Tom Gjelten
Tom Gjelten reports on religion, faith, and belief for NPR News, a beat that encompasses such areas as the changing religious landscape in America, the formation of personal identity, the role of religion in politics, and conflict arising from religious differences. His reporting draws on his many years covering national and international news from posts in Washington and around the world.
In 1986, Gjelten became one of NPR's pioneer foreign correspondents, posted first in Latin America and then in Central Europe. Over the next decade, he covered social and political strife in Central and South America, the first Gulf War, the wars in the former Yugoslavia, and the transitions to democracy in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
His reporting from Sarajevo from 1992 to 1994 was the basis for his book Sarajevo Daily: A City and Its Newspaper Under Siege (HarperCollins), praised by the New York Times as "a chilling portrayal of a city's slow murder." He is also the author of Professionalism in War Reporting: A Correspondent's View (Carnegie Corporation) and a contributor to Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know (W. W. Norton).
After returning from his overseas assignments, Gjelten covered U.S. diplomacy and military affairs, first from the State Department and then from the Pentagon. He was reporting live from the Pentagon at the moment it was hit on September 11, 2001, and he was NPR's lead Pentagon reporter during the early war in Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq. Gjelten has also reported extensively from Cuba in recent years. His 2008 book, Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba: The Biography of a Cause (Viking), is a unique history of modern Cuba, told through the life and times of the Bacardi rum family. The New York Times selected it as a "Notable Nonfiction Book," and the Washington Post, Kansas City Star, and San Francisco Chronicle all listed it among their "Best Books of 2008." His latest book, A Nation of Nations: A Great American Immigration Story (Simon & Schuster), published in 2015, recounts the impact on America of the 1965 Immigration Act, which officially opened the country's doors to immigrants of color. He has also contributed to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and other outlets.
Since joining NPR in 1982 as labor and education reporter, Gjelten has won numerous awards for his work, including two Overseas Press Club Awards, a George Polk Award, and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. A graduate of the University of Minnesota, he began his professional career as a public school teacher and freelance writer.
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Many churches have moved worship services online, but there are some problems technology can't solve. Pastoral associate Kathie Amidei says she must find new ways "to be a conduit of God's love." -
A political division is apparent in church responses to the coronavirus. Many are canceling services but some with a pro-Trump leaning are resisting.
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In his new book, soon to be a feature film, Andrew McCarten examines Popes Francis and Benedict XVI — and how having two living popes, for the first time in 600 years, has weakened the papacy.
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Distinguished scholar of Christianity Elaine Pagels sets out to explain why religion is still around today, through the lens of her lived tragedies — the deaths of her son and husband 30 years ago.
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Twenty years ago, the brutal killing of a young gay man in Laramie, Wyo., drew national attention and led to an expansion of a federal hate-crimes law. -
The largest Protestant denomination in the country closed its annual meeting Wednesday with a partisan speech from the vice president. The group's new leader quickly sought to distance it from Pence. -
From Thomas Jefferson's cut-up Bible to the country's first printed hymnal, the Smithsonian's Religion in Early America exhibit wants to engage Americans with the role of religion in its first days. -
Nationally, Americans are growing disenchanted with traditional religion. But in a Maryland suburb, Catholics seeking more spiritual lives are banding together with others who share their values. -
Fidel Castro took power in the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and led his country for more than four decades. Under his direction, Cuba became the one and only communist state in the Western Hemisphere. -
Dan Meyer has a strong faith and believes the country must return to biblical principles. For him, the 2016 election presents "a tough, tough choice."
