Who knew?

In his long and distinguished career in journalism, GetReligion Patriarch Richard Ostling had never set foot in Mississippi. The Time magazine and Associated Press religion-beat scribe had covered events in 43 states across America, but had never made it into the land of William Faulkner.

Ostling was on hand, Tuesday night, for the first GetReligion-related public forum at the Overby Center at the University of Mississippi. The host, of course, was journalism educator Charles Overby — best known for his 22 years as CEO of the Freedom Forum, a non-partisan foundation focusing on the press, religious freedom and the First Amendment. Also, this was my first visit to the center as a senior fellow, after GetReligion’s move there at the start of 2020.

The weather was sketchy, but the crowd came loaded with great questions.

Our topic was the role that religion is playing, early on, in the 2020 race for the White House. I was expecting that to stir up lots of conversation about (all together now) the 81% of white evangelicals who just love Donald Trump. This forum was being held deep in the Bible Belt, of course. I also expected questions about liberal Democrats attempting to build bridges to voters in black churches.

But who knew?

The topic that dominated the night — starting with Ostling’s first salvo — was the role of centrist and pew-frequenting Catholics in the crucial swing states that will decide this year’s election. We are talking, of course, about the Rust Belt Midwest and Florida. (Click here for GetReligion’s typology on the four basic kinds of “Catholic voters.”)

Click on other to the next page of this post to see the video of the forum.

The goal, at this point, is for one Overby Center forum per semester covering GetReligion terrain. With a set of important U.S. Supreme Court decisions coming on church-state issues — a hot topic in American politics, no matter what happens — there is sure to be much to discuss next fall. If you have ideas for forum topics linked to religion, politics and journalism, please leave them in our comments pages.

Meanwhile, I left the campus with this burning question: What IS this Hotty Toddy thing all about and do Southern Baptists take part? It sounds sort of Episcopal or Methodist.

Notes: Yes, my microphone was off for the first few minutes. You will miss some very familiar comments on white evangelicals and Donald Trump.

Also, I made a reference to a “John Brown” decision linked to religious liberty and religious higher education. That was a mistake. I meant, of course, the Bob Jones case. I regret the error, big time.