Katherine Stewart is an investigative reporter and author who writes about religious liberty, politics, policy, and education. Stewart’s journalism appears in the New York Times op ed, NBC, the New Republic, and The Guardian. She has also written for The American Prospect, George Washington University's History News Network, The Nation, Reuters, The Atlantic, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, The New York Observer, Santa Barbara Magazine, and Religion Dispatches. As a writer and speaker, Stewart excels in clarifying controversies over religious freedom and the separation of church and state. Her latest book, THE POWER WORSHIPPERS: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism (March, 2020), exposes the pseudo-religious Christian nationalist movement in the U.S. and its grabs for power, linking it to historical movements against abolition, the New Deal, and civil rights. The Washington Post called it "required reading for anyone who wants to map the continuing erosion of our already fragile wall between church and state".

The Bethel Speaker Series brings pioneering thinkers to Madison, WI to address issues where religious and social realities meet, generating dialog for the common good, and bridging the divides separating neighbors.