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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Mayor Pete Buttigieg says Christian faith leads in a "progressive" political direction. Conservatives disagree. The debate reshapes old questions about the relation between religion and politics. -
Archbishop Wilton Gregory accepted the offer from Pope Francis to become the leader of an archdiocese in turmoil over abuse allegations.
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Catholic leaders from around the world are convening in Rome Thursday to discuss the continuing clergy sexual abuse crisis. Abuse survivors say they're not hopeful meaningful change will come from it.
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The Trump administration has inspired a new activism on the part of liberal religious groups. Like the Moral Majority of the 1980s, they fear an assault on their most basic Christian values. -
Federal government employees are still being paid for work they did before the shutdown, but the checks will soon end. Among those affected are many who struggle to make ends meet even in good times. -
This week's widely anticipated meeting of U.S. Catholic bishops ended without recommendation on how to deal with clergy abuse. Further action is now up to the Vatican and a global synod in February.
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Matthew Shepard will be laid to rest today at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., 20 years after he was murdered near Laramie, Wyo.
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Some conservative Catholics are blaming clergy sex abuse on gay priests, citing "homosexual networks" in the church. The argument reflects wider cultural and political conflict in Catholic circles. -
The uproar over clergy sex abuse has turned into a fight over Pope Francis. Some conservative critics say the pope ignored warnings about an archbishop's misconduct and tolerated "homosexual networks" in the church leadership.
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The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued a response to the clergy sex abuse report from Pennsylvania. It calls for further investigation, better reporting and resolution to complaints.
