Impolite Company

This week Amy is joined by journalist and author Steven Waldman, whose new book SACRED LIBERTY: AMERICA'S LONG, BLOODY, AND ONGOING STRUGGLE OVER RELIGIOUS FREEDOM was published this week. 

Their conversation covers the long and evolving history of religious liberty in America, the fact that anti-Catholicism has been the most common feature of religious liberty violations, and the role that evangelicals could--emphasis on could--...

We are back! (Sort of.) With everyone but your condo board president jumping into the Democratic presidential race, and an astonishing number of them comfortable talking about issues of faith and morality, we couldn't just sit by and watch.

This week Amy is joined by Guest Co-Host Extraordinaire Jack Jenkins, a national correspondent for Religion News Service. Jack has interviewed a number of the Democratic candidates about their...

Nish is off this week, so Amy is joined by award-winning journalist Jack Jenkins of Religion News Service for a discussion about the civil religion rituals of American state funerals, allegations of election fraud in a North Carolina congressional race involving a Republican candidate who is also a Southern Baptist pastor, and the potential resurgence of the religious left as a political force.

And because it's December, the Impo...

This week, we dive right into the midterm elections. What does it mean to be in a country that makes great strides in one midterm election - placing a record number of women & religious minorities in office, electing the first openly gay man as a governor, and giving the voting rights back to 1.4 million people - yet, still elects individuals who openly propagate white supremacist ideals? We wrestle with the tension, as well as...

In this episode, we talk about the massacre of eleven Jews during Shabbat services at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.

We discuss the right-wing rhetoric--starting with the president--that currently encourages intolerance, racism, anti-Semitism. We talk about how to discuss anti-Semitism with children without also scaring them unnecessarily. And we talk about why the argument that "this was about anti-religiosity" isn't ...

This week, Nish talks with Rachel Esplin Odell and Jennifer Walker Thomas, two leaders of the organization Mormon Women for Ethical Government (MWEG). The group recently made news when it called upon the four Mormon Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to take seriously allegations against Brett Kavanaugh.

Rachel and Jennifer talk about how MWEG developed organically after 2016--and particularly out of concern ove...

In this episode, we are done. Done done done.

The Brett Kavanaugh confirmation process is over but we are just getting started. We talk about why calls for civility in the wake of injustice are often calls to silence underrepresented voices. We discuss the fact that so many white women were galvanized to support the Kavanaugh nomination, and why that points to the need for more women leaders in religious spaces.

And we feed our...

This week, Nish and Amy talk about the wrong way to do faith outreach, as well as an attempt by a group of LDS women to appeal to the four Mormon senators who sit on the Judiciary Committee. 

We also introduce a new segment called "Race to the Bottom," in which we nominate some nonsense we've heard from conservative white evangelicals and ask listeners to vote on the very worst. 

And Amy talks with writer Danielle Mayfield abou...

And we are back! Welcome to the Season Two premiere of Impolite Company, in which we discuss new revelations of abuse and coverup in the Catholic Church, the increasingly contested nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, and Democratic faith-outreach efforts. 

We'll be returning to that last topic throughout the fall as we talk with Democratic candidates and former Obama aides about why there's been such traditional resistance in the part...

We're just days away from launching the second season of Impolite Company, listeners! In the meantime, we wanted to share this conversation Amy had with Calvin College historian and gender studies professor Kristin Du Mez. 

Du Mez is writing a book about white evangelicals, toxic masculinity, and militarism. She and Amy talked about the way in which those factors actually make Donald Trump not just an acceptable figure for many w...

In this mini episode, Amy checks in to tell listeners that Impolite Company will be back for Season Two after Labor Day, and bemoans the many religion & politics stories that have gone uncommented on over the summer. 

Mentioned this week:

• Nish's idyllic summer with her REI-catalogue family

• The Pope's Groundbreaking Rejection of the Death Penalty (Emma Green, The Atlantic)

• Raise Your Voice: Why We Stay Silent and H...

Note: This episode was recorded before Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement, and before an armed man slaughtered five journalists at the Annapolis Capitol Gazette.

We're one week away from taking a break for much of the summer--but we're starting up an Impolite Company newsletter to fill the void, and we'll drop in occasionally with a few mini episodes.

In the meantime, this week's show features Amy in...

Buckle up, listeners. We recorded this week's episode just an hour or so after Jeff Sessions cited Romans 13 to justify the Trump Administration's policy of ripping families apart at the border, so we were in full NOT TODAY SATAN mode. You have been warned, and you're welcome.

We also discuss the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting, at which the denomination tiptoe into discussions of church abuse and gender, but then le...

This week, we talk about Vice President Mike Pence's commencement address at Hillsdale College, in which he declared that religiosity is on the rise in America (it's not). 

We also discuss the decision to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem AND to invite John "the Apocalypse is coming and it will be in Israel" Hagee to represent the United States by offering a benediction at the opening ceremony for the new embassy.

This week, Nish and Amy talk about Trump's belated announcement of a White House faith office, as well as the backlash among Southern Baptist women to comments from Paige Patterson regarding marriage and domestic abuse.

We also interview journalist Ruth Graham about her recent Politico Magazine story, which laid out in fascinating detail the extent to which Christian media have become an extension of the White House communication...

We begin this week by discussing the Case of Paul Ryan and the Disappearing Chaplain. But in the time between recording this episode and releasing it, the chaplain in question rescinded his resignation and Paul Ryan gave in, restoring the chaplain to his position. 

You come at a Jesuit, ya best not miss, Mr. Speaker.

We also talked about the record number of Hindu candidates running for office as Democrats this year. 

And Amy...