New Voices, New Alliances: Religion and Politics with Tom Gjelten

What does this election tell us about the changing role of religion in American public life? A record number of Muslims are headed to Congress. Christian pastors won races campaigning on economic justice. Voters with no religious affiliation helped elect candidates who put faith at the center of their campaigns. There are unexpected and encouraging new alliances here, also… deep divisions. Tom Gjelten is an award-winning journalist who spent nearly four decades at NPR, covering international af

All year on Complexified, we’ve been asking who gets to claim Christianity in American politics. Tonight, that question has some new answers. Did these candidates win because of how they talked about faith? What brought voters to the polls? And how much of what happened tonight will last beyond this election? Jack Jenkins, national reporter for RNS and author of American Prophets: The Religious Roots of Progressive Politics and the Ongoing Fight for the Soul of the Country, is joining us to un

A University of Kentucky employee asked to be excused from using artificial intelligence at work. He said it violated his beliefs as a humanist. The university granted him a religious accommodation. It’s a case where the process worked. But it opens up harder questions: Who decides whether a belief counts as religious? How does a court or employer determine if someone sincerely holds it? And what happens to everyone else? RNS reporter Bob Smietana joins Amanda Henderson to explore what this ca

Russell Moore on the death penalty, sacred life and political belonging In Texas, Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan is scheduled to be executed by firing squad. Earlier this month, the Pentagon announced that his execution would be livestreamed. The backlash led to that proposal being withdrawn, leaving fresh questions about the death penalty—and what it means to make someone’s death a public spectacle. Meanwhile, in Tennessee, Christa Pike survived a botched execution after two doses of a lethal d

Religion has always been part of American politics. What changes from cycle to cycle is where it shows up and what it looks like. This year it’s turning up in some unexpected places: seminarians running for Senate, a president feuding with the pope, and Black churches organizing marches to the polls after the Voting Rights Act was gutted. I’m joined for an election midterm roundtable by three of the reporters who’ve been covering all things religion and politics for Religion News Service. Wit

Televangelist Jim Bakker is dead at 86. And whatever else can be said about him, he was a true American original. In the ’70s and ’80s, millions of Americans welcomed Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker into their living rooms every day. They laughed with them, prayed with them and sent them money—enough money to build a television network and a Christian theme park. He was also a convicted fraudster whose empire collapsed amid revelations of deception, sexual misconduct allegations and spectacularly ba