A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast: Podcast Review
What happens when the questions we hesitate to ask about faith, justice, identity, and church life become the beginning of a deeper conversation rather than something to avoid? In A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast, hosts Simon Doong and Rev. Lee Catoe create space for those conversations, bringing curiosity, theology, lived experience, and a strong concern for justice into an accessible weekly show.
What is the Podcast About?
A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast is built around questions, especially the questions people may carry quietly because they are complicated, uncomfortable, or difficult to raise within traditional church settings. Listeners submit questions and comments concerning faith, social justice, and church life, and the hosts use them as starting points for thoughtful conversations. Rather than treating Christianity as a collection of settled answers, the show approaches faith as something that can withstand curiosity, disagreement, reflection, and honest examination. Episodes also connect listeners with guests, resources, ministries, and perspectives from across the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and beyond.
That broad framework allows the podcast to move comfortably between theology and everyday life. Its conversations have explored subjects including race and racism, gender, LGBTQIA+ experiences, economics, education, investing, biblical interpretation, pilgrimage, interfaith dialogue, Christian nationalism, and the challenges facing contemporary faith communities. Many episodes feature scholars, authors, clergy, advocates, and practitioners who bring specialized knowledge to the discussion. The result is a show concerned not only with what Christians believe, but with what belief asks of people when they encounter complicated realities in their communities and the wider world.
Podcast Details
Category: Christianity
Frequency: Weekly
Starting Year: 2021
Language: English
Podcast Creator
Core Theme
At its heart, A Matter of Faith rests on a simple philosophy: meaningful questions deserve meaningful attention. The podcast repeatedly treats uncertainty not as a weakness of faith but as an invitation to explore it more deeply. Questions about scripture, identity, economics, race, gender, community, and institutional life become opportunities to examine how religious convictions interact with lived experience. This approach gives the show an exploratory quality. Listeners are invited to think alongside the hosts and guests rather than merely receive predetermined conclusions.
A second defining theme is the connection between faith and justice. The show consistently examines Christianity in relation to social structures, relationships, public life, and the treatment of people who have experienced exclusion or marginalization. Episodes can move from biblical interpretation to economic systems, from personal identity to institutional responsibility, yet the underlying question remains similar: what does faithful living require in the circumstances people actually face? That emphasis makes the podcast as much about practice as belief, asking listeners to consider how theological ideas shape the communities, systems, and relationships they participate in.
Podcast Takeaways
Some key lessons from the Podcast:
- Questions can deepen faith: Uncertainty does not necessarily have to be resolved immediately. Asking difficult questions can open space for learning, discernment, and spiritual growth.
- Faith and justice are closely connected: Religious belief does not exist separately from questions involving power, economics, race, gender, community, and human dignity.
- Listening expands understanding: Conversations become richer when people encounter experiences and perspectives different from their own, particularly voices that have historically received less attention.
- Scripture invites continuing engagement: Biblical texts can generate meaningful conversation when readers approach them with curiosity, historical awareness, and openness to interpretations that challenge familiar assumptions.
- Faith is expressed through everyday choices: Money, relationships, community participation, advocacy, and institutional decisions can all become places where spiritual values take practical form.
- Community can hold disagreement: Differences do not automatically have to produce separation. Thoughtful dialogue and discernment can help communities navigate tension while continuing to seek understanding.
- No sincere question needs to be faced alone: One of the show’s recurring insights is that a question someone is reluctant to voice is often shared by many others, making honest conversation an important form of community building.
Podcast Strengths
One of the podcast’s greatest strengths is its ability to combine substantial subjects with an approachable conversational format. Listener questions give episodes an immediate human starting point, while scholars, ministers, writers, activists, educators, and other guests add depth and specialized knowledge. The hosts are willing to explore difficult territory without pretending that every issue can be reduced to a simple answer, and that openness allows theology to feel connected to real experiences rather than confined to abstraction. The availability of listening guides for episodes further strengthens the show’s usefulness for people who want to carry the discussion into congregations, study groups, classrooms, or personal reflection.
Who This Podcast Is For
A Matter of Faith is particularly well suited to listeners interested in Christianity at the intersection of theology, social justice, culture, and contemporary life. Presbyterians will naturally find considerable value in its engagement with PC(USA) ministries, resources, and conversations, but the subject matter reaches beyond one denomination. It may also appeal to clergy, seminarians, educators, church leaders, progressive Christians, people reconsidering inherited religious assumptions, and anyone interested in thoughtful conversations about how faith responds to complicated social and ethical questions. Listeners who prefer exploration and dialogue over quick certainty are especially likely to appreciate its approach.
Why Should You Listen To This Podcast?
A Matter of Faith is worth hearing because it treats curiosity as something valuable rather than threatening. With hundreds of episodes spanning theology, justice, scripture, identity, economics, church culture, and personal experience, listeners can enter through subjects that already matter to them and discover connections they may not have considered before. The combination of listener questions and knowledgeable guests keeps the conversations grounded while still allowing them to reach deeper theological territory. More importantly, the podcast encourages a habit that extends beyond any single episode: asking better questions, listening carefully to other people, examining assumptions, and considering how beliefs translate into the way we participate in the world.
Questions This Podcast Helps Us Explore
- What happens to faith when we allow difficult questions to deepen it rather than threaten it?
- How should spiritual convictions shape the way we respond to injustice, inequality, and human suffering?
- Which voices have been overlooked in traditional theological conversations, and what might change when we genuinely listen to them?
- How can communities remain open to disagreement without losing their capacity for belonging, compassion, and meaningful dialogue?
- What does it mean to live faithfully when belief must move beyond ideas and become visible through everyday choices?
Concluding Thoughts
A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast succeeds because it begins from a place many people recognize: the space between what we have been taught and what we still genuinely want to understand. Instead of rushing to close that gap, Simon Doong and Lee Catoe turn it into a meeting place. Questions become invitations to listen, reconsider, learn from others, and explore how theology speaks to experiences that are often more complicated than simple answers allow.
Over time, that approach gives the podcast significance beyond the individual subjects it covers. Its deeper invitation is to practice a faith spacious enough for curiosity and engaged enough to matter in ordinary life. Whether an episode leaves you with greater clarity or another question to consider, the conversation encourages a more attentive relationship with belief, community, justice, and the people whose experiences may differ from your own. For listeners who want faith to be something they actively examine and live rather than simply inherit, there is plenty here to explore.
→ You can listen to A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast on Apple Podcasts and other leading platforms, or explore more at their website.
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an impact-driven creator at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 life goals around the globe. Tal's journey and recent book, The Art of Fully Living, inspired him to found Elevate Society.
