The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops recently released a document on religious liberty that criticized a new regulatory provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a., Obamacare) requiring employers to provide insurance coverage for contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs. Prof. Phillip Muñoz (Notre Dame) helps us wade through this controversy explaining the bishops’ argument, the politics surrounding this issue, and the various streams of Catholic social thought including the principle of subsidiarity. While primarily focused on health care (and specifically issues related to reproductive health), we take our discussion into other areas of religious freedom that the Catholic Church and others have considered important.

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If you need to get a daily fix of religious-related news, where are you going to go? Real Clear Religion, of course! Jeremy Lott, the editor of Real Clear Religion and other related news portals, joins us to chat about how the Interwebs have changed the way we hear about religious news. He reveals the history of the “Real Clear” network of news sites (or “intelligent aggregators”) and how RCR fits into that general model of internet sites. We then talk about the various media trends Jeremy has seen over the years, including some discussion on the state of religion & politics and the upcoming election.

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We celebrate our 100th episode with return guest Margarita Mooney discussing Pope Benedict XVI’s historic visit to Cuba. We cover the religious landscape of this island nation since the 1959 revolution and the everyday hardships that both religious and non-religious people must endure, as well as the slow religious opening that has been occuring for the past two decades. Pope John Paul II’s visit is also discussed, but the majority of our discussion is reserved for the impact that Pope Benedict’s visit had on the Catholic faithful. Prof. Mooney details Benedict’s “Homily in Havana” and relates some vivid stories from people still living in Cuba.

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How often has a pope willingly resigned from his position? In our interview with Jon Sweeney, we get insight into the life and times of Peter Morrone (a.k.a., Pope Celestine V) who reigned for 15 weeks in 1294 before quitting his post just before Christmas. This fascinating tale of a spiritual hermit who lived a humble life, yet ascended to the papacy in one of the more incredible tales of the Church’s history, reveals the 13th century struggles between the ecclesia spiritualis (spiritual Church) and the ecclesia carnalis (the worldly church of power). It also tells us a great deal about our contemporary religious life.

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What case can be made for promoting religious freedom worldwide? Prof. Timothy Shah discusses the moral, political, and strategic reasons why religious liberty is a crucial human right and why it is often called “the first freedom.” He reviews the justifications for religious freedom from three different faith traditions — Judaism, Christianity, and Islam — as well as the ontological reasons why religion should be considered for special consideration in debates about human rights. Tony even uses the word ontology in the discussion, but don’t let that scare you off since he didn’t know what it meant until very recently and our conversation is both enlightening and extremely accessible.

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Rod Stark rejoins our podcast to discuss the second portion of his book, “The Triumph of Christianity.” We survey the epoch from the Edict of Milan up until the start of the Protestant Reformation, covering topics such as the relationship between Christianity and economic growth, the Church’s role in promoting science, religious opposition to slavery, the supposed demise of paganism, the religiosity of the common folk, and the various “reformations” that were taking place within the Christian Church throughout this era, eventually leading to Luther’s Reformation.

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A week before Presidents’ Day, we visit with Gary Scott Smith of Grove City College to survey the religious beliefs of a dozen or so presidents including Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, both Roosevelts, JFK, Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama and a few others. Along the way we discuss why understanding the faith of our presidents is important, why most people do not know much about it, and how we go about studying the topic.

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To what extent is the term “market” useful in describing or understanding religion, particularly during the era of America’s founding in the late 18th century? We take up this discussion with Prof. Chris Beneke of Bentley University who recently wrote a paper about the use of the “free market” metaphor. We talk about the use of economics to study religion as well as whether the Founding Fathers intended to create a laissez faire landscape for religious competition.

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Dark networks are clandestine organizations that often engage in nefarious behavior. Often associated with religious terrorist groups, these dark networks are the focus of our discussion with Prof. Sean Everton of the Naval Postgraduate School. He covers the nature of these groups, how we learn about them via network analysis, and how counter-insurgency efforts are being crafted to disrupt these networks in places like Colombia, Indonesia, and Iraq.

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Prof. Jason Jewell enlightens us on the life, times, and philosophy of John Locke with specific attention to his views on religious toleration. We discuss Locke’s influence on Western culture as well as how he may have affected our views on church-state relations and religious liberty. Jason and Tony also contemplate the role of intellectuals on history and Jason gives us some insight into his online project to read the Great Books of Western Civilization.

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