No words can accurately capture our national grief as we mourn the lives – mostly children! – lost in Texas this week. This week on State of Belief, Interfaith Alliance’s weekly radio show and podcast, we will explore the latest ways in which the Religious Right marches in lockstep with the gun lobby in our country. We’ll also get details on the explosive sexual abuse report from the Southern Baptist Convention, and take a look at the burgeoning movement toward international nationalism among far-right figures in our country.
The gun idolatry running rampant in certain politically influential evangelical denominations is undeniable, and cannot be divorced from the recent tragedies in Uvalde, Buffalo, and Laguna Woods. The Rev. Dr. Robert L. Schenck, founder and president of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute, will join Rabbi Jack Moline, who is filling in for State of Belief host Rev. Welton Gaddy this week, to discuss what dynamics keep so many on the Religious Right attached to absolutist gun culture.
News of widespread coverups of sexual abuse by Southern Baptist leaders rocked the faith world this week. Unfortunately, this revelation comes as little surprise to those who have been following this story for years. Religion News Service’s award-winning National Reporter Bob Smietana will join Jack to discuss this long-delayed report.
The relentless dismantling of Hungarian democracy by strongman Viktor Orbán is a source of grave concern for observers around the globe – except for the right wing American activists and politicians who shared the stage with the Prime Minister last weekend, praising the “Christian Conservative success” of the European nation. Journalist Sarah Posner will speak with Jack about the coalescence of authoritarian – and religion-citing – nationalists at home and abroad.
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