Reporting tools for religion journalists — fast orientation, deep sourcing, accurate coverage. Built for specialists and general assignment reporters covering the religion beat.
Choose a section below to enter a specialized workspace. Use the tabs across the top to move between tools.
Domestic Beat
US religion coverage — state-level landscapes, faith community positions on policy, key organizations, and story leads for the American religion beat.
State Landscape · Faith & Issue Tracker · US Actor Profiles · News Digest
Global Desk
International religion coverage — country briefings, faith-policy connections, transnational actors, and sourcing for the global religion beat.
Country Briefing · Faith & Policy Nexus · Key Actor Profiles · News Digest
Journalist Toolkit
Production tools for deadline and enterprise — breaking story triage, story development workshop, fact-checking, terminology guidance, scripture lookup, and the religious calendar.
Story Triage · Story Lab · Fact-Check · Style Guide · Text Lookup · Calendar
On-demand intelligence for covering religion in American public life. Choose a tool below, or select from the tabs above.
🇧 State Religious Landscape
Click a state on the interactive map to get the full religious landscape — demographics, key players, story leads, and sources to contact.
⚖ Faith & Issue Tracker
Where do different faith communities stand on a policy issue? Maps positions across traditions with theological reasoning and lobbying activity.
👤 US Actor Profiles
Quick orientation on major US religious organizations, denominations, and leaders — who they are, what they stand for, and their policy influence.
📰 News Digest
Live feed from 14 authoritative sources. Filter by tradition, search by keyword, or send any headline to Story Triage.
State Religious Landscape
Religious demographics, key institutions, political alignment, story leads, and sources to contact for any US state. Click a state on the map or type below.
Loading map…
Click any state to analyze · Hover for name
Try a state name for a full landscape, or drill down: Pennsylvania, Muslim communities · Texas, megachurch influence · Michigan, Arab Christian and Muslim relations
Enter a state above or click the map to generate a full religious landscape briefing with story leads and sources.
Faith & Issue Tracker
Where do different faith communities stand on a policy issue? Religion|J searches the web for the latest developments, then maps positions across traditions with theological reasoning, key organizations, and the journalist angle.
Try broad issues or drill down: immigration · religious exemptions for LGBTQ discrimination · AI ethics and religion
Enter a policy issue above to see where major faith communities stand, who's lobbying, and where the story is.
US Actor Profiles
Quick orientation on major US religious organizations, denominations, and leaders. Who are they, what do they stand for, and how do they influence American public life?
Enter a US religious organization, denomination, or leader to get a quick profile — who they are, what they stand for, and their policy influence.
Domestic News Digest
Live feed from 15 authoritative sources tracking religion in American public life. Filter by tradition, search by keyword, or send any headline to Story Triage for instant orientation.
Click "Refresh Feed" to load the latest religion news from 15 sources.
Global Desk
Cover religion in international affairs — from country-level briefings to transnational actors and faith-driven foreign policy.
🌎 Country Briefing
Get oriented fast on religion in any country — demographics, government posture, USCIRF designations, story angles, and sources.
⚗ Faith & Policy Nexus
How does religion shape international policy? Trace the actors, mechanisms, and flashpoints where faith drives foreign affairs.
👤 Key Actor Profiles
Quick orientation on transnational religious leaders, organizations, and movements — who they are and why they matter.
📰 Global News Digest
Live feed from 11 sources tracking religion in international affairs — religious freedom, persecution, diplomacy, and global faith movements.
Country Briefing
Get oriented fast on religion in any country — demographics, government posture, key actors, recent incidents, story angles, and sources to contact. Uses live web search for current developments.
Enter a country above to get a religion-beat briefing with demographics, government posture, story angles, and sources.
Faith & Policy Nexus
How does religion shape international policy? Enter a country, region, or policy issue to see how faith communities, religious diplomacy, and theological arguments drive foreign affairs — with story angles and sources.
Enter a topic above to analyze how religion shapes international policy — with story angles for journalists.
Key Actor Profiles
Quick orientation on transnational religious leaders, organizations, and movements. Who are they, what do they want, and why do they matter for your story?
Enter a religious leader, organization, or movement to get a quick orientation — who they are, what they stand for, and why they matter.
Global News Digest
Live feed from 11 sources tracking religion in international affairs — religious freedom, persecution, diplomacy, and global faith movements.
Click "Refresh Feed" to load the latest global religion news from 11 sources.
Journalist Toolkit
Six tools for the daily work of religion journalism — from breaking news triage to style guidance and calendar planning.
⚡ Breaking Story Triage
A story just broke. Paste a headline and get instantly oriented — key players, context, history, sources, and what reporters get wrong.
💡 Story Lab
Develop an enterprise idea into a publishable story. Get angles, trends, data sources, expert contacts, and a pitch line — with built-in fact-checking.
✅ Fact-Check Assist
Paste draft text and get every religion claim checked — color-coded verdicts, terminology flags, and missing context alerts.
📖 Style Guide
AP Style–based reference for religious terminology. Capitalization, pronunciation, common errors, and self-identification guidance.
📜 Scripture & Text
Verify a quote, find original text, or check how a passage is used in public debate — with interpretive tradition from Church Fathers to Talmud to Tafsir.
📅 Religious Calendar
What's coming up across traditions? Observances, feast days, saint days, and historical anniversaries — with reporting hooks for each.
Breaking Story Triage
A story just broke and you need to get smart fast. Paste a headline or brief description and Religion|J will search the web for current facts, then orient you on the key players, institutional context, history, and sources.
Describe the breaking story above. The more specific you are, the more targeted the briefing.
Story Lab
Think out loud about a story idea you're mulling. Religion|J will surface relevant trends, data, angles, analogous stories, and sources to help you develop and sharpen your pitch.
The more context you give, the sharper the response. Include your beat, region, hunch, or what sparked the idea.
Describe what you're mulling above. This isn't a search — it's a thinking partner for enterprise story development.
Fact-Check Assist
Paste a draft paragraph, a specific claim, or a quote you want to verify. Religion|J searches the web for current facts, then checks every claim about religion for accuracy.
Every factual claim about religious demographics, doctrine, institutions, and history will be checked. Terminology issues will be flagged separately.
Paste draft text above to check factual claims about religion. Works best with 1-3 paragraphs at a time.
Terminology & Style Guide
Quick reference for religious terminology, naming conventions, capitalization, and style decisions. Follows AP Style where it applies, extends it where it doesn't, and never contradicts it.
Looking up...
Enter a term, concept, or question about religious terminology above. This guide follows AP Style and extends it for the religion beat.
Scripture & Text Lookup
Verify a religious quote, find the original text, understand context, or check how a passage is used in public debate. For journalists who need to get the reference right.
Examples: Bible on abortion · 72 virgins in Quran? · Talmud on death penalty · Reform view of kashrut · Hindu texts on caste
Enter a question about a religious text, a quote to verify, or a passage to look up.
Religious Calendar
What's coming up on the religious calendar? Search for a specific holiday, or populate a full month to see all observances.
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About Religion|J
Religion|J is an AI-powered reporting tool built for religion journalists — both specialists on the beat and general assignment reporters parachuting into religion stories. It provides fast orientation, deep sourcing, fact-checking, and story development tools, all grounded in authoritative sources and non-partisan editorial standards.
Non-partisan commitment: This platform represents all religious traditions proportionate to their journalistic relevance. Content generated here describes what sources say, not what the platform thinks. No tradition is treated as monolithic.
Sister platform: Religion|J is the journalist companion to ReligionIntel, an intelligence platform for religion and foreign policy professionals.
Dr. Walter Ratliff is an award-winning journalist, scholar, and educator whose career sits at the intersection of religion, international affairs, and public policy.
He holds advanced degrees in Islam and Muslim-Christian Relations and Religion and Social Movements from Georgetown University, and has conducted field research across the Muslim world, including a Ph.D. research fellowship studying religious and civil society in Turkey with a focus on the Gülen Movement. His scholarship has taken him from Egypt to Uzbekistan and Nigeria, where he has documented Muslim-Christian encounter, conflict, and reconciliation firsthand.
A published author of multiple books on Christian-Muslim relations and religious liberty, Dr. Ratliff has presented at the R20 International Summit of Religious Authorities — the G20's religion forum — in Jakarta, Indonesia. His documentary work has aired internationally and earned Emmy recognition.
As a Full Professor of Humanities and Philosophy at the University of Maryland Global Campus, Dr. Ratliff brings these global perspectives into the classroom.
For nearly two decades, he has also served as Religion Beat Editor and Correspondent at The Associated Press. Religion|J is the natural extension of that lifelong work — putting serious reporting tools in the hands of the journalists who cover religion.
Religion|J is an independent platform that uses live web search alongside background knowledge from authoritative sources. Always verify analysis against primary sources before publishing.
