Holy Smoke
By The Spectator
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Category: Religion
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Episodes: 209
Description
The most important and controversial topics in world religion, thoroughly dissected by a range of high profile guests. Presented by Damian Thompson.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
| Episode | Date |
|---|---|
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How was Commercial Christmas born?
|
Dec 11, 2025 |
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Why is it left to Trump to highlight the persecution of Christians in Nigeria?
|
Nov 25, 2025 |
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Why did the Danish PM call for a 'spiritual rearmament'?
|
Nov 16, 2025 |
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Have the culture wars gone spiritual?
|
Nov 09, 2025 |
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Is the cult of St Edward the Confessor justified?
|
Oct 30, 2025 |
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Is the Anglican Communion dead?
|
Oct 21, 2025 |
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How did faith shape Thatcher?
|
Oct 19, 2025 |
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What does it mean 'to forgive'?
|
Oct 12, 2025 |
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What can we expect from the first female Archbishop of Canterbury?
|
Oct 03, 2025 |
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Reparations: the tyranny of imaginary guilt, with Nigel Biggar & Katie Lam
|
Sep 25, 2025 |
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800 years on, why is Aquinas Gen Z’s favourite philosopher?
|
Sep 19, 2025 |
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Archbishop of Canterbury: who's on the shortlist?
|
Sep 12, 2025 |
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Why the canonisation of the first millennial saint is a cause to celebrate
|
Sep 06, 2025 |
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Which are the 'Twelve Churches' that made Christianity?
|
Aug 28, 2025 |
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From the Bible to Tolkien: the risks & rewards of collecting rare books
|
Aug 15, 2025 |
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How has John Henry Newman inspired Pope Leo XIV?
|
Aug 08, 2025 |
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Massacres in Syria & the Congo: why aren't Western elites drawing attention to religious persecution?
|
Jul 31, 2025 |
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Recovering the Sacred with Michael Gove, Revd Marcus Walker, Dr Cosima Gillhammer and many more
|
Jul 14, 2025 |
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It’s time for Pope Leo XIV to make some tough decisions
|
Jul 01, 2025 |
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Why are young Christians returning to tradition?
|
Jun 18, 2025 |
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A Jewish guide to arguing
|
Jun 10, 2025 |
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Is God an Englishman?
|
Jun 01, 2025 |
|
The mystifying process – and problems – behind choosing the next Archbishop of Canterbury
|
May 25, 2025 |
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Finding spiritual treasure in César Franck
|
May 19, 2025 |
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Does Pope Leo XIV represent continuity or change?
|
May 09, 2025 |
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Conclave: who is likely to succeed Francis?
|
May 02, 2025 |
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What can we expect from the papal conclave?
|
Apr 27, 2025 |
|
Pope Francis dies – what will his legacy be?
|
Apr 21, 2025 |
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Easter special: in praise of faithful dissent, a conversation with Nigel Biggar and Mary Wakefield
|
Apr 18, 2025 |
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Was Simeon of Jerusalem the first Christian in recorded history?
|
Apr 09, 2025 |
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The tin ear of Justin Welby
|
Apr 01, 2025 |
|
A sick Pope and a paralysed Vatican: who is actually running the Catholic Church?
|
Mar 28, 2025 |
|
Christianity, culture wars and J.D. Vance: a conversation with James Orr
|
Mar 12, 2025 |
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Conclave – what really happens when a pope dies?
|
Feb 25, 2025 |
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Holy War and Antichrist: The rise of extremist rhetoric inside the Russian Orthodox Church
|
Feb 20, 2025 |
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Why militant atheists don’t understand religion: a conversation with Alister McGrath
|
Feb 13, 2025 |
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Are Syrian Christians who speak the language of Jesus about to disappear after 2,000 years?
|
Jan 31, 2025 |
|
Could Trump 2.0. herald a new era of religious liberty in America?
|
Jan 24, 2025 |
|
Did Muslim leaders help conceal the grooming gangs scandal? A fierce exchange of views
|
Jan 17, 2025 |
|
How abuse scandals shattered the Church of England but were hidden by the Vatican
|
Dec 31, 2024 |
|
Why was C.S. Lewis such a killjoy at Christmas? A discussion with Alister McGrath
|
Dec 24, 2024 |
|
Is the end of Christendom nigh? with A.N. Wilson
|
Dec 13, 2024 |
|
Defender of the Faith: how have the King’s religious beliefs changed?
|
Dec 06, 2024 |
|
Should assisted dying be legalised?
|
Nov 27, 2024 |
|
Welby resigns: crisis at the Church of England
|
Nov 12, 2024 |
|
Did Christianity create secular humanism?
|
Nov 08, 2024 |
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Sale of the century: why is the Kirk selling off hundreds of churches so cheaply?
|
Oct 25, 2024 |
|
The Pope announces 21 new cardinals. Is he trying to pack the conclave?
|
Oct 18, 2024 |
|
Could religious voters in the swing states decide the US election?
|
Oct 04, 2024 |
|
How pistols in St Paul’s Cathedral shaped the science of sound
|
Sep 20, 2024 |
|
Losing faith: will Labour’s VAT policy hit religious schools hardest?
|
Sep 06, 2024 |
|
From the archives: An atheist goes on a Christian pilgrimage. Why?
|
Aug 29, 2024 |
|
A Habsburg Archduke explains how not to be nasty on Twitter
|
Jul 19, 2024 |
|
Walsingham and the musical grief of the Reformation
|
Jul 01, 2024 |
|
Calm fire: the consolation of listening to Bruckner
|
May 23, 2024 |
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The problem with cringe-making funerals
|
Apr 24, 2024 |
|
How the Church of England patronises African Christians
|
Mar 15, 2024 |
|
How much did Pope Francis know about Fr Marko Rupnik?
|
Feb 26, 2024 |
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How liberal bishops are squeezing the life out of the Church of England
|
Feb 09, 2024 |
|
Does Trump have evangelical Christians to thank for his second coming?
|
Jan 26, 2024 |
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Gay blessings and theological porn: why leading cardinals are distancing themselves from Pope Francis
|
Jan 15, 2024 |
|
Raymond Arroyo on the joys of a Sinatra-style Christmas
|
Dec 22, 2023 |
|
The strange appeal of Integralism
|
Dec 15, 2023 |
|
How light filled the first Roman Churches: a conversation with Dr Elizabeth Lev
|
Nov 13, 2023 |
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The Pope, gay blessings and the Rupnik scandal
|
Oct 05, 2023 |
|
Genghis Khan and the Pope's summer of madness
|
Sep 07, 2023 |
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The future of churchgoing in the West: why Protestants should worry and Catholics should panic
|
Aug 18, 2023 |
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Is 2023 Pope Francis's 'Year Zero'?
|
Jul 25, 2023 |
|
Escaping the atheist hell of North Korea
|
Jul 07, 2023 |
|
Inside the world's most vicious liturgy wars
|
Jun 23, 2023 |
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Succession: five nightmares for the next pope
|
May 30, 2023 |
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The Vatican and the Mafia – why Italy can't seem to shake off organised crime
|
May 26, 2023 |
|
How Protestant is the Coronation?
|
May 05, 2023 |
|
Why didn't Beethoven go to Mass?
|
Apr 14, 2023 |
|
The battle over female Catholic priests has just begun
|
Mar 31, 2023 |
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Is Abu Dhabi's multi-faith 'Abrahamic Family House' a beacon of hope or a creepy PR exercise?
|
Mar 17, 2023 |
|
The war over the Latin Mass escalates as the Vatican slides into chaos
|
Feb 24, 2023 |
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Why Catholics are torn between the Church of Benedict and the Church of Francis
|
Jan 10, 2023 |
|
Why children need proper Christmas carols, not hideous agitprop
|
Dec 22, 2022 |
|
How ‘cancelled’ conservative Catholic priests are fighting to clear their names
|
Dec 16, 2022 |
|
What are Church of England services really like?
|
Nov 28, 2022 |
|
Sixty years on, Vatican II turns nasty
|
Oct 20, 2022 |
|
The Catholic Church is falling apart at the seams
|
Sep 27, 2022 |
|
Why has the West caved in to the progressive witch-finders?
|
Sep 02, 2022 |
|
Is Pope Francis protecting a convicted sex abuser?
|
Aug 16, 2022 |
|
Why the Pope's 'Synod on Synodality' has become a joke
|
Jul 14, 2022 |
|
The Queen's powerful Christian faith
|
Jun 06, 2022 |
|
Why is the Church of England so obsessed with racism?
|
May 30, 2022 |
|
The Catholic Church's muddle over Roe vs Wade
|
May 05, 2022 |
|
A plan to rescue Christian art
|
Apr 28, 2022 |
|
Monsignor Michael Nazir-Ali on his first Easter as a Catholic
|
Apr 15, 2022 |
|
It’s time the West saved Nigeria’s persecuted Christians
|
Apr 08, 2022 |
|
'I don't think we've gained anything' – Cardinal Pell on the Vatican and China
|
Mar 21, 2022 |
|
In Ukraine and China, a power-obsessed Vatican is betraying heroic Catholics
|
Mar 03, 2022 |
|
Does Putin think he's fighting a holy war to preserve Orthodox Russia?
|
Feb 24, 2022 |
|
How bureaucrats are suffocating the Church of England
|
Feb 14, 2022 |
|
Remembering my lovely sister
|
Jan 31, 2022 |
|
Why tradition is sacred: an interview with Archbishop Nikitas, leader of Britain’s Greek Orthodox Church
|
Jan 12, 2022 |
|
Why the Catholic Church is facing chaos this Christmas
|
Dec 23, 2021 |
|
Did a 'mafia' of liberal cardinals pressure Benedict to resign?
|
Oct 29, 2021 |
|
How Christians can fight the menace of university 'cancel culture'
|
Oct 11, 2021 |
|
Can C of E parishes stop bureaucrats wasting their money?
|
Sep 30, 2021 |
|
Has Pope Francis just thrown Joe Biden under the bus on abortion?
|
Sep 17, 2021 |
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Joe Biden and the betrayal of religious freedom
|
Aug 27, 2021 |
|
Is the Catholic Church falling apart?
|
Aug 13, 2021 |
|
The plot against the Old Rite
|
Jul 18, 2021 |
|
The tyranny of bad hymns
|
Jun 29, 2021 |
|
The Christian mental health crisis
|
Jun 09, 2021 |
|
How Biden's cardinals are trying to shut down free discussion
|
May 28, 2021 |
|
The last legacy of the Soviet Union
|
May 13, 2021 |
|
The magical power of charisma – and why the Churches are ignoring it
|
May 03, 2021 |
|
The Greek Orthodox ancestry of Prince Philip
|
Apr 12, 2021 |
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What the police's Good Friday disruption tells us about post-Christian Britain
|
Apr 07, 2021 |
|
The Passion chorale: the story of an extraordinary tune
|
Apr 01, 2021 |
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The mystery of Pope Francis's infallibly good taste in classical music
|
Mar 25, 2021 |
|
Is Jordan Peterson about to move from Jung to Jesus?
|
Mar 10, 2021 |
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Why should persecuted Christians trust Pope Francis?
|
Mar 02, 2021 |
|
Can the United States be transported back to Christendom?
|
Feb 19, 2021 |
|
Lockdown and the pandemic of loneliness
|
Feb 05, 2021 |
|
How the Vatican tried to suppress criticism of the new president
|
Jan 28, 2021 |
|
The death of the English parish
|
Jan 20, 2021 |
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The problem of paranoia on the Catholic Right
|
Jan 13, 2021 |
|
Goodbye to Catholic Ireland
|
Dec 23, 2020 |
|
Beethoven’s spirituality: a conversation with Sir James MacMillan
|
Dec 17, 2020 |
|
Should devout Christians be scared of a Joe Biden presidency?
|
Nov 25, 2020 |
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Why the fantasy narrative of the Vatican's McCarrick report is already falling apart
|
Nov 14, 2020 |
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'If necessary I'll be arrested': the lockdown defying priest
|
Nov 03, 2020 |
|
A charity that actually transforms lives: Team Domenica
|
Oct 23, 2020 |
|
Is Pope Francis's Vatican turning into Richard Nixon's White House?
|
Oct 08, 2020 |
|
The humiliation of Becciu and the return of Pell
|
Sep 29, 2020 |
|
Is it time for Christianity to go underground?
|
Sep 24, 2020 |
|
Westminster Cathedral and an act of spiritual vandalism
|
Sep 14, 2020 |
|
Are the Habsburgs evidence of Catholicism's relevance today?
|
Aug 29, 2020 |
|
The Vatican's sinister deal with Beijing
|
Aug 07, 2020 |
|
How a ‘biblically illiterate’ generation can discover Christian art
|
Jul 28, 2020 |
|
The woke new Archbishop of York
|
Jul 17, 2020 |
|
Who will be the next Pope?
|
Jul 07, 2020 |
|
The creepy doctrines of Black Lives Matter
|
Jun 26, 2020 |
|
Suicide by secularisation: how the churches are dying
|
Jun 19, 2020 |
|
American Christianity will recover from the virus, but English churches are in big trouble
|
May 22, 2020 |
|
Is this the dawn of a new totalitarianism?
|
May 13, 2020 |
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Have the churches been betrayed by their bishops?
|
Apr 23, 2020 |
|
Cancer and life in lockdown
|
Apr 11, 2020 |
|
Unlock the churches!
|
Apr 03, 2020 |
|
Beethoven's victory over sickness and fear
|
Mar 26, 2020 |
|
As we confront mortality, why do our bishops have so little to say?
|
Mar 17, 2020 |
|
Has the Vatican become a mouthpiece for Beijing?
|
Mar 09, 2020 |
|
Why the collapse of Christian Science should worry mainstream churches
|
Feb 28, 2020 |
|
Why the Pope said no to married priests
|
Feb 20, 2020 |
|
The strange journey of Europe’s ‘Christian’ Jews
|
Feb 10, 2020 |
|
Has the Church of England surrendered to ‘soft socialism’?
|
Jan 10, 2020 |
|
Why it's a sin to sneer at 1970s Christmas specials
|
Dec 23, 2019 |
|
Does the Church know how to deal with mental illness?
|
Nov 15, 2019 |
|
Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala: a different sort of bishop
|
Nov 01, 2019 |
|
Why the Vatican is more corrupt than ever
|
Oct 11, 2019 |
|
The strange religion of cryptocurrency
|
Oct 03, 2019 |
|
The Kremlin's persecution of Jews
|
Sep 20, 2019 |
|
Why liberals turn a blind eye to the global persecution of Christians
|
Sep 02, 2019 |
|
The two time bombs threatening Pope Francis’s moral authority
|
Aug 16, 2019 |
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Lessons learned from Carl Beech and what they mean for Cardinal Pell
|
Aug 07, 2019 |
|
How radical Islam taught the progressive left to blame the Jews
|
Jul 30, 2019 |
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Does Boris Johnson have Christian values?
|
Jul 23, 2019 |
|
Why has big business become so woke?
|
Jun 21, 2019 |
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Why Bach's The St Matthew Passion speaks to all of us
|
Apr 18, 2019 |
|
Why are bishops so boring?
|
Mar 15, 2019 |
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Gay smears and the Vatican’s sex abuse summit
|
Feb 22, 2019 |
|
My sister Carmel on her cancer and her faith
|
Jan 29, 2019 |
|
Is it a sin to be snobbish?
|
Sep 24, 2018 |
|
What has Pope Francis covered up?
|
Sep 09, 2018 |
|
The question of ethnicity that is dividing the Sikh community
|
Aug 10, 2018 |
|
Cardinal McCarrick, sex abuse and the shameful silence of the American bishops
|
Jul 27, 2018 |
|
An atheist goes on a Christian pilgrimage. What’s the point?
|
Jul 06, 2018 |
|
Is the Catholic Church embracing homosexuality?
|
May 31, 2018 |
|
Why do we insist on worshipping the NHS?
|
May 15, 2018 |
|
Is RepealThe8th the end of the Irish Catholic church?
|
Apr 23, 2018 |
|
Why Anglicans and Catholics will never unite
|
Apr 06, 2018 |
|
The strange death of liberal American Christianity
|
Mar 23, 2018 |
|
Why London’s universities are becoming scary places for Jewish students
|
Feb 23, 2018 |
|
Is this the beginning of the end for Pope Francis?
|
Feb 02, 2018 |
|
Is social media doing the Devil’s work?
|
Jan 17, 2018 |
|
'The Dictator Pope': Fact or fiction?
|
Dec 15, 2017 |
|
Bach and the art of finding God
|
Nov 24, 2017 |
|
Is Christianity being smothered by our patronising liberal elite?
|
Nov 06, 2017 |
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The Joy of Sects: why weird religions matter
|
Oct 23, 2017 |
|
The Protestant passion of Queen Victoria
|
Oct 06, 2017 |
|
If Jesus was on Twitter, would the trolls attack him?
|
Sep 18, 2017 |
|
Is the Church of England dying in the countryside?
|
Aug 21, 2017 |
|
The knives are out for faith schools
|
Jul 28, 2017 |
|
Is Pope Francis turning into a bully?
|
Jul 12, 2017 |
|
Are Christians warming to gay marriage?
|
Jul 03, 2017 |
|
Is the British government about to be held hostage by head-banging biblical fundamentalists?
|
Jun 19, 2017 |
|
The Christian views of Theresa May and Tim Farron are way below the radar. And that's how they like it.
|
Jun 05, 2017 |
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Why do women become Salafi Muslims?
|
May 22, 2017 |
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Britain's loss of religious faith: how should we interpret shocking new statistics?
|
May 08, 2017 |
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Pope is planning to retire, say allies – but only once he's appointed enough liberal cardinals
|
Apr 21, 2017 |
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Are you scared to talk about your faith at work?
|
Apr 07, 2017 |
|
Why Iraq's Christians feel betrayed by the secular West
|
Mar 24, 2017 |
|
Are Christian MPs being silenced by the 'secular inquisition'?
|
Mar 10, 2017 |
|
The Queen is a true Christian leader. But what about Prince Charles?
|
Feb 24, 2017 |
|
Is Trump turning Islam into America’s ‘Great Satan’?
|
Feb 03, 2017 |
|
Are evangelical Christians being sucked into the cult of Trump?
|
Jan 20, 2017 |
|
How mass immigration is turning London back into a religious city
|
Jan 06, 2017 |
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Murdered Christians are 2016's least fashionable minority
|
Dec 16, 2016 |
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Why do church leaders suck up to Marxist regimes?
|
Dec 02, 2016 |
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Brexit, Trump and the pious rage of the liberal clergy
|
Nov 18, 2016 |
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Sohrab Ahmari: Donald Trump and the Christian Right
|
Nov 04, 2016 |
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Ravi Holy: Conspiracy theorist turned vicar
|
Oct 28, 2016 |
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Is the Catholic Church changing its line on divorce?
|
Oct 21, 2016 |
|
Why is Islam persecuting atheists?
|
Oct 06, 2016 |