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