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Bob Smietana left Attleboro a quarter century ago and not only found the Bible Belt, but has wrapped it around his waist - and his newsroom copy.

Smietana, 43, a 1983 graduate of Attleboro High, is the religion reporter at Nashville's biggest newspaper, The Tennessean, known as Music City and the Baptist Vatican.

Smietana's parents, Ted and Barbara Smietana, and his sister, Kristen, still live in Attleboro, where they watched their son and brother attend Bliss School, Thacher Middle School and AHS.

His first job was collecting money during open swim hours at the AHS pool; his first job after college was working for Habitat for Humanity in Chicago.

Smietana just made the leap back to the mainstream media after a stint in religious publishing. He has been a contributing editor for Christianity Today, a correspondent for Religion News Service, and, for eight years, he served as features editor for the Covenant Companion, a Chicago-based publication of the Evangelical Covenant Church. He received more than a dozen national awards from the Associated Church Press for his work there. Smietana has a degree in religion from North Park University in Chicago, and he earned a master's degree in communication from National-Louis University in Chicago. His freelance credits are extensive and he has two books out - one called "Good Intentions" (www.goodintentionsbooks.com) and another called "GP Taylor: Sin, Salvation, and Shadowmancer," an as-told-to-bio of British children's author G.P. Taylor.

He lives in Tennessee with his wife, Kathy, and three "fabulous" kids: Sophie, 10, Eli, 7, and Marel, 5. This interview was conducted via e-mail from his Tennessee home.

SUN CHRONICLE: What was your life like in Attleboro?

BOB SMIETANA: For the most part, very happy. We lived not far from Finberg Field, so I spent a lot of time playing there and then eating ice cream at Bliss Dairy. I loved that I could ride my bike anywhere in the city.

I had great friends and a fantastic church - the Evangelical Covenant Church on North Main Street.

SUN CHRONICLE:How long have you been away from the Attleboros?

SMIETANA: 25 years.

SUN CHRONICLE: Where has your writing taken you so far?

SMIETANA: I went to school in Chicago, and settled there until December of last year, when we moved to Nashville. I've been on writing assignments to Nome, Alaska; Yorkshire, England, and all over the U.S.

SUN CHRONICLE: Tennessee is a very religious place, per capita, no? Can you describe that Baptist Belt? Church on every corner? SMIETANA: Sometimes, two. People take religion very seriously here, especially the part about loving your neighbors. We pulled up in our moving van and within few hours, all of our neighbors had come over to unload the truck.

It's a fascinating place - lots of Baptists, Churches of Christ that don't believe in playing music in church, some mega-churches, plus thriving Mainline, Catholic and Jewish communities.

SUN CHRONICLE: Does that make your job easier, in finding religious subjects or interviews?

SMIETANA: It does. I run across front page quality religion stories almost every day. Sometimes, I wish there were two of me.

Last week, I covered a feud at a local Baptist church, a story on surrogate motherhood, where both the mom and surrogate were from the same church; met with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori; then went off to South Carolina to meet Rev. Frank Page, outgoing president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

SUN CHRONICLE: Hallelujiah. What does the mainstream media just NOT get, about covering religion? What don't they do well enough?

SMIETANA: My colleagues who specialize in covering media get religion, because they cover it day to day. But overall, I'm not sure the major mainstream media - the New York Times, CNN, ABC, etc. - gets the personal and grassroots nature of religion and (they) spend too much time looking at religious celebrities and polls and not enough time looking at the day-to-day lives of believers.

My younger brother, Paul, died last year, suddenly and unexpectedly, while in the Philippines to finalize the adoption of his daughter. During that time, our church family kept the faith for us. They carried us through that time of almost unbearable grief with acts of kindness great and small. That close-knit, grassroots community was our lifeline. I can't imagine trying to go through that experience without faith and without the company of ordinary believers.

SUN CHRONICLE: Do you think most mainstream journalists don't understand the role of religion in the world because they are a bit jaded or cynical?

SMIETANA: To be fair, the 24-7 nature of news today makes it hard to get religion. You can't understand faith in sound bytes and 30-second Youtube clips. It takes time to get all the nuances right, and most journalists don't have a lot to spare.

Also, journalists don't like bullies or chowderheads. I think too often religious leaders and religious people can be arrogant, self righteous or mean spirited, and that turns journalists off.

SUN CHRONICLE: What is the biggest religious story that the New York Times or CNN will simply never cover or deem worthy to visit right now?

SMIETANA: I think it is really just that grassroots nature of faith. Believers are held together by personal ties to congregations, schools, charities and by walking with each other through the joys and sorrows of life. They are not held together by blind obedience to religious talking heads or big name preachers.

SUN CHRONICLE: What are some of the stories that you will be watching carefully in the next few years?

SMIETANA: Southern Baptists announced their first real downturn in membership after years of steady growth, and have started to shrink. That's a huge story for them.

The growth of multi-site, mega-churches. They are becoming the Wal-Marts of the church world, and it's putting a tremendous amount of pressure on small congregations, some of whom are giving up and reinventing themselves as franchises of the brand-name mega-churches.

The young believers who want to take a hands-on role on solving issues like poverty and AIDS.

SUN CHRONICLE: You've interviewed Billy Graham's daughter, and a man (William P. Young) who self-published a book called "The Shack," where God is a middle-age, obese black woman, a publishing sensation. What's the most remarkable interview you've ever conducted?

SMIETANA: About seven years ago, I interviewed the family of Lily Baehr, an 80-year-old woman from upstate New York who had been murdered in her home by burglars. For a while, the police accused the family of killing her, but eventually the burglars were caught.

The Baehr family's faith prompted them to forgive the murderer, and to befriend the police who once accused them. It was a remarkable story.

JAMES A. MEROLLA can be reached at 508-236-0431 or at jmerolla@thesunchronicle.com.