Complexified

Latest Episodes:

New Voices, New Alliances: Religion and Politics with Tom Gjelten Nov 09, 2026

Show notes

What does this election tell us about the changing role of religion in American public life?

A record number of Muslims are headed to Congress.
Christian pastors won races campaigning on economic justice.
Voters with no religious affiliation helped elect candidates who put faith at the center of their campaigns.

There are unexpected and encouraging new alliances here, also… deep divisions.

Tom Gjelten is an award-winning journalist who spent nearly four decades at NPR, covering international affairs, national security, and, most recently, religion and belief. His reporting explores America’s changing religious landscape and the intersection of faith, politics, and public life.

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Democrats Won Big. Where Did Faith Fit In? Nov 04, 2026

Show notes

All year on Complexified, we’ve been asking who gets to claim Christianity in American politics. Tonight, that question has some new answers.

Did these candidates win because of how they talked about faith? What brought voters to the polls? And how much of what happened tonight will last beyond this election?

Jack Jenkins, national reporter for RNS and author of American Prophets: The Religious Roots of Progressive Politics and the Ongoing Fight for the Soul of the Country, is joining us to unpack the results and what they mean for religion and political power.

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The Right to Refuse AI: When Thinking for Yourself Is a Religious Belief Nov 02, 2026

Show notes

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 case reveals about religious freedom, the right to refuse AI, and the broad ecosystem of policy and proceedure of making room for conscience at work.

Read Bob’s reporting: “A Kentucky man becomes the first humanist granted religious exemption from AI.”

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When Cruelty Stops Shocking Us Oct 26, 2026

Show notes

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 drug failed to kill her. She was hospitalized and later returned to prison. Together, these cases bring questions about punishment, suffering and the value of human life into sharp focus.

Today on Complexified, we’re joined by public theologian Russell Moore, editor at large at Christianity Today, to explore how Christians understand justice, mercy and the sanctity of life—and what happens when their different answers become a test of who counts as Christian at all.

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Pastors, Pews and Power: Religion in the Midterms Oct 20, 2026

Show notes

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.

With us today are national reporter Jack Jenkins, whose recent reporting examines faith leaders on the ballot; national reporter Aleja Hertzler-McCain, who has covered abortion measures on midterm ballots; and projects editor and national reporter Adelle M. Banks, who has reported on the March on Washington and the continuing fight for voting rights. Adelle is also the coauthor of Becoming a Future-Ready Church: 8 Shifts to Encourage and Empower the Next Generation of Leaders.

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The Very American Rise and Fall and Rise and Death of Jim Bakker Oct 12, 2026

Show notes

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 bad judgment.

His was a life of faith and fame, of innovation and swindlery. And his legacy is everywhere.

So today’s question: How did Jim Bakker turn religious intimacy into an American empire?

My guest is Dr. Leah Payne, a historian of American religion at Portland Seminary and author of God Gave Rock and Roll to You: A History of Contemporary Christian Music. She studies where faith, politics and pop culture meet.

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Spiritual Readiness, Pentagon-Style: Who Measures a Soldier’s Soul? Oct 05, 2026

Show notes

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 develop tools to assess the spiritual readiness of the force.

Hegseth has made own conservative Christianity a prominent part of his leadership of the military.

At the speech where he announced the new office, he explained why.

Today, RNS national reporter Jack Jenkins joins us to examine what Hegseth is building.

Will this office help service members draw strength from their own deepest beliefs?

Or will the Pentagon decide which beliefs make someone spiritually fit to serve?

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The Rise Of The Jim Crow Theobros Sep 28, 2026

Show notes

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.

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The Texas Sharia Panic: How a Rallying Cry Became a Curriculum Sep 21, 2026

Show notes

Republican leaders across Texas are repeatedly warning that Sharia is an urgent threat to the state- making it a rallying cry as we head into the midterm elections. The Muslim community, who has long stayed quiet, is now organizing and speaking out.

Today: how the drumbeat of Islamophobic language became school curriculum, and how the small population of Muslim Texans begins to use American strategies- to work for their place in Texas.

To understand what is happening in Texas we are joined by RNS journalists Fiona André and Ulaa Kuziez

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Bratwurst and Beer: How the Far Right Replaced Germany's Churches Sep 14, 2026

Show notes

A state in Germany has seen the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party win nearly 44% of the vote—making it the state’s largest party and bringing it within three seats of a governing majority.

While Catholic and Protestant churches had been prominent opponents of AfD in this election - their influence failed to stem the tide of the growing far-right, nationalist movement.

How did this happen in a place where churches once birthed the Protestant Reformation and contributed to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

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