Sam Kestenbaum
@skestenbaum.bsky.social
📤 773
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Journalist covering religious life in America www.samkestenbaum.com
reposted by
Sam Kestenbaum
American Academy of Religion
about 1 month ago
The
#AAR
Journalism Awards honor the best in-depth reporting on religion in the categories of "Best In-Depth Newswriting" and "Best In-Depth Multimedia Journalism." Apply by March 9, 6 PM ET:
aarweb.org/news/2026-jo..
.
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2026 Journalism Awards Now Accepting Nominations - AAR
The American Academy of Religion honors the best in-depth reporting on religion through our Journalism Awards, a program of the AAR’s Committee on the Public Understanding of Religion. Awards are…
https://aarweb.org/news/2026-jo
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reposted by
Sam Kestenbaum
RNS
2 months ago
Religion News Service (RNS) is seeking a full-time summer intern to cover religion in Texas through a unique editorial partnership with The Texas Tribune. The deadline to apply is Feb. 17 at 11:59 p.m. ET.
religionnews.com/2026/01/15/a...
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Apply for the 2026 RNS/Texas Tribune Summer Internship
This is an RNS internship, designed and overseen by the RNS newsroom, with the intern embedded in Texas and contributing to coverage for both RNS and The Texas Tribune.
https://religionnews.com/2026/01/15/apply-for-the-2026-rns-texas-tribune-summer-internship/
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New show... listen here
www.frank.radio/shows/old-ti...
2 months ago
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reposted by
Sam Kestenbaum
Liam Adams
2 months ago
After Bieber cut ties w/ Carl Lentz following scandal, Judah Smith "became the most powerful hypepriest left standing."
@skestenbaum.bsky.social
gives us an inside look at one of the few remaining modernity-spirited/open-minded, evangelical celebrity preachers:
www.vulture.com/article/juda...
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The Hypepriest Riding the Bieber Wave
Judah Smith’s message of compassion earned him many famous followers. Is he out of step with other Evangelicals?
https://www.vulture.com/article/judah-smith-church-pastor-justin-bieber.html
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reposted by
Sam Kestenbaum
Jesse Walker
2 months ago
"Smith belongs to a generation of preachers who first came to prominence in the aughts. They formed a kind of cool-dude supergroup, promising at the time to shed the kitsch and conservatism of their televangelical forebears..."
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The Hypepriest Riding the Bieber Wave
Judah Smith’s message of compassion earned him many famous followers. Is he out of step with other Evangelicals?
https://www.vulture.com/article/judah-smith-church-pastor-justin-bieber.html
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reposted by
Sam Kestenbaum
New York Magazine
3 months ago
Judah Smith made a name for himself by preaching a compassionate form of Christianity that attracted celebrities — most famously, Justin Bieber — looking for forgiveness for their missteps. Can that message still find an audience in the Trump era?
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The Hypepriest Riding the Bieber Wave
Judah Smith made a name for himself by preaching a compassionate form of Christianity that attracted celebrities — most famously, Justin Bieber — looking for forgiveness for their missteps. Can that message still find an audience in the Trump era?
https://www.vulture.com/article/judah-smith-church-pastor-justin-bieber.html?utm_medium=s1&utm_campaign=nym&utm_source=bluesky
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reposted by
Sam Kestenbaum
Leah Payne
2 months ago
@skestenbaum.bsky.social
's latest about Judah Smith, a West Coast Pentecostal celebrity in the lineage of Aimee Semple McPherson. Tons of keen observations & good lines here (my fave - "sloppy agape"):
www.vulture.com/article/juda...
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The Hypepriest Riding the Bieber Wave
Judah Smith’s message of compassion earned him many famous followers. Is he out of step with other Evangelicals?
https://www.vulture.com/article/judah-smith-church-pastor-justin-bieber.html
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reposted by
Sam Kestenbaum
Ruth Graham
2 months ago
"It wasn’t really around when I was a young kid — that you could feel like you have a calling to A-list stars.”
@skestenbaum.bsky.social
profiles Judah Smith, and asks where the hypepriests of the 2010s fit into Charlie Kirk-style evangelicalism that succeeded them:
www.vulture.com/article/juda...
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The Hypepriest Riding the Bieber Wave
Judah Smith’s message of compassion earned him many famous followers. Is he out of step with other Evangelicals?
https://www.vulture.com/article/judah-smith-church-pastor-justin-bieber.html
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reposted by
Sam Kestenbaum
Society for Features Journalism
10 months ago
NARRATIVE STORYTELLING, DIV 3 Honoring a single story told with literary flair. 🥇 1st Place:
@mrdanzak.bsky.social
🥈 2nd Place:
@skestenbaum.bsky.social
🥉 3rd Place: Staff,
@bloombergbusiness.bsky.social
🏅 Honorable Mention:
@wordbobby.bsky.social
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For LA: a one-of-a-kind show this month, with demons, ghouls and much-needed deliverance… A special live reading, from my Harper’s story, with music, actors, puppetry, poetry, short film, and more Nihil & Friends present ART IS LIFE IS ART: RED HOT Variety Show!
www.eventbrite.com/e/nihil-frie...
11 months ago
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reposted by
Sam Kestenbaum
The Drift
about 1 year ago
On messianic soundscapes, by
@skestenbaum.bsky.social
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reposted by
Sam Kestenbaum
The Drift
about 1 year ago
Hollywood ugliness, a Beckett biopic, cult music, the sly devices of the English sentence, and an increasingly timely stand-up special — five Mentions from
@izzyampil.bsky.social
, Dimitris Passas,
@skestenbaum.bsky.social
, Tanner Stening, and
@cryinmeehan.bsky.social
www.thedriftmag.com/mentions/
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Mentions
Extremely abbreviated reviews
https://www.thedriftmag.com/mentions/
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A mini review from me in the new issue of
@thedrift-mag.bsky.social
… on a series of outré musical soundscapes made by a pyramid-loving, deity-channeling New Agey shaman
www.thedriftmag.com/mention/issu...
about 1 year ago
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I trekked up a crumbling California hill to sit under a crystal-studded pyramid and bask in the spacey, far-flung soundscapes of a New Age shaman… a (very) short culty music review of mine in the new issue
add a skeleton here at some point
over 1 year ago
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More storage digging
over 1 year ago
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Going through the storage
over 1 year ago
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Headed to San Diego? I’ll be at the American Academy of Religion meeting this weekend, speaking on three panels
over 1 year ago
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reposted by
Sam Kestenbaum
Liam Adams
over 1 year ago
Many have written about Mt. Juliet pastor Greg Locke's emerging mass deliverance ministry. But only
@skestenbaum.bsky.social
immersed himself in the Locke Media/Demon Slayers apparatus and came out with this eloquently written narrative for Harpers:
harpers.org/archive/2024...
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The Demon Slayers, by Sam Kestenbaum
The new age of American exorcisms
https://harpers.org/archive/2024/08/the-demon-slayers-sam-kestenbaum-exorcisms/
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Headed to my alma mater (!) next week to deliver the annual Martin Lecture in Religion ✍️ If you’re in the Wheaton area, info here
about 2 years ago
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about 2 years ago
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