Charismatic Christians are spiritually related to Pentecostals through certain spiritual practices, including divine healing, prophecy and speaking in tongues. Pew Research Center estimates there are just over 300 million Charismatics worldwide.   

Religion News Service reporter Jack Jenkins has been following Charismatics as their rituals and beliefs evolve into a modern political/spiritual hybrid.  Jenkins joined producer Jonathan Woodward via Skype;  talking through developments in the rise of a politically strengthened Charismatic movement. 

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Acclaimed religion reporter for the New York Times, Peter Steinfels recently authored an article in the publication Commonweal. In it he makes an impassioned, meticulously developed case that a recent grand jury report on sexual abuse in Pennsylvania was, quote, “Inaccurate, Unfair, and Misleading”.  

Steinfels claims the report was surrounded by journalistic laziness, misrepresentation of the efforts made by the Catholic Church to address the crisis, and a dramatic roll-out of accusations that were not supported by the report. 

Host Bill Baker speaks to Steinfels to unpack his criticisms of the report.

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Qasim Rashid is a critically acclaimed author, attorney, activist and host of the Religion News Foundation podcast, Re-Sight Islam. Drawing on the recent events in Texas involving an attempt to oust a local Republican Party operative specifically because of his Muslim faith, Beliefs producer talks with Qasim about the vibrancy of this public religious discrimination and the pernicious concept of 'stealth jihad'.

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It's been another foundation-shaking year in the Catholic Church as revelations of sexual predation and abuse by its most senior clerics are seemingly unending. Author Michael Sean Winters writes for the National Catholic Reporter and The Tablet. Host Bill Baker and Winters sat down to puzzle out some of the paths forward for the Church in 2019.

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