Service reporter Jack Jenkins has been following Charismatics as their rituals and beliefs evolve into a modern political/spiritual hybrid. Jenkins joined producer Jonathan Woodward via Skype; talking through developments in the rise of a politically strengthened Charismatic movement.
Acclaimed religion reporter for the New York Times, Peter Steinfels recently authored an article in the publication Commonweal. In it he makes an impassioned, meticulously developed case that a recent grand jury report on sexual abuse in Pennsylvania was, quote, “Inaccurate, Unfair, and Misleading”.
Steinfels claims the report was surrounded by journalistic laziness, misrepresentation of the efforts made by the Catholic Church to address the crisis, and a dramatic roll-out of accusations that were not supported by the report.
Host Bill Baker speaks to Steinfels to unpack his criticisms of the report.
Qasim Rashid is a critically acclaimed author, attorney, activist and host of the Religion News Foundation podcast, Re-Sight Islam. Drawing on the recent events in Texas involving an attempt to oust a local Republican Party operative specifically because of his Muslim faith, Beliefs producer talks with Qasim about the vibrancy of this public religious discrimination and the pernicious concept of 'stealth jihad'.
It's been another foundation-shaking year in the Catholic Church as revelations of sexual predation and abuse by its most senior clerics are seemingly unending. Author Michael Sean Winters writes for the National Catholic Reporter and The Tablet. Host Bill Baker and Winters sat down to puzzle out some of the paths forward for the Church in 2019.
The wreaths, the masses, the dates... even St. Nicholas himself. Where our liturgical traditions came from, with the scholar and cleric Reverend Monsignor Alan Detscher of the St. Catherine of Siena Church in Riverside, Connecticut.
The Interfaith Center of New York is nationally recognized innovator in sparking collaboration among faith leaders. Their mission is to tackle and overcome prejudice, violence, and misunderstanding.
To understand the challenges that face an organization with this kind of mandate, especially in these politically charged days, Dr. Baker sat with Reverend Breyer to talk with us on how the landscape is changing for her work.
Shot by more than 40 filmmaking teams around the world, the film Sacred immerses the viewer in the daily use of faith and spiritual practice. At a time when religious hatreds dominate the world’s headlines, this film explores faith as primary human experience, and how people turn to ritual and prayer to navigate the milestones and crises of private life.
Join Dr. Baker for a conversation with Lennon as they unpack the challenges of directing this groundbreaking film.
Host Bill Baker sits with RNS Editor-In-Chief Bob Smietana for a conversation regarding the history and future of religion reporting in America and why religion journalism matters now.
We are proud to announce our new podcast on the news of religion, faith, and ethics from Religion News Service and Fordham University!
Join us for conversations each week with newsmakers and journalists covering modern faith across the globe, hosted by Dr. William Baker.
Have a listen, and let us know what you'd like to hear on the show! Subscribe on Podbean, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and visit us at religionnews.com/beliefs!