Terry Mattingly
(ANALYSIS) A reporter asked the Pope about the decision to give a U.S. Senator Dick Durbin a lifetime achievement award. The problem: Durbin consistently backs abortion rights and remains barred from receiving Holy Communion in Springfield, Illinois, his home diocese.
(ANALYSIS) Days after Charlie Kirk was assassinated, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi poured gasoline on raging national debates about social media chatter celebrating the 31-year-old activist's death. Prominent conservatives immediately rejected her words, noting that her use of the term “hate speech” is one that, historically, has been used by the hard left.
It’s time to play “spot the headline,” a game that I have — for decades — watched mainstream journalists play as they cover the papacy.
(ANALYSIS) The question is whether Vatican leaders can build unity between bishops who back Pride Masses and those who approve Latin Masses.
Doing this interview was consistent with Charlie Kirk’s history of reaching out to leaders on the other side of the chasm between red and blue America. I would argue that many other conservative groups should take a similar approach, if their leaders are sharp enough to handle these kinds of encounters (with both sides recording what happens).
In her 30-minute testimony, Erika Kirk said her husband knew his life was in danger, but he stressed the biblical message in a verse from Isaiah: “Here I am, Lord. Send me.” Kirk said she once told him: “‘Charlie, baby, please talk to me next time before you say that statement.’ ... When you say, ‘Here I am, Lord. Use me,’ God will take you up on that.’ ... God accepted that total surrender from my husband, and then called him to His side.”
In the past decade, leaders in America’s newsrooms have tried to find journalists who can help them understand the language, symbols and beliefs of Americans with different cultural backgrounds. An editor in Miami will want a large percentage of the staff to speak Spanish. What about reporters who can speak conversational “evangelical” or what some call “Christianese”?
(ANALYSIS) Months before his assassination, Charlie Kirk joined comedian Bill Maher on the “Club Random” podcast for a wide-ranging conversation on faith, science, politics and free speech. Despite Maher’s irreverence and marijuana use, Kirk held firm to his Christian convictions during that Eastertime conversation, especially in defending the hope of eternal life.
(ANALYSIS) What do Joe Rogan, Charlie Sheen and Charlie Kirk have in common? On many levels, the correct answer is, “Not much.” And I never thought that I would be discussing Sheen in the context of someone like Kirk who, whatever you thought of his MAGA messages, was maturing into an increasingly effective public apologist on topics of faith, family and public life.
After 40-plus years on the Godbeat, let me offer this observation: It’s extremely difficult to write about ancient, complex, often mysterious religious beliefs and doctrines in language that is both accurate and easily understandable in the mainstream media.
(ANALYSIS) Every decade or so, it's common to see news reports about pastors leaving pulpits in search of less stressful work. Consider the 2024 Hartford Institute for Religion Research poll in which more than half said they have considered quitting. According to 2022 polling by the Barna Institute, the main causes for anxiety were strong job stress (56%), followed by feeling isolated (43%).
Anyone who follows Catholics in cyberspace knows that Phil Lawler of Catholic Culture is an outspoken doctrinal conservative who is openly hostile to attempts to edit the “Catechism of the Catholic Church.” However, he is also a realist who can read between the lines of the official pronouncements issued by the Vatican, as well as the hints, rumors and strategic silences that surround those documents.
(ANALYSIS) It’s hard to take Jell-O salad to the after-church brunch a few hours after your husband of 33 years runs off with a younger woman. But the old-fashioned church Leanne Morgan attends in her summer Netflix sitcom does have a Philippians 4:13 poster in the fellowship hall proclaiming: “I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.”
After each and every school shooting, the usual suspects in public life produce their familiar soundbites that draw cheers from the faithful in their various choirs in blue America and red America.
(ANALYSIS) During the rituals of prayers and stories one night, Angel Studios co-founder Jeffrey Harmon's young son asked: "Dad, what does the other side of your eyeballs look like? ... Can I pull them out and look at them?” The answer was “No.” The exchange was a reminder that kids have “wild ideas,” said Harmon in a video chat with Angel Guild members who crowdfund the studio's movies.
It helps to remember that this Lutheran denomination has lost roughly half of its members during the last 50 years and insiders have suggested that it may die by 2050.
(ANALYSIS) A young J.R.R. Tolkien wrote: “The fume of the burning, and the steam of the fair fountains of Gondolin withering in the flame of the dragons of the north, fell upon the vale of Tumladen in mournful mists.” The battlefields were “cold and terrible.”
This old-school journalism issue loomed over this week’s “Crossroads” podcast as we discussed a new essay in The Atlantic — “Why Marriage Survives” — by sociologist Brad Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia.
(ANALYSIS) While Stephen Colbert retains a faithful congregation, some fans who loved his sly blend of satire and progressive Catholicism mourn his decision to preach to only half of America, said media scholar Terry Lindvall, author of "God Mocks: A History of Religious Satire from the Hebrew Prophets to Stephen Colbert,” published in 2015.
In the post-pandemic era, it appears that more and more Americans are conducting their spiritual searches in multiple sets of pews or, perhaps, attending one church in person and another via digital streaming. It’s a seeker-friendly, mix-and-match approach.
(ANALYSIS) With a nod to digital life, Merriam-Webster has expanded its “influencer” definition to include a “person who is able to generate interest in something (such as a consumer product) by posting about it on social media.” Pope Leo XIV didn't use that term in his latest remarks on faith in the internet age, even while addressing the recent Vatican Jubilee for Digital Missionaries and Influencers.
Channeling the rage on the Bluesky social-media platform, Sunny Hostin at “The View” claimed that the decision by CBS executives to cancel Stephen Colbert's “Late Show” could be the start of dangerous people "dismantling of our Constitution.” This raised questions for me, several of which were discussed during this week’s “Crossroads” podcast. For starters, who — other than President Donald Trump & Co. — were these dangerous people? Did this include millions of Americans who used to watch late-night TV and are now watching whatever they choose to watch on YouTube?
(ANALYSIS) When Scottie Scheffler celebrated his recent victory at the British Open, it was hard to tell who drew the loudest cheers — the world's No. 1 golfer or his toddler son, Bennett. Nike captured the family vibe with a viral advertisement showing Scheffler and Bennett, with the caption, "You've already won," before adding, “But another major never hurt.”
This brings us to Scheffler’s remarkable press conference in which he offered a long, complex set of quotes about the centrality of his family and faith in his life and work. To many sports insiders he sounded like a heretic, as opposed to a prophet.
(ANALYSIS) On many Sundays, Corey Hatfield sent her family ahead into church while she lingered outside with her autistic son, Grayson — trying to decide if he would scream or run the second they entered the sanctuary. Approaching the chalice during Holy Communion was another challenge.
(ANALYSIS) Every time that I turn on YouTube to check the channels that I follow, it’s impossible to miss the growing spectre of AI junk. Let’s say that you are interested in the controversies swirling around superstar Caitlin Clark and the WNBA leadership’s attempts to figure out (Welcome to red v. blue America) how to minimize the impact of her massive fanbase on their league. Clark v. Nike is another popular topic for gossip, mixed with tiny amounts of real news.
It’s a question church-state experts have asked for decades: Is it legal for a minister, from a sanctuary pulpit on Sunday, to endorse a political candidate?
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy retired in 2018, but religious-liberty activists still want to know where he hoped to draw a bright line between religious freedom and the sexual revolution. Kennedy knew that the First Amendment's declaration that government “shall make no law ... prohibiting the free exercise of religion” was creating warfare in modern American law and politics. But he didn't know how to end the strife.
(ANALYSIS) Based on the many reviews that I have read and the YouTube commentaries I have watched, it sounds like this movie was “written” — scare quotes are intentional — for folks much, much younger and more video-game oriented than me.
The bottom line: Weiss (a liberal Jew who is married to another woman) has demonstrated a strong belief that real religious believers, acting on real religious beliefs, can shape real news events in the real world.