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Inspired
Inspired is the nation's leading public radio show about faith, ethics and spirituality. Each week we offer you analyses of the big headlines alongside lesser-told stories – those of Orthodox Jewish artists and African-American atheists, Muslim feminists and spiritual seekers. Through these stories, a rough sketch of our country’s religious landscape begins to emerge. It’s a marketplace of beliefs and ideas too complex for sound bites, and too important to ignore.
This week, we highlight the religion angle of some of the biggest headlines of the last few months, including the January 6th Congressional Hearings and investigations into Native American boarding schools. Then we look at the challenges and opportunities facing a small group of believers often overlooked by the media who may be staging a comeback. Our guests are three top-tier religion journalists – freelancer Steve Rabey, Religion News Service correspondent Emily McFarlan Miller and The Associated Press’s David Crary.
Pro-Family Christians and “The Big Lie”
Steve Rabey has spent the last three decades covering evangelicals and other conservative Christians. Recently, he’s focussed on the often obscured links between Christian pro-family groups and Republicans who support and promote the false and misleading claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Most of these groups enjoy the tax-exempt status of churches or other houses of worship, so politicking is a no-no. But, Rabey says, these groups often operate with impunity and pour millions of dollars into political causes.
Telling the Truth is the First Step
Emily McFarlan Miller covers mainline Protestants and Native American spirituality, and has been following the investigations into abuses at residential boarding schools for indigenous peoples run by the governments of Canada and the U.S. She discusses the findings of a recent government inquiry into abuses at these schools, many of which were run by religious denominations.
New Life for an Old Faith
Recently, The Associated Press’s David Crary wrote a primer about Zoroastrians, one of the oldest faiths that has, until recently, experienced ever-dwindling numbers. A new focus on young Zoroastrians may change that.
