Crossing Faiths

Matt Hawkins

Matt Hawkins has hosted 77 episodes.

MATTHEW HAWKINS’ career spans 18 years at the intersection of religion and politics, including over a decade of broadcasting and podcasting experience and 8 years in government relations. Most recently he served in Washington, D.C. as a policy director for the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), the public policy entity of the largest organization of Protestant churches in the United States. During that role he also hosted a podcast for four years that featured members of Congress, ambassadors, and other policy makers. Matt also participated in the International Religious Freedom Roundtable, serving as co-chair of the congressional working group and on the steering committee.

Earlier in his career Matt served as executive producer for two nationally syndicated radio broadcasts. After 8 years in Washington he is pursuing a PhD in public theology while working as a podcaster, writer, and consultant. Matt remains an Associate Fellow with the ERLC’s Research Institute and serves as a board member for One America Movement, an intiative to bring Americans together across racial, religious, political and geographic divides to address pressing social problems. His writing has appeared at The Wall Street Journal, ERLC.com, ReligiousFreedomInstitute.org, and in a collaborative chapter for The Rhetoric of Religious Freedom in the United States (2017, an academic title). Matt holds an M.A. in Philosophy (Ethics and Public Affairs) from George Mason University, a B.B.A from Belmont University, and lives with his family in the Nashville, TN area.

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John Pinna

John Pinna has hosted 115 episodes.

John Thomas Pinna is Director of Strategic Partnerships and Development for Religion News Foundation. Over his 20-year career, Pinna has personally secured and managed $600 million dollars and $12.7 billion dollars as a leader of a team across 43 projects, with engagement in 22 countries in the Middle East and North Africa and Asia.

After leaving an international career in industry in 2009 to focus on positioning the Muslim community positively with other faiths, Pinna joined the American Islamic Congress (AIC) as their Director of Government and International Relations. After AIC, he continued for three years to develop multi-faith events while executing international programming as the executive director at the Development Organization for Societies in Transition (DOST), culminating in events with Muslim leaders and His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

In 2016, Pinna was named the Vice President of Development for the USAID-funded American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) where he managed the non-academic departments and established several functional departments. Pinna also managed two USG funded projects: the Business Innovation Hub and the International Center for Afghan Women's Economic Development, and USG and non-USG funded projects. Pinna also drafted parts of the U.S. National Security Strategy (NSS) and supported the logistics of the first DOS Ministerial. He advises the National Security Council Directorates on Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tunisia, and international religious freedom (IRF), as well as DOS bureaus on Afghanistan, Libya, Tunisia, and the Ukraine, and on countering radical ideology.

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Elliot Toman

Elliot Toman has hosted 29 episodes.

Elliot was raised in a Charasmatic Christian household by parents who met in Bible School. For fifteen years, he worked as media director for a nondenominational Evangelical church, where his role included developing and teaching Bible studies, occasional preaching, and facilitating classes for children and youth. Throughout his life, Elliot has maintained an interest in theology, church history and religious studies.