Podcasts about american religion

God already gave you the land. The catch? You still have to walk on it. Joshua 1 on comfort, courage, and the cost of staying put. Click here to read the sermon A New Dawn, A New Day Joshua 1:1–9 Heavenly Father, Jesus, we come before you this Sunday morning, and we lift up your holy name. Jesus, we invite your presence, your Holy Spirit power, into this moment and into this place and into our lives and our hearts and our minds. Jesus, we pray prayers of gratitude for our children who came back from camp this week. We pray prayers of protection and grace over our youth who are headed off this week. We pray a prayer of clarity for Yates Baptist Church. Jesus, we ask in your holy name that you would give us clarity over confusion, that you would cast vision for the future of your church, and that that vision would lead us where division stirs. And finally, Jesus, we declare boldly this morning that whatever you may have in store for the future of Yates Baptist Church, we know that the very best days of the kingdom of Jesus Christ are still to come. The best is yet to come. And so, Jesus, we come before you this morning, and we give you the honor and the glory and the praise that is rightly due to your name. Jesus, we pray. Amen. Well, it is such a treat to be with you today, Yates Baptist Church. I want you to know the last time I was in this building was a few years ago, when I had the opportunity, as the head of the communications team for the Tri-West Baptist Network, to come in here. You hosted our annual meeting, and I got to give a report. So it is a very different experience being here preaching rather than giving a business meeting report. This is far more enjoyable, and I'm so glad to be with you today. Knowing that I'm going to be with you for the next three weeks helps me, because it allows me to preach a sermon series rather than try to squeeze everything together into one message. So we're going to get you to that meeting and that lunch earlier than you had hoped. That's the plan. So we're starting a series today called Onward. Onward. This series is going to be all about — and you can go ahead and throw that up on the screen, there we go — moving toward the uncharted. Moving toward the uncharted. We're going to be looking at the book of Joshua, and Joshua felt like an important book for where you are right now in the life of Yates Baptist Church. So before we jump into the first chapter of Joshua today, I wanted to start by looking back at the end of the Mosaic books. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy — those are the five books we call the Law, or the Pentateuch. These are the first five books of the Bible, and they are written by Moses. When we get to the end of Deuteronomy, Moses, after forty years leading the people through the wilderness, has died — before he was ever able to cross the Jordan River into the promised land. There's something powerful about that, because Moses was a good and faithful leader for the people of Israel, but Moses was not able to experience where the people of Israel were headed. Moses died before the people had stepped into all that God had for them. One of the things that is true in the life of every church is that there are changes, there are shifts that happen in churches. Any church older than seven years has probably had more than one pastor — it's just the nature of how that works. A church has a vision that is bigger than any one person. The church has a vision that is bigger than any one generation, because the church of Jesus Christ is multigenerational. It continues, and you and I are standing on the shoulders of the giants who have come before us, generations and generations and generations, and we get the opportunity to be the people the next generation stands on the shoulders of, to go even further. I'm so grateful for that. I'm so grateful that the kingdom of God never stops with a person or with a generation. For the people of Israel, they had been in the wilderness for forty years, and Moses had been leading them faithfully. When Moses dies, there is a moment of utter chaos and confusion for the people of Israel. Suddenly they find themselves in a spot where they don't know what to do, they don't know what's next, they don't know who to listen to, they don't know who to follow. And that's where we find ourselves at the beginning of Joshua chapter one. Today we're going to read Joshua chapter one, verses one through nine. If you have your Bibles with you, I want to encourage you to pull them out. If someone wants to give one to Keith, I know he didn't have his up here, but I want to make sure everyone has their Bible. I do want to say what a treat it is to be here with Keith. When I first moved to Durham, I moved here to pastor Durham Memorial Baptist Church on the east side of town, and for the three years I was there, I had the wonderful privilege of spending every Sunday with Keith's lovely wife, Kathy. That was an incredible joy to me, and I love, Keith, that you're still here — it's so, so meaningful to me. So let's go ahead and open up your Bibles. Joshua chapter one, verses one through nine — I'm going to be reading out of the Holman Christian Standard Bible, but whatever translation you're reading out of is just fine. After the death of Moses the Lord's servant, the Lord spoke to Joshua son of Nun, who had served Moses: "Moses My servant is dead. Now you and all the people prepare to cross over the Jordan to the land I am giving the Israelites. I have given you every place where the sole of your foot treads, just as I promised Moses. Your territory will be from the wilderness and Lebanon to the great Euphrates River — all the land of the Hittites — and west to the Mediterranean Sea. No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. I will be with you, just as I was with Moses. I will not leave you or forsake you. "Be strong and courageous, for you will distribute the land I swore to their fathers to give them as an inheritance. Above all, be strong and very courageous to carefully observe the whole instruction My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or the left, so that you will have success wherever you go. This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth; you are to recite it day and night so that you may carefully observe everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do. Haven't I commanded you: be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." (Josh 1:1–9, HCSB) That's nine verses to start off the book of Joshua, and three times in nine verses we get the instruction from the Lord to be strong and courageous. [Addressing the person running the slides.] We're not ready for that yet, but you can come on back — thank you. Be strong and courageous. Hey, I do want to take a second — can we give it up for the AV volunteers in the back, for how they've had to handle everything today? Thank you so much. Yeah, we're not ready for that slide yet, but I appreciate it. So, Joshua chapter one, we get this important message: be strong, be courageous. Be strong, be courageous. Be strong, be courageous. And I'm wondering why it is that God would have to tell Joshua, this leader who's about to take over for Moses — why he would have to be told to be strong and courageous, be strong and courageous, be strong and courageous. And I want to just say, I think it is because to lead is hard. To lead into uncharted territory is impossible without God. And I wonder today — I wonder today, as you are preparing for an important meeting today and an important business meeting next week, as you prepare for today — are we a people who are afraid? Are we fearful? Are we full of doubt about what could be, about what might happen? Or are we a people who are strong and courageous? Are we a people who are ready to say there is more to do, there is more to come? The battle is not over yet, and it is time to be strong and courageous, because as long as the Lord has given breath in your lungs, you and I have work to do. The story's not over, and it's going to require that we are strong and courageous. Now, that is what I have always taken out of Joshua 1:1–9. If you've ever been involved in a church youth group, or you've ever been to a Bible study, or — strangely enough — if you've ever been a member of a sports team, Joshua 1:1–9 is not an unfamiliar passage of Scripture. And one of the things that can happen as we spend time with Scripture we're familiar with is that our familiarity can sometimes lead us to miss something that's right there on the page. Maybe this has been your experience — you've read over a passage of Scripture time and time again in your life, and something happens, whether you were at the right moment or it spoke into the right instance in your life, but something happens. You go back to that Scripture you maybe even know by heart, and suddenly something jumps out at you that never has before. And so, in this sermon that I have titled "A New Dawn, A New Day," I want to talk about what we see by looking at a principle and a promise. What we see by looking at a principle and a promise. Now see, there is a promise from God in Joshua chapter 1. In fact, there are a few promises. God is reasserting the promises he made to Moses, and he is letting Joshua know: the promises I made to Moses, those promises are true for you too, Joshua. These promises are not just for Moses. These promises are for you. But they're not just a promise — there's also a principle at play, and a principle is a foundational truth. A principle is a foundational truth. Maybe to put it a different way: a principle is a promise that is dependent on the user. A principle is a promise that is dependent on the user, meaning a principle is a truth that requires your obedience. And because of that, a principle can be a blessing or a curse. If you receive the promise, and the promise leads you to step out in obedience, then that promise has been a blessing. But if you receive the promise and do nothing with it, then the principle there is — man, that's kind of become a curse to you. So here's what I want to do this morning. I need three volunteers, and I'm going to go ahead and say this now, please take it in the loving way it's meant: I need three spry volunteers. I need three spry people. Come on up — who's ready? I need three people. If you make me start pointing at people, it's not going to go well. So, my friend right here in gray and black, I'm going to have you come on up. My friend over here in the blue shirt with the white stripe, come on up — I've got to have you come on up. And then, hey, my friend Matt Griffin is here — I'm going to have Matt come up. Come on, y'all. Oh, sir, I apologize, I'm sorry — all right, I'm going to have you stay there. I need one more volunteer who's ready to raise a hand. There we go, thank you, my friend, you can come on. Actually, you guys come on up on stage. Hey, I'm Rob. What's your name? Jeff — so good to have you come on up. And you are? Watson. Love that. And Matt, it's so good to see you — as I knock over this microphone stand. I'm going to have all three of you guys come over here. So — Matt, Jeff, Watson — Matt, Jeff, and Watson. Now, I want to take you back to the Scripture — in reading this passage recently, this is what jumped off the page to me. This is verse three: "I have given you every place where the sole of your foot treads, just as I promised Moses" (Josh 1:3, HCSB). I have given you every place where the sole of your foot treads, just as I promised Moses. So, Watson, you get to go first. I've given you — I've given you every place where the sole of your foot treads. What's your first response? I've given you every place where the sole of your foot treads. Okay, wonderful — are you staying right there? Okay, well, let's see it, come on. You've been given — Jeff, what about you? I've given you every place where the sole of your foot treads. You're going to get moving. Matt, I've given you every place where the sole of your foot treads. Where are you going? Come on. Now, thank you, thank you. By the way, give these guys a round of applause. [Congregation applauds.] Thank you so much. Okay, let's be honest here for a minute — can we be honest? How many of us have received this promise from the Lord, and we are the blessed, frozen, chosen? I've given you every place where the sole of your foot treads. "God, thank you for this, that's so awesome. I'm so grateful, God, thank you that you've given me every —" but, man, I'm comfortable right here. Oh, man, I'm comfortable. I mean, there's air — come on, y'all, there's air conditioning. There's air conditioning, and it is too hot. Oh, man, and you know, I've got this thing in my back. Oh, all right. I've given you every place where the sole of your foot treads, and we are good right here. So let me tell you the principle. Let me tell you the principle here: "I've given you every place where the sole of your foot treads, just as I promised Moses" (Josh 1:3, HCSB). It's a promise, but it's not just a promise — it's a principle. Because if we are the frozen chosen, that's it. This is what we get. God's made a promise. God said, come on, I've given it to you, let's go. Thanks, God, doing great right here. And we get to the end of our lives, and despite the faithful promise of our God, we look around at what we've done for the kingdom, and we go, yep, I had it — God gave me all of this right here. It was a promise, but the promise turned into a curse, because we didn't do anything with it. Watson, I loved your reaction: "I've given you every place where the sole of your foot treads" — well, let's dance in time then, come on, let's go. "I've given you every place where the sole of your foot treads" — well, then there is no way you are stopping me from taking ground. "I've given you every place where the sole of your foot treads" — so get moving. Because I don't want us to come to the end of our lives and go, I could have gone so much further, I could have gone so much further, but the more comfortable I got, the easier it was to go, man, I'm going to take those steps tomorrow. I'm going to take that ground tomorrow. I'm going to have that conversation tomorrow. I'm going to invite that friend to church tomorrow. And tomorrow turns into tomorrow turns into tomorrow. I know I'm not the only procrastinator in the room, right? Come on, someone else there with me — you know what it's like to see your days turn into tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. And you get to the end of a week, or a month, or a year, or a life, and this is all we've got. And the truth is: if God has promised Joshua to give him every place where the sole of his foot treads, just as he promised Moses (cf. Josh 1:3, HCSB), and Joshua were to stay still on the east side of the river, it's not just Joshua missing the opportunity. It's Joshua looking back at Moses's faithfulness and saying it didn't matter — because for all the steps you took, I'm not taking any. And that's the reality of the church. And by the way, this isn't unique to us. This has been the reality of every single generation of the church. Every single generation in the history of the church is constantly fighting against our human nature for safety and security and comfort. But God hasn't called you to that. He hasn't called us to that. God has called us out into the great wide open. God has called you to go further and do more and reach more people. Generation after generation of faithful believers who have gone before us have taken steps so that we could be right here in church. I say to you today, let's not come all this way just to stop. Let's not have come all this way just to make it this far. God has more for us. God has more for you. God has a bright future ahead — but the bright future ahead will not be easy, and it will not be safe, and it will not be comfortable. It will involve taking steps. And here's the truth — I did not do this for the sake of today's message. I went with a men's group Friday and Saturday up to Galax, Virginia, for a little two-day camping trip with some guys I know from another church. And yesterday morning, we decided, hey, let's go for a hike. I don't know if you can tell by looking at me, but I don't go on a lot of hikes. It's five and a half miles, and there's a significant amount of elevation change, but we're not running, right? It's not a race. So I'm like, yeah, we'll just take the whole morning and we'll do it. But every step was harder, and then it got to the point where all the muscles in the backs of my legs started clenching up. And the muscles are like, no, we're done. And you're like, well, we're not back to the car yet — so you're kind of grabbing your legs along the way, you're like, come on, we've got to go. And I wonder today how many of us, in our faith, need to just grab our legs — even though it's hard, even though it's not comfortable, even though it's pushing us further than we thought we could go — and just say, nope, God has given me every step, so I'm not stopping. Because here's the principle for Joshua: Joshua will only inherit what he inhabits. Joshua will only inherit what he inhabits. Let me put it to you another way — Joshua will only receive what he steps into. Right now, Durham, North Carolina, and the greater Triangle remains one of the fastest-growing areas in the country — second in the Southeast in growth behind the suburbs of Atlanta.1 But what makes this place unique, among all the other places you could be living, is a set of universities — regardless of which color blue you may wear — a collection of research and tech companies based here that is pulling in people from all around the world. Right now, there are more people coming from places in the world where Christianity is illegal, and those young adults are coming here to attend school or to work jobs. You are right now living in one of the few places on earth where, without leaving your zip code, you can impact the whole world. There's a student right now at Duke University who doesn't know Jesus, comes from a family that doesn't know Jesus, and comes from a country where people don't talk about Jesus — and God brought them to your doorstep. He brought them to you. Right now, there are teenagers in the vicinity of this church who are part of not just the least Christian, but the least faith-based generation in American history. In the history of the United States, "no religious affiliation" — the "nones," as we call them — has never been the predominant group within a generation, until my kids' generation. The largest and most rapidly growing religious affiliation in the United States among my children's generation is "none."2 And they're right here. They're right here. They live next door and across the street, and some of them are children in the developmental center. And they're part of families that don't know Jesus, that haven't heard the engaging and compelling story of what Christ has come to do for you and for me. You are right now in one of the most unique positions that any group of Christians has ever been in, in human history. The question is: are we going to stand right here and be comfortable, and watch the opportunity pass by? Are we going to find ourselves at the end of our lives with the Savior saying, "I brought them to you," and we say, "Yeah, but we were really comfortable"? God has given you a promise. I have already given it to you. I've already given you the land. I've already given you every step that you will take. Over the next two weeks, we're going to be hearing more about Joshua leading the people of Israel across the Jordan River and into the promised land. But for right now, at the end of Joshua chapter one, the people have not yet made that step. They have not yet stepped across the river. They have not yet crossed their lines of comfort and safety in order to follow God's vision and mission for their lives. What better place to end today's message than to leave us with this question? Just like Joshua and the people of Israel, we are standing on the shore of a river. We are standing on the border of where we have been and where we are going. Church — has God brought you this far just to come this far? Or is there a step to take? Is there a step to take that is worthy of the sacrifice of the generations behind us? Is there a step for us to take that says, it's not going to end here, but we are moving forward — even when it's not comfortable, even when there's no safety and security in it? Are we willing to be the kind of people who have enough faith to say, just like Joshua, we will only inherit what we inhabit? We will only receive what we live into. Church, how is God calling you to be obedient today? And are we taking those steps of obedience? Are we taking those steps like our lives depend on it? Are we taking those steps like our legacies depend on it? Are we taking those steps like the kingdom of heaven is in the balance? Because everything that we're about to read in the rest of the book of Joshua is incredible — beautiful stories of God's faithfulness. But here's what was true for Joshua, and here's what's true for you today: if Joshua didn't cross the river, he never would have seen any of it. We woke up this morning with breath in our lungs, which means God has purpose and mission for us. And I don't want you to miss it. I don't want you to miss it, because the best is yet to come. Let me pray for us. Heavenly Father, Jesus, we are so grateful for the power of your gospel. We are compelled by your Holy Spirit to take faithful steps of obedience, even when it's hard, even when it makes us uncomfortable, God. We are willing to take steps of obedience. So, God, when everything in us wants to pursue comfort, safety, security, God, will you give us the boldness to believe that the best is yet to come? Would we not make choices from a scarcity mindset, God? Would you give us an abundance mindset? Would we be a people who believe that you have placed us here and now to make a difference in the whole world? God, what could be more deserving of the name Yates than that we would go — that we would cross borders and lines of comfort and safety and security, that we might see those who are far from Christ become sons and daughters of the King? Jesus, we pray this in your name. Amen. Endnotes 1 The greater Research Triangle region (Raleigh–Durham–Chapel Hill) is widely recognized as one of the nation's fastest-growing metropolitan economies. The UNC Kenan Institute's "American Growth Project" ranks the Triangle's economy third-fastest-growing among the fifty largest U.S. metros and fourth-fastest among 150 extended metropolitan areas, while also noting that the Triangle is North Carolina's second-largest regional economy by GDP, behind Charlotte. Census-based analyses of metro population growth similarly place Raleigh–Cary in the national top tier — roughly tenth-fastest in recent rankings — and highlight that many of the country's fastest-growing metros are in the Southeast. These data support the general description of the Triangle as a leading growth center in the Southeast, though the sermon's specific claim that it is "second in the Southeast behind the suburbs of Atlanta" generalizes across the precision of the available rankings. 2 Recent survey data show that today's youngest adult cohort is the most religiously unaffiliated in recorded U.S. polling. The 2024 PRRI Census of American Religion reports that about 38–39 percent of Americans ages 18–29 identify as religiously unaffiliated ("nones"), a substantially higher share than among older generations. PRRI's breakdowns by age and gender likewise show that young adults — especially young women — have become significantly more likely to claim no religious affiliation over the past decade, rising from 32 percent in 2013 to 38 percent in 2024. The Pew Research Center's Religious Landscape Study finds that roughly 44 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds now identify as religiously unaffiliated, making the "nones" the single largest religious category in that age group and larger than any individual Christian tradition — a pattern not seen in older cohorts in prior survey waves. Works Cited Baptist News Global. "PRRI: Growth of the Religiously Unaffiliated Is Slowing." May 15, 2025. Accessed July 12, 2026. https://baptistnews.com/article/prri-growth-of-the-religiously-unaffiliated-is-slowing/. The Holy Bible, Holman Christian Standard Bible. 2004. Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers. "Markets with the Most Population Growth in 2025." RealPage Analytics, April 1, 2026. Accessed July 12, 2026. https://www.realpage.com/analytics/population-growth-markets-2025/. Pew Research Center. "Religious 'Nones' in America: Who They Are and What They Believe." January 23, 2024. Accessed July 12, 2026. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2024/01/24/religious-nones-in-america-who-they-are-and-what-they-believe/. Public Religion Research Institute. "2024 PRRI Census of American Religion." PRRI, April 14, 2026. Accessed July 12, 2026. https://www.prri.org/spotlight/2024-prri-census-of-american-religion/. Public Religion Research Institute. "Gen Z, Gender, and Religion." PRRI, March 4, 2025. Accessed July 12, 2026. https://www.prri.org/spotlight/gen-z-gender-and-religion/. "Southeast Metros Lead US Population Growth as National Gains Slow." Becker's Hospital Review, March 26, 2026. Accessed July 12, 2026. https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/strategy/southeast-metros-lead-us-population-growth-as-national-gains-slow/. UNC Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise. "From Tobacco to High Tech: Manufacturing in the Piedmont Triad and the Research Triangle." March 18, 2025. Accessed July 12, 2026. https://kenaninstitute.unc.edu/commentary/from-tobacco-to-high-tech-manufacturing-in-the-piedmont-triad-and-the-research-triangle/. © 2026 Rob Stone. All rights reserved.

If there's one thing to say about Mormonism, it's that it's distinctly American. My Mormon deconstruction both mirrored and informed my deconstruction of American exceptionalism. In honor of America's 250th anniversary, I'm breaking down how I feel about this country now, the ways Mormonism shaped my view of America, and what it was like to untangle the two. Everyone who signs up to my giveaway wins either a free WhisperVibe™ or a FREE Rose toy with any WhisperTech™ purchase! https://www.bboutique.co/vibe/girlscamp-podcast#bbpartner Join the Girlscamp: After Dark Patreon account ⁠⁠here⁠ for two bonus episodes per month and more. For more Girlscamp content follow along on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠, ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠. For ad inquiries please email girlscamp@saucemediagroup.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Earlier this year, Pew Research published the results of a study on religious diversity around the world. While the U.S. didn't even break the top 10 for most religiously diverse when all nations studied were taken into account, it ranked #1 in religious diversity out of the most populous countries.The United States certainly has a Christian tilt and a sizable population of nones. But, go to any major U.S. city and you'll spot kippahs, hijabs, turbans, and houses of worship for every major belief system on the planet.Despite the American ability to live alongside people who believe vastly different things than us, the U.S. has a horrid past with religious oppression—think of the KKK's treatment of Jewish people or the wipeout of indigenous people and their forced conversion to Christianity or the attacks on Muslims and Sikhs directly following 9/11.And while many prejudices take decades to extract the mainstream, a quick study of our history reveals that there is a clear pattern of America's ability to eventually accept religious differences.Over a century ago, the Catholics pouring in from, first, Ireland and, later, Italy, were near the bottom of the social hierarchy—pushed down by the majority protestant community who had been there much longer. Today, 6 of our 9 Supreme Court Justices are Catholic—only 2 are protestants, and one is Jewish. Pathways to success at the highest level are available to all in the U.S., even to those who, not very long ago, were seen as inferior.The U.S. has a long way to go in terms of equality and in the acceptance of all religions. But, if history repeats itself, it seems possible that even the faiths that are most discriminated against today, could also find great success here.The United States had its 250th birthday last week. And, in the last few episodes we have tried to understand the role of Christianity in America's founding. But what kinds of Christians were the first Americans? And what role did Catholics, Jews and Atheists play in the Revolution? Were there Muslims or Hindus on U.S. soil in 1776?To answer all of these questions and better understand the nature of religion at the time of America's founding I spoke with Katherine Carté. Carté is a History Professor at Southern Methodist University and wrote the book “Religion in The American Revolution: An Imperial History.”

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to historian Zev Eleff about what 250 years of Jewish life in America can teach us about religion, identity, and the future of American Judaism.In this episode we discuss:—Why did colonial Jews support the American Revolution despite knowing the dangers of opposing those in power?—How did Jewish denominations and institutions as we know them emerge in America, and what roles did Zionism and U.S. immigration policy play in this?—Where are we headed on our American Jewish journey, and what have we learned along the way?Tune in to hear a conversation about the intersection of the Jewish story and American exceptionalism.Interview begins at 11:00.Rabbi Dr. Zev Eleff is the president of Gratz College. Zev is the author and editor of nine books and more than 50 scholarly articles in the fields of Jewish Studies and American Religion, including Modern Orthodox Judaism: A Documentary History, Dyed in Crimson: Football, Faith, and Remaking Harvard's America, and Authentically Orthodox: A Tradition-Bound Faith in American Life. His research focuses on American Jewish history, sports, and Modern Orthodox history.References:Jeremiah 29:7The Greatest of All Time: A History of an American Obsession by Zev EleffAuthentically Orthodox: A Tradition-Bound Faith in American Life by Zev Eleff18Forty Podcast: “Zev Eleff: Is This the End of American Judaism?”American Judaism: A History by Jonathan D. SarnaThe Rag Race: How Jews Sewed Their Way to Success in America and the British Empire by Adam D. MendelsohnFor more 18Forty:NEWSLETTER: 18forty.org/joinCALL: (212) 582-1840EMAIL: info@18forty.orgWEBSITE: 18forty.orgIG: @18fortyX: @18_fortyWhatsApp: join hereBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/18forty-podcast--4344730/support.

This week we were excited to welcome William Stell to GracePointe! William joined GP Founding Pastor, Stan Mitchell, for a discussion around his recently released book, "Born Again Queer: A History of Evangelical Gay Activism and the Making of Antigay Christianity." About William:William Stell teaches in the Department of Religious Studies at New York University. A scholar of American religion, sexuality, disability, and race, his writing has been published in American Religion, Journal of the History of Sexuality, Theology & Sexuality, Church History, The Immanent Frame, Commonweal Magazine, Huffington Post, Patheos, and elsewhere. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University, his M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and his B.A. from Wheaton College (IL).⛪️ To learn more about who we are and what we do, visit https://gracepointe.net/about-us

Samira Mehta is the author of a new book entitled God Bless the Pill: The Surprising History of Contraception and Sexuality in American Religion. She joins Lex and Rena Yehuda for a conversation exploring her book, along with what it can teach us about the history of American religion -- and about Jewish history in particular. This episode is the 1st in an ongoing unit of Judaism Unbound episodes exploring reproductive justice, bodily autonomy, and their intersections with the Jewish past, present, and future. For 30%-off on God Bless the Pill, just head to this link and enter the code 01SOCIAL30 at checkout! ------------------------------------------------- ShavuotLIVE, Judaism Unbound's BIGGEST event of the year, is coming up! This 24-hour extravaganza of Jewish learning and unlearning will take place on Friday, May 22nd through Saturday, May 23rd. Click here to register! Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation -- support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!  

Most people today understand contraception as central to women's liberation, and when the birth control pill arrived in 1960, the media thought it would usher in a sexual revolution. But a surprising number of religious Americans in the mid-twentieth century also saw contraception as part of God's plan—a tool to create happy, prosperous American families in the post–World War II era.In God Bless the Pill: The Surprising History of Contraception and Sexuality in American Religion (UNC Press, 2026), Dr. Samira K. Mehta traces the remarkable story of how mid-twentieth-century Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish voices promoted the use of birth control and made it more accessible for many Americans. They hoped birth control methods would curb divorce rates by encouraging sexually dynamic marriages and families unstrained by “too many” children—thereby creating a postwar upwardly mobile middle class. Religious leaders also promoted this understanding of the family as tied to Cold War capitalism and encouraged neither racial nor gender equity.But then came the backlash, both from the Right—which failed to anticipate the feminist potential of contraception—and from the Left, where women, particularly women of color, sought to ensure that birth control was a tool of liberation rather than one rooted in patriarchal and racial oppression. Ultimately, Dr. Mehta offers compelling new insights into the way religion accommodates itself to social, technological, and medical change. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Most people today understand contraception as central to women's liberation, and when the birth control pill arrived in 1960, the media thought it would usher in a sexual revolution. But a surprising number of religious Americans in the mid-twentieth century also saw contraception as part of God's plan—a tool to create happy, prosperous American families in the post–World War II era.In God Bless the Pill: The Surprising History of Contraception and Sexuality in American Religion (UNC Press, 2026), Dr. Samira K. Mehta traces the remarkable story of how mid-twentieth-century Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish voices promoted the use of birth control and made it more accessible for many Americans. They hoped birth control methods would curb divorce rates by encouraging sexually dynamic marriages and families unstrained by “too many” children—thereby creating a postwar upwardly mobile middle class. Religious leaders also promoted this understanding of the family as tied to Cold War capitalism and encouraged neither racial nor gender equity.But then came the backlash, both from the Right—which failed to anticipate the feminist potential of contraception—and from the Left, where women, particularly women of color, sought to ensure that birth control was a tool of liberation rather than one rooted in patriarchal and racial oppression. Ultimately, Dr. Mehta offers compelling new insights into the way religion accommodates itself to social, technological, and medical change. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/gender-studies

Most people today understand contraception as central to women's liberation, and when the birth control pill arrived in 1960, the media thought it would usher in a sexual revolution. But a surprising number of religious Americans in the mid-twentieth century also saw contraception as part of God's plan—a tool to create happy, prosperous American families in the post–World War II era.In God Bless the Pill: The Surprising History of Contraception and Sexuality in American Religion (UNC Press, 2026), Dr. Samira K. Mehta traces the remarkable story of how mid-twentieth-century Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish voices promoted the use of birth control and made it more accessible for many Americans. They hoped birth control methods would curb divorce rates by encouraging sexually dynamic marriages and families unstrained by “too many” children—thereby creating a postwar upwardly mobile middle class. Religious leaders also promoted this understanding of the family as tied to Cold War capitalism and encouraged neither racial nor gender equity.But then came the backlash, both from the Right—which failed to anticipate the feminist potential of contraception—and from the Left, where women, particularly women of color, sought to ensure that birth control was a tool of liberation rather than one rooted in patriarchal and racial oppression. Ultimately, Dr. Mehta offers compelling new insights into the way religion accommodates itself to social, technological, and medical change. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

Most people today understand contraception as central to women's liberation, and when the birth control pill arrived in 1960, the media thought it would usher in a sexual revolution. But a surprising number of religious Americans in the mid-twentieth century also saw contraception as part of God's plan—a tool to create happy, prosperous American families in the post–World War II era.In God Bless the Pill: The Surprising History of Contraception and Sexuality in American Religion (UNC Press, 2026), Dr. Samira K. Mehta traces the remarkable story of how mid-twentieth-century Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish voices promoted the use of birth control and made it more accessible for many Americans. They hoped birth control methods would curb divorce rates by encouraging sexually dynamic marriages and families unstrained by “too many” children—thereby creating a postwar upwardly mobile middle class. Religious leaders also promoted this understanding of the family as tied to Cold War capitalism and encouraged neither racial nor gender equity.But then came the backlash, both from the Right—which failed to anticipate the feminist potential of contraception—and from the Left, where women, particularly women of color, sought to ensure that birth control was a tool of liberation rather than one rooted in patriarchal and racial oppression. Ultimately, Dr. Mehta offers compelling new insights into the way religion accommodates itself to social, technological, and medical change. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most people today understand contraception as central to women's liberation, and when the birth control pill arrived in 1960, the media thought it would usher in a sexual revolution. But a surprising number of religious Americans in the mid-twentieth century also saw contraception as part of God's plan—a tool to create happy, prosperous American families in the post–World War II era.In God Bless the Pill: The Surprising History of Contraception and Sexuality in American Religion (UNC Press, 2026), Dr. Samira K. Mehta traces the remarkable story of how mid-twentieth-century Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish voices promoted the use of birth control and made it more accessible for many Americans. They hoped birth control methods would curb divorce rates by encouraging sexually dynamic marriages and families unstrained by “too many” children—thereby creating a postwar upwardly mobile middle class. Religious leaders also promoted this understanding of the family as tied to Cold War capitalism and encouraged neither racial nor gender equity.But then came the backlash, both from the Right—which failed to anticipate the feminist potential of contraception—and from the Left, where women, particularly women of color, sought to ensure that birth control was a tool of liberation rather than one rooted in patriarchal and racial oppression. Ultimately, Dr. Mehta offers compelling new insights into the way religion accommodates itself to social, technological, and medical change. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/religion

Most people today understand contraception as central to women's liberation, and when the birth control pill arrived in 1960, the media thought it would usher in a sexual revolution. But a surprising number of religious Americans in the mid-twentieth century also saw contraception as part of God's plan—a tool to create happy, prosperous American families in the post–World War II era.In God Bless the Pill: The Surprising History of Contraception and Sexuality in American Religion (UNC Press, 2026), Dr. Samira K. Mehta traces the remarkable story of how mid-twentieth-century Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish voices promoted the use of birth control and made it more accessible for many Americans. They hoped birth control methods would curb divorce rates by encouraging sexually dynamic marriages and families unstrained by “too many” children—thereby creating a postwar upwardly mobile middle class. Religious leaders also promoted this understanding of the family as tied to Cold War capitalism and encouraged neither racial nor gender equity.But then came the backlash, both from the Right—which failed to anticipate the feminist potential of contraception—and from the Left, where women, particularly women of color, sought to ensure that birth control was a tool of liberation rather than one rooted in patriarchal and racial oppression. Ultimately, Dr. Mehta offers compelling new insights into the way religion accommodates itself to social, technological, and medical change. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most people today understand contraception as central to women's liberation, and when the birth control pill arrived in 1960, the media thought it would usher in a sexual revolution. But a surprising number of religious Americans in the mid-twentieth century also saw contraception as part of God's plan—a tool to create happy, prosperous American families in the post–World War II era.In God Bless the Pill: The Surprising History of Contraception and Sexuality in American Religion (UNC Press, 2026), Dr. Samira K. Mehta traces the remarkable story of how mid-twentieth-century Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish voices promoted the use of birth control and made it more accessible for many Americans. They hoped birth control methods would curb divorce rates by encouraging sexually dynamic marriages and families unstrained by “too many” children—thereby creating a postwar upwardly mobile middle class. Religious leaders also promoted this understanding of the family as tied to Cold War capitalism and encouraged neither racial nor gender equity.But then came the backlash, both from the Right—which failed to anticipate the feminist potential of contraception—and from the Left, where women, particularly women of color, sought to ensure that birth control was a tool of liberation rather than one rooted in patriarchal and racial oppression. Ultimately, Dr. Mehta offers compelling new insights into the way religion accommodates itself to social, technological, and medical change. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most people today understand contraception as central to women's liberation, and when the birth control pill arrived in 1960, the media thought it would usher in a sexual revolution. But a surprising number of religious Americans in the mid-twentieth century also saw contraception as part of God's plan—a tool to create happy, prosperous American families in the post–World War II era.In God Bless the Pill: The Surprising History of Contraception and Sexuality in American Religion (UNC Press, 2026), Dr. Samira K. Mehta traces the remarkable story of how mid-twentieth-century Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish voices promoted the use of birth control and made it more accessible for many Americans. They hoped birth control methods would curb divorce rates by encouraging sexually dynamic marriages and families unstrained by “too many” children—thereby creating a postwar upwardly mobile middle class. Religious leaders also promoted this understanding of the family as tied to Cold War capitalism and encouraged neither racial nor gender equity.But then came the backlash, both from the Right—which failed to anticipate the feminist potential of contraception—and from the Left, where women, particularly women of color, sought to ensure that birth control was a tool of liberation rather than one rooted in patriarchal and racial oppression. Ultimately, Dr. Mehta offers compelling new insights into the way religion accommodates itself to social, technological, and medical change. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.

Most people today understand contraception as central to women's liberation, and when the birth control pill arrived in 1960, the media thought it would usher in a sexual revolution. But a surprising number of religious Americans in the mid-twentieth century also saw contraception as part of God's plan—a tool to create happy, prosperous American families in the post–World War II era.In God Bless the Pill: The Surprising History of Contraception and Sexuality in American Religion (UNC Press, 2026), Dr. Samira K. Mehta traces the remarkable story of how mid-twentieth-century Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish voices promoted the use of birth control and made it more accessible for many Americans. They hoped birth control methods would curb divorce rates by encouraging sexually dynamic marriages and families unstrained by “too many” children—thereby creating a postwar upwardly mobile middle class. Religious leaders also promoted this understanding of the family as tied to Cold War capitalism and encouraged neither racial nor gender equity.But then came the backlash, both from the Right—which failed to anticipate the feminist potential of contraception—and from the Left, where women, particularly women of color, sought to ensure that birth control was a tool of liberation rather than one rooted in patriarchal and racial oppression. Ultimately, Dr. Mehta offers compelling new insights into the way religion accommodates itself to social, technological, and medical change. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most people today understand contraception as central to women's liberation, and when the birth control pill arrived in 1960, the media thought it would usher in a sexual revolution. But a surprising number of religious Americans in the mid-twentieth century also saw contraception as part of God's plan—a tool to create happy, prosperous American families in the post–World War II era.In God Bless the Pill: The Surprising History of Contraception and Sexuality in American Religion (UNC Press, 2026), Dr. Samira K. Mehta traces the remarkable story of how mid-twentieth-century Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish voices promoted the use of birth control and made it more accessible for many Americans. They hoped birth control methods would curb divorce rates by encouraging sexually dynamic marriages and families unstrained by “too many” children—thereby creating a postwar upwardly mobile middle class. Religious leaders also promoted this understanding of the family as tied to Cold War capitalism and encouraged neither racial nor gender equity.But then came the backlash, both from the Right—which failed to anticipate the feminist potential of contraception—and from the Left, where women, particularly women of color, sought to ensure that birth control was a tool of liberation rather than one rooted in patriarchal and racial oppression. Ultimately, Dr. Mehta offers compelling new insights into the way religion accommodates itself to social, technological, and medical change. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/book-of-the-day

We talk with Max Perry Mueller, associate professor of religious studies in the Department of Classics & Religious Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln about why he made the move from academic press, for this first book, to a trade press for his second book, and what that involved. We talk about finding an agent, the agent-author relationship, writing a trade press book proposal, creating your own peer review, how Max writes differently for trade versus academic, why we don't always get the book title we want, why shorter is better, getting tenure and promotion credit for your trade press book, the role of an academic mentor in writing, and the money reality for first-time trade press authors. Don't forget to rate and review our show and follow us on all social media platforms here: https://linktr.ee/writingitpodcast Contact us with questions, possible future topics/guests, or comments here: https://writingit.fireside.fm/contact

On this episode of the Natasha Helfer Podcast, Brittney Hartley joins to discuss different global initiatives various governments have done to protect children from religious abuse. Natasha and Brittney discuss the events and then share their thoughts on how and where things can improve. Brittney Hartley is an Atheist Spiritual Director at No Nonsense Spirituality. She has a Masters Degree in Applied Theology with a focus on the Future of American Religion. Her emphasis is in nihilism recovery, faith deconstruction, spiritual reconstruction, and feminist spirituality. You can find her on social media under the handle No Nonsense Spirituality, or on her website www.nononsensespirituality.com for courses, coaching, podcasts, and her new book. She can be found on the socials: @nononsensespirituality   To help keep this podcast going, please consider donating at natashahelfer.com and share this episode. To watch the video of this podcast, you can subscribe to Natasha's channel on Youtube and follow her professional Facebook page at natashahelfer LCMFT, CST-S. You can find all her cool resources at natashahelfer.com.  The information shared on this program is informational and should not be considered therapy. This podcast addresses many topics around mental health and sexuality and may not be suitable for minors. Some topics may elicit a trigger or emotional response so please care for yourself accordingly. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed by our guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views or feelings of Natasha Helfer or the Natasha Helfer Podcast. We provide a platform for open and diverse discussions, and it is important to recognize that different perspectives may be shared. We encourage our listeners to engage in critical thinking and form their own opinions. The intro and outro music for these episodes is by Otter Creek. Thank you for listening. And remember: Symmetry is now offering Ketamine services. To find out more, go to symcounseling.com/ketamine-services. There are also several upcoming workshops. Visit natashahelfer.com or symcounseling.com to find out more.

Anthony is Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of Notre Dame, where he teaches courses in U.S. religious history, gender and sexuality studies, the long 1980s, and visual culture. His most recent book, "Provoking Religion: Sex, Art, and the Culture Wars," examines the history of feminist and queer artists who found themselves caught in the crosshairs of the Christian Right. He is also the author of "After the Wrath of God: AIDS, Sexuality, and American Religion. " Anthony serves as a series editor for the North American Religions book series at NYU Press. Before joining Notre Dame, he was an associate professor of religion at Boston University, where he also served as the NEH Distinguished Teaching Professor and founded the Health Humanities Project.​​In this conversation, Anthony and I discussed the role of artists in the culture wars of the 80s and 90s and the ongoing relevance of material religion in contemporary art. We also shared thoughts on how artists today continue to engage with religious themes, challenge traditional narratives, and address issues of race, sexuality, and power through their work.

Kate Bowler invites two of her sharpest friends—Ross Douthat and Molly Worthen—to help her make sense of the current American religious landscape: why the long “decline” story may be shifting, why religious curiosity is popping up in unexpected places, and why the loudest forms of Christianity often feel more online, more political, and more embarrassing. Together they sort through what people mean by “Christian nationalism,” how much of it is symbolism versus policy, what weak institutions and internet incentives are doing to faith, and what still gives them hope for the church. SHOW NOTES Ross Douthat Bad Religion Believe The Deep Places Molly Worthen Apostles of Reason Spellbound Pre-order Joyful Anyway by Kate Bowler Tour dates & tickets: katebowler.com/joyfulanyway Watch the live conversation on YouTube Join Kate Bowler on Substack for the season of Lent: katebowler.substack.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode features a conversation with the founding members of the Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective, also known as the Auntylectuals. We began with each of them reflecting on their pathway into Hindu Studies and how the questions of caste and gender shaped their approaches to this field. We then discussed their motivations for starting the collective and what interventions they hoped to make through it. This took us deeper into some thorny topics: caste as a form of embodied knowledge that is often accompanied by the denial of its continued social power; the politics of Hinduism in North America where Hindus are both predominantly upper caste and a racial minority; the relationship between Hinduism and Hindutva, or Hindu nationalism; the traffic in language and tactics between Hindutva and Zionism; and the efforts to push back against the movement to make caste a protected category in U.S. anti-discrimination law. Guests: Shreena Gandhi: Professor of Religious Studies, Michigan State University Harshita Kamath: Professor of Telugu Culture, Literature, and History, Emory University Sailaja Krishnamurti: Professor of Gender Studies, Queen's University Shana Sippy, Professor of Religion, Centre College Mentioned in the episode: Rajiv Malhotra: an ideologue of the Hindu nationalist movement in the U.S. and founder of Infinity Foundation Harshita Kamath, Impersonations: The Artifice of Brahmin Masculinity in South Indian Dance Amar Chitra Katha: an Indian comic book publisher whose comics are hugely popular and widely available in India and the Indian diaspora. Sailaja Krishnamurti, “Learning about Hindu Religion through Comics and Popular Culture,” David Yoo and Khyati Y Joshi eds. Envisioning Religion, Race and Asian Americans, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 207-226, 2020. Babri Masjid: a 16th century mosque that became the target of Hindu nationalist mobilization and was destroyed by vigilante mobs in December 1992. Marko Geslani, “A Model Minority Religion: The Race of Hindu Studies,” American Religion, forthcoming. Thenmozhi Soundarajan, The Trauma of Caste Sarah Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective, “Feminist Critical Hindu Studies in formation” Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective, “Hindu fragility and the politics of mimicry in North America” Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective, “Hinduphobia is a smokescreen for Hindu nationalists” Shana Sippy and Sailaja Krishnamurti, “Not all Hinduism is Hindutva, but Hindutva is in fact Hinduism” Shana Sippy, “Strange and Storied Alliances: Hindus and Jews, India and Israel,” manuscript in progress Shana Sippy, "Victimization, Supremacism, Solidarity, and the Affective and Emulative Politics of American Hindus" Tomako Masuzawa, The Invention of World Religions, Or How European Universalism Was Preserved in the Language of Pluralism Shreena Gandhi, “Framing Islam as American Religion Despite White Supremacy” Equality Labs is a South Asian Dalit civil rights organization. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

This episode features a conversation with the founding members of the Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective, also known as the Auntylectuals. We began with each of them reflecting on their pathway into Hindu Studies and how the questions of caste and gender shaped their approaches to this field. We then discussed their motivations for starting the collective and what interventions they hoped to make through it. This took us deeper into some thorny topics: caste as a form of embodied knowledge that is often accompanied by the denial of its continued social power; the politics of Hinduism in North America where Hindus are both predominantly upper caste and a racial minority; the relationship between Hinduism and Hindutva, or Hindu nationalism; the traffic in language and tactics between Hindutva and Zionism; and the efforts to push back against the movement to make caste a protected category in U.S. anti-discrimination law. Guests: Shreena Gandhi: Professor of Religious Studies, Michigan State University Harshita Kamath: Professor of Telugu Culture, Literature, and History, Emory University Sailaja Krishnamurti: Professor of Gender Studies, Queen's University Shana Sippy, Professor of Religion, Centre College Mentioned in the episode: Rajiv Malhotra: an ideologue of the Hindu nationalist movement in the U.S. and founder of Infinity Foundation Harshita Kamath, Impersonations: The Artifice of Brahmin Masculinity in South Indian Dance Amar Chitra Katha: an Indian comic book publisher whose comics are hugely popular and widely available in India and the Indian diaspora. Sailaja Krishnamurti, “Learning about Hindu Religion through Comics and Popular Culture,” David Yoo and Khyati Y Joshi eds. Envisioning Religion, Race and Asian Americans, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 207-226, 2020. Babri Masjid: a 16th century mosque that became the target of Hindu nationalist mobilization and was destroyed by vigilante mobs in December 1992. Marko Geslani, “A Model Minority Religion: The Race of Hindu Studies,” American Religion, forthcoming. Thenmozhi Soundarajan, The Trauma of Caste Sarah Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective, “Feminist Critical Hindu Studies in formation” Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective, “Hindu fragility and the politics of mimicry in North America” Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective, “Hinduphobia is a smokescreen for Hindu nationalists” Shana Sippy and Sailaja Krishnamurti, “Not all Hinduism is Hindutva, but Hindutva is in fact Hinduism” Shana Sippy, “Strange and Storied Alliances: Hindus and Jews, India and Israel,” manuscript in progress Shana Sippy, "Victimization, Supremacism, Solidarity, and the Affective and Emulative Politics of American Hindus" Tomako Masuzawa, The Invention of World Religions, Or How European Universalism Was Preserved in the Language of Pluralism Shreena Gandhi, “Framing Islam as American Religion Despite White Supremacy” Equality Labs is a South Asian Dalit civil rights organization. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/gender-studies

This episode features a conversation with the founding members of the Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective, also known as the Auntylectuals. We began with each of them reflecting on their pathway into Hindu Studies and how the questions of caste and gender shaped their approaches to this field. We then discussed their motivations for starting the collective and what interventions they hoped to make through it. This took us deeper into some thorny topics: caste as a form of embodied knowledge that is often accompanied by the denial of its continued social power; the politics of Hinduism in North America where Hindus are both predominantly upper caste and a racial minority; the relationship between Hinduism and Hindutva, or Hindu nationalism; the traffic in language and tactics between Hindutva and Zionism; and the efforts to push back against the movement to make caste a protected category in U.S. anti-discrimination law. Guests: Shreena Gandhi: Professor of Religious Studies, Michigan State University Harshita Kamath: Professor of Telugu Culture, Literature, and History, Emory University Sailaja Krishnamurti: Professor of Gender Studies, Queen's University Shana Sippy, Professor of Religion, Centre College Mentioned in the episode: Rajiv Malhotra: an ideologue of the Hindu nationalist movement in the U.S. and founder of Infinity Foundation Harshita Kamath, Impersonations: The Artifice of Brahmin Masculinity in South Indian Dance Amar Chitra Katha: an Indian comic book publisher whose comics are hugely popular and widely available in India and the Indian diaspora. Sailaja Krishnamurti, “Learning about Hindu Religion through Comics and Popular Culture,” David Yoo and Khyati Y Joshi eds. Envisioning Religion, Race and Asian Americans, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 207-226, 2020. Babri Masjid: a 16th century mosque that became the target of Hindu nationalist mobilization and was destroyed by vigilante mobs in December 1992. Marko Geslani, “A Model Minority Religion: The Race of Hindu Studies,” American Religion, forthcoming. Thenmozhi Soundarajan, The Trauma of Caste Sarah Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective, “Feminist Critical Hindu Studies in formation” Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective, “Hindu fragility and the politics of mimicry in North America” Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective, “Hinduphobia is a smokescreen for Hindu nationalists” Shana Sippy and Sailaja Krishnamurti, “Not all Hinduism is Hindutva, but Hindutva is in fact Hinduism” Shana Sippy, “Strange and Storied Alliances: Hindus and Jews, India and Israel,” manuscript in progress Shana Sippy, "Victimization, Supremacism, Solidarity, and the Affective and Emulative Politics of American Hindus" Tomako Masuzawa, The Invention of World Religions, Or How European Universalism Was Preserved in the Language of Pluralism Shreena Gandhi, “Framing Islam as American Religion Despite White Supremacy” Equality Labs is a South Asian Dalit civil rights organization. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory

This episode features a conversation with the founding members of the Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective, also known as the Auntylectuals. We began with each of them reflecting on their pathway into Hindu Studies and how the questions of caste and gender shaped their approaches to this field. We then discussed their motivations for starting the collective and what interventions they hoped to make through it. This took us deeper into some thorny topics: caste as a form of embodied knowledge that is often accompanied by the denial of its continued social power; the politics of Hinduism in North America where Hindus are both predominantly upper caste and a racial minority; the relationship between Hinduism and Hindutva, or Hindu nationalism; the traffic in language and tactics between Hindutva and Zionism; and the efforts to push back against the movement to make caste a protected category in U.S. anti-discrimination law. Guests: Shreena Gandhi: Professor of Religious Studies, Michigan State University Harshita Kamath: Professor of Telugu Culture, Literature, and History, Emory University Sailaja Krishnamurti: Professor of Gender Studies, Queen's University Shana Sippy, Professor of Religion, Centre College Mentioned in the episode: Rajiv Malhotra: an ideologue of the Hindu nationalist movement in the U.S. and founder of Infinity Foundation Harshita Kamath, Impersonations: The Artifice of Brahmin Masculinity in South Indian Dance Amar Chitra Katha: an Indian comic book publisher whose comics are hugely popular and widely available in India and the Indian diaspora. Sailaja Krishnamurti, “Learning about Hindu Religion through Comics and Popular Culture,” David Yoo and Khyati Y Joshi eds. Envisioning Religion, Race and Asian Americans, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 207-226, 2020. Babri Masjid: a 16th century mosque that became the target of Hindu nationalist mobilization and was destroyed by vigilante mobs in December 1992. Marko Geslani, “A Model Minority Religion: The Race of Hindu Studies,” American Religion, forthcoming. Thenmozhi Soundarajan, The Trauma of Caste Sarah Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective, “Feminist Critical Hindu Studies in formation” Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective, “Hindu fragility and the politics of mimicry in North America” Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective, “Hinduphobia is a smokescreen for Hindu nationalists” Shana Sippy and Sailaja Krishnamurti, “Not all Hinduism is Hindutva, but Hindutva is in fact Hinduism” Shana Sippy, “Strange and Storied Alliances: Hindus and Jews, India and Israel,” manuscript in progress Shana Sippy, "Victimization, Supremacism, Solidarity, and the Affective and Emulative Politics of American Hindus" Tomako Masuzawa, The Invention of World Religions, Or How European Universalism Was Preserved in the Language of Pluralism Shreena Gandhi, “Framing Islam as American Religion Despite White Supremacy” Equality Labs is a South Asian Dalit civil rights organization. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/anthropology

This episode features a conversation with the founding members of the Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective, also known as the Auntylectuals. We began with each of them reflecting on their pathway into Hindu Studies and how the questions of caste and gender shaped their approaches to this field. We then discussed their motivations for starting the collective and what interventions they hoped to make through it. This took us deeper into some thorny topics: caste as a form of embodied knowledge that is often accompanied by the denial of its continued social power; the politics of Hinduism in North America where Hindus are both predominantly upper caste and a racial minority; the relationship between Hinduism and Hindutva, or Hindu nationalism; the traffic in language and tactics between Hindutva and Zionism; and the efforts to push back against the movement to make caste a protected category in U.S. anti-discrimination law. Guests: Shreena Gandhi: Professor of Religious Studies, Michigan State University Harshita Kamath: Professor of Telugu Culture, Literature, and History, Emory University Sailaja Krishnamurti: Professor of Gender Studies, Queen's University Shana Sippy, Professor of Religion, Centre College Mentioned in the episode: Rajiv Malhotra: an ideologue of the Hindu nationalist movement in the U.S. and founder of Infinity Foundation Harshita Kamath, Impersonations: The Artifice of Brahmin Masculinity in South Indian Dance Amar Chitra Katha: an Indian comic book publisher whose comics are hugely popular and widely available in India and the Indian diaspora. Sailaja Krishnamurti, “Learning about Hindu Religion through Comics and Popular Culture,” David Yoo and Khyati Y Joshi eds. Envisioning Religion, Race and Asian Americans, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 207-226, 2020. Babri Masjid: a 16th century mosque that became the target of Hindu nationalist mobilization and was destroyed by vigilante mobs in December 1992. Marko Geslani, “A Model Minority Religion: The Race of Hindu Studies,” American Religion, forthcoming. Thenmozhi Soundarajan, The Trauma of Caste Sarah Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective, “Feminist Critical Hindu Studies in formation” Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective, “Hindu fragility and the politics of mimicry in North America” Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective, “Hinduphobia is a smokescreen for Hindu nationalists” Shana Sippy and Sailaja Krishnamurti, “Not all Hinduism is Hindutva, but Hindutva is in fact Hinduism” Shana Sippy, “Strange and Storied Alliances: Hindus and Jews, India and Israel,” manuscript in progress Shana Sippy, "Victimization, Supremacism, Solidarity, and the Affective and Emulative Politics of American Hindus" Tomako Masuzawa, The Invention of World Religions, Or How European Universalism Was Preserved in the Language of Pluralism Shreena Gandhi, “Framing Islam as American Religion Despite White Supremacy” Equality Labs is a South Asian Dalit civil rights organization. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/south-asian-studies

This episode features a conversation with the founding members of the Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective, also known as the Auntylectuals. We began with each of them reflecting on their pathway into Hindu Studies and how the questions of caste and gender shaped their approaches to this field. We then discussed their motivations for starting the collective and what interventions they hoped to make through it. This took us deeper into some thorny topics: caste as a form of embodied knowledge that is often accompanied by the denial of its continued social power; the politics of Hinduism in North America where Hindus are both predominantly upper caste and a racial minority; the relationship between Hinduism and Hindutva, or Hindu nationalism; the traffic in language and tactics between Hindutva and Zionism; and the efforts to push back against the movement to make caste a protected category in U.S. anti-discrimination law. Guests: Shreena Gandhi: Professor of Religious Studies, Michigan State University Harshita Kamath: Professor of Telugu Culture, Literature, and History, Emory University Sailaja Krishnamurti: Professor of Gender Studies, Queen's University Shana Sippy, Professor of Religion, Centre College Mentioned in the episode: Rajiv Malhotra: an ideologue of the Hindu nationalist movement in the U.S. and founder of Infinity Foundation Harshita Kamath, Impersonations: The Artifice of Brahmin Masculinity in South Indian Dance Amar Chitra Katha: an Indian comic book publisher whose comics are hugely popular and widely available in India and the Indian diaspora. Sailaja Krishnamurti, “Learning about Hindu Religion through Comics and Popular Culture,” David Yoo and Khyati Y Joshi eds. Envisioning Religion, Race and Asian Americans, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 207-226, 2020. Babri Masjid: a 16th century mosque that became the target of Hindu nationalist mobilization and was destroyed by vigilante mobs in December 1992. Marko Geslani, “A Model Minority Religion: The Race of Hindu Studies,” American Religion, forthcoming. Thenmozhi Soundarajan, The Trauma of Caste Sarah Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective, “Feminist Critical Hindu Studies in formation” Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective, “Hindu fragility and the politics of mimicry in North America” Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective, “Hinduphobia is a smokescreen for Hindu nationalists” Shana Sippy and Sailaja Krishnamurti, “Not all Hinduism is Hindutva, but Hindutva is in fact Hinduism” Shana Sippy, “Strange and Storied Alliances: Hindus and Jews, India and Israel,” manuscript in progress Shana Sippy, "Victimization, Supremacism, Solidarity, and the Affective and Emulative Politics of American Hindus" Tomako Masuzawa, The Invention of World Religions, Or How European Universalism Was Preserved in the Language of Pluralism Shreena Gandhi, “Framing Islam as American Religion Despite White Supremacy” Equality Labs is a South Asian Dalit civil rights organization. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/indian-religions

In this week's conversation between Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye, they discuss the reasons that some people who are raised in the Christian faith choose to walk away from it, while others remain committed Christ followers. As you can imagine, the faith of the parents and how that's fleshed out in their lives is a huge factor. Episode Links At the top of the episode, Alexis noted that today's topic was prompted by Pew Research Center's “Religious Landscape Study” - a landmark study and truly the gold standard of its kind. Religion News Service picked up on part of the study in a recent article titled, “Why do some people stay in their faith and others leave? A Pew report offers clues.” You can read that article HERE. Both Alexis and Dr. White mentioned that other findings from the “Religious Landscape Study” have been the topic of other podcast discussions and the Church & Culture blog. Here is where you can find those on the Church & Culture website: CCP141: On the Largest, Most Recent Survey of American Religion “The Stall of the Nones” “Gen Z Church Attendance” “A Revival... or a Moment?” Dr. White noted that research from Dr. Christian Smith has been insightful in netting out the huge role that parents play in the faith of their children. You can explore his “National Study of Youth & Religion” HERE. As a father of four and grandfather of 16, Dr. White is passionate about the role of parents in the lives of their children. You can find sermon series that he's given at Mecklenburg Community Church on parenting HERE. Dr. White referenced articles and interviews with Derek Thompson and Richard Dawkins regarding the idea that Christianity is not about a religion, but rather a relationship with Jesus. And that relational component is what's missing from some churches. Here are those stories for you: Derek Thompson, “The True Cost of the Churchgoing Bust,” The Atlantic, read online. LBC video post of Richard Dawkins on X, watch here. Walter Sánchez Silva, “Famous Atheist Richard Dawkins Says He Considers Himself a ‘Cultural Christian,'” Catholic News Agency, read online. Finally, Dr. White discussed the importance of apologetics when it comes to the Christian faith - knowing why you believe what you believe. He has given a number of series at Meck that are incredibly helpful in this arena. You can find them all gathered under the category of “Exploring Christianity” HERE. For those of you who are new to Church & Culture, we'd love to invite you to subscribe (for free of course) to the twice-weekly Church & Culture blog and check out the Daily Headline News - a collection of headlines from around the globe each weekday. We'd also love to hear from you if there is a topic that you'd like to see discussed on the Church & Culture Podcast in an upcoming episode. You can find the form to submit your questions at the bottom of the podcast page HERE.

Why Are Mormons the “Face” of American Religion? | Pew 2024, Pop Culture, & LDS Identity — WARD RADIOCardon Ellis and Jonah Barnes break down why The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often called Mormons) has become the cultural symbol of religious commitment in America. Using insights from the Pew Research Center's 2024 Religious Landscape Survey, they explore why Latter-day Saints top nearly every chart on church attendance, prayer, scripture study, family involvement, and community life.From pop-culture parodies to demographic trends, this conversation digs into the data and the stereotypes to understand how Mormonism became the go-to target for religious satire—and why that might actually be a compliment.

Send us a textDo denominations serve a purpose, or do they hinder Christian fellowship?The answer is YES!  www.LeagueOfLogic.com

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Ralph H. Craig III about his beginnings as a scholar of Buddhism, background in yoga practice, his work on Mahāyāna Buddhism, reading the Lotus Sūtra, Buddhist preachers (dharmabānaka), and more. We also preview his upcoming online course, BS 113 | Mahāyāna Buddhism, which will explore these issues in more depth.Speaker BioRalph H. Craig III is an interdisciplinary scholar of religion, whose research focuses on South Asian Buddhism and American Buddhism. He received his B.A. in Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University and his Ph.D. in Religious Studies at Stanford University. His research interests include memoir, popular culture, yoga/meditation theory, religious experience and authority. He works with textual materials in Sanskrit, Pāli, Buddhist Chinese and Classical Tibetan. His work has appeared in the journals American Religion, Buddhist-Christian Studies, and the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies; in Lion's Roar and Tricycle magazines; on the American Academy of Religion's Reading Religion website; and the 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha. His first book was Dancing in My Dreams: A Spiritual Biography of Tina Turner (Eerdmans Publishing, 2023) which explores the place of religion in the life and career of Tina Turner and examines her development as a Black Buddhist teacher. Among other forthcoming projects, his next book project is a monograph on preachers in Mahāyāna Buddhist sūtras.Episode LinksBS 113 | Mahāyāna Buddhismhttps://rhcraig.comDancing in My Dreams: A Spiritual Biography of Tina Turner (2023)

Teaching history to a middle schooler is a very different task than teaching a university student, but those doing the teaching have a lot in common (and could probably learn a lot from each other). In this episode, recorded as part of a live event sponsored by the Tennessee Council for History Education, Ben is joined by his MTSU colleague (and friend of the show) Andy Polk, 6th grade teacher Rupa Charles, and high school teacher Brandon Eldridge, for a conversation about what it's like to teach history in 2025, the highs and lows of the profession, and what we wish those in our communities knew about the work we do to better our students' lives.   A special thanks to Kira Duke at TNCHE for organizing this event and to Will Ackerman at Metro Nashville Public Schools for handling the a/v.   If you enjoy this episode, make sure to check out our conversation with Andy Polk about his book, Faith in Freedom: Propaganda, Presidential Politics, and the Making of an American Religion in RTN episode number 216.   This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

In the late twentieth century, artists were on the front lines of the culture wars. Leaders of the Christian Right in the U.S. made a national spectacle out of feminist and queer art, blasting it as sacrilegious or pornographic--and sometimes both. On the bully pulpits of television and talk radio, as well as in the halls of Congress, conservatives denounced artists ranging from Robert Mapplethorpe and Judy Chicago to Marlon Riggs and David Wojnarowicz. Conservatives, alarmed by shifting sex and gender norms, collided with progressive artists who were confronting sexism, homophobia, and racism. In Provoking Religion: Sex, Art, and the Culture Wars (Oxford University Press, 2025), Anthony Petro offers a compelling new history of the culture wars that places competing moralities of gender and sexuality alongside competing visions of the sacred. The modern culture wars, he shows, are best understood not as contests pitting religious conservatives against secular activists, but as a series of ongoing historical struggles to define the relationship between the sacred and the political. Through captivating case studies of "subversive" artists, Provoking Religion illuminates the underside of the culture wars, revealing how progressive artists and activists rendered from those most apparently profane aspects of human life-the stuff of conservatives' worst nightmares--their own haunting visions of the sacred. Anthony M. Petro is Associate Professor in the Department of American Studies at University of Notre Dame (effective fall 2025). His first book, After the Wrath of God: AIDS, Sexuality, and American Religion, was a finalist for the Religion Newswriters Association's book award for nonfiction. An early chapter from this book also won the 2012 LGBTQ Religious History Award from the LGBTQ Religious Archives Network. In 2019-2020, Petro was a member of the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. Clayton Jarrard is a graduate student at NYU's XE: Experimental Humanities & Social Engagement program. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In the late twentieth century, artists were on the front lines of the culture wars. Leaders of the Christian Right in the U.S. made a national spectacle out of feminist and queer art, blasting it as sacrilegious or pornographic--and sometimes both. On the bully pulpits of television and talk radio, as well as in the halls of Congress, conservatives denounced artists ranging from Robert Mapplethorpe and Judy Chicago to Marlon Riggs and David Wojnarowicz. Conservatives, alarmed by shifting sex and gender norms, collided with progressive artists who were confronting sexism, homophobia, and racism. In Provoking Religion: Sex, Art, and the Culture Wars (Oxford University Press, 2025), Anthony Petro offers a compelling new history of the culture wars that places competing moralities of gender and sexuality alongside competing visions of the sacred. The modern culture wars, he shows, are best understood not as contests pitting religious conservatives against secular activists, but as a series of ongoing historical struggles to define the relationship between the sacred and the political. Through captivating case studies of "subversive" artists, Provoking Religion illuminates the underside of the culture wars, revealing how progressive artists and activists rendered from those most apparently profane aspects of human life-the stuff of conservatives' worst nightmares--their own haunting visions of the sacred. Anthony M. Petro is Associate Professor in the Department of American Studies at University of Notre Dame (effective fall 2025). His first book, After the Wrath of God: AIDS, Sexuality, and American Religion, was a finalist for the Religion Newswriters Association's book award for nonfiction. An early chapter from this book also won the 2012 LGBTQ Religious History Award from the LGBTQ Religious Archives Network. In 2019-2020, Petro was a member of the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. Clayton Jarrard is a graduate student at NYU's XE: Experimental Humanities & Social Engagement program. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In the late twentieth century, artists were on the front lines of the culture wars. Leaders of the Christian Right in the U.S. made a national spectacle out of feminist and queer art, blasting it as sacrilegious or pornographic--and sometimes both. On the bully pulpits of television and talk radio, as well as in the halls of Congress, conservatives denounced artists ranging from Robert Mapplethorpe and Judy Chicago to Marlon Riggs and David Wojnarowicz. Conservatives, alarmed by shifting sex and gender norms, collided with progressive artists who were confronting sexism, homophobia, and racism. In Provoking Religion: Sex, Art, and the Culture Wars (Oxford University Press, 2025), Anthony Petro offers a compelling new history of the culture wars that places competing moralities of gender and sexuality alongside competing visions of the sacred. The modern culture wars, he shows, are best understood not as contests pitting religious conservatives against secular activists, but as a series of ongoing historical struggles to define the relationship between the sacred and the political. Through captivating case studies of "subversive" artists, Provoking Religion illuminates the underside of the culture wars, revealing how progressive artists and activists rendered from those most apparently profane aspects of human life-the stuff of conservatives' worst nightmares--their own haunting visions of the sacred. Anthony M. Petro is Associate Professor in the Department of American Studies at University of Notre Dame (effective fall 2025). His first book, After the Wrath of God: AIDS, Sexuality, and American Religion, was a finalist for the Religion Newswriters Association's book award for nonfiction. An early chapter from this book also won the 2012 LGBTQ Religious History Award from the LGBTQ Religious Archives Network. In 2019-2020, Petro was a member of the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. Clayton Jarrard is a graduate student at NYU's XE: Experimental Humanities & Social Engagement program. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/gender-studies

In the late twentieth century, artists were on the front lines of the culture wars. Leaders of the Christian Right in the U.S. made a national spectacle out of feminist and queer art, blasting it as sacrilegious or pornographic--and sometimes both. On the bully pulpits of television and talk radio, as well as in the halls of Congress, conservatives denounced artists ranging from Robert Mapplethorpe and Judy Chicago to Marlon Riggs and David Wojnarowicz. Conservatives, alarmed by shifting sex and gender norms, collided with progressive artists who were confronting sexism, homophobia, and racism. In Provoking Religion: Sex, Art, and the Culture Wars (Oxford University Press, 2025), Anthony Petro offers a compelling new history of the culture wars that places competing moralities of gender and sexuality alongside competing visions of the sacred. The modern culture wars, he shows, are best understood not as contests pitting religious conservatives against secular activists, but as a series of ongoing historical struggles to define the relationship between the sacred and the political. Through captivating case studies of "subversive" artists, Provoking Religion illuminates the underside of the culture wars, revealing how progressive artists and activists rendered from those most apparently profane aspects of human life-the stuff of conservatives' worst nightmares--their own haunting visions of the sacred. Anthony M. Petro is Associate Professor in the Department of American Studies at University of Notre Dame (effective fall 2025). His first book, After the Wrath of God: AIDS, Sexuality, and American Religion, was a finalist for the Religion Newswriters Association's book award for nonfiction. An early chapter from this book also won the 2012 LGBTQ Religious History Award from the LGBTQ Religious Archives Network. In 2019-2020, Petro was a member of the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. Clayton Jarrard is a graduate student at NYU's XE: Experimental Humanities & Social Engagement program. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

In the late twentieth century, artists were on the front lines of the culture wars. Leaders of the Christian Right in the U.S. made a national spectacle out of feminist and queer art, blasting it as sacrilegious or pornographic--and sometimes both. On the bully pulpits of television and talk radio, as well as in the halls of Congress, conservatives denounced artists ranging from Robert Mapplethorpe and Judy Chicago to Marlon Riggs and David Wojnarowicz. Conservatives, alarmed by shifting sex and gender norms, collided with progressive artists who were confronting sexism, homophobia, and racism. In Provoking Religion: Sex, Art, and the Culture Wars (Oxford University Press, 2025), Anthony Petro offers a compelling new history of the culture wars that places competing moralities of gender and sexuality alongside competing visions of the sacred. The modern culture wars, he shows, are best understood not as contests pitting religious conservatives against secular activists, but as a series of ongoing historical struggles to define the relationship between the sacred and the political. Through captivating case studies of "subversive" artists, Provoking Religion illuminates the underside of the culture wars, revealing how progressive artists and activists rendered from those most apparently profane aspects of human life-the stuff of conservatives' worst nightmares--their own haunting visions of the sacred. Anthony M. Petro is Associate Professor in the Department of American Studies at University of Notre Dame (effective fall 2025). His first book, After the Wrath of God: AIDS, Sexuality, and American Religion, was a finalist for the Religion Newswriters Association's book award for nonfiction. An early chapter from this book also won the 2012 LGBTQ Religious History Award from the LGBTQ Religious Archives Network. In 2019-2020, Petro was a member of the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. Clayton Jarrard is a graduate student at NYU's XE: Experimental Humanities & Social Engagement program. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/art

In the late twentieth century, artists were on the front lines of the culture wars. Leaders of the Christian Right in the U.S. made a national spectacle out of feminist and queer art, blasting it as sacrilegious or pornographic--and sometimes both. On the bully pulpits of television and talk radio, as well as in the halls of Congress, conservatives denounced artists ranging from Robert Mapplethorpe and Judy Chicago to Marlon Riggs and David Wojnarowicz. Conservatives, alarmed by shifting sex and gender norms, collided with progressive artists who were confronting sexism, homophobia, and racism. In Provoking Religion: Sex, Art, and the Culture Wars (Oxford University Press, 2025), Anthony Petro offers a compelling new history of the culture wars that places competing moralities of gender and sexuality alongside competing visions of the sacred. The modern culture wars, he shows, are best understood not as contests pitting religious conservatives against secular activists, but as a series of ongoing historical struggles to define the relationship between the sacred and the political. Through captivating case studies of "subversive" artists, Provoking Religion illuminates the underside of the culture wars, revealing how progressive artists and activists rendered from those most apparently profane aspects of human life-the stuff of conservatives' worst nightmares--their own haunting visions of the sacred. Anthony M. Petro is Associate Professor in the Department of American Studies at University of Notre Dame (effective fall 2025). His first book, After the Wrath of God: AIDS, Sexuality, and American Religion, was a finalist for the Religion Newswriters Association's book award for nonfiction. An early chapter from this book also won the 2012 LGBTQ Religious History Award from the LGBTQ Religious Archives Network. In 2019-2020, Petro was a member of the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. Clayton Jarrard is a graduate student at NYU's XE: Experimental Humanities & Social Engagement program. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/lgbtq-studies

In the late twentieth century, artists were on the front lines of the culture wars. Leaders of the Christian Right in the U.S. made a national spectacle out of feminist and queer art, blasting it as sacrilegious or pornographic--and sometimes both. On the bully pulpits of television and talk radio, as well as in the halls of Congress, conservatives denounced artists ranging from Robert Mapplethorpe and Judy Chicago to Marlon Riggs and David Wojnarowicz. Conservatives, alarmed by shifting sex and gender norms, collided with progressive artists who were confronting sexism, homophobia, and racism. In Provoking Religion: Sex, Art, and the Culture Wars (Oxford University Press, 2025), Anthony Petro offers a compelling new history of the culture wars that places competing moralities of gender and sexuality alongside competing visions of the sacred. The modern culture wars, he shows, are best understood not as contests pitting religious conservatives against secular activists, but as a series of ongoing historical struggles to define the relationship between the sacred and the political. Through captivating case studies of "subversive" artists, Provoking Religion illuminates the underside of the culture wars, revealing how progressive artists and activists rendered from those most apparently profane aspects of human life-the stuff of conservatives' worst nightmares--their own haunting visions of the sacred. Anthony M. Petro is Associate Professor in the Department of American Studies at University of Notre Dame (effective fall 2025). His first book, After the Wrath of God: AIDS, Sexuality, and American Religion, was a finalist for the Religion Newswriters Association's book award for nonfiction. An early chapter from this book also won the 2012 LGBTQ Religious History Award from the LGBTQ Religious Archives Network. In 2019-2020, Petro was a member of the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. Clayton Jarrard is a graduate student at NYU's XE: Experimental Humanities & Social Engagement program. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/religion

Jacob and Aaron take a look at the readings for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, which are Deuteronomy 30:9-14, Colossians 1:1-14, and Luke 10:25-37.

Send us a textToday, we welcome a conversation with Dr. Christian Smith, one of America's leading sociologists of religion. He studied at Wheaton and Gordon College, earned an M.A. and PhD at Harvard, and serves currently as the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. You may know him from his groundbreaking research on adolescent spirituality, but in this episode, we dive into the sweeping themes of his current book, Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith in America, released in April 2025 from Oxford University Press.We examine the profound cultural and generational shifts that have contributed to the decline of religion in America—what Dr. Smith refers to as a slow but steady obsolescence. From the rise of the “nones” and the “spiritual but not religious,” to the scandals, the loss of clergy credibility, and the overwhelming politicization of faith, especially within evangelical circles, we unpack it all. Dr. Smith is data-driven, deeply thoughtful, and committed to honesty—he doesn't just describe the trends; he interprets them with nuance and care.We also talk about the fears that drive some religious communities to build protective bubbles—Christian schools, worldview camps, media silos—and how those moves may be accelerating the very decline they fear. This is a conversation about cultural change, generational transitions, science, sexuality, and what it means to seek moral grounding in a rapidly shifting world.This episode invites us to ask: When has religion truly been good? And can it be good again? As James Baldwin once said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” SHOW NOTESSupport the showBecome a Patron - Click on the link to learn how you can become a Patron of the show. Thank you! Ken's Substack Page The Podcast Official Site: TheBeachedWhiteMale.com

Journalist and author Claire Hoffman joins Painful Lessons to explore faith, scandal, and survival. From growing up in the Transcendental Meditation movement to writing Sister Sinner, Claire shares the incredible true story of Amy Semple McPherson, the most famous woman in 1920s America—who vanished into the ocean and reappeared in the desert 35 days later.She and host Tyler Ramsey also dive into spirituality, modern cult dynamics, Claire's investigation into abuse in media empires, and her deeply personal moments around death, doubt, and redemption.

Holy smokes, theology nerds – buckle up for a prophetic ride through Black Christology that'll completely recalibrate your understanding of Jesus and faith in times of empire. I am joined by Dr. Adam Clark as he traces the revolutionary lineage from Howard Thurman's mystical Jesus who refuses the "hounds of hell" (after being called a traitor to dark peoples for following Christianity), through Albert Cleage's literal Black Messiah who'd be riding in the colored section of Jim Crow buses, to James Cone's God who shows up at the lynching tree. At a moment when Christian nationalism weaponizes the gospel to enforce xenophobic authoritarianism, this prophetic tradition reminds us that authentic Christian witness is found in loving solidarity with the crucified of today. This isn't polite reflection, friends – it's resistance theology that exposes how God deliberately identifies with the oppressed, choosing foolishness to shame the wise and weakness to shame the strong. This episode might flip your theological world upside down, but that's precisely what good theology should do. To get Adam's lecture and four more, join the class,⁠⁠The Many Faces of Christ Today⁠⁠. You can WATCH the conversation on YouTube Dr. Adam Clark is Associate Professor of Theology at Xavier University. He currently serves as co-chair of Black Theology Group at the American Academy of Religion, actively publishes in the area of black theology and black religion and participates in social justice groups at Xavier and in the Cincinnati area. He earned his PhD at Union Theological Seminary in New York where he was mentored by James Cone. Previous Episodes w/ Adam: Thinking Liberation From Contemplation to Liberation The Living & Liberating Mystery Cancel Culture, Rogan, Whoopi, Chappelle, & the NFL Gary Dorrien & Adam Clark: James Cone and the Emergence of Black Theology Serene Jones & Adam Clark: Theology Matters and the Legacy of James Cone The Crisis of American Religion & Democracy: 1/6 a year later Christmas, BLM, Abortion, & the War on White Evangelicalism Jan 6th Theological Debrief: Adam Clark and Jeffrey Pugh Adam Clark: What is Black Theology? From Lebron James to the Black Panther: Black Theology QnA w/ Adam Clark Adam Clark: James Cone was right Upcoming Online Class:⁠ Rediscovering the Spirit: Hand-Raisers, Han, & the Holy Ghost⁠ "⁠Rediscovering the Spirit: Hand-Raisers, Han, and the Holy Ghost⁠" is an open-online course exploring the dynamic, often overlooked third person of the Trinity. Based on Grace Ji-Sun Kim's groundbreaking work on the Holy Spirit (pneumatology), this class takes participants on a journey through biblical foundations, historical developments, diverse cultural perspectives, and practical applications of Spirit theology. Moving beyond traditional Western theological frameworks, we'll explore feminist interpretations, global perspectives, and innovative approaches to understanding the Spirit in today's world. Whether you've felt the Spirit was missing from your faith journey or are simply curious to deepen your understanding, this class creates space for thoughtful discussion, personal reflection, and spiritual growth. ⁠As always, this class is donation-based, including 0. To get class info and sign up, head over here. ⁠ _____________________ ⁠⁠⁠Hang with 40+ Scholars & Podcasts and 600 people at Theology Beer Camp 2025 (Oct. 16-18) in St. Paul, MN. ⁠⁠⁠ This podcast is a ⁠⁠⁠Homebrewed Christianity⁠⁠⁠ production. Follow ⁠⁠⁠the Homebrewed Christianity⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Theology Nerd Throwdown⁠⁠⁠, & ⁠⁠⁠The Rise of Bonhoeffer⁠⁠⁠ podcasts for more theological goodness for your earbuds. Join over 80,000 other people by joining our⁠⁠⁠ Substack - Process This!⁠⁠⁠ Get instant access to over 45 classes at ⁠⁠⁠www.TheologyClass.com⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Follow the podcast, drop a review⁠⁠⁠, send ⁠⁠⁠feedback/questions⁠⁠⁠ or become a ⁠⁠⁠member of the HBC Community⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tazeen M. Ali (she/her) is assistant professor of Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research and teaching focus on Islam and gender, US Islam, and race and religion in America. She is the author of The Women's Mosque of America: Authority & Community in US Islam (NYU Press, 2022). She has also published in Religion & Politics (now ARC Mag), The Conversation, The Maydan, and Middle East Eye. Ali is currently writing her second book, Muslims on Screen: Racism and Sexuality in Anglo-American Islam, which analyzes entertainment media projects produced by British and American Muslims. She also serves on the advisory board of the National Museum of American Religion. Ali earned her PhD in Religious Studies from Boston University in 2019. Visit Tazeen Ali Visit Classical Ideas Visit Sacred Writes  

This hour, Ian Hoch continues his Good Friday discussion about the intersection of religion, racism, and violence with the WWL callers and texters.

It's time to check in on the state of religion and Christianity. We've gathered key data-backed trends shaping this decade, including the one denomination that's growing, the strongest force in American religion, and the most common words in new church names. Let's dive in.   ============================= Table of Contents: ============================= 0:00 - Intro 1:30 - Trend #1: Church Names 9:40 - Trend #2: The One Denomination That's Growing 16:07 - Trend #3: Young Men Are Now As Religious As Young Women 27:19 - Trend #4: The Strongest Force In American Religion   IMPORTANT LINKS - Ryan Burge: https://www.drburge.com/ - Ryan Burge | Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/ryanburge - Graphs about Religion: https://www.graphsaboutreligion.com/ - What's In a Name? Trends in Non-Denominational Church Branding: https://bit.ly/4iJfQL9 - The Assemblies of God: A Denomination That May Be Growing: https://bit.ly/43JmYD1 - Are Young Women Leaving Religion Faster than Young Men?: https://bit.ly/4iLkk3N - Non-Denominationalism Is the Strongest Force in American Religion: https://bit.ly/41Zvj47 - The American Religious Landscape: Facts, Trends, and the Future: https://amzn.to/3XMZ1a2   THE 167 NEWSLETTER

In this week's conversation between Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye, they discuss the recent release of Pew Research Center's Religious Landscape Study. Last conducted in 2014, the 2023-24 study surveyed more than 35,000 Americans concerning their religious affiliations, their beliefs, and their practices. It is simply the largest and most significant study of its kind in terms of getting a snapshot of where our country is on all things spirituality and religion, and the current health of the American Church. The findings go far beyond what some of the headlines from this study would suggest. Episode Links Dr. White released a recent blog on this topic titled “The Stall of the Nones” - the “nones” being the group who identifies as having no religious affiliation. Their numbers have been rising for decades, yet seem to have reached a leveling-off point. (We'd encourage you to check out his book on this subject that was discussed in today's episode titled The Rise of the Nones.) Dr. White mentioned a recent New York Times article titled “Christianity's Decline in U.S. Appears to Have Halted, Major Study Shows” which latches onto that finding from the study. The more notable takeaway from the study that seems to have been overlooked is the fact that the number of people who would identify as Christian continues to decline - from 78% in 2007 to 62% in 2024. That decline is stunning. As Dr. White noted from the Christianity Today article titled “Pew: America Is Spiritual but Not Religious,” six people have left Christianity for every one who has joined. That is certainly not sustainable. Dr. White stressed the importance of reaching the younger generations for Jesus, and the fact that a solid children's ministry is a vitally important component. He wrote a blog on this topic titled “The Most Important Sub-Ministry In Your Church” that would be worth reading if you missed it. For those of you who are new to Church & Culture, we'd love to invite you to subscribe (for free of course) to the twice-weekly Church & Culture blog and check out the Daily Headline News - a collection of headlines from around the globe each weekday. We'd also love to hear from you if there is a topic that you'd like to see discussed on the Church & Culture Podcast in an upcoming episode. You can find the form to submit your questions at the bottom of the podcast page HERE.

Are we entering a new era in American religion? Current data shows we are at an inflection point. Over the last 30 to 40 years, the share of Americans who had no religious affiliation has dramatically increased. That period is over, and something new is on the horizon. Ryan Burge joins the show to discuss what this new era in American religion may look like in the next ten years. The post The Burge Report: The New Era in American Religion Begins Now (What’s Happening?!) appeared first on Church Answers.

The unique historical nature of "American" Religion

In this episode, Tripp is joined by Dr. Jeffrey Pugh to introduce an eight-part audio documentary series on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, exploring his life, theology, and the rise of Nazi Germany. They discuss their personal journeys with Bonhoeffer, the complexity of his thought, and the historical context of his resistance to Hitler. They also highlight the accompanying class at www.RiseOfBonhoeffer.com, featuring interviews with Bonhoeffer scholars, live streams, and in-depth discussions to provide a nuanced picture of Bonhoeffer beyond the idealized hero. Engage with this comprehensive exploration of faith, resistance, and history, and understand the ongoing relevance of Bonhoeffer's legacy. You can WATCH this conversation on YouTube Join our upcoming class - THE RISE OF BONHOEFFER, for a guided tour of Bonhoeffer's life and thought. JOIN ME at PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY for an EVENT + LIVE PODCAST The Church, The Pastor, And Resonance In An Accelerated Age Theological Conversations With Hartmut Rosa September 23–24, 2024 · Hybrid Conference · Stuart Hall, Princeton Theological Seminary In a partnership between Luther Seminary and the Aberdeen Centre for Protestant Theology at the University of Aberdeen, the Center for Barth Studies at Princeton Theological Seminary would like to invite you to a conference honoring the work of eminent philosopher Hartmut Rosa in the fall of 2024 at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey. Over the course of three days, noted theologians and scholars will engage Rosa's work on the topics of acceleration and resonance in the modern world. A range of leading scholars in the fields of practical and systematic theology will speak at the conference such as Andrew Root, Mirsolav Volf, and Philip Ziegler. The format will be a hybrid event so that participants can attend either in-person or virtually, which will allow for greater international attendance and participation. The Princeton Theological Seminary LIVE PODCAST will take place in Mackay dining hall @8pm on Monday, September 23rd. Previous Episodes with Dr. Pugh 5 Reasons we need Bonhoeffer now! Bonhoeffer's Religionless Christianity The Crisis of American Religion & Democracy: 1/6 a year later Jan 6th Theological Debrief: Adam Clark and Jeffrey Pugh The Secret Chart to the END OF TIME (kind of) with Jeffrey Pugh and Daniel Kirk God Loves Science (Fiction) with Jeff Pugh and Will Rose Jeffrey C. Pugh: Why Go Bonhoeffer? _____________________ Join my Substack - Process This! Join our upcoming class - THE RISE OF BONHOEFFER, for a guided tour of Bonhoeffer's life and thought. Come to THEOLOGY BEER CAMP. Follow the podcast, drop a review, send feedback/questions or become a member of the HBC Community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus content most Mondays, bonus episodes every month, ad-free listening, access to the entire 600-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/ In this episode of Straight White American Jesus, Brad dives into PRRI's 2023 Census of American Religion with Dr. Robert P. Jones, author of The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy. Together, they break down the ongoing decline of White Christian America, the growing number of younger people who are religiously unaffiliated, and the stark differences between the religious demographics of the Democratic and Republican parties. They dig into how these demographic shifts are shaping the culture and politics of the country, offering key insights into the religious and racial trends transforming the U.S. today. Linktree: https://linktr.ee/StraightWhiteJC Order Brad's book: https://bookshop.org/a/95982/9781506482163 This episode is sponsored by/brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/RC and get on your way to being your best self. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices