The Right to Refuse AI: When Thinking for Yourself Is a Religious Belief

A University of Kentucky employee asked to be excused from using artificial intelligence at work. He said it violated his beliefs as a humanist. The university granted him a religious accommodation. It’s a case where the process worked. But it opens up harder questions: Who decides whether a belief counts as religious? How does a court or employer determine if someone sincerely holds it? And what happens to everyone else? RNS reporter Bob Smietana joins Amanda Henderson to explore what this ca

Russell Moore on the death penalty, sacred life and political belonging In Texas, Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan is scheduled to be executed by firing squad. Earlier this month, the Pentagon announced that his execution would be livestreamed. The backlash led to that proposal being withdrawn, leaving fresh questions about the death penalty—and what it means to make someone’s death a public spectacle. Meanwhile, in Tennessee, Christa Pike survived a botched execution after two doses of a lethal d

Religion has always been part of American politics. What changes from cycle to cycle is where it shows up and what it looks like. This year it’s turning up in some unexpected places: seminarians running for Senate, a president feuding with the pope, and Black churches organizing marches to the polls after the Voting Rights Act was gutted. I’m joined for an election midterm roundtable by three of the reporters who’ve been covering all things religion and politics for Religion News Service. Wit

Televangelist Jim Bakker is dead at 86. And whatever else can be said about him, he was a true American original. In the ’70s and ’80s, millions of Americans welcomed Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker into their living rooms every day. They laughed with them, prayed with them and sent them money—enough money to build a television network and a Christian theme park. He was also a convicted fraudster whose empire collapsed amid revelations of deception, sexual misconduct allegations and spectacularly ba

Soldiers are trained for physical combat. But war also confronts them with death, killing, grief, guilt and questions of meaning. The military has long employed chaplains to care for those needs—across religious traditions and for service members with no religion at all. Now Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says that system needs more power. He has created an Office of Religious Affairs with what he calls “real teeth.” Its director will report directly to him, oversee funding and policy, and dev

Across YouTube, podcasts and church conferences, a new group of pastors and influencers is promoting an openly racist and baldly antisemitic vision of Christian America. They present themselves not as extremists, but as respectable religious leaders defending truths that others are afraid to say. Today, RNS reporter Bob Smietana takes us inside this emerging movement—who these men are, what they believe, and why these old ideas are finding new life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit mega