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Award-winning journalist William Lobdell grew up an indifferent Episcopalian. Drifted from faith. By age 28, his life was a mess. He couldn’t stand the person he’d become. A friend told him, “You need God.”

Lobdell found Jesus. Felt his heart split wide open. Was born again, to the tune of Amazing Grace. Was saved.

And then, over fifteen years, it all fell apart. Now, Lobdell puts himself in the ranks of American atheists. And he’s telling the wrenching story of his journey into and out of faith.

This hour, On Point: William Lobdell and his new book, “Losing My Religion.”

You can join the conversation. Have you found religion? Lost it? Why? Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

William Lobdell joins us from Culver City, California.  He covered religion for the Los Angeles Times for eight years, first as a columnist, then as beat reporter. His new book is “Losing My Religion: How I Lost my Faith Reporting on Religion in America – And Found Unexpected Peace.” Christianity Today chairman John Huffman calls it a “must read filled with warnings and wake-up calls” for the faithful.

You can read excerpts from “Losing My Religion” at his website. You can also browse excerpts at HarperCollins.com.

Sister Olga Yaqob was born and raised in Iraq. She came of age in the terrible years of Saddam Hussein’s rule and hard Western sanctions. She worked with the poor and wretched in the streets of Baghdad and in Abu Ghraib prison long before American troops took the Iraqi capital.

For the last half dozen years, she’s been on the outside looking in as Iraq descended into chaos and insurgency. Now this tiny Iraqi nun has gone back to Iraq, to bring comfort and bear witness and tell the world what’s unfolding there.

This hour, On Point: a nun’s tale. Iraq from the inside, with Sister Olga of the Eucharist.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

Sister Olga Yaqob, a diocese hermit in the Roman Catholic Church and a campus minister at the Boston University Catholic Center.

“Faith doesn’t just influence me,” Mike Huckabee told evangelicals last week. “It defines me.” And then he lost in South Carolina to John McCain.

In Nevada, labor lined up for Barack Obama, then Clinton took the vote. And Latinos carved their own way over political and color lines.

These are big players, speaking for the first time in the weekend’s big votes.

This hour, On Point: voices of Christian conservatism, labor and the Latino West, and their choices in campaign ‘08.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Earl Black, professor of political science at Rice University and co-author of “The Rise of Southern Republicans” and the new book, “Divided America: The Ferocious Power Struggle in American Politics.”

Oran Smith, president of the Palmetto Family Council, the South Carolina affiliate of Focus on the Family.

Anjeanette Damon, chief political reporter for the Reno Gazette Journal, she writes the blog “Inside Nevada Politics.”

Hilary Haycock, spokesperson of the Service Employees International Union, which represents 17,500 health care and public service employees across Nevada.

Mo Denis, second term assemblyman representing Nevada’s 28th District, in northeast Las Vegas, the largest Hispanic assembly district in the state, representing roughly 60,000 people.

It sounds like a culture-war set piece: Hollywood rolls out a religious-themed Christmas blockbuster and conservative believers go ballistic. That was the story this weekend with the release of “The Golden Compass.”

Based on the wildly popular fantasy novels by British author Philip Pullman, a famously outspoken atheist, the film casts God and the Church as evildoers. Or does it?

Some have called for a boycott of the film. But Pullman fans say the movie lacks the deeper spiritual meaning of the books.

This hour, On Point: the storm surrounding “The Golden Compass.”

-Jane Clayson

Guests:

Stephen Prothero, chair of the religion department at Boston University and author of “Religious Literacy: What Americans Need to Know.”

Hanna Rosin, contributing editor to The Atlantic Monthly and author of “God’s Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission to Save the Nation.”

Father James Martin, Catholic priest, associate editor of America: The National Catholic Weekly, and author of “My Life With the Saints.”

In the deep pages of the Bible, no woman gets more ink than a queen named Jezebel. Not Eve. Not Mary. But Jezebel’s ink is no love letter.

In the three thousand years since this Phoenician princess came south to marry a king of Israel, her name has become synonymous with wanton sexuality — the harlot queen, the scheming seductress, the shameless painted hussy.

Now, a new book reaches back to save Jezebel from what it calls a smear job, and paints her as a kind of ancient heroine in the unfinished battle of tolerance versus fundamentalism.

This hour, On Point: reconsidering Jezebel, the Bible’s harlot queen.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Lesley Hazleton, author of “Jezebel: The Untold Story of the Bible’s Harlot Queen.”

Claudia Camp, professor of religion, Texas Christian University.

Whether you grew up in temple, or church, or the church of rock-and-roll or reggae, you know the Bible’s Book of Psalms. “By the rivers of Babylon.” “Sing a new song.” “Out of the mouths of babes.” “The valley of the shadow of death.”

The Psalms are the song and poetry of the Bible. Poetry of joy and sorrow and consolation that has burst out of the realm of faith to flow through the entire culture.

Now, the great scholar and literary translator Robert Alter brings a new version that goes back to the Psalms’ oldest Hebrew roots.

Up next, On Point: from the King James version to the roots of the Psalms.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Robert Alter, professor of Hebrew and comparative literature at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of “The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary.”

Rosalie Toubes, cantor at Temple Sinai in Brookline, Massachusetts.