Terry Mattingly
(ANALYSIS) A 2025 Vantage Point Counseling Services study found that 28% of adults say they have had an intimate AI interaction or relationship. The same study said 54% of Americans mentioned AI friends, colleagues or confidants.
Within a decade of hitting the religion beat, around 1980, it was obvious to me that the demographic collapse of the “seven sisters” of liberal Protestantism was going to create a giant hole in American life. We are talking about these flocks — American Baptists, the Disciples of Christ, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church.
(ANALYSIS) The planned execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan sparked renewed debate among Christians over capital punishment. Catholic leaders cited church teaching opposing the death penalty, while some evangelical leaders defended it biblically. Disagreement also centered on whether televising executions promotes justice or glorifies violence.
This week’s topic was religion-news coverage of the White House call to execute Major Nidal Malik Hasan by firing squad, in response to the U.S. Army psychiatrist’s 2009 mass-murder of 13 soldiers at Fort Hood, while injuring 32 others.
(ANALYSIS) Journalists called Bakker a “televangelist,” but he never showed interest in being a pastor or an evangelist. His hero was Johnny Carson. Moore noted that Bakker's “goal was clearly to be a talk-show host. That was his life. ... He loved sitting behind that desk in front of the cameras.”
I am convinced that with Shepard’s skills at investigative reporting, and my religion-beat sources in Charlotte-area groups, we could have broken the story several years earlier, perhaps saving the bank accounts and pensions of many PTL donors. But Shepard never gave up and did untold hours of work on his own, starting with a crucial lead in my notes, the caller’s farewell statement: “Just remember this name — Jessica Hahn.”
(ANALYSIS) The war between Auburn and Alabama has verged on a crusade, with fans so devoted some seem possessed. In the most infamous moment on “The Paul Finebaum Show,” “Al from Dadeville” offered this explanation, quoting former Alabama football player Tommy Lewis, for his poisonous attack that killed Auburn's Toomer's Corner oak trees: “I just have too much ‘Bama in me.”
Today’s urgent questions about artificial intelligence, consciousness and morality are all the rage. This week, we examine Anthropic’s efforts to teach Claude virtue, the theological implications of AI “souls,” and humanity’s growing struggle to define — and control — machine choices.
(ANALYSIS) Shortly before her “Para(site)dise” exhibition at the William King Museum of Art in Abingdon, Virginia, artist Jocelyn Mathewes used a pillowcase and 30 pieces of fabric to create a 7-by-9-foot floating sculpture called “The Bed (Horizontal Time).” This experience touches minds and souls, as well as bodies.
On this week’s episode, the “60 Minutes” interview featuring Patrick Clancy — ex-husband of Lindsay Clancy — where he talked about the children’s killings in his first televised interview.
(ANALYSIS) In Narnia, Aslan is the Christ figure, repeatedly described by Lewis — an Oxford don and Christian apologist — as the “King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. ... The Lion, the great Lion.” In “The Magician's Nephew,” Narnia's creation story, Aslan is first described as “a Lion. Huge, shaggy and bright," with a basso profundo voice "deep enough to be the voice of the earth.”
Today the Christian legal movement is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and has touched many aspects of American life. Firms have been on a winning spree at the Supreme Court, overturning long-standing legal limits on religious expression by public officials, expanding religious exemptions and elevating the place of religious exercise to its highest point in modern times.
(ANALYSIS) Obviously, Baptists pay close attention to baptism statistics, along with trends on church attendance and membership. In a new report, Lifeway dug into Southern Baptist Convention Annual Church Profile numbers for 2025 and reported that baptisms rose for the fifth consecutive year. Baptist leaders quickly noted another current trend — adults 30 and older represented 33% of all baptisms.
(ANALYSIS) Yes, I’m a sports fan. I have discovered, over the years, that many of my readers do not care much about sports, at least not enough to pay attention to news coverage of sports. This is interesting, since sports is a powerful force in the lives of ordinary folks in America and around the world.
We revisit Peter Jennings’ warning about the faith gap in newsrooms, using a teenager’s reported healing and vision of the Virgin Mary to argue that journalists should investigate religious claims with the same rigor, curiosity and openness they bring to other complex mysteries.
(ANALYSIS) The Strip has not vanished, and its “Sin City” label remains relevant. The Nevada Gaming Control Board reported $8.82 billion in gross gaming revenue (what operators keep after payouts) for the Strip in 2025. But the world has changed. Researchers struggle to describe online gambling today — from $100 billion global GGR in 2023 to a Gaming Compliance International estimate of $5.9 trillion in unregulated activity.
(ANALYSIS) I learned she had died while gazing around inside an airplane approaching the Rocky Mountains. Someone with the funds to buy on-board WiFi had a news program playing on his tablet and I saw the headline. I was stunned, even though I have been following her health struggles for several months. She managed to hide any information that pointed to cancer.
(ANALYSIS) Celebrating the country music legend is an honor “mixed with absolute pride and great sadness,” stressed Bryan Seaver, the son of Parton's sister Cassie Parton, in the family’s announcement of her death.
This week’s podcast argues that Dolly Parton’s songs, philanthropy and Appalachian roots reveal far more about her faith, character and worldview than her polished public image. By examining songs like “Coat of Many Colors,” “I Am Ready” and “Horns and Halos,” it challenges conventional obituaries to listen more closely.
(ANALYSIS) After watching Christopher Nolan's take on “The Odyssey,” Father Dwight Longenecker remembered a comment Steven Spielberg made in a commentary while discussing how viewers react to symbolism. The director was responding to comments that crosses in the “Saving Private Ryan” cemetery scenes suggested the hero was a Christ figure who suffered to save a lost soul.
About 25 years ago, I wrote two columns examining the Church of Rome’s priest shortage — through the eyes of faithful mothers, with the help of a priest who had led a seminary. The headline: “Fathers, mothers & Catholic sons.” I was reminded of themes from those columns during this week’s “Crossroads” podcast.
In the digital age, one blunt way to reach Pope Leo XIV is to write a candid letter and post it online. That's what Bishop Robert Mutsaerts, an auxiliary bishop in the Netherlands, did recently. “Holy Father,” he began, with “reverence for the office entrusted to you as successor of Saint Peter, and in communion with the Church which Christ built upon the apostles, I address you with this open letter. I don't do so lightly.”
To say the least, Indiana Fever star Sophie (“Do the Sophie”) Cunningham’s quotes about trans athletes and women’s sports has ignited a firestorm in sports, politics, social media and the elite press. In this case, the sports world includes the small, struggling WNBA.
(ANALYSIS) These days, most up-to-date churches have "praise bands," with a few skilled vocalists, guitarists, drummers and keyboardists with stacks of synthesizers. And most church members have smartphone calendars with zero room left for a choir.
The political time machine has now landed in similar journalism terrain. During this week’s “Crossroads” podcast, we discussed several important news reports, including this Religion News Service feature: “‘They’re not real pastors’: As clergy run as Democrats, Republicans question their faith.”
(ANALYSIS) In her student days, Ann Widdecombe's first Oxford Union presentation was an attack on censorship, even if practicing free speech turned out to be risky or painful. A half-century later, the former Conservative MP and outspoken Catholic returned to the legendary debate club to address the same subject, at one point explaining why she once agreed to share a speaker's platform with an Irish Republican Army activist.
The bottom line: If reporters are going to cover moral and religious issues in a state like Utah, at some point they need to talk to experts on the religious element that, for many people, remain at the heart of these questions.
(ANALYSIS) The document tells clergy: “Medical Assistance in Dying evokes strong and opposing views amongst some persons and communities, including amongst health care providers and amongst Anglican Christians. Some Christians, including clergy, find that MAiD violates their understanding of the ethical values to which Christians are called.”
The new prime minister will almost certainly have a short political honeymoon. How will he handle his first public meeting with Pope Leo XIV? In terms of symbolism, will he seek a blessing?
It’s a big news story — at the denominational and local levels — when one of America’s biggest, richest, most powerful and most strategic United Methodist congregations votes to remove the word “United” from its name. Imagine this: What if a dozen members of the Highland Park flock, next to Southern Methodist University, released a manifesto explaining why 90% of the voters in the Dallas pews backed that decision? And what if one prominent Highland Park member — President George W. Bush — agreed to sign? Would that affect coverage?