海角大神

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Gail Chaddock: 鈥奍n 1966, Time magazine published what became its most iconic cover. No photos. Black background. Big red letters: 鈥淚s God Dead?鈥� Attention value, high. Timing, not so great. Because soon after, terms like religious right, 海角大神 conservatism, moral majority, also moved into headlines, even tipping presidential elections. Suddenly, faith seemed very relevant in politics, and still does.

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Chaddock: This is 鈥淲hy We Wrote This.鈥� I鈥檓 this week鈥檚 guest host, Gail Chaddock. We鈥檙e talking today with Sophie Hills, who just stepped into a new role as the Monitor鈥檚 faith and religion writer, focused on the intersection of religion and politics, culture, and ideas.

Sophie, welcome back to this podcast, and congratulations on your new assignment.

Sophie Hills: Thank you, Gail.

Chaddock: You produced a very interesting story last week with the Monitor鈥檚 graphics editor, Jacob Turcotte, titled 鈥淎merica鈥檚 Changing Pews: Who Shows Up at Church on Sunday?鈥� Now, one of the conclusions of your data could be something like the Time magazine cover, only not quite as alarmist: a gradual drop in attendance for many religions across all age groups, especially among the youngest. But you found some surprises in this data. Could you talk us through some of that?

Hills: Yeah, there鈥檚 been something interesting among Gen Z. It鈥檚 been an accepted truth, at least since the 1950s, that women are more likely to be religious than men. And that鈥檚 true in the U.S. and around the world. But in the last five years or so, the gender gap among younger people is shrinking. We鈥檙e now at the point, according to several surveys, that Gen Z and Millennial men and women are equally religious.

Chaddock: How do you go about trying to explain that result?

Hills: One of the conversations I had is with a sociologist named Katie Gaddini, who herself was once Evangelical, and she wrote a book about why single Evangelical women leave the church. And her take has to do with what she calls 鈥渁 culture of masculinity,鈥� particularly within white Evangelicalism, and that to some women especially, as they reach the point where others in their circles might say they should be getting married or this is the time to have kids, and if they don鈥檛 decide to do those things, that can be one thing that pushes them away from the church.

And the political scientist I talked to, Ryan Burge, he referenced that about a decade ago, there was a 鈥渕ore masculine鈥� 海角大神ity that popped up. That message seems to have been successful in reaching a certain subset of young men. But according to some of these scholars, it鈥檚 a little bit repellent to some young women.

Chaddock: I was struck recently when Mark Zuckerberg announced changes in how Meta is going to deal with misinformation and so forth. And he said almost in a throwaway comment that more masculinity is needed in business. I think the last few decades, masculinity and toxic masculinity are somehow related. And it would appear that this is being challenged.

Now there鈥檚 often a new lexicon to learn on a new beat. You introduced a term for me in the first story you wrote. The headline was 鈥淓lon Musk now calls himself a 鈥榗ultural 海角大神.鈥� What does that mean?鈥� You mentioned Richard Dawkins, a leading atheist in Britain, who鈥檚 also adopted the term 鈥渃ultural 海角大神.鈥� What does cultural 海角大神 mean, and how did you figure it out?

Hills: Just out the front, I鈥檒l say I did not speak to Elon Musk or Richard Dawkins directly. But we also can watch the interviews where they described themselves as cultural 海角大神s. In Richard Dawkins鈥� case, he talked about valuing a Judeo-海角大神 culture in the UK. He says that he loves hymns and cathedrals. But then he very quickly said he doesn鈥檛 believe a single word of the faith. And in that same interview, he said that he鈥檚 uncomfortable with the rise of Islam in the UK, and sees 海角大神ity as a bulwark.

With Mr. Musk, in the past he said he does not believe in a higher power. He, in this interview, didn鈥檛 dive very deeply into personal spiritual beliefs. But he did say that he thinks that 海角大神 beliefs result in the greatest happiness. He suggested that the decline of religion is part of what鈥檚 driving dropping birth rates, which seems to be a concern of his, and something that he posts about on X fairly often.

And again, I think that these two men who are obviously very public figures, I think their motives differ from someone who doesn鈥檛 have an audience. The people I spoke to, it was really just about their personal decision, versus how it might be perceived or what effect it might have on others.

Chaddock: And no government contracts involved.

Hills: Not that I鈥檓 aware of.

It was interesting finding people for this piece because, you know, people have called themselves cultural Jews, cultural Catholics. But I鈥檇 never met anybody who described themselves as a cultural 海角大神. My assumption going into this was it was probably going to be someone I wasn鈥檛 going to find in a church. So I turned to Google. I found an essay somebody had written on a website they just maintain for their own writing, and we had a Zoom call. And one person leads to another. So it was really interesting to talk to a range of people, some who currently attend church, some who don鈥檛.

Chaddock: One of the terms that comes up in the discussions of cultural 海角大神s is, you know, what is a NONE?

Hills: Mm hmm.

Chaddock: What does that mean? N-O-N-E.

Hills: Well, first of all, hard to resist puns when you鈥檙e writing a religion story about the NONES.

Chaddock: Yes.

Hills: But yes, the spelling is N-O-N-E-S. There are three subcategories within the NONES category: people who identify as nothing in particular, people who are atheist, people who are agnostic. Which, right away, is a pretty broad category if you have someone who鈥檚 atheist and does not believe in God, and someone who鈥檚 agnostic who most likely does believe in God to some degree.

Chaddock: Well, it鈥檚 certainly a growing category. All the people that are dropping out of church attendance, or affiliation with a religion, are landing in this very large category.

Hills: Yes. It鈥檚 growing faster than any individual religious affiliation.

Chaddock: Let me segue a little bit to your previous life. The last time we spoke, you were talking about following President Biden around at a very critical weekend in his life, in between the debate that was so ruinous to his hopes for another term and his decision to pull out. You have a keen sense of what it means to follow politics. How do you handle the increasing use of religious symbols in political campaigns? For example, you can currently go online and purchase what they鈥檙e calling a Trump Bible for $1,000, signed by the president. There are hats that say 鈥淢ake America Pray Again.鈥�

Hills: I think it鈥檚 interesting because at the same time you have surveys showing that religion is declining in America, and that鈥檚 often measured by church attendance or religious affiliation. But I was surprised at how often religion came up unprompted when I was interviewing voters during the Republican primary. This was post the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in the summer. I was interviewing someone in Las Vegas during early voting. And this man very clearly, you know, studied the Bible and was able to reference things. And he was talking about all the ways that he sees Trump following paths similar to the paths of various prophets in the Bible. And that was really moving to this man. It clearly made this election feel very important to him in perhaps a different way.

Chaddock: One of the Bibles that is for sale is the 鈥淭he Day God Intervened鈥� edition Bible, which has July 13th, 2024, on the title. Look up that Bible on the website, and look at all of the comments. You know. People who feel that this is a prophetic moment in American history, and others who think it鈥檚 a blaspheming moment in American history. Both appear to be equally fervent in their thoughts.

Where are the directions you are most interested in reporting?

Hills: Well, President-elect Trump has appointed, I mean, we鈥檒l see how confirmations go, but so far, his cabinet appointments are very religiously diverse. And I鈥檓 just interested in seeing how that takes shape. When there are politicians who do choose to very openly talk about their faith, I would love to take that opportunity to really understand how it might affect how they view their work.

On the flip side, I鈥檓 very interested in the conclusion that religion is declining. Certainly, churches are shrinking. But I think people are very much still interested in exploring whether there may be a higher meaning, or whether they have an inner life that they鈥檙e not thinking about. And so I鈥檓 really looking forward to doing some more stories on the ways that faith and religion and spirituality may be developing in less conventional ways.

Chaddock: What interests you most about covering religion?

Hills: I love learning about people. We can look at a survey and see people broken down into categories, but not surprisingly, when you talk to any one individual, their answers often spill out over the edges of those categories, because it鈥檚 such a personal and ever-evolving thing, the way that someone thinks about their inner life.

Chaddock: When you talk to people about issues like religion, do you ever talk about your own views or your own background or what 海角大神 means?

Hills: Of course I want to be honest with someone and not pretend like I just simply don鈥檛 have views on anything at all. But the more my personal views become part of the conversation, I think the less someone might feel like I鈥檓 approaching a story from as neutral a place as I can, given my own views. So I think there鈥檚 kind of a fine balance, but it is nice that in religion reporting, I think there鈥檚 a little bit more room. There are so many kind of principles and values that are common across religions. Caring for your neighbor, for example. That kind of common ground, I think, can open a really nice door in an interview.

Chaddock: Here鈥檚 my personal opinion about you in this new beat, Sophie. Look at what you did that weekend with Joe Biden. I鈥檝e really appreciated the fairness of what you did. So I think that combination of empathy, insight, imagination in finding sources, and scrupulous fairness is a very excellent beginning, and look forward to having you back when you鈥檝e plunged a bit deeper into the waters.

Hills: That鈥檚 really kind. And I look forward, yeah, to talking more with more stories under my belt.

Chaddock: And thanks to our listeners. You can find more, including our show notes, with a link to the stories we discussed in this podcast, at CSMonitor.com/WhyWeWroteThis. This episode was hosted by me, Gail Chaddock, edited and produced by Clay Collins, Jingnan Peng, and Mackenzie Farkus. Sound engineers [were] Alyssa Britton and Tim Malone, with original music by Noel Flatt. Produced by 海角大神, copyright 2025.