(RNS) — In anticipating the potential stories of 2025, RNS reporters all offered some variation of how a second Trump administration will affect their respective beats. As a new administration prepares to take power, RNS will be watching both the policies and the personnel emerging from the White House.
When it comes to policy, we will especially be watching how a promised crackdown on immigration will affect religious communities, many of whom are involved in refugee resettlement or immigration services. We will also be watching how the Trump administration approaches the Israel-Hamas war and the ongoing effects of that conflict on America’s religious and interfaith landscape.
In terms of personnel, we have already seen president-elect Trump select a more religiously diverse administration. Catholics are currently the most represented religious group, but there are also evangelicals, mainline Protestants, Hindus, Jews, Muslims and the non-affiliated. Of course, there are those with Christian nationalist leanings among the selections, but it will be interesting to see how the religious diversity will impact the priorities of this Trump administration.
Beyond politics, RNS reporters expect to cover several major events at the Vatican, ongoing hurricane recovery efforts in the U.S. and the spiritual experimentation of an increasingly unaffiliated population.
Adelle M. Banks
Prior to November, I wrote about scenarios some congregational leaders were imagining depending on the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. Now, I hope to cover the actions they actually take, as well as monitor any continuing preparations clergy make as they anticipate the impact of the Trump administration on their congregations.
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he arrives to speak at a campaign event at Nassau Coliseum, Wednesday, Sept.18, 2024, in Uniondale, N.Y. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
For example, Black church leaders have already posited that they may need to do more to help people in their communities have access to food, health care and educational opportunities.
With recent transitions in leadership of several prominent denominations, I will be interested to learn what changes may be made in the programming and priorities of religious groups, such as the National Baptist Convention, USA.
Also, now that COVID-19 has made digital worship experiences a long-term reality for many congregations, I’m interested in how religious leaders are more fully incorporating those participating from home in church activities.
Bob Smietana
For next year, I’m hoping to follow up on the faith-based disaster relief efforts after Hurricane Helene, especially to see how the decline in organized religion may affect the number of volunteers and the necessary funding. The recovery from Helene will likely require the same kind of mass mobilization of volunteers that were needed after Hurricane Katrina — will the faith groups that usually provide those volunteers be up to the task? I will also be following continued transformation of the American religious landscape and how our culture changes as the country becomes less religious.
Debris is seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, in Asheville, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
A second major story I’ll be keeping an eye on is the Christian nationalist and Stop the Steal industry of conferences and social media influencers that sprouted up in the wake of the 2020 election. Now that Trump is back in office, what happens to these groups?
I am also hoping to finally take a long look at the way fossil fuels fund religion in America — and the challenge of unwinding that funding in an age of climate change.
Yonat Shimron
I spent much of the year focused on the changing American-Jewish landscape and expect to continue exploring this theme in 2025. American Jews are reassessing their relationship to Israel given ongoing condemnation of its brutal campaign in Gaza, which many international nonprofits are calling a genocide. As the campus protests showed, younger Jews are increasingly identifying as anti-Zionist and forming their own prayer and study groups where solidarity with Palestinians is a cardinal value. I will continue to explore those spaces as well as the pushback from establishment Jewish organizations and the incoming Trump administration, which is expected to shut down any open discussion of Palestinian justice.
I also expect to be reporting on Trump’s pledge of mass deportations and the ways churches and other religious communities and nonprofits will respond. Will churches become places of refuge or sanctuary? In what ways will they resist Trump’s agenda and how far are they willing to go?
Finally, how will opposition to Trump’s agenda and growing impatience with Israel affect interfaith relations in the U.S.? Which alliances will fray and which alliances will reemerge?
Jack Jenkins
Next year, I’m hoping to begin grappling with a religion and politics landscape radically changed by the 2024 election.
Some of those trends will likely be ones we’ve seen before, such as the re-ascendency of evangelical Christian leaders as a powerful force in Trump’s White House or the influence of Christian nationalism on Trump’s cabinet nominees — particularly Pete Hegseth, Trump’s embattled pick to lead the Department of Defense. I also expect there to be renewed debate around transgender rights, including on Capitol Hill, where Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, an ordained Presbyterian elder, will soon become the first openly transgender person to be elected and serve in the U.S. Congress.
I’ll also be tracking what many expect to be a resurgent — albeit perhaps not as vibrant — protest movement against Donald Trump led by liberal-leaning religious activists who organized demonstrations during his first term. Some fights are already emerging: There are reports the Trump administration will do away with an internal policy discouraging immigration raids on hospitals, schools and churches, which was previously used by the New Sanctuary Movement to aid immigrants at risk of deportation.
However, I’m also hoping to examine some new trends as well, such as the rising influence of tech moguls like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel in Washington, individuals who carry a set of philosophical and religious outlooks not often found in the halls of power until now. Keeping tabs on their approach to governing and morality may prove crucial to understanding Trump’s politics in the short-term, as well as how well they mesh (or don’t) with Trump’s evangelical advisers.
Claire Giangravè
Most of the time, journalists need to go out to find the stories, but in 2025, the story is coming to the Vatican. Next year, the Catholic Church will celebrate a Jubilee year, an anniversary event that is expected to draw over 30 million pilgrims to Rome, seeking both spiritual nourishment and the forgiveness of sins. As a reporter, I expect to cover its most important events, including the canonization of the first millennial saint, Carlo Acutis.
As the Vatican sets the stage for the whole world to see, it’s likely that issues around climate, migrants and the poor will come to the front. But for me, it will also offer an opportunity to cover Catholic groups who are usually shy of the limelight, such as women and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, center, backdropped by St.Peter’s Basilica, delivers a speech in Rome, Italy, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024, during the opening ceremony of a new pedestrian area near the Vatican, just ahead of the Jubilee Year, an event expected to draw millions of visitors to the Eternal City. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Francis has also stressed his wish that 2025 be a year of peace, even as conflicts escalate in Europe and in the Middle East. I plan to continue covering the Vatican’s involvement on the international stage, especially that of key figures such as Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the pope’s peace envoy in Ukraine, and Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem.
Finally, the 88-year-old pontiff has selected most of the cardinals who will elect his successor. Getting to know those prelates and their priorities will be a key to understanding who might be the next pope and how his values will continue the legacy of Francis (or not).
Kathryn Post
When you ask exvangelicals or religious “nones” about their journey away from religion, the 2016 election is a nearly ubiquitous flashpoint. I’ll be paying attention to how Donald Trump’s second election win continues to reverberate in faith circles — whose faith will his election embolden? And in what circles will it contribute to religious disenfranchisement and exacerbate church departures?
Meanwhile, as the culture wars accelerate and the number of potential students continues to shrink, many Christian colleges, universities and seminaries are struggling for survival. We can expect to see these institutions continue to negotiate tensions between different stakeholders, and I’ll be tracking these institutions’ responses, whether they gut programs or opt for other cost-saving measures.
Finally, as polyamory gains visibility in broader culture, I’ll be looking at how mainline Christian denominations may be renegotiating sexual ethics, particularly regarding rules for clergy involving cohabitation and polyamory.
Richa Karmarkar
As the new administration transitions into power, I expect I’ll have an abundance to write about when it comes to Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Buddhist Americans. Figures like Vivek Ramaswamy, Tulsi Gabbard, Harmeet Kaur Dhillon and Kash Patel will be on my radar — especially how the diversity of their faith traditions may continue to influence a more expansive religious right. And as I continue to follow shifts toward the Republican Party among some Hindu Americans, it will be imperative to talk about how their faith shapes perspectives on issues like gender roles, reproductive rights and the Second Amendment.
I’m also looking forward to observing how legacy Hindu organizations in the U.S. are evolving as they adapt to changing generational and ideological dynamics in the diaspora, especially surrounding ideas of caste, Hinduphobia and connections with the ancestral homeland of India.
Globally, I’ll be following the story of Sikh transnational repression, with an eye toward the history of tensions between India and Canada. And I will cover the growing concern in the diaspora of Hindu persecution in Bangladesh, including the recent arrest of ISKCON leader Chinmoy Krishna Das.
Bangladeshi Hindu leader Chinmoy Krishna Das shows a victory sign as he is taken in a police van after a court ordered him detained pending further proceedings in Chattogram in southeastern Bangladesh, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. (AP photo)
Closer to home, I want to spotlight Jain Americans and their efforts to influence school lunch programs to reflect their dietary values. I also intend to cover the rise of secular Buddhism, from mindfulness apps to drug and alcohol recovery programs that are enjoyed by people of all or no faiths. And to top it all off, I hope to travel to Houston, Texas, where a hub of Hindu Americans has made a sizable impact on the community: a 50-foot statue of Hindu god Hanuman.
Aleja Hertzler-McCain
In the next year, I plan to continue to track the major issues facing Catholic institutions and Latino faith communities, especially as President-elect Donald Trump begins his second term. The response by those faith communities to his immigration policy will be a major focus, including the response of the Hispanic evangelicals who have strongly supported Trump so far.
Taking advantage of my home base in the Washington, D.C., area, I also plan to work with Jack Jenkins to cover the many Catholics in the Trump administration and how their faith informs their work. That could include everyone from already well-known figures like J.D. Vance to lesser-known ones, like Tom Homan, the incoming “border czar.”
Next year, I hope to build on my work covering the growing presence of Latino Catholics in the U.S. Catholic church and the push for fuller inclusivity within the church. I anticipate I will also continue to report on efforts to hold Catholic institutions accountable to their stated values and mission, including in health care and education.
Fiona André
In 2024, we wrote extensively about where the spiritual-but-not-religious, often called the “nones,” found spiritual fulfillment as they parted ways with organized religions, from people setting up altars in their houses to honor their ancestors to wellness-focused churches that center mindfulness in their services.
In 2025, I hope to cover more of what life looks like in a “post-religious” world and how people are forging their own spiritual paths. What self-made practices do people craft for themselves? How might that change the ways they celebrate significant life events like weddings, births and deaths? I also hope to document how religious institutions respond to this shift. Will more churches and organizations develop ministries to address this longing for spirituality?
As a new administration takes office and promises to be intransigent on immigration, I will continue to follow the work of faith-based organizations supporting migrants in New York City and analyze how new policies might impact their efforts.
In 2025, New Yorkers will elect a new mayor, and I’m eager to document how religious communities engage in the campaign. What issues will they prioritize, and how will they mobilize voters? Additionally, I hope to cover the candidacy of Zohran Mamdani, a socialist Democrat and a Muslim. Mamdani is running on a social justice platform and wants to bring more representation to New York’s Muslim community in local politics.