Food-stamp challenge, then Ross Douthat on ‘Bad Religion’

Hour 2

After taking the “Food Stamp Challenge,” Marty checks in with fellow participants ANNETTE JOHN HALL, Metro columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer;  and the Jewish Federation’s Director of Social Responsibility BRIAN GRALNICK.

Then, the Republican frontrunner for the American presidency is a Mormon. For the last several months Mitt Romney was running close in the GOP polls next to conservative Catholic Rick Santorum, before he suspended his presidential campaign. President Barack Obama, a Christian, was seen as a savior figure in 2008, who followed born-again Christian George W. Bush, according to our guest, New York Times Op-Ed columnist ROSS DOUTHAT. Douthat sees the most potent theories behind politics are based in religion and he comes in to discuss his provocative view of mainstream Christianity’s decline in the United States through the 1950s up through the Obama administration. Ross Douthat looks at the celebrity televangelists and theological scholars he considers heretical, including Joel Osteen, Dan Brown and Elaine Pagels, and calls for a revival of traditional Christianity in his new book, “Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics.”

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[audio: 050112_110630.mp3]