Latest Episode
High Church on Chicago’s South Side
Pope Hats, Hot Dogs and Holy Ground:
Baseball has long been called a kind of church. It has its own calendar and rituals, its sacred places and inherited traditions. Its faithful gather at appointed times, sing familiar songs, share food, pass stories from one generation to the next, and keep believing through seasons of disappointment. Like religion, baseball asks people to live with failure, practice hope, and trust that renewal is always possible.
RNS Reporter Bob Smietana was recently in Ch
Recent Episodes
Aug. 17, 2026
High Church on Chicago’s South Side
Pope Hats, Hot Dogs and Holy Ground: Baseball has long been called a kind of church. It has its own calendar and rituals, its sacred places and inherited traditions. Its faithful gather at appointed times, sing familiar songs, share food, pass stories from one generation to the next, and keep believing through seasons of disappointment. Like religion, baseball asks people to live with failure, practice hope, and trust that renewal is always possible. RNS Reporter Bob Smietana was recently in Ch
Aug. 10, 2026
Put on a Pedestal, Kept Out of Power: How The LDS Church Is Losing Women
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints says it is bringing in new converts at an extraordinary rate. Its practicing members are among the most religiously engaged people in the country. By a lot of measures, active Latter-day Saints appear to be doing well. At the same time…the church is losing nearly half of the people who were raised in it. Even for kids raised going to church every week with families committed to the Mormon faith, one in three leaves. Both of these stories are tru
Aug. 3, 2026
The “Pastors In Name Only”: The New (Old) Fight Over Who Counts As Christian
Why Democratic pastors are being attacked for their faith, not merely their politics. Pastors, seminarians and other faith leaders are running for office as Democrats across the country. Their campaigns are making progressive Christianity newly visible—and prompting opponents to challenge not only their politics, but their legitimacy as Christians. RNS national reporter Jack Jenkins joins Amanda to examine James Talarico’s rise, attacks involving a “Satanist wedding” and biblical inerrancy, and
July 28, 2026
Data Centers, Dark Money: The Interfaith Group That Won't Disclose Anything
A mysterious mass- text invoked faith and economic justice to promote data centers. Aleja Hertzler-McCain followed the trail. A few weeks ago, residents of Prince George’s County, Maryland, received a text message telling them about the benefits of data centers: jobs, investment, economic opportunity. The message wasn’t signed. It didn’t say who had paid to send it. But it linked to a website belonging to something called the Interfaith Action Movement. Sounds like a coalition of religious lea
July 20, 2026
$438 Million Later, What Does This Faith-Tech Company Actually Do?
RNS reporter Bob Smietana on Gloo, the faith-tech company chasing a one-stop IT/AI solution for churches. Nearly half a billion dollars, gone, over thirteen years. That's how much a company called Gloo has lost trying to build an all-in-one digital & administrative powerhouse for what it's calling the "Faith & Flourishing Ecosystem" of American churches. A tech company that can handle email & texting, data analytics, web hosting, podcast hosting, IT infrastructure, sermon-to-social video clips
July 13, 2026
The Catholics Who Broke With Rome. Again.
When Tradition Becomes Trouble On the side of a mountain in Switzerland, in the shadow of the Alps, a fanciful event attracting a small but ardent group of Catholic traditionalists gathered to celebrate the consecration of 4 new bishops… Who were then promptly excommunicated from the Catholic Church along with the bishop who appointed them. The group is called the Society of St. Pius the Tenth, or SSPX. It has spent decades claiming to defend the true Catholic tradition against a church it see
Join the Email List
Listen On
