Posts tagged podcast
Crossroads Podcast: When Do ‘Religious Communities’ Become Controversial?

Is it controversial for American cultural conservatives to build themselves a small community in the hills outside of Nashville? Yes it is, among critics to the left (sort of) of them. Is it controversial for Muslims to build themselves a large community near Dallas? Yes it is, among critics to the right (sort of) of them.

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Crossroads Podcast: Why Current Religion Trends Are So Confusing

While we were recording the podcast this week, I told Lutheran Public Radio listeners that I was well aware that much of the information I was sharing was rather complex, if not downright confusing. That was kind of the point. When it comes to statistical trends in religion, we live in a very, very confusing age.

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Crossroads Podcast: Why Are (Fill In The Blank) Churches Shrinking?

When it comes to basic statistics, the 1960s and ‘70s were the high-water mark for liberal mainline Protestants. Pews were often full and strategic mergers — such as the process that eventually created the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in 1983 — led to membership totals that inspired ecclesiastical bureaucrats to dream about bold “reforms” in the future (click for a timeline of LGBTQ+ activism in the Episcopal Church).

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Crossroads Podcast: Angry Questions About Christians Being Persecuted

During a typical week, readers (or podcast listeners) send me emails or messages through various social-media platforms. Often, these people are frustrated or even angry. Most folks are not upset with me. More often than not, they are ticked off about something they have seen — or failed to see — in mainstream press coverage of the news.

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Crossroads Podcast: Why Democrats Need To Start Having Babies

(ANALYSIS) This fertility issue has both political and religious (#DUH) implications.

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Crossroads Podcast: There’s More To The Wheaton College Wars Than Politics

is the Wheaton war about Donald Trump? Yes — and no. Accurate reporting requires information noting that campus conflicts of this kind have been raging — yes, often behind the scenes and out of the headlines — for decades. The conflicts are doctrinal, cultural and sometimes political. But doctrine is the most crucial reality in these voluntary, private, academic communities.

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Crossroads Podcast: Peter Thiel And Silicon Valley’s Spiritual Seekers

I’m not suggesting that the New York Times team that produced this recent feature — “Seeking God, or Peter Thiel, in Silicon Valley” — needed to dig into the works of this Orthodox monk. This business-desk feature was the hook for this week’s “Crossroads” podcast.

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Crossroads Podcast: Did Pope Francis’ Memoir Answer Any Big Questions?

Under normal conditions, a pope releasing a highly personal memoir about his life would create quite a few headlines. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case with “Life: My Story Through History,” the new autobiography from Pope Francis, co-written with Carlo Musso, founder of the Italian publishing company Libreria Pienogiorno. That’s strange, since this is being hailed as the first memoir from a sitting pope.

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Crossroads Podcast: What Was The Big Idea Of This Year’s March for Life?

The bottom line: Next year, more journalists need to attend some of the worship services linked to the March for Life. They will hear plenty of voices, young and old, stressing that the sanctity of human life is too complex to be discussed in political terms, alone.

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Crossroads Podcast: Why Many In The Press Struggled To ‘Get’ Promise Keepers

(ANALYSIS) The date was October 4, 1997, and the MSNBC producers on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., had a problem. Actually, they had several problems. The main problem was that the million or so Promise Keepers men (D.C. crowd estimates were already a highly politicized affair) gathered for the Stand in the Gap rally keep singing, praying, reading their Bibles, listening to sermons and confessing their sins.

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Crossroads Podcast: Religion And The Plight Of Unmarried Young Adults

(ANALYSIS) Journalists frequently cover important news stories, but miss key facts and themes that — for half of America, or thereabouts — are linked to morality or religion. Thus, these stories are haunted by “religion ghosts.”

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Crossroads Podcast: A Blessing For An Abortion Clinic?

(ANALYSIS) This feature makes it clear that abortion is a painful, even tragic, reality in the lives of many women. Readers can see that in the personal experiences of the women quoted in the piece. Is abortion a positive, even “blessed” act? Or is it possible that abortion is “wrong” — or even a “sin”? 

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Crossroads Podcast: Were There Any Actual Religion-News Stories In 2024?

(ANALYSIS) Almost two decades ago, the reigning editor of The New York Times admitted, during a speech to the National College Media Association, that the world’s most influential journalism cathedral had changed one of its core doctrines. 

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Crossroads Podcast: Young Men Are Becoming Orthodox, But This Story Is Complex

Why are so many young men converting to Orthodoxy? Men seek the beauty and strength found in Orthodox Christianity and many are driven to convert — no matter what. The women in their lives? They may feel like they’re in the “passenger seat” of that car.

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Crossroads Podcast: Kidnapped Nigerian Christian Escapes To Freedom

(ANALYSIS) It’s crucial for readers to understand that while Islamic radicals have killed Christian believers by the thousands, they also attack and murder Muslims who do not share their warped version of Islam. This includes persecuting Muslims who dare to assist organizations — such as the Red Cross — that seek peace in the midst of Nigeria’s ongoing civil strife.

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Crossroads Podcast: The Struggle To Cover The Sins Of Powerful Clergy

The scandals surrounding the life and work of the former (and now disgraced) cardinal Theodore McCarrick rumbled in the background of Roman Catholic life for decades — starting in the early 1980s. Insiders whispered, but nothing was done.

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Crossroads Podcast: What Changed With Trump’s Religion Numbers This Time?

As I watched Tuesday’s returns roll in, I kept noticing that much of the “news” in the 2024 election was actually old news for people who have been following the “Crossroads” podcast for the past decade.

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Crossroads Podcast: Harris’ Hot Words In Response To ‘Jesus Is Lord’

Once upon a time, a MAGA-hat adorned teen at the annual March for Life — Nicholas Sandmann, by name — offered an enigmatic smile while a Native American activist pounded a drum in his face. Mainstream journalists were certain that this Donald Trump-era incident was a big news story and used oceans of digital ink while covering it.

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