Advertise on podcast: Faith Angle

Can more faith—not less—heal our public life? For a century, scholars argued that shrinking religion's public role would make politics calmer and more rational. In the last few decades, American religious participation has fallen faster than at almost any point in the nation's history, but our politics has only grown more polarized. What happened? In this episode, we sit down with Matthew Kaemingk and Shadi Hamid, an evangelical and a Muslim, friends and collaborators across deep difference, to discuss their new book, which makes the case for religion as a constructive force in democracy. Find their book Can Religion Save Democracy? here.

In this episode, two eminent philanthropy leaders, Daniel Stid of the American Enterprise Institute and David Nassar of the John Templeton Foundation, discuss how charitable giving in America has transformed over the past three decades. Their wide-ranging and insightful conversation traces philanthropy's turn toward "outcomes-oriented" giving, the growing influence of effective altruism, and how funders interact with religion and religious communities. The discussion also tackles a deeper tension: as funders seek measurable impact, are they inadvertently narrowing the diversity of ideas they can pursue?  Daniel and David explore the questions of philanthropic pluralism, the declining share of everyday Americans who give to charity, and why religious organizations, sometimes overlooked by secular funders may hold an underappreciated key to civic renewal.   What “The Wire” Has to Teach Us about Nonprofit Performance Measurement Aspen Institute Generosity Commission Report

For decades, Americans have debated what kind of relationship there should be, if any, between religious institutions and public schools. Can schools honor the diverse religious beliefs of a student body without prioritizing one tradition? If religious institutions can use their resources to bolster public schools, should they? In today's conversation, we're joined by Bryant Jensen of Brigham Young University and Irvin Scott of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. They've coauthored a report, which argues that partnerships with faith communities can enrich student learning opportunities, especially for those in disadvantaged communities. They advocate for a "third way” that avoids the two extremes of endorsing religion in schools, on one end, or entirely excluding it from the work of schools, on the other. In this episode, we'll delve into what this "third way" relationship between faith institutions and public schools could look like, and what benefits it could bring to students, educators, and faith leaders.   Read the report here: https://wheatley.byu.edu/0000019c-fd37-d3b9-a1dc-ffffc6470000/faith-in-educational-renewal-religion-as-a-resource-to-transform-learning-opportunities

In this episode of the Faith Angle podcast, Religion & Society Director Josh Good sits down with three contributors to the new book Modeling Religious Pluralism: Cultivating Religious Equity in Today's World (Oxford University Press)--Simran Jeet Singh, Assistant Professor of Interreligious Histories at Union Theological Seminary, Diane L. Moore, Co-Director of Religion and Public Life at UTS, and Asma Uddin, Assistant Professor of Law at Michigan State University College of Law. Together they explore why religion so often gets overlooked in public life, and what it means to move beyond mere "tolerance" and toward genuine pluralism. The panel unpacks religious literacy as a framework for understanding faith's internal diversity, its constant evolution, and its deep entanglement with politics, law, and culture.

To comply with a flurry of Executive Orders issued in January, many colleges throughout the country have been renaming, restructuring, or altogether eliminating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programming. These DEI initiatives have been divisive for years. Their proponents see them as essential to ensuring fair treatment for minority students and rooting out prejudice in the academy. Their detractors see them as stifling free speech and academic debate. Emma Green, journalist at the New Yorker, and Eboo Patel, founder of Interfaith America, discuss the genesis of DEI, where it went wrong, and what might replace it in our search to create a flourishing multicultural society.   Links:   What Comes After D.E.I.? by Emma Green   Harvard, Public Trust, and a Warning for the Nonprofit Sector by Eboo Patel

Journalist Jon Rauch’s smart new book from Yale University Press, Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain With Democracy, offers three provocative and insightful essays. Though an outsider to Christianity—as he tells his long-time friend Pete Wehner of the Trinity Forum, Jon is a “gay Jewish atheist born in 1960”—Jon’s new treatise follows a dozen books, and hundreds of articles, covering topics from free inquiry to gay marriage, political realism to happiness, and the constitution of knowledge to matters of American political economy.  The book explores the history and implications of three modes of the Christian faith in America. The first Jon terms Thin Christianity, embodied by mainline Protestantism. The second is Sharp Christianity—really MAGA white evangelicalism, what Jon calls a “fear-based” church. But the third chapter, Jon makes a case for Thick Christianity, exemplified by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and other creative exilic religious minorities who have made peace with the fact of pluralism and the democratic opportunity of compromise and negotiation—the principles James Madison also affirmed. He calls this book a sort of atonement for his past arguments that American society, and its political system, would be better without the influence of religions convictions. What changed for Jon? Partly it was his realizing that religion is a load-bearing wall, in any democracy. But partly it was an emergent friendship with Pete Wehner and with other thinking believers who have enlarged Jon’s vision.   Guests Jonathan Rauch Peter Wehner   Additional Resources “Cross Purposes: Christianity's Broken Bargain with Democracy,” by Jonathan Rauch “Let It Be: Three Cheers for Apatheism” by Jonathan Rauch "Evangelicals Made a Bad Trade" by Peter Wehner

In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Brad Fulton, professor of Nonprofit Management and Social Policy at the O’Neill School of Public Affairs at Indiana University, alongside Amber Hacker, Chief of External Affairs at Interfaith America. Our guests discuss the role of religious giving in philanthropy and the surprising trends that emerge from the underlying data. Out of the $557 billion dollars given annually in the United States to charities, twenty percent of the funds come from foundations. Does religious commitment influence that giving? Do we know from available data that generosity makes a person healthier or happier? Does the generation a person’s born into—say, a Boomer vs. a Millennial—impact giving patterns? They also discuss new networking tools as it relates to philanthropic giving.    Guests Dr. Brad Fulton Amber Hacker   Additional Resources “Religious Organizations Crosscutting the Nonprofit Sector,” by Brad R. Fulton “Faith-Based Public Foundations: Identifying the Field and Assessing its Impact,” by Allison Ralph and Brad R. Fulton “Money, Meet Meaning,” by Amber Hacker and Tom Levinson

In this episode, we are joined by Jaweed Kaleem of The Los Angeles Times alongside Knox Thames, author of the new book Ending Persecution: Charting the Path to Global Religious Freedom. Knox reflects on his long career advancing the cause of religious liberty around the world, including in the some of the world's most repressive contexts. Our guests assess the current state of religious freedom across different contexts, from India to Israel and Gaza, and reflect on how the eroding of religious freedom often serves as a "canary in the coal mine" for the loss of other fundamental human rights.    Guests Knox Thames  Jaweed Kaleem   Additional Resources  Ending Persecution: Charting the Path to Global Religious Freedom, by Knox Thames "France Struggles to Confront One of Its Biggest Taboos: Race," by Jaweed Kaleem "Swastikas, bullhorns, guns: Antisemitic Incidents in U.S. Hit 43-Year High," by Jaweed Kaleem

In this episode, New York Times opinion columnist David French sits down with Pulitzer Prize winner Eliza Griswold of The New Yorker to discuss her brand new book, Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church. These two journalists with firsthand familiarity and longstanding expertise in covering religion embark on a fascinating exploration of the book's coverage of Philadelphia's Circle of Hope, a little-known yet influential progressive evangelical movement, and how the sobering disintegration of that spiritual community mirrors broader dynamics at work in American Christianity.    Guests Eliza Griswold  David French    Additional Reading  Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church, by Eliza Griswold  "The Church Preached Love and Tolerance. Then Racial Politics Tore It Apart," by David French  "Losing a Beloved Community," by Eliza Griswold

On this episode, we are joined by Elizabeth Oldfield to discuss her newly-released book Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times. After beginning her career covering religion for the BBC, Elizabeth for a decade ran a London-based think tank called Theos, which seeks to stimulate the debate about the place of religion in society, challenging and changing ideas through research, commentary and events. Under her leadership, its staff increased tenfold—and still supports podcast she hosts today, "The Sacred." Joining Elizabeth is Damir Marusic, an assignment editor at The Washington Post. Along with Shadi Hamid, a longtime friend and advisor to Faith Angle, Damir co-founded the podcast "Wisdom of Crowds." Damir writes extensively on US politics, polarization, US foreign policy, and European affairs. Bringing a non-religious vantage point, he highlights with Elizabeth key themes in Fully Alive and the two get right into it, not mincing words even when there are differing views of sin, grace, evil, and the possibilities for human community.   Guests Elizabeth Oldfield Damir Marusic   Additional Resources Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times, by Elizabeth Oldfield "The Sacred" Podcast, with Elizabeth Oldfield, a Theos Think Tank podcast  Fully Alive Substack, with Elizabeth Oldfield Wisdom of Crowds Podcast and Substack, with Damir Marusic and Shadi Hamid

Building on the legacy of Michael Cromartie (1950-2017), who founded Faith Angle Forum a quarter-century ago, MCF brings together a select group of exceptionally talented, early-career journalists for a three-day conference in the nation’s capital, focusing on the intersection of faith, culture, and journalism today. This year’s forum explored new narratives in American history, reconsidered the relationship between spirituality and vocational journalism, and examined the interplay between race, religion, and identity in diverse democracies.   Additional Resources: Michael Cromartie Forum 2024 Journalism, Religion, and Vocation with Will Saletan and Eugene Scott Religion and Journalism: An Integrating Workshop with Miranda Kennedy and Molly Ball The Spirit of Our Politics with Michael Wear and Jon Ward  The Nation That Never Was: Reconstructing America's Story with Kermit Roosevelt and Pete Wehner  Understanding Race, Religion, and Identity for Diverse Democracies with Simran Jeet Singh

In this episode, recorded at Faith Angle Miami 2024, we are joined by Brad Wilcox and Isabel Sawhill for a fascinating, timely conversation about marriage patterns, family structure, shifting gender norms, and poverty rates. In a time of deep polarization, are certain approaches better than others when it comes to exploring the benefits of marriage for children? How does marriage compare with cohabitation, and how do we avoid getting caught in culture war cul du sacs when discussing gender roles, marriage norms, and solutions that can benefit low-income families? Two seminal scholars in this field, Brad and Belle highlight themes from their decades of scholarship on these topics and, in particular, from Brad's most recent book, Get Married.   Guests W. Bradford Wilcox Isabel Sawhill   Additional Resources  "Poverty, Religion, and the New Marriage Debate," Faith Angle Miami 2024 session video with Brad Wilcox and Isabel Sawhill Brad Wilcox PPT Slides Isabel Sawhill PPT Slides "How to Think - and Talk - About Marriage Today," by Will Saletan  Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization, by Brad Wilcox Generation Unbound: Drifting into Sex and Parenthood without Marriage, by Isabel Sawhill  The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind, by Melissa Kearney

In this episode, we are joined by John Inazu, who is the Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law & Religion and Professor of Political Science at Washington University in St. Louis. This week, he published his fourth book: Learning to Disagree: The Surprising Path to Navigating Differences with Empathy and Respect. John sits down to discuss differences, respect, bridge-building, and the unique role of journalism in all this, with Matt Kaminski, editor-at-large of POLITICO, and the co-founder of POLITICO Europe. Matt served as editor-in-chief of POLITICO from 2019-2023, and he’s covered international politics for more than a quarter-century, still writing regularly on global affairs today.  Together they discuss whether it is possible to disagree in ways that somehow build bridges with neighbors, coworkers, and loved ones, and what role journalists can play in helping us see reality more clearly.   Guests John Inazu Matthew Kaminski   Additional Resources  Learning to Disagree: The Surprising Path to Navigating Differences with Empathy and Respect, by John Inazu Confident Pluralism: Surviving and Thriving Through Deep Difference, by John Inazu "'Beyond Crazy': The Liberal Jew Mugged by a Post-Oct. 7 World," by Matthew Kaminski

In this episode, we are joined by Sarah McCammon, National Political Correspondent at NPR, to discuss her book Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church. In it, Sarah tells a compelling, personal story about family, marriage, politics, and church—and she concisely boils down insights from scholars like David Gushee, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Christian Smith, and others you’ll hear her reference. If the great de-churching currently happening in American society is most acutely felt by Gen Z and Millennials, Sarah’s story is right in the heart of that. And since no one really knows where the future is headed, one question to ask is: If evangelicals or other religious Americans leave the fold, what replaces that unique sense of purpose, transcendent faith, and community? Joining Sarah to discuss that and other urgent questions is Ruth Graham, the brilliant New York Times’ religion, faith, and values reporter.   Guests: Sarah McCammon Ruth Graham   Additional Resources: The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church, by Sarah McCammon "Evangelical Writer Who Influenced Purity Culture Separates from Wife," by Sarah McCammon and Ruth Graham "Two Evangelical Leaders on 'Radical Faith'," by Ruth Graham  Testimony: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Failed a Generation, by Jon Ward

In this episode, we are joined again by Tim Alberta of The Atlantic and Michael Wear of the Center for Christianity and Public Life, to discuss Michael's brand new book The Spirit of Our Politics: Spiritual Formation and the Renovation of Public Life. Michael has been engaging the condition of American politics for more than 15 years, after serving in the White House, helping to launch and lead the AND Campaign, and advising leading policymakers, journalists, practitioners at the intersection of faith and public policy.  Drawing from this experience as well as the work and influence of noteworthy Christian philosopher Dallas Willard, Michael argues that our politics will only get better if we get better. The only way to transcend the current polarized morass we’re in is to deepen and revitalize our spiritual formation. Our politics is downstream of the kind of people we are. The Spirit of Our Politics argues that the way forward is to better align our political and civic engagement with our religious commitments. And while the democratic answer for believers is never theonomy, or Christian nationalism, or privileging a majority identity—Michael and Tim sketch the contours of what faithful, integrated living might produce.   Guests: Michael Wear  Tim Alberta    Additional Resources: The Spirit of Our Politics: Spiritual Formation and the Renovation of Public Life, by Michael Wear  The Center for Christianity & Public Life The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism, by Tim Alberta "The Surprising Link between the Gospel and Politics," by Michael Wear Wear We Are Podcast, with Michael and Melissa Wear  "Tim Alberta and Michael Wear: The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory," Faith Angle podcast episode