Survey findings lead in most headlines on everyday Americans’ abortion attitudes. Less often do we get a chance to dig deeper to understand what’s behind those patterns and trends — something that qualitative, in-depth interviewing is especially well-suited to do.

Thanks to the team at PBS NewsHour for introducing this kind of depth to their reporting on Gen Z’s views on abortion and how they connect to understandings of gender in a shifting legal climate. I was happy to host them in my home for filming and excited to see how the segment turned out. Watch it here.

For more on generational dynamics in everyday Americans’ abortion thinking — and how gender and gender norms play in — pre-order my forthcoming book: Our Lives: What Abortion Attitudes Reveal About Who We Are As Americans.

Peace has been a steady refrain from Pope Leo XIV; his book Peace Be With You! sits on my bookshelf. Catholic leaders have long spoken out on social issues of the day. U.S. political leaders are no strangers to engaging and deploying faith in policy pleas at home and abroad. But the particular ranker and attention, buoyed by the current pope’s own American-ness and native English, seems to take this to a new level.

The LAist show clip is here, though the conversation feels far from over.

The book is filled with the voices and perspectives of hundreds of everyday Americans who are neither experts nor activists. It doesn’t shy from hard questions or raw, complex truths. It doesn’t tell anyone what to think but opens a window into how all of us think. I hope you’ll read it.

Pre-order now and save 30% with the code UCPSAVE30 at checkout. Consider the book for Fall course adoptions to get students thinking and talking. Reach out to host an event on your campus or in your community group.

(Literally!) What fun to welcome the crew of PBS NewsHour to my home to film an interview for a forthcoming story on gender, generation, and Americans’ abortion views. I appreciated their journalistic professionalism, savvy furniture rearranging, and willingness to engage big questions through the lens of sociological data. My dog Leo was also especially eager to greet them, attempting as many cameo appearances as possible.

The segment should air in the coming weeks. Learn more about what I shared by reading my forthcoming book on everyday Americans’ abortion attitudes.

Invigorated by such timeless questions in a timely moment, I’m thrilled to be co-leading a seminar for the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies with a focus on conceptions of authority in Roman Catholicism. We invite scholars and scholar-practitioners from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds—theological, sociological, historical, legal, and more—to a dialog and seminar June 23-25, 2026 in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.

The Conceptions of Authority in Roman Catholicism (CoARC) seminar aims to (1) speak thoughtfully into ongoing conversations regarding lay and ordained roles in the Church; (2) respond to structural conditions of a priesthood currently stymied in meeting all ministerial needs; and (3) bridge otherwise silo-ed vantage points in social science, history, theology, and practice. The seminar will also serve as a foundation for an edited volume and future public conversations on conceptions of authority in contemporary Roman Catholicism.

Find more information, including the full Call for Papers and link to apply, on the IACS website. The abstract submission deadline is January 30, 2026.

The report identifies two opposing theological “schools” and “the lack of convergence on fundamental doctrinal and pastoral polarities,” echoing prior conversations and yielding a consensus that neither supports nor rules out the female diaconate. It calls for a “prudential approach” that “should be supported by increasingly well-equipped, global investigations, aimed, with farsighted wisdom, at exploring these ecclesial horizons.”

I’ve previously published a sociological report on women in the U.S. Catholic Church whose service looks ‘diaconal’ apart from access to formal ordination, some of whom feel called — or ready to discern such a call — to the diaconate. I’ve more recently put out a call for papers, under the aegis of the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies, for a seminar on authority and co-responsibility in the Roman Catholicism (applications welcome). I am prepared to support or lead global investigations that proffer further context and data needed to move this conversation forward (please reach out with leads).

Thanks to Fiona Murphy for interviewing me for the Religion News Service about this latest development.

I’m grateful to conference organizers and participants for the opportunity to dialogue about Catholicism both ordinary and extraordinary, alive and lived.

I’m honored to have been elected to serve as SSSR’s President in 2026-2027. Having previously served as Treasurer and supported its Council, executive office, committees, programming, and annual meetings, I relish the opportunity to give back in this way. I’ll serve as President-Elect for the coming year (October 2025 to October 2026), supporting current President Penny Edgell, Executive Officer Meredith Whitnah, and all who will engage and enliven SSSR in the lead up to our annual meeting in Denver, Colorado this October.

My Presidential year will commence once we conclude this Fall’s annual meeting. Looking ahead to 2026-2027, I welcome conversation, collaboration, and creativity in serving our collective mission as a Society. Our annual meeting in October 2027 promises to once again welcome all into an inviting, invigorating, and instructive interdisciplinary space.

Join us by renewing your membership and making plans to attend SSSR in 2027.

I welcome any chance to share about our potential as scholars to enact, translate, and activate scholarship well beyond the classroom. I prioritize this in my own work and encourage others to seek out opportunities to do the same. Thanks to the AAR for hosting, and to the emerging scholars who attended for thinking creatively about how to use their PhD and unique skill set in studying religion.

Even so, Schlumpf’s piece ends with a provocative question: “…too often, data is ignored, and stories are not heard. …Change will happen in the Church—as sociologists have long documented—but the question remains: Will that change come from actually listening to one another? Not if it’s only sociologists and Church leaders who are excited about, or even know about, synodality.”

Probably true.