NEW YORK (BP)–A new podcast from Fox News Radio provides in-depth coverage of religious stories that have not necessarily been addressed by the network’s mainstream reporting.
“Fox on Faith,” hosted by former Baptist Press assistant editor Todd Starnes, launched in April and is updated every other week at foxnewsradio.com. The goal of the podcast, which offers a free subscription, is to explore how faith intersects the public arena.
Starnes is a news anchor and reporter for Fox News Radio, and the Fox on Faith podcast is one of about a dozen free podcasts the network offers.
The segments, ranging from five to 10 minutes, move along quickly from topic to topic, and they also include extended interviews with people like Grammy winner Steven Curtis Chapman, who spoke to Starnes just weeks before his youngest daughter was killed in a tragic accident.
During the Fox on Faith podcast May 2, Chapman told the story behind his hit song “Cinderella,” which he said was inspired by his two youngest daughters wanting to dress up as Snow White and Cinderella and go to the ball rather than to bed one night.
“By the time I finally sat down to go back to work about 9 o’clock at night in my little studio there in Franklin, Tenn., I was frustrated, I had a long night ahead of me, but the first thought I had when I sat down was my oldest daughter, Emily Chapman, and just how quickly it went by — that time that I had with her when I used to get to tuck her in and I used to get to read her stories and tell her stories,” Chapman said.
“I began to sit there and think, ‘Here I have these precious few moments with my little girls, and I just missed it. I just blew right past it. I was in such a hurry, and I just got them in bed quickly, and it wouldn’t have taken that much more time for me to engage and really be present with them.’ That’s kind of the message that ended up coming to the surface on this new album.”
Starnes also interviewed American Idol’s Jason Castro about his faith in Jesus for the podcast.
“My faith is how I get through every day,” said Castro, who attends Lake Pointe Church in Rockwall, Texas.
The former reality show contestant said he grew up at the church and played guitar during the worship services.
Other topics in the Fox on Faith archive include the pope’s visit to America, the relationship between Sen. Barack Obama and his former pastor Jeremiah Wright, as well as unusual religion news such as why the mayor of Birmingham, Ala., wanted people to put on sackcloth and ashes.
The podcast could be helpful to pastors looking for sermon illustrations or for anyone interested in keeping up with the nation’s latest religion news in audio form.
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Compiled by Baptist Press staff writer Erin Roach.
