Faith Angle brings together top scholars and leading journalists for smart conversations around some of the most profound questions in the public square. Rather than a current-events debrief, our goal is a substantive conversation one notch beneath the surface, drawing out how religious convictions manifest themselves in American culture and public life.
Episodes
Monday Dec 19, 2022
Tim Dalrymple and Tim Schultz: Respect for Marriage Act
Monday Dec 19, 2022
Monday Dec 19, 2022
Recently, President Biden signed into law the Respect for Marriage Act, requiring all US states and territories to recognize same-sex and interracial civil marriages. But that isn’t all the new law does: it also fortifies religious liberty protections. As today’s guests describe, it’s perhaps because the Respect for Marriage Act does both things that it garnered bipartisan congressional support. In this episode, we're joined by Tim Schultz, president of the 1st Amendment Partnership, a DC advocacy organization that has worked for the last decade to advance religious freedom in state legislatures. Tim worked closely with leaders of diverse religious minority organizations—and national gay rights lobby organizations—to help foster the conditions needed to make this law and its commitment to Christian pluralism possible. Joining him is Tim Dalrymple, president and CEO of Christianity Today, one of the country's most influential evangelical publications.
Guests
Additional Resources
"Everything You Need to Know About the Respect for Marriage Act," by Carl Esbeck in Christianity Today
Wednesday Nov 30, 2022
Rev. Russell Levenson and Kelsey Dallas: Witness to Dignity
Wednesday Nov 30, 2022
Wednesday Nov 30, 2022
In this episode, we are joined by Rev. Russell Levenson, Rector of St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston, TX. In conversation with Kelsey Dallas of Deseret News, Levenson discusses his new book, Witness to Dignity, about the life and faith of George H.W. and Barbara Bush who attended St. Martin’s for over fifty years.
Guests
Additional Resources
Witness to Dignity: The Life and Faith of George H.W. and Barbara Bush, by Russell Levenson
"People of faith, pessimism and American politics," by Kelsey Dallas
Friday Nov 11, 2022
Elliott Abrams and Will Inboden: The Legacy of Ronald Reagan
Friday Nov 11, 2022
Friday Nov 11, 2022
Today's conversation is about the leadership, faith, historical record, and implications of the national security policy of Ronald Reagan. This exchange between two seasoned national security officials with unusual expertise is rooted in a hot-off-the-press new book, The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brink, by Will Inboden, who is joined for this episode by Elliott Abrams of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Guests:
Additional Resources:
The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brink, by Will Inboden
"Remembering Mikhail Gorbachev," by Will Inboden
Monday Oct 31, 2022
Greg Thompson and Anne Snyder: On Hospitality, Imagination, and Writing
Monday Oct 31, 2022
Monday Oct 31, 2022
Anne Snyder is one of Faith Angle’s newest Advisory Board members. She currently hosts The Whole Person Revolution podcast, and earlier this year she co-edited a volume entitled Breaking Ground, with over 45 short essays published throughout the pandemic. Spurring today’s conversation, since May 2019 Anne has served as Editor in Chief of Comment Magazine. She is joined by one of its current contributors, Greg Thompson, who is the co-director of Voices Underground, a Pennsylvania-based, HBCU-affiliated initiative that promotes African American cultural history through scholarly research, community experiences, and historical memorialization. This conversation explores themes from Greg's regular Comment column, "The Welcome Table", which weaves together history, race, memory, hospitality, and a theology of belonging.
Guests
Additional Resources
Reparations: A Christian Call for Repentance and Repair, by Gregory Thompson and Duke Kwon
The Whole Person Revolution Podcast , with Anne Snyder
Friday Oct 14, 2022
Bonnie Kristian and Jonathan Rauch: On the Knowledge Crisis
Friday Oct 14, 2022
Friday Oct 14, 2022
In this episode, Bonnie Kristian discusses her brand new book, Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community. Her haunting phrase, “the knowledge crisis,” was perhaps popularized last year by another compelling book from Jonathan Rauch, the senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. Jon’s 2021 book is The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth, and as he explains in more detail, the book describes the essential conditions and institutions necessary for maintaining the basic building blocks of shared human understanding in a free society. This is a rich conversation between the two of them on how to steer clear from getting lost in the vortex of news that sometimes swirls.
Guests
Additional Resources
Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community, by Bonnie Kristian
The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth, by Jonathan Rauch
Friday Sep 16, 2022
Friday Sep 16, 2022
In this episode, Paul D. Miller of Georgetown University and Samuel L. Perry of the University of Oklahoma sit down for an insightful, timely conversation about Christian nationalism. Highlighting themes from Paul's newly-released book, The Religion of American Greatness: What's Wrong with Christian Nationalism, both guests offer a historically-rooted definition of Christian nationalism, analyze journalists' coverage of this rapidly-spreading ideology, and explore key differences between Christian nationalism and generative patriotism that bears faithful witness in the public square.
Guests:
Additional Resources:
The Religion of American Greatness: What's Wrong with Christian Nationalism?, by Paul D. Miller
The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy, by Samuel Perry and Philip Gorski
Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States, by Samuel Perry and Andrew Whitehead
Thursday Aug 25, 2022
Mike Cosper and Jon Ward: On ”The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill”
Thursday Aug 25, 2022
Thursday Aug 25, 2022
If you’re an evangelical insider, the name Mike Cosper and his “Rise and Fall of Mars Hill” podcast series, published by Christianity Today in 2021, is almost certainly familiar for its artful retelling of the story of a Seattle megachurch pastored by Mark Driscoll. In this episode, Cosper, who is the director of podcasting for Christianity Today, is joined by Jon Ward of Yahoo News. Together, they examine what it is about the structure of megachurches that leaves them prone to the quick rise and fall of a charismatic leader. How does that compare to American politics—especially when our parties have weakened? And how does Mike’s 15-year experience as a pastor temper what he and his colleagues chose to see, and hold up, in this magnificent podcast that took American listeners by storm last year?
Guests
Additional Resources
The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill Podcast, by Mike Cosper
Testimony: Inside an Evangelical Movement that Failed a Generation, by Jon Ward
Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
Simran Jeet Singh and Ari Goldman: The Light We Give
Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
On this episode, we are joined by Simran Jeet Singh, Executive Director of the Aspen Institute’s Religion and Society Program, and Ari Goldman, Professor of Journalism at Columbia Journalism School, for a nuanced conversation about American religious pluralism and identity through the lens of Sikh theology and practice. Our guests explore themes from Simran’s recently-released book, The Light We Give: How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life, and discuss how Sikh religion invites us to find joy in humility, sacrificial love, and service towards our neighbor, practices with profound implications for broader American society.
Guests
Additional Resources
The Light We Give: How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life, by Simran Jeet Singh
The Search for God at Harvard, by Ari Goldman
Tuesday Jul 26, 2022
Molly Ball and Russell Moore: Evangelicals and America’s ”Abortion Wars”
Tuesday Jul 26, 2022
Tuesday Jul 26, 2022
The purpose of Faith Angle is to connect religious leaders with leading journalists, and today's conversation comes at it from both sides. The setting for this conversation was a group of 19 journalists who gathered three days after the Supreme Court ruled on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. This conversation features one of the country’s most thoughtful, publicly-minded evangelical leaders, Dr. Russell Moore, who is now a year into directing the Public Theology Project at Christianity Today. He is joined by Molly Ball, TIME Magazine’s national political correspondent.
Guests
Additional Resources
Faith Angle West Session: Evangelicals and America's "Abortion Wars"
"Tim Alberta Worries Politics is Poisoning the Church," on The Russell Moore Show
"How Politics Poisoned the Evangelical Church," by Tim Alberta
"Will Overturning Roe v. Wade Change Everything?", with Molly Ball
Pelosi, by Molly Ball
Thursday Jun 23, 2022
Sen. Ben Sasse and Rev. Sam Ferguson: When a Senator Goes to Church…
Thursday Jun 23, 2022
Thursday Jun 23, 2022
In this episode, twice-elected U.S. Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) joins Rev. Dr. Sam Ferguson for a nuanced discussion of power and public service, contemporary media, spiritual disciplines, political stewardship, and the liturgical aspects of social media and public worship. Sen. Sasse names some fascinating things – including when and how he starts the workday; how many Elmers are in his Lutheran circle of grandparent farmers; his perspective on churchgoing; and how he looks back differently, now, on the stretch-years of early parenting. Ben is sometimes called “the intellectual of the Senate,” in the vein of the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, whose desk on the Senate floor he now occupies. Conversing with him is Rev. Dr. Sam Ferguson, who in May 2019 became rector of The Falls Church Anglican – a congregation where in 1791, George Washington served on the vestry.
Guests:
Additional Resources:
"A Time for Choosing" by Ben Sasse
Them: Why We Hate Each Other - And How to Heal by Ben Sasse
Falls Church Anglican Sermons by Sam Ferguson