Practicing Gospel Podcast: Recent Episodes
David Rayburn
One of the means of helping to overcome white supremacy is for those of us who are white not only to learn to tell our own race story, but also to take over the responsibility of holding each other as white people accountable when we act and speak in ways that reveal our racial biases or that we are shaped by white supremacy beyond our awareness. As individuals we need to learn and train ourselves how to recognize and become more fully aware of when our thoughts, assumptions, words, and actions cause racial harm. We also need to be more willing to confront and correct other white people when they do the same. It helps to have white role models for this process.
My guest for this episode provides such a role model. Greg Jarrell is a cultural organizer with QC Family Tree in the Enderly Park neighborhood of Charlotte, North Carolina. He works with words and music to impact housing and neighborhood justice issues. Jarrell writes about theology and history and co-leads Carolina Social Music Club, a popular jazz band. He and his wife, Helms, are ordained ministers and are raising two sons.
Greg is the author of two books that will be the focus of our conversation. They are:
A Riff of Love: Notes on Community and Belonging
Our Trespasses: White Churches and the Taking of American Neighborhoods
You can learn more about Greg from his website:
gregjarrell.com
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
This episode is a followup on my interview with Professor Joerg Rieger. The intent of all of Professor Rieger’s work, including the subject of my first interview with him about his book, Theology in the Capitalocene: Ecology, Identity, Class, and Solidarity, is that theology should have an affect on one’s lifestyle and an impact on the world. In order to realize that intent, Professor Rieger established and is the founding Director of the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice.
The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice is an interdisciplinary program located at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. Its focus is on issues of justice that arise at the intersection of religion, economics, and ecology. Founded in 2019 and supported by a generous gift from Barbara Wendland, the mission of the program is to develop resources and opportunities for students, scholars, clergy, and activists to envision and create a more just and sustainable world for all.
In addition to being the founding Director of the Wendland-Cook Program, Professor Rieger is Distinguished Professor of Theology and The Cal Turner Chancellor’s Chair in Wesleyan Studies.
Joining us in this interview is Gab Lisi. Gab (she/they/he) is the Assistant Director of the Wendland-Cook Program at Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt Divinity School. Gab resides in Columbus, OH and their dog, Franklin (or Frank). They hold an M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary, an MSL from The Ohio State University, and a B.A. in Theology and Criminal Justice from Xavier University (Cincinnati, OH). They are curious about power analysis, class analysis, and Catholicism. In their spare time, you can find them at home reading, camping with Frank, or hanging out with friends.
Important links for learning more about the Wendland-Cook Program:
Website: https://www.religionandjustice.org/Solidarity Circles: https://www.religionandjustice.org/solidarity-circlesExchanges Courses: https://www.religionandjustice.org/exchangesInterventions: https://www.religionandjustice.org/interventionsSubstack: https://religionandjustice.substack.com/The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
Because of our nation’s commitment to capitalism and the desire to be technologically advanced and leaders in the global business market, across the political and theological spectrum, most parents are interested in and committed to having their children go to college/university. Those students are also enculturated into valuing and wanting to go to college/university. And because of the extensive increase in remote learning, around 61% of students in the United States enroll in college following high school. Also, because of the global economy, and because the colleges/universities in the United States are some of the best in the world, large numbers of international students seek to attend colleges/universities here.
While things are continuously changing on college campuses, and while there are adults who attend college later in life, or those who attend after serving in the military, or those who attend graduate school, a constant for the majority of the population of colleges/universities, including international students, is the post-high school 18-24 year old student. For that age group who choose to attend college on a campus, it commonly means leaving home and relying on themselves for a myriad of decisions for the first time. Developing the self-discipline to navigate those decisions is a part of the maturing process. Having some sort of community to assist and provide support in this maturing process helps. For those students who have a religious faith, a campus ministry, commonly sharing the same faith as the student, provides that community and support.
Because there is a constant in the student population related to age, there is a constant in both psychological and faith development. That provides a constant of experience in campus ministry over the years. However, due to challenges never faced by previous generations, campus ministry currently being provided on college/university campuses across our nation has substantively changed.
My guest for this episode are here to help us understand those challenges and changes and to help give a deeper insight into campus ministry as it is happening now in our nation.
Sarah and Daniel Patiño lead the Seek Christian Community at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, or Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, Virginia. Both Daniel and Sarah are graduates of Virginia Tech. To learn more about the Patiños and their ministry, visit www.vtseek.org.
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
In this episode I speak with Professor Joerg Rieger about his book, Theology in the Capitalocene: Ecology, Identity, Class, and Solidarity. Professor Rieger explains why the term, “Capitalocene” should be used instead of the term “Anthropocene.” He helps us understand what is happening because of the Capitalocene, especially as it negatively impacts in a new way many of the issues relating to social justice–issues such as global warming, classism, racism, sexism. queerism, and labor. He also outlines the way theologies and religions have negatively contributed to the development of the Capitalocene. However, Professor Rieger provides us with alternatives and offers us ways to respond. He also believes that both theology and religion have a role in moving us more positively forward.
In order to bring the alternatives Professor Rieger offers to address the capitalocene into concrete action, he established the Wnedland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice.The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice is an interdisciplinary program located at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. Its focus is on issues of justice that arise at the intersection of religion, economics, and ecology. Founded in 2019 and supported by a generous gift from Barbara Wendland, the mission of the program is to develop resources and opportunities for students, scholars, clergy, and activists to envision and create a more just and sustainable world for all.
Professor Joerg Rieger is Distinguished Professor of Theology, The Cal Turner Chancellor’s Chair in Wesleyan Studies, and the Founding Director of the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice.
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
I confess to being guilty of what I have observed in most others who, like me, were born, raised, and continue to live in the United States. I take my citizenship for granted. I vote in all major elections, pay my taxes without much complaint, respect and am thankful for government and law enforcement officials, show up for jury duty (although I have never been selected for a jury), and abide by the law. But, I, like most, do little else relating to my citizenship. I don’t go to and speak at town meetings, see little benefit from protests, or believe any effort to write my elected officials (especially those I didn’t vote for) will have any impact. For most of my life, I have believed I have very little power to confront those in power or to create change.
I have been wrong!
Most leading scholars of democracy and advocates for democracy all agree that individual citizens, who take their citizenship seriously and organize, have the power to hold government officials on all levels accountable, to have them address our concerns and issues that are important to us, and to create change. There are different ways of organizing and different tools for helping with organizing, but the act of organizing and using that organizing is a vital means of creating change and to making our democracy work and thrive.
In this episode, I speak with Alan Luis Ramirez about his involvement with and efforts in such an organizing effort. La Milpa is an umbrella organization under which is PODER Emma. Emma is a community is West Asheville, North Carolina. Alan Luis shares with us an understanding of the fullness of this organizing effort. It creates local change and empowerment, economic and employment options and opportunities, and cultural and citizenship dynamics. It is exciting and inspiring and should be imitated, like all such efforts, so that these efforts and the change they create can increase.
Alan Luis is a resident owner of Sourwood Mobile Home Co-op, a member of PODER Emma’s Cooperative Development Team and the Director of Mutual Aid (Casa de Ayuda Mutual).
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
This episode is my third interview on democracy. In this episode my guest and I will be discussing the Movement Action Plan or MAP model for organizing social movements that enable a group of citizens to create change in our culture and in our country through changes in our national, state, and local governments. This model is outlined in the book, Doing Democracy: The MAP Model for Organizing Social Movements by Bill Moyer, JoAnn McAllister, Mary Lou Finley, and Steven Soifer.
Bill Moyer is not to be confused by the famous journalist and television personality, Bill Moyers with an ’s’ on the end of his last name. Bill Moyer, the originator and developer of the MAP model for social movement organizing, was for over forty years a social change activist, community organizer, and educator.
Alas, Bill passed away in 2002, but the co-authors of the book are still very much alive, and Dr. JoAnn McAllister has graciously agreed to be my guest for this conversation.
Dr. McAllister is an interdisciplinary social science educator and researcher. Her work is grounded in a systems perspective and focuses on the role of culture in shaping individual and social beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Her focus is on understanding how these shape our perceptions and actions, and applying these concepts can help us to understand contemporary social problems. She believes that in knowing our own story and learning to listen to the stories of others we can collaborate more effectively to promote positive social change.
She has worked with many non-profits, community organizations, and government agencies in the development of education programs related to criminal justice, at-risk youth, and the environment. She is the co-author of Doing Democracy: The MAP Model for Organizing Social Movements written by Bill Moyer (2001) and has been engaged in numerous activities to create positive social change over the years, including Anti-War, Sanctuary, Food Security, and Environmental groups. She is working on a new project and book, Still Doing Democracy: Finding Common Ground and Acting for the Common Good. Her current focus is on training engaged citizens, community advocates, and social change activities to develop more effective collaborative skills to further positive social change.
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
This episode is my third interview with Dr. Laura Lengnick about her book, Resilient Agriculture. In my blogspot for the second interview, at the request of Dr. Lengnick, I clarified that the discussion in the second interview was recorded in June of 2024 before the impact of Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina toward the end of September, 2024, and was not a response to that event. However, Dr. Lengnick agreed that at a time which allowed for recovery and healing, some reflection about Resilient Agriculture in light of the event of Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina was important and appropriate. Particularly important for that reflection includes Dr. Lengnick’s understanding of the concept of “bouncing forward” rather than “bouncing back” or “building back better.”
That time, nearly one year after the Hurricane Helene event, has come. So I welcome back Dr. Laura Lengnick.
Dr. Lengnick is the author of Resilient Agriculture: Cultivating Foods Systems for a Changing Climate. This book will be the basis for these interviews.
Laura is the founder and principal of Cultivating Resilience which works with organizations of all kinds to integrate resilience thinking into assessment, operations and strategic planning. Trained as a soil scientist, Laura has 30 years of experience as a researcher, policymaker, educator, activist, and farmer. She has broad federal policy expertise gained through work as a U.S. Senate staffer, a USDA-ARS researcher, and a lobbyist advocating for sustainable agriculture in the U.S. Congress and was a lead author of the 2013 United States Department of Agriculture’s report, Climate Change and Agriculture in the United States: Effects and Adaptation.
You can learn more about Cultivating Resilience and Laura here:
cultivatingresilience.com
In this interview a reference was made to effort called Regenerative Agriculture. Dr. Lengnick sees that effort as providing tools for Resilient Agriculture, but believes that that the work she and others are doing with Resilient Agriculture goes beyond Regenerative Agriculture. You can learn more about Regenerative Agriculture here:
commonground.org
kissthegroundmovie.com
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
In this episode, Amy Cantrell returns to speak of her life’s work and calling.
Amy Cantrell lives in Asheville, North Carolina and is founder and Co-Director of BeLoved Asheville dedicated to creating home, health, equity, and opportunity for all. BeLoved is a community of people putting love into action every day. We bring people from all walks of life together to create innovative solutions to some of the most challenging problems of our time: housing and food insecurity, poverty, lack of healthcare, systemic racism, and climate change. BeLoved’s projects includes: BeLoved Villages of deeply affordable homes; rapid relief, community health, and vaccination equity efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic; the first homeless/formerly homeless Street Medic Team in the nation; Racial Healing & Cultural Organizing; creating healthy food access through Free Farmers markets, Plants for the People and community gardens; as well as advocacy campaigns around affordable housing, homelessness, food equity, gentrification, and systemic racism. Our projects work at the intersections of community, creativity, and equity. Amy was school educated at Converse College (BA) and Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta, GA (MDiv.) and was “street educated” at the Open Door Community in Atlanta and at BeLoved Asheville. In 2020, she passed the NASCLA national licensing exam and became a general contractor to help support BeLoved’s project to build deeply affordable homes. She received the Western North Carolina Peacemaker of the Year in 2017 and was recently named one of the USA Today Network’s Women of the Year, 2024. Recently, she co-led BeLoved’s response to Hurricane Helene serving 15,000 people daily across Western North Carolina’s impacted zones in the aftermath of the storm. BeLoved became the largest local rapid response group in the wake of Helene supporting equitable responses including Well Check teams and Flush Brigades to support elders and people with disabilities. Hike teams hiking miles to remote areas. Creating temporary water infrastructure for communities, schools, and childcare centers. Sharing 67 tiny homes on wheels as immediate temporary shelter. Currently, BeLoved is doing 30 home repairs and has started their first whole home replacements as well as building a new BeLoved Village in Swannanoa. BeLoved has been featured in stories by ABC News/Good Morning America, PBS News Hour, CBS, NBC,MSN, Accuweather, the Washington Post, and People Magazine. She is married to Adrienne Sigmon and loves being mom to twin 11 year olds, Myla and Eleecia. She loves the color purple, playing guitar, making art, and studying movement history. Find her on Facebook and Instagram @Amy Cantrell and @BeLovedAsheville For more information about BeLoved Asheville, visit www.belovedasheville.com.
At the age of 96, Luci Shaw is a prolific poet, writer, and editor as well as being a photographer. With 19 volumes of poetry and one on the way, 8 books, and two children’s books, Luci has spent a lifetime sharing her gift and love of writing. Along with her first, now late, husband Harold Shaw, she was a co-founder of Harold Shaw Publishers where she was senior editor and eventually President. She has been an English stylist for the popular Biblical translations and paraphrases The Living Bible, The Message, and Today’s New International Version. Luci has been an adjunct and summer faculty and a frequent guest lecturer at colleges and universities. In addition she has been a popular workshop leader. She is currently Writer in Residence at Regent College, Vancouver, Canada. Her work has appeared in many journals like The Christian Century, Christianity Today, and Sojourners.
Luci describes herself as a Christian who is a poet and not a Christian poet.
She was a long-time friend of, co-author with, and editor for Madeleine L’Engle.
To learn more about Luci, go to her website at lucishaw.com
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
My guests for this episode introduce us to an updated version a type of organization which has been around since the late 1880s, but which most of us have never heard of or know anything about. The type of organization is a Settlement House. The updated version is modeled in a Settlement House one of my guests founded and the other has helped strengthen and sustain. It is called The Good Neighbor House and is located in Waco, Texas. As my guests will discuss, in its updated version, a Settlement House offers local communities, towns, and cities a resource to strengthen the peaceful bonds of it residence; it offers our nation a resource to strengthen the practice of our democracy; and it offers Christian churches a resource for fulfilling a key mission and mandate of the Church’s work–that of showing hospitality to the stranger. In considering the current challenges of both our nation and the churches in the U.S., Settlement Houses can provide a relevant and needed contribution, and are thus something worth knowing more about and considering.
The founder of the Good Neighbor House, Dr. Laine Scales, has been on this show before. Laine is Professor and PhD Program Co-Director for the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work. She completed 15 years as Associate Dean in Baylor’s Graduate School from 2004-2019. Her scholarly work led to her appointment as co-director of Baptist Scholars International Roundtable (BSIR). Laine is the author of All That Fits a Woman: Training Southern Baptist Women for Charity and Mission, 1907-1926 and co-author/co-editor of several works, including the 6th Edition of Christianity and Social Work: Readings in the Integration of Christian Faith and Social Work Practice, and Christian Faith and University Life: Stewards of the Academy. Her research interests include doctoral education, history of Baptist women in social work and missions, and rural social work. Laine‘s research on historical settlement houses led her to establish Good Neighbor Settlement House in Waco Texas, a social innovation experiment in nurturing community through an intergenerational experience of the arts, music, education, recreation, and worship.
Tyler Mowry is a PhD candidate and in the Department of Religion and a Content Specialist on the Learning Design team at Baylor University. He has participated in a number of community development efforts, including K–12 educational advocacy in Bogotá, Colombia and West Chicago, IL, and urban agricultural development in East Atlanta, GA. Tyler is a member of the board of trustees and the maintenance team, which is responsible for care of the building and grounds at the Good Neighbor House, and his family and church are frequent users of the space.
You can learn more about Good Neighbor House in an article title, “Good Neighbor House: Reimagining Settlement Houses as a Response to Contemporary Community Challenges,” in Chapter 3 of Christianity and Social Work: Readings on the Integration of Christian Faith and Social Work Practice, Sixth Ed., by T. Laine Scales and Michael S. Kelly. Direct link to the article can be found here:
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
This episode will be the first in a series that explores how the Church and the Christian faith is doing globally. In each episode I will have a guest from a different country or area to talk about the Christian experience and the Church’s challenges in the place of my guest.
My guest for this episode is Dr. Bennett Uche Enyioha. Dr. Enyioha is an experienced Baptist pastor, author, educator, and leader. He is an Associate Professor, having taught at various theological seminaries and colleges in Nigeria. For ten years he was the president of the Baptist Theological Seminary in Kaduna, Nigeria. He has served in leadership positions both in the Nigerian Baptist Convention and the Baptist World Alliance.
Since his retirement, Dr. Enyioha has worked to establish the B. U. Enyioha Foundation for the purpose of assisting gifted students that need resources to make possible their education, helping hospital patients with their hospital expenses, and establishing a lectureship that will be a resource for educating the people and churches of Nigeria. For enquiries about the Foundation, its work, and how to contribute and donate to the foundation, contact Dr. Enyioha at either:
buenyioha@yahoo.com
buenyioha@gmail.com
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
As I did in my spoken intro to this episode, I want to begin this blogspot with a clarification. The interviews that have made the two parts and episodes with Dr. Lengnick were done in early June. You may know that beginning September 24 the rain from Hurricane Helene began to come through the area where I live, which is in Black Mountain, North Carolina, just east of Asheville, North Carolina. The primary impact of that event occurred on the night of September 26-27. It was devastating and in many places it was catastrophic. I posted Part 1 on September 24, the day the rain began. It is just now that I am able to post Part 2. My original intention was to post this episode a week after posting Part 1.
Because both of these interviews on Resilient Agriculture directly speak to the issues that bear on the impact of Hurricane Helene, Dr. Lengnick wanted to make sure that you, my listeners, understood that these interview were made 3 months prior to the impact of the hurricane and not as a response to it.
However, some reflection in light of the ideas and principles of Resilient Agriculture upon the event of Hurricane Helene needs be provided. Dr. Lengnick has graciously agreed, when the time is more appropriate, to return for a third interview, especially to speak about her understanding of the idea of bouncing forward rather than bouncing back. We will look forward to that interview.
In this episode, Laura talks about her experiences in having been active in promoting Resilient Agriculture for a while now, she speaks about the importance of stories to the promotion of Resilient Agriculture and tells us some stories, and she provides a very helpful list of things we non-agricultural folks can do to participate with and in Resilient Agriculture.
Dr. Lengnick is the author of Resilient Agriculture: Cultivating Foods Systems for a Changing Climate. This book will be the basis for these interviews.
Laura is the founder and principal of Cultivating Resilience which works with organizations of all kinds to integrate resilience thinking into assessment, operations and strategic planning. Trained as a soil scientist, Laura has 30 years of experience as a researcher, policymaker, educator, activist, and farmer. She has broad federal policy expertise gained through work as a U.S. Senate staffer, a USDA-ARS researcher, and a lobbyist advocating for sustainable agriculture in the U.S. Congress and was a lead author of the 2013 United States Department of Agriculture’s report, Climate Change and Agriculture in the United States: Effects and Adaptation.
You can learn more about Cultivating Resilience and Laura here:
cultivatingresilience.com
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
In this episode and the next I interview Dr. Laura Lengnick about resilient agriculture. Resilient agriculture is a step beyond sustainable agriculture and is being developed as a correction to industrial agriculture and in response to climate change.
Dr. Lengnick is the author of Resilient Agriculture: Expanded and Updated Second Edition: Cultivating Foods Systems for a Changing Climate. This book will be the basis for these interviews.
Laura is the founder and principal of Cultivating Resilience which works with organizations of all kinds to integrate resilience thinking into assessment, operations and strategic planning. Trained as a soil scientist, Laura has 30 years of experience as a researcher, policymaker, educator, activist, and farmer. She has broad federal policy expertise gained through work as a U.S. Senate staffer, a USDA-ARS researcher, and a lobbyist advocating for sustainable agriculture in the U.S. Congress and was a lead author of the 2013 United States Department of Agriculture’s report, Climate Change and Agriculture in the United States: Effects and Adaptation.
You can learn more about Cultivating Resilience and Laura here:
cultivatingresilience.com
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
This episode checks in with Choristers Guild. I began my ministry in church music in the late-1970s and early 1980s, and Choristers Guild was a primary source I turned to for wonderful and high-quality children’s Christian music. Back then, church music was organized around graded choirs and music ensembles. But during the mid-1970s and early 1980s, the “seeker” churches grew rapidly and with them the use of “contemporary” Christian music. During the 1990s “contemporary” Christian music became dominant. The result, often, was the loss of graded choir programs.
In its origins, Choristers Guild had a strong focus on children’s music. This episode seeks to learn of the state of things in church music and how Choristers Guild is navigating the challenges of the current situation with Christianity in the United States and music ministry.
My guests are Katie Houts and Mark Burrows. Katie has worked with Mark in editing some of his music pieces.
Katie Houts is the Sacred Choral and Curriculum Editor for Choristers Guild. Serving CG since 2013, Katie curates and edits sacred choral anthems, collections, musicals, curriculum, and teaching resources; she also serves on the faculty of the Choristers Guild Institute. She studied music at Wartburg College (Waverly, IA), where she majored in Church Music (Organ) and Religion. She has served in ELCA, UCC, and UMC congregations as Director of Music, Worship Curator, Organist, and Children’s Choir Director.
Katie is a published composer, professional accompanist, and a frequent clinician at sacred conferences throughout the country. She currently serves on ACDA’s National Committee for Composition Initiatives, working to support and champion the work of living choral composers.
Katie is based in Salt Lake City, where she leads choral ensembles throughout the community, including Rise Up Children’s Choir – Utah’s premiere contemporary vocal performance group for ages 6-18. She conducts RUCC’s intermediate ensemble, Rise Up Ignite, and is the assistant director and accompanist for the advanced mixed children’s choir. She also teaches second grade music and directs the 5th and 6th grade choirs at Wasatch Charter School (Holladay, UT).
What Choristers Guild and other publishers say about Mark Burrows is this:
Mark Burrows (b. 1971) is a composer and clinician whose works are published by many major houses, including The Lorenz Corporation, Shawnee Press, Abingdon Press, Choristers Guild and Warner Brothers. Several works, such as the Gettin’ Down with Mama Goose Series, The Body Electric, and Outside the Lines top many best-seller lists.
Known to little listeners as “Mister Mark” he tours the country performing concerts for children and families. His three children’s albums – You’ve got a Song, Go Ape!, and Go, Galileo! – have won a total of nine national awards. His songs can be heard on XM Radio, and one song, Amazon Rock, was recently recorded by Nick Records for a Dora the Explorer album.
Mark is currently the Director of Children’s Ministries at First United Methodist Church – Fort Worth, Texas, where he leads the weekly Children’s Message, a monthly worship service for families called Children First, and directs the 65-voice Youth Choir.
Mark received his undergraduate degree in music education from Southern Methodist University, and his graduate degree in conducting from Texas Christian University. He lives in Fort Worth with his wife, Nina, and their two daughters, Emma and Grace.
What Mark prefers to say about himself is this:
Mark loves traveling the country reminding people how amazing they are and how, together, they can do amazing things! While Mark does not have perfect pitch, he does have “perfect dynamics.” He can tell, just by listening, if a piece of music is loud or soft. Mark loves cinnamon rolls and tacos but can’t stand peas. He’s a Ravenclaw, and he adores classical music (especially Haydn for his sense of humor). Current musical acts he’s into right now are Lake Street Dive, Jon Batiste, and Cosmo Sheldrake. He owns 10 pairs of Converse high-tops, but sometimes he mix-matches to make even more pairs! Mark lives in Fort Worth, Texas with his wife Nina. And he occasionally feels sorry for himself that their daughters, Emma and Grace, have moved away to college so they can become a nurse and music therapist respectively, and save the world.
The use of Mark’s anthems, Seeds, and I Am Home, is with permission from Choristers Guild.
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
This episode is Part 2 of my interview with Jeffrey Stout on democracy.
In Part 1 Dr. Stout explained the different ways democracy has been understood throughout history, he gave us two definitions of liberty and freedom, and he spoke of the seven virtues he believes are essential for citizens to develop in order to participate in maintaining a healthy democracy.
In this episode, Dr. Stout discusses the threats that presently exist to our democracy here in the United States and then develops the roll we have as citizens to respond to these threats and to insuring that our democracy thrives.
Dr. Stout is Professor of Religion, Emeritus at Princeton University. He is a theorist and historian of democratic culture. His work is concerned with ethics, religious thought, political theory, law, and film. The two of his books that I draw upon for these two episodes are Democracy and Tradition, and Blessed Are the Organized: Grassroots Democracy in America. His two lectures which I draw from for these interviews are his 2017 Gifford Lectures titled ‘Religion Unbound: Ideals and Powers from Cicero to King’ and his 2022 Frederic R. and Molly S. Kellogg Biennial Lecture on Jurisprudence titled ‘The Tree of Democratic Liberty.’ Both of these lectures can be found on Youtube.
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
This episode is Part 1 of my conversation with Professor Jeffrey Stout about our democracy.
There is a broad conviction that our democracy here in the United States is in crisis. In my mind, Dr. Stout is one of the most important scholars of democracy and also one of the best guides for us learning what we, as citizens, need to understand and do to improve our democracy and maintain its thriving.
Dr. Stout is Professor of Religion, Emeritus at Princeton University. He is a theorist and historian of democratic culture. His work is concerned with ethics, religious thought, political theory, law, and film. The two of his books that I draw upon for these two episodes are Democracy and Tradition, and Blessed Are the Organized: Grassroots Democracy in America. His two lectures which I draw from for these interviews are his 2017 Gifford Lectures titled ‘Religion Unbound: Ideals and Powers from Cicero to King’ and his 2022 Frederic R. and Molly S. Kellogg Biennial Lecture on Jurisprudence titled ‘The Tree of Democratic Liberty.’ Both of these lectures can be found on Youtube.
My own commitment to democracy and religious liberty is rooted in my Baptist heritage.
The kind of Baptist community into which I was born and to which I grew up to embrace, articulated its beliefs in a document called The Baptist Faith and Message (TBFaM. The edition I am using is 1971). Principal among those beliefs is ‘soul freedom’ as Baptist historian, Walter Shurden, calls it in his book, The Baptist Identity: Four Fragile Freedoms (TBI), or as Baptist theologian, E. Y. Mullins, calls it in his book, The Axioms of Religion, ‘the competency of the soul in religion (TBFaM p.8).’
For Baptists of my ilk, this soul freedom is rooted in the nature of God and subsequently in the nature of who we are as individuals. God is free and in creating us as individuals, God created us in God’s image. This image in which each of us is created gives to each of us freedom, equality, dignity, and worth. Freedom of thought and choice are essential for true relationships, fellowship, and communion. These freedoms are the basis by which we are able to love. Thus, soul freedom is what empowers us to be able to respond to God, to enter into true relationship with God and to love God. It is also the means by which we can relate to and love one another.
As free and equal individuals before God, we each are thus free and equal before one another–any and all others—before any and all people and any and all organizations. But having this freedom also includes responsibility and accountability. We become responsible and accountable for our thoughts and choices.
Soul freedom is both exclusive and inclusive (TBFaM p.8). As Shurden defines it, Soul Freedom is the affirmation of the inalienable right and responsibility of every person to deal with God without or to the exclusion of the imposition of creed, the interference of clergy, or the intervention of civil government (TBI p.23). But, as The Baptist Faith and Message says, it includes all elements of true faith (TBFaM p.9).
Thus Mullins lists six axioms:
The theological axiom: The holy and loving God has the right to be sovereign (and is thus free).
The religious axiom: All souls have an equal right to direct access to God.
The ecclesiastical axiom: All believers have a right to equal privileges in the church.
The moral axiom: To be responsible a person must be free.
The religio-civic axiom: A free Church in a free State.
The social axiom: Love your neighbor as yourself.
As The Baptist Faith and Message says, religious liberty does not rest upon a legal document of a political state…A free state does not create religious liberty. It only recognizes and respects it. But religious freedom is essential in the making of a free state (TBFaM pp 141-142).
It continues to assert that in a free state, religious liberty means the right of every person to worship or not worship as that person’s conscience dictates. It means equality before the law in all matters relating to faith or unbelief (my paraphrase) (p.141). My Baptist ancestors were always equally passionate about defending the freedom of unbelievers as much as believers.
As I and Baptists like me understand it, in a community of equals—any community of equals including any faith organization and any form of civic government, democracy is the rightful and essential means of decision making.
The Baptist Faith and Message states, ‘Religious liberty is not religious toleration. Religious toleration is a privilege granted by people (and I will add, by power). Religious liberty is a right bestowed by God. For liberty involves responsibility and demands inner and personal controls (TBFaM p.141)’. Although others throughout our nations history have not grounded this definition of liberty in the theology I have just outlined, they nevertheless share this definition. This definition becomes important to a better understanding of democracy.
This episode is my second interview with John Mabry. In this episode we focus specifically on his music and his newest album, No Stranger. As you will hear in the episode, John has a brain tumor that can be removed, but the result will be that it will make him deaf. So, the airing of this episode of John’s music is especially pertinent and poignant. I am deeply honored and blessed that John reached out to me as one of his last interviews before his surgery. This new album is powerful and has much to teach us about God and our faith in Jesus Christ.
The Reverend Dr. John R. Mabry is a United Church of Christ pastor specializing in interim ministry. But he is also an author, songwriter, spiritual director, and seminary professor. He is the author of more than 40 books, writing on spirituality, spiritual direction, and theology, but he also writes science fiction and fantasy. John is a veteran of two progressive rock bands—Mind Future and Metaphor—but in the last few years has released a string of solo albums. His latest is called “No Stranger,” and it is available on BandCamp and all major streaming services. He lives with his wife and three Boxers in the foothills of the Catskill mountains in New York.
You can learn more about John and his recent creative activities from his website, johnrmabry.com
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
This episode is the first of what I hope will be a series of conversations with pastors about how they are leading, guiding, and navigating their churches through current times.
As the Pew Research Center has documented, Christianity in the United States is in decline. Thousands of churches each year are closing. In churches across the nation across the theological and political spectrum, congregations consist of aging members and declining numbers. Sanctuaries are filled to only one fourth to one third of the seating capacity, and much of the entire building space goes unused. The reasons for this decline are complex and comprised of numerous components. We are still in the midst of gaining some understanding and what understanding we have is evolving. Decline is not the only issues churches are facing and some of the other issues are contributors to the decline.
What this series seeks to explore is how churches are navigating these times by listening to the thoughts of pastors as they describe their situations and contexts and what they and their churches are doing. The pastors I am choosing to interview serve historic mainline congregations that have been a part of their communities for over 100 year and the facilities of which are often listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The pastors also began serving their churches prior to, served in the midst of, and are continuing to serve following the Covid Pandemic.
My first guest in this series in my own pastor, The Reverend Dr. Austin McIver Dennis, who is Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church of Asheville, North Carolina. ‘Mack,’ as he prefers to be called, is a native of Henderson, North Carolina. He came to First Baptist, Asheville in 2016. Prior to that, for five years he was pastor of First Baptist Church, Mt. Gilead, North Carolina, then received his Th.D. from Duke Divinity School with a focus on homiletics and reconciliation. He is the editor of The Luminous Word: Biblical Sermons and Homiletical Essays, which is an anthology of sermons and essays by Old Testament scholar, Ellen F. Davis.
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
My guest for this episode is Liz Cooledge Jenkins. In this episode we discuss her book Nice Churchy Patriarchy: Reclaiming Women’s Humanity from Evangelicalism.
Liz is a writer, preacher, and former college campus minister who lives in the Seattle area with her husband Ken and their black cat Athena. After spending thirteen years as a young adult in evangelical communities, Liz is passionate about sorting through inadequate and harmful theologies and learning how to build faith communities that are inclusive, just, and life-giving—for women and for all people.
Liz has a BS in Symbolic Systems (Stanford University) and a Master of Divinity degree. Her writing has appeared in Sojourners, The Christian Century, Christians for Social Action, and Red Letter Christians, among other places, and she is a regular contributor at Feminism and Religion. She blogs at lizcooledgejenkins.com, Patheos (Always Re-forming), and Substack (Growing Into Kinship), and can also be found on Instagram @lizcoolj and @postevangelicalprayers. When not writing, Liz enjoys swimming, hiking, attempting to grow vegetables, and drinking a lot of tea.
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
In this episode I welcome back Dr. Jonathan “Jay” Augustine to discuss the sequel to his book Called to Reconciliation: How the Church Can Model Justice, Diversity, and Inclusion. You can listen to my interview with Dr. Augustine on that book in episode 89. The sequel is When Prophets Preach: Leadership and the Politics of the Pulpit.
If Called to Reconciliation is about the Church’s responsibility to fulfill its ministry of reconciliation given to it by our God, When Prophets Preach is about the leadership necessary to enable the Church to engage in and seek to achieve its ministry.
Dr. Augustine serves as senior pastor of St. Joseph AME Church in Durham, NC. You can learn more about Dr. Augustine on his website:
https://www.jayaugustine.com/
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
My guest for this episode is Dr. David Bjorlin. Dr. Bjorlin is a hymn text writer. As an Assistant Professor of Worship at North Park University, David prepares his students for lives of significance and service by guiding and equipping them with practical skills centered around worship. “I believe what and how we worship forms the people we are and the way we interact with the world,” he says. As the assistant chapel coordinator at North Park and the pastor of worship and creative arts at the Resurrection Covenant Church, Bjorlin incorporates his experiences into the classroom by combining theory, practice, and reflection. Framing his classes through a city-centered lens, Bjorlin emphasizes that to understand worship, one must first understand location. He aims to teach students the importance of learning what it means to be a Christian living in a particular city surrounded by different cultures.
David’s YouTube channel can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUXJEzza9ABOLCPKfdXHl_w
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
One of the things we have gotten wrong for too long has been our understanding of and, consequently, treatment of people with disabilities. Although it is not happening broadly enough or quickly enough, efforts to correct our understanding and our behavior are taking place. One of those efforts is The Penguin Project which is a nation-wide organization and effort to involve people with disabilities in musical theater. My guest for this episode is here to discuss her work with the project.
Lisa Heath Jinkins (Choreographer for Golden Isles Penguin Project in Brunswick, GA) began her career as a professional modern dancer in New York City in 1985. She had the opportunity to perform with many top choreographers and companies, including The Martha Graham Dance Company, and at some of the larger theatres in Manhattan: New York City Center and The Joyce Theater, to name two.
Lisa met and married Jim Jinkins in NY, and they have two children, Rose and Heath. During this time, Lisa had the opportunity to write 5 children’s books for The Disney Company, based on the animated series “PB&J Otter” created by Jim Jinkins. That led to co-creating “JoJo’s Circus” for The Disney Channel, and writing scripts for “Pinky Dinky Doo”, an animated television series created by Jim.
In 2010, the family moved to Brunswick, GA, where they continued to be involved in the arts, performing in various local productions on stage, and working behind the scenes, as well. In 2016 Lisa was asked to be the Choreographer for a new venture: Golden Isles Penguin Project. The Penguin Project® is a musical theater production that casts children and young adults with disabilities in all roles. All sing, dance and act in the show. Those individuals (Artists) will get assistance from on-stage peers (Mentors). And after a one year break in 2023, Lisa has been asked to return to help with Meredith Wilson’s “The Music Man, Jr.!” She can’t wait!
To learn more about The Penguin Project and efforts like these go to the following links:
Golden Isles Penguin Project: https://goldenislesarts.org/programs/penguin-project/
The Penguin Project: https://penguinproject.org/
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
This episode is a continuation of my series on palliative care and end of life issues. My guest is Dr. Aditi Sethi. Dr. Sethi is a hospice and palliative care physician, end-of-life doula, and musician. Featured in the forthcoming film The Last Ecstatic Days, Aditi is an emerging and important voice for shifting our culture’s understanding and approach to dying, death, and bereavement care. Dr. Sethi is the Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Conscious Living and Dying which will formally launch in the near future. The mission of Center for Conscious Living and Dying is to create a community that embodies living a meaningful life through inner exploration and growth, service, and community-supported end-of-life care.
Aditi is here to share with us her journey into establishing and developing the Center and to help us understand more fully its vision and work.
To learn more, go to the website for the Center at ccld.community.
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
The reason I feature storytelling as often as I do in this show is because of its capacity as an art form to build bridges between people and connect them, existentially and emotionally to experience the ‘world’ within the story, and thereby existentially and emotionally to experience the lives of others and The Other. Storytelling is a therapy and, as you know from my interviews with Meta Commerce and Mark Yaconelli, a medicine. And it can also be a joyful means of entertainment, fellowship, and communion. It is a way we make sense and meaning of our lives and realities.
This episode focuses again on the importance of storytelling in African American culture. My guest is Gloria Elder.
Gloria “Glo Glow” Elder has been telling stories for as long as she can remember. She enjoys writing and telling stories of her many adventures of growing up around her loving grandparents, who told her many family stories. If fact, Gloria credits her grandparents as the reason she developed a love for storytelling.
When she became an Early Childhood Educator and Director, she told stories to children and adults in the day care center every Friday morning. Upon changing careers and missing the children at the day care center, she became a clown and created her act called, “The Magic of Clowning Around”. Her performances included, mime, singing, face painting and magic tricks.
The themes of Gloria’s stories are family history, saving our planet and transforming our life. She performs at birthday parties, in schools, hospitals, churches, cemeteries, and at festivals. She also loves telling African Folktales.
Her first book titled, I Walked a Mile in Her Shoes: A Story of Unconditional Love, is a story about an adventure she had with her maternal grandmother. Gloria is a member of Kuumba Storytellers of Georgia and the National Association of Black Storytellers.
To buy a copy of Gloria’s book, contact her at gloriaelder@comcast.net.
To learn more about Kuumba Storytellers of Georgia go here:
kuumbastorytellers.org
To learn more about The National Association of Black Storytellers to here:
https://www.nabsinc.org/
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
There is an increasing awareness of a several things related to aging. One is the fact that modern medicine and health practices are making it possible for people to live longer so that more people are able to live to being senior adults and to do so for a long time. Another is that members of the Baby Boom generation are retiring. A third is that for many people the experience if aging is not a good experience. So, efforts are being made and practices developed to address the present circumstances related to aging. This episode will focus on the ideas, practices, and events connected with the concept of Sage-ing.
Sage-ing was developed by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Schalomi. The fruit of his experiences and efforts from addressing his own aging have produced many things, but the two in particular that are discussed in this episode are his book that he co-wrote with Ronald S. Miller titled From Age-ing to Sage-ing: A Revolutionary Approach to Growing Older, and the organization, Sage-ing International.
My guests to help us understand more fully this movement called Sage-ing are Jeanne Marsh and The Reverend David Blackmon.
After retiring from the corporate world in 2005, Jeanne received an MA from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology where she was first introduced to Sage-ing through Reb Zalman’s book, From Age-ing to Sage-ing . Jeanne brings twenty-seven years experience in corporate Human Resources and Management Training and Development. She currently serves as Coordinator for the Sage-ing Leader Certification Program. Jeanne is also certified to administer and consult using theMyers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator and facilitates “Connecting With Self” and Sage-ing workshops in the Asheville area as well as partnering with other Sage-ing Leaders throughout the country.
David Blackmon serves as a chaplain in health care facilities in Western North Carolina. David’s training includes masters degrees from Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. David completed a year’s internship in clinical pastoral education in 1989 before beginning a 20-year stent at Mission Hospitals in Asheville, North Carolina. He served as Coordinating pastor for First Baptist Church of Asheville for a dozen years before entering semi-retirement in 2021. During a sabbatical, he completed the Spiritual Guidance Program at the Shalem Institute in 20014-2015. David rejoices in the sacred experiences and creative callings of people from all faiths and backgrounds and welcomes this diversity as a crucial resource in the growing community of sage-ing. The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project.
This episode is a part of a continuing series to enable you to hear the spectrum of American Indian/Native American/Indigenous/First Nations voices, especially in their response to Christianity and its history in the United States.
If you are interested in this interview, you may also be interested in my interview with Dr. Tink Tinker, an Osage man, in Episode 8.
My guest for this episode is The Reverend Dr. Tim Ross. Tim is a close friend of mine. Until Covid, we were in a prayer/conversation group together for over a decade.
Tim is a pastor, teacher, cross-cultural worker, husband, dad of four grown children, and grandfather of five grandchildren. He is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation (West). He has servers as minister of the Hopwood Christian Church in Elizabethton, TN since 1996. Prior to that, Tim and his family served with Christian Missionary Fellowship among the Maasai tribe in Kenya, Africa. Tim is an instructor at Emmanuel Christian Seminary, mentors ministers and missionaries, and is passionate about building relationships with folks of all cultures, with immigrants, prisoners, and folks who struggle to get by. He is a graduate of Milligan College and Emmanuel Christian Seminary.
Tim is here to share with us his experience as a Cherokee, an Christian, a minister, a missionary, and his beginning work with NAIITS (originally referred to as North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies).
You can learn more about NAIITS at naiits.com.
Other resources related to our conversation:
Cherokee Nation
Eastern Band of Cherokee Nation United Keetoowah Band
The Cherokees and Christianity, 1794-1870: Essays on Acculturation and Cultural Persistence, by William G. McLoughlin
Journeying into Cherokee: Help and Encouragement for Learning the Cherokee Language, by Mary Rae and Ed Fields
Rescuing the Gospel from the Cowboys: A Native American Expression of the Jesus Way, by Richard Twiss
Native American Contextual Ministry: Making the Transition, by Casey Church (author), Ray Martell (editor), Sue Martell (editor)
Monuments to Absence: Cherokee Removal and the Contest over Southern Memory, by Andrew Denson
First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project.
My guest for this episode is the Reverend Dr. Jonathan C. Augustine. But that is the name that appears on his books. In his personal relationships, Dr. Augustine goes by Jay.
Dr. Augustine serves as senior pastor of St. Joseph AME Church, in Durham, NC, and as general chaplain of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. He is an accomplished author, respected academic leader, and nationally recognized social justice advocate who speaks for the equality of all human beings. Prior to Dr. Augustine’s current pastoral service, he led Historic St. James AME Church (1844), in downtown New Orleans, the oldest predominantly black, Protestant congregation in the Deep South, while simultaneously teaching at Southern University Law Center. He recently served as a visiting professor at North Carolina Central University Law School and as a consulting faculty member at Duke University Divinity School, where he is also a member of the Board of Visitors and a missional strategist with the Center for Reconciliation.
After graduating from Howard University, with a degree in economics, Augustine served as a decorated infantry officer in the United States Army. He earned his law degree at Tulane University and served as a law clerk to Chief Justice (then-Associate) Bernette Joshua Johnson, at the Louisiana Supreme Court, before practicing law and serving in both publicly elected and appointed offices in Louisiana. After accepting the call to ordained ministry, he earned his Master of Divinity degree, at United Theological Seminary, as a Beane Fellow and National Rainbow-PUSH Coalition Scholar, before completing a fellowship at Princeton Theological Seminary, and earning his Doctor of Ministry at Duke University.
In addition to numerous articles published in law reviews, Dr. Augustine is the author of three books that can be found on Amazon: The Keys Are Being Passed: Race, Law, Religion and the Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement , Called to Reconciliation: How the Church Can Model Justice, Diversity, and Inclusion , and his most recent work, When Prophets Preach: Leadership and the Politics of the Pulpit .
In this episode Dr. Augustine and I will be discussing Called to Reconciliation.
You can learn more about Dr. Augustine from his website:
https://www.jayaugustine.com/ The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project.
My guest for this episode is Jim Jinkins. Jim is a progressive Christian who is an American animator, cartoonist, and children’s book author. He is most notably known for his animated character, Doug. Jim is here to tell us the story of his career and work in creating and producing children’s educational animation series and writing children’s books and to talk about how he has integrated his work and his faith.
You can learn more about Jim from his Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Jinkins
His IMDB page:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0423132/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
Searching him on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=jim+jinkins&crid=QA49K336B5O9&sprefix=jim+jenkins%2Caps%2C116&ref=nb_sb_noss_1
Doing a Google search:
https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tTP1TcwTc8uLDNg9OLOysxVyMrMy87MKwYAWrUH2Q&q=jim+jinkins&oq=jim+jinkins&aqs=chrome.1.0i355i512j46i512j0i512l3j69i60j69i61l2.11399j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
And his Doug Fandom page:
https://doug.fandom.com/wiki/Doug_Wiki
The two music clips used during this interview come from Doug theme music and are used with Jim’s permission.
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
My guest for this episode is Robin Russell Gaiser. Robin is a Certified Music Practitioner who, for over sixteen years, offered live acoustic bedside music to the critically and chronically ill, elderly, and dying in hospitals, hospices, rehabs, and nursing and private homes. She gives us in-depth insight into her experiences in her wonderful book, Musical Morphine: Transforming Pain One Note at a Time which won a Best American Book award in 2017 and was the subject of a TEDx Talk in 2018.
As a Christian, Robin has understood her work as a ministry and has been shaped and guided by Hildegard of Bingen’s insight that “All music is an adornment of God. Sound is our true abode…all things are formed in sound.”
Robin is also the author of Open for Lunch which was the subject of an hour-long National Public Radio (NPR) interview.
You can learn more about Robin, her books, and interviews at her website:
robingaiser.com
Robin is here to help us understand the nature of the work of a Certified Music Practitioner, and to share with us some of how it is done.
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
My guest for this episode is Mark Yaconelli.
Mark Yaconelli is a writer, retreat leader, community builder, spiritual director, storycatcher, husband, and father. He is the founder and executive director of The Hearth. Previously, he co-founded and served as program director for the Center for Engaged Compassion where he helped develop a unique set of practices and training programs for assisting individuals, organizations, and communities in cultivating compassion.
He is the author of six books including Between the Listening and the Telling: How Stories Can Save Us (Broadleaf, 2022), which is the primary basis for this interview, The Gift of Hard Things (IVP 2016), Wonder, Fear, and Longing (Zondervan 2009). Interviews and profiles of Mark Yaconelli’s work have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, BBC News, ABC World News Tonight, The Washington Post Online.
Mark holds an MA from the Graduate Theological Union and a Graduate Diploma in the Art of Spiritual Direction from San Francisco Theological Seminary.
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
In this episode my guest, Adam Tice, share with us two of his hymns and talks with us about his work.
Adam was named a Lovelace Scholar by the Hymn Society of the United States and Canada. He served as a member of the Society’s executive committee from 2007 to 2010. He was Associate Pastor of Hyattsville (Maryland) Mennonite Church from 2007 to 2012. Adam now lives with his family in Goshen, Indiana. He is text editor for the 2020 Mennonite hymnal, Voices Together. In early 2020 he joined GIA as Editor for Congregational Song. Adam also leads workshops in writing congregational song, currents in congregational song and a cappella congregational song.
You can learn more about Adam and contact him at:
giamusic.com/store/artists/adam-tice
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
One of the things I have recently learned it that there isn’t just capitalism and socialism, but different kinds of capitalism and different kinds of socialism. In addition, there are alternatives to both of these approaches to economics, like ecological or steady state economics. Some forms of capitalism work better that others. Some forms of socialism work better that others.
What is clear, is that the ways we have done and are continuing to do capitalism in the United States has significant problems. So there are innovative experimentations happening in this country to provide alternative capitalisms. Among those are innovators exploring local economics and economies. Two of those innovators are Stephanie Swepson Twitty and Kevin Jones.
Stephanie is President and CEO of Eagle Market Streets Development Corporation. Eagle Market Streets is headquartered in the “oldest thriving African-American Commercial Business District in the country” in downtown Asheville, North Carolina. Stephanie is a 20+ year veteran in the Not-for-Profit Industry. She is an economic development specialist, focusing on small business development asset building and wealth creation.
Kevin, and his wife, Rosa Lee Harden, are serial entrepreneurs. Together they founded Social Capital Markets, SOCAP, and began Neighborhood Economics. Kevin has seven successful startups and turnarounds and is a co-leader of the Swannanoa Watershed doughnuteconomics.org social action team in partnership with the Hendersonville, North Carolina based Latino Coop, Tierra Fertil.
They are here to help us understand both what they each are doing individually and what they are doing together collaboratively.
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
Hospice care and palliative care are closely related and sometimes overlapping, but both of these areas of medical care still greatly misunderstood. This episode focuses on hospice care. For a better understanding of this important and vital ministry and form of care I turn to the Reverends Leah Brown, Kelly Belcher, and Jody Griffin.
Leah Brown is Associate Pastor, Pastoral Care at First Baptist Church, Asheville, North Carolina. She joined the FBCA staff in 2008 and was ordained in 2010. She coordinates and provides pastoral care for the congregation. Leah graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from UNC-Asheville. She received her Master of Social Work from UNC-Chapel Hill and is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. Her clinical focus is aging and end-of-life care. Leah worked as a hospice social worker at CarePartners Hospice and Palliative Care from 1994-2007.
Kelly Belcher is a graduate of Meredith College and Southeastern Seminary. She has ministered in churches in NC and SC, and served as a writer for a Baptist news journal and has served as a hospice chaplain for the past 10 years.
Jody was a United States Army Reserve Chaplain with the 167TH Military Police Battalion and a Retired North Carolina Army National Guard Chaplain serving in United States Army and Navy confinement facilities. From 2016-2022 he was a community funded chaplain at Avery-Mitchell Correctional Institution. He is currently the pastor of Central Baptist Church, Spruce Pine, North Carolina and chaplain at Medi Hospice, Boone, North Carolina.
In this episode, my guest, Dr. Caroline Knox, helps us understand palliative care as a developing area in medical care.
Dr. Knox is a graduate of Wesleyan University and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She trained in Family Medicine at St. Mary’s Family Medicine Residency in Grand Junction, CO. She was a general practitioner in New Zealand before pursuing further training in Palliative Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. Dr. Knox has practiced palliative medicine at Mission Hospital since moving to Asheville with her family in 2014.
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
I had interviewed Stephen and Rachel Mosley as a part of the Foundling House Interview (PGE 33) and wanted to do a full episode on their music.
Rachel and Stephen Mosley met in a freshman year high school geography class sometime late last century. Married for twenty years, they’ve just recently begun to write and perform their own earthy, soft brand of folk, and to share it beyond their own front porch. Their music is heavily influenced by whatever they’re reading – Flannery O’Connor, Wendell Berry, and G.K. Chesterton are favorites – as well by their five wild and unruly red-headed children. You can learn more about Stephen and Rachel at themosleysmusic.com. The songs heard on this episode, ‘It’ll All Work Out,’ ‘Brighter Days,’ ‘Quiet on the Porch,’ and ‘Running Out the Road,’ come from their album, Ordinary Time and are used by permission.
Rachel, Inspired by her artistic, book-loving family, discovered her love of children’s illustration and was delighted to find that she has a real knack for it. She uses a combination of hand drawing and digital illustration in her work, and loves to experiment with new and unique printing processes. As the proud mom of five little citizens of the world, her work is particularly inspired by travel, nature and classic children’s literature. You can learn more about Rachel’s work at rachelmosley.com.
The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come’ which is found on The Porter’s Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.
A native of Nottingham, England, Dr. Darren J. N. Middleton received his Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies from the University of Manchester, his Master of Philosophy in Modern Christian Doctrine from the University of Oxford, and his Ph.D. in Literature and Theology from the University of Glasgow. After teaching five years at Rhodes College and a 24 year tenure at Texas Christian University, Dr. Middleton is now Professor of Literature and Theology at and Director of Baylor University’s Baylor Interdisciplinary Core (BIC). He is here to share with us some of the range of his work, but especially to talk about his most recent book, The Writer and the Cross: Interviews with Authors of Christian Historical Fiction. Darren is author or editor of a dozen books, and over 50 articles and book chapters, addressing such varied subjects as Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis, Japanese author Shusaku Endo, English novelist Graham Greene, and American writer Cormac McCarthy, along with studies of the Rastafari, an interest growing out of childhood friendship with Jamaican immigrants to his hometown.
Among Darren books are Theology After Reading: Christian Imagination and the Power of Fiction, Novel Theology: Nikos Kazantzakis's Encounter with Whiteheadian Process Theism, Rastafari and the Arts: An Introduction, and Mother Tongue Theologies: Poets, Novelists, Non-Western Christianity. The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project.
This episode is the second interview with and about Christians in social work. The last episode focused upon the practitioners perspective. This episode focuses on the academic perspective. I am honored to have as my guests for this conversation Dr. Tanya Smith Brice, Dr. Jon E. Singletary, and Dr. Laine Scales.
Tanya is Vice President of Education at the Council on Social Work Education. Previously, she served as the Dean of the College of Professional Studies at Bowie State University and the Dean of the School of (Education) Health and Human Services at Benedict College. She has served on the faculties of the University of South Carolina, Abilene Christian University, and Baylor University. Her research centers on addressing issues of structural violence specifically as it relates to the impact of those structures on African American people. Her publications focus on the development of the social welfare system by African American women for African American children and documents structural barriers to African American families. She provides consultation to community organizations, religious institutions, and educational institutions on the impact of their policies on African American families. She has taught and lectured all over the USA, as well as in the countries of Ghana, Sweden, Uganda, Colombia and the Republic of Moldova.
Jon was appointed dean of the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work in 2016 after having served as Associate Dean since 2011. He has held the Diana R. Garland Endowed Chair in Child and Family Studies in the School since 2010 and first joined the faculty in 2003. Jon directed the Baylor Center for Family and Community Ministries. In the Center, he helped lead $2 million of grant-related activities focused on studying congregational ministries that serve low-income communities. His scholarship has focused on a range of Christian ministries, including family-based care for orphans and vulnerable children in Sub-Saharan Africa. More recently, his research has focused on Christian contemplative practices and the Enneagram as a tool for spiritual formation. Related to that research, Jon is the author of Leadership by the Number: Using the Enneagram to Strengthen Educational Leadership. Before coming to Baylor, he served as a Mennonite Pastor and a community organizer in Richmond, VA.
Laine is Professor and PhD Program Co-Director for the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work. She completed 15 years as Associate Dean in Baylor’s Graduate School from 2004-2019. Her scholarly work led to her appointment as co-director of Baptist Scholars International Roundtable (BSIR). Laine is the author of Doing the Word: Southern Baptists’ Carver School of Church Social and its Predecessors, 1907-1997 (UT Press) and co-author/co-editor of several works, including the 6th Edition of Christianity and Social Work: Readings in the Integration of Christian Faith and Social Work Practice, and Christian Faith and University Life: Stewards of the Academy. Her research interests include doctoral education, history of Baptist women in social work and missions, and rural social work. Laine's research on historical settlement houses led her to establish Good Neighbor Settlement House in Waco Texas, a social innovation experiment in nurturing community through an intergenerational experience of the arts, music, education, recreation, and worship. The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project.
The teaching of Jewish and Christian scripture, and for Christians, particularly the example and teachings of Jesus, Paul, and the first writers of Christian scripture have emphasized the mandate to care for people. Some of the roots of the caring efforts of social work are in the Jewish/Christian tradition. There is much parallel and overlap between social work and Judaism and Christianity. Some of Christianity's most important and effective ministries are done by Christians in social work.
This episode and the next seeks to give us a better understanding of social work and its relationship with Christianity. We will explore this relationship from two perspectives--that of practitioners and that of scholars. The engagement in scholarship and in practice really is not separated in my guests. They each participate in both areas, but for conversational purposes, we make the distinction.
This episode focuses on the practitioners. My guest are Dr. Rick Chamiec-Case, Lauren 'Lo' Reliford, and Dr. Lloyd Gestoso.
Rick is currently a self-employed faith-based nonprofit consultant. Before becoming self-employed, from 1988-1998 Rick was Director of Services and then Senior Vice President of Always Reaching for Independence. From 2006-2008 he was Assistant Professor of Social Work at Calvin College. And, from 1997-2021 Rick was Executive Director of North American Association of Christians in Social Work.
Lauren 'Lo' is the Political Director for Sojourners. Prior to coming to Sojourners, with over ten years of research, policy, advocacy, and government relations, Lo worked in domestic and international public health advocacy for a number of large nonprofit organizations. At Sojourners, Lo is responsible for developing and implementing Sojourners’ policy strategy, positioning, framing, messaging, and advocacy for outreach and impact on Capitol Hill and the presidential administration.
Lloyd has served in contexts dealing with child welfare and those living with opioid addiction and HIV/AIDS. He served in several hospitals and was the director of social services of a front-line AIDS housing/hospice serving the neediest people dying of AIDS in the Philadelphia region. Lloyd then transitioned to teaching undergraduate social work students leading a Department of Social Work which later became a School of Social Work with the addition of a Master of Social Work Program. After 23 years of academic life, Lloyd was appointed as the current Executive Director of the North American Association of Christians in Social Work. The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project.
In this episode I have a conversation with those who are or have been prison chaplains. They get us started into understanding the nature and experience of the prison and ministry within that context. My guests are the Reverends Carol Sasser Dalton, Nancy Hastings Sehested, and Jody Griffin.
For the past fifteen years, Carol has been and continues to be chaplain at Western (formerly Swannano) Correctional Center for Women in Swannanoa, North Carolina. Although she works within the prison system, she is employed by the nonprofit Ministry of Hope. In addition to work in the prison, Carol has also done chaplaincy work at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina and Rutherford County Hospital in North Carolina working with patients experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, other mental health issues, substance abuse, and end-of-life issues.
Nancy is a retired pastor and prison chaplain. She served as a state prison chaplain in North Carolina for over a decade. Her chaplaincy included serving in minimum, medium and maximum security prisons for men. She was at Avery-Mitchell Correctional from 2000-2003. She was at the minimum and maximum security prisons at Marion Correctional from 2003-2013. She wrote a book about her experiences in Marked for Life: A Prison Chaplain’s Story.
Jody was a United States Army Reserve Chaplain with the 167TH Military Police Battalion and a Retired North Carolina Army National Guard Chaplain serving in United States Army and Navy confinement facilities. From 2016-2022 he was a community funded chaplain at Avery-Mitchell Correctional Institution. He is currently the pastor of Central Baptist Church, Spruce Pine, North Carolina and chaplain at Medi Hospice, Boone, North Carolina. The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project.
My guest for this episode is Lumbee author, poet, librarian, and American Indian activist Dana Lynell Lowery. Dana is the author of Poems and Hollers from a Candy Apple Indian, Strong Like Rhoda: Exploring Female Power in the Lumbee Tribe, and Lumbee Herstory. You can learn more about Dana from her website:
https://candyappleindian.com The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project.
This episode is a continuation of my efforts to make you aware of issues relating to religious freedom and to the work of the BJC. I welcome back Jennifer Hawks. The cases Jennifer discusses are Ramirez vs Collier, Shurtleff vs Boston, Carson vs Makin, and Kennedy vs Bremerton. She also continues to discuss the BJC's efforts in addressing Christian Nationalism. Jennifer speaks on the BJC's report on the relationship between Christian Nationalism and the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Lastly, Jennifer discusses the efforts to get Congress to pass a bill relating to the preservation of Oak Flats.
To learn more about the efforts to address Christian Nationalism, you can also go to the website: Christians Against Christian Nationalism.
Jennifer is the associate general counsel at BJC. She provides legal analysis on church-state issues that arise before Congress, the courts and administrative agencies. She also assists in education efforts and responds to pastors and other constituents who have questions about church-state matters. The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project.
My guest for this episode is Don Mosley. Don has had and continues to have an amazing and vital ministry as a peacebuilder and care giver that has made the world a better place because it has made Christians and the Church more Christ-like because of the models he, his wife, Carolyn, and those with him have provided for living faithfully as followers of our Lord Jesus Christ and as citizens of God's kingdom.
Although not the founder, Don has had integral involvement and leadership in the development of Habitat for Humanity. He and his wife are among the cofounders of Jubilee Partners which is a ministry focused largely on refugees. Don is the author of With Our Own Eyes and Faith Beyond Borders.
Don is here to tell us his story and to give us an update on Jubilee Partners. The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project.
My continuing interest in making you aware, my dear listeners, of alternatives to the growth economies of various free market capitalisms and state socialisms/communisms, I have focused to this point on Ecological or Steady State economics. In this episode I branch out and introduce you to the numerous efforts being called the solidarity economy. To do this, I have as my guest, Dr. Elias Crim. Dr. Crim provides a broad and general overview of many of the concepts and practices involved with this emerging economy. Hopefully, future episodes will look more in depth at specific approaches.
Dr. Crim earned his undergraduate degree from The University of Texas at Austin and his Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley. Elias is a founder of Solidarity Hall, a group blog which focuses on alternative economics, the co-host with Pete Davis of the podcast, Dorothy's Place, named in memory and honor of Catholic political activist, Dorothy Day, and founding editor of Ownership Matters, a newsletter that focuses on the emerging landscape around impact investing, racial equity, and the solidarity economy. The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project.
My guest for this episode is Dr. Mischa Willett.
Dr. Willett is the author of two critically-acclaimed books of poetry: The Elegy Beta and Phases, and is editor of Philip James Bailey’s epic Festus. He teaches in the English Department at Seattle Pacific University and in its MFA program in Creative Writing. He is a specialist in British Literature of the Nineteenth-Century, particularly the poetry of writers such as William Wordsworth, Percy Shelley, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, though he often teaches Shakespeare and the History of Drama as well. Recently, his interest in the aesthetic movements of the period has caused him to engage the curious school of poets known as the “Spasmodics.”
As a Christian, scholar, and poet/artist, Mischa is here to share with us his poetry, his insights, and how he understands the integration of his faith, work, and art. The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project.
In this episode Meta Commerse returns as my guest to discuss her fifth book, her memoir, Womaning.
Meta Commerse is a Blues Doula. A former professor of History and English, she’s an award-winning author. Among her works are short stories, essays, poetry, numerous newspaper articles, one stage play, her story medicine novel, “The Mending Time,” and now her memoir, with more to come. She earned her MFA degree at Goddard College in Vermont. Meta is a social entrepreneur, creator of Story Medicine Worldwide, a community-based healing movement. She is a performing artist, singing jazz, blues, and gospel music. She is the mother of three adult children and grandmother to three young adult grandsons.
The link to purchasing her book is here:
https://www.storymedicineworldwide.com/shop/ The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project.
In this episode I interview Bob Ekblad about the work he and his wife, Gracie, have been and are doing and we talk about some of his books.
Bob and Gracie Ekblad are founders and co-directors of Tierra Nueva (New Earth) in Burlington, Washington. Together they minister at Tierra Nueva and at their home-based retreat center New Earth Refuge in the Skagit Valley. As Directors of Tierra Nueva, Bob and Gracie work together with a team of staff and volunteers to serve immigrants from Latin America, inmates, homeless people and people struggling with addictions. In addition to Tierra Nueva, they founded and direct The People's Seminary which is Tierra Nueva’s ministry training center for pastors, theology students and lay people.
Among Bob's books, the ones we discuss in this interview are Reading the Bible with the Damned, A New Christian Manifesto: Pledging Allegiance to the Kingdom of God, Guerrilla Gospel: Reading the Bible for Liberation in the Power of the Spirit, and The Beautiful Gate: Enter Jesus' Liberation Movement.
Bob and Gracie are both ordained in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project.
In this episode, I welcome back Janna Barber to discuss her book, Hidden in Shadow: Tales of Grief, Lamentations, and Faith, and to have her read and discuss more of her poems. Janna was a guest when in interview participants in Foundling House back in Episode 33.
Janna Barber is a teller of stories, a writer of poems, and a lifelong member of the tribe of humanity. The grown-up daughter of a Baptist preacher and his Southern Belle wife, she’s now married to a pastor and living with two of their three kids in Knoxville, Tennessee. She is the author of Hidden in Shadow: Tales of Grief, Lamentation and Faith as well as Invisible Hope: Poetry for Ragamuffins. You can connect with her on Facebook and Instagram. The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project.
Western approaches to knowledge have been called into question due to the legacies of European colonialism and white supremacy and Western conceptions of reality and the universe have been transformed by the advent or relativity and quantum physics. These challenges have influenced not only Western science in general, but Western medicine in particular. The revealed limits of Western medicine have resulted in indigenous and Eastern alternatives, once dismissed and marginalized, being given new consideration. Consequently there has been a significant growth in the practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). But with the increase in these practices as options, has also come questions related to ethics.
My guest for this episode is Dr. Janette Engelbrecht. She is here to explain to us more fully about the nature of Traditional Chines Medicine and Complementary and Alternative Medicine, why she has chosen to be a practitioner of this medicines, why these options are growing in popularity, and to discuss with us some of the ethical issues related to practice of TCM and CAM.
Dr. Janette Engelbrecht, LA.c., Dipl.OM, is proud to offer Chinese Medicine services with an integrative approach. Her focus is on helping others to embody a healthy lifestyle in an effort to keep dis-ease and imbalance at bay. The treatments she offers range from a symptomatic style for things like pain or allergies, to a systemic/holistic style for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of internal diseases. Janette graduated from Daoist Traditions College of Chinese Medical Arts in May 2019 with dual Masters and Doctorate degrees. The lineage of Chinese medicine she studies is from a profoundly spiritual perspective rooted in Daoism, and it is from this Body-Mind-Spirit Daoist philosophy that Dr. Engelbrecht’s treatment plans are informed.
Dr. Engelbrecht has a strong background in Western cancer care and specializes in oncology. She has proven effectiveness in helping patients to manage the side and after effects of conventional cancer care including, but not limited to: pain, neuropathy, nausea and vomiting, insomnia, restlessness, anxiety, depression, agitation, dry mouth, etc.
In addition to oncology and pain, Janette focuses on digestion, nutrition, stress, sleep, women’s health & fertility, palliative care, and hospice care. The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project.
In my mind, there are two major atrocities at the historical roots of our nation that created legacies with which we are still dealing to this day. One was the enslavement of African peoples and, after slavery was brought to an end, the subsequent segregation and continued oppression of black people through the Jim Crow laws. The other was the displacement, genocide, and forced assimilation of the Americas's indigenous peoples--the Native American/American Indian peoples.
A good deal of justifiable attention has been given to understanding and addressing racism directed toward black Americans. Not enough attention has been given to understanding and addressing racism directed at American Indians/Native Americans/Indigenous peoples. In order to take my own steps at correction of my own behavior, I am delighted to welcome as my guest for this episode Lena Epps Brooker. Lena is a Lumbee/High Plains (Sappony)/Cherokee who has written an important memoir of her school years during the time of Jim Crow in the South, titled Hot Dogs on the Road: An American Indian Girls's on Growing Up Brown in a Black and Whiter World.
Lena's immediate family was her father, Frank Howard Epps, her mother, Grace Smith Epps and her two younger brothers, Franklin and Cameron Epps. She grew up on the grounds of the Magnolia School in the Saddletree Community of Robeson County, North Carolina. Her father was the principal of the school and her mother was supervisor of Indian Schools for the Robeson County Board of Education.
In 1962, Lena was the first American Indian and person of color to graduate from Meredith College, an all-women's Baptist college in Raleigh, North Carolina. Of the things Lena has done in her career, she was an elementary school teacher in Charlotte, served in administrative positions with NC State government, including the NC Commission of Indian Affairs, diversity and community relations director for The Women’s Center in Raleigh, and diversity management consultant for corporate headquarters of a multi-state bank in Raleigh. As a volunteer was a certified lay minister with the Western NC Conference of the United Methodist Church serving Weaverville United Methodist Church. In her 25+ years of living in Raleigh, Lena was active in community affairs including serving on the City of Raleigh Human Relations Commission, the Raleigh-Wake County Arts Council, Triangle Native American Society, NC ACLU Board of Directors, the NC Council on the Status of Women. Lena's late husband of 53 years was Jim Brooker with whom she had two daughters, Lora Brooker and Lindsey Brooks.
In this episode, in giving us guidance in things we can do to help make changes, Lena especially advises reading books written by her peoples. Among those include the following:
The Only Land I Know: A History of the Lumbee Indians, by Adolph L. Dial and David Eliades
Lumbee Indians in the Jim Crow South: Race, Identity, and the Making of a Nation, and The Lumbee Indians: An American Struggle, by Malinda Maynor Lowery
Strong Like Rhonda: Exploring Female Power in the Lumbee Tribe, and Poems and Hollers from a Candy Apple Indian, by Dana Lowery Ramseur
Upon Her Shoulders: Southeastern Native Women Share Their Stories of Justice, Spirit, and Community, by Mary Ann Jacobs, Cherry Maynor Beasley, and Ulrike Wiehaus The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project.
My understanding is that in order to understand Critical Race Theory accurately one should begin with the seminal work, Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement, authored and edited by Kimberlé Crenshaw, Neil Gotanda, Gary Peller, and Kendall Thomas.
Especially since June of 2021, the political and Christian Right has chosen to target Critical Race Theory as harmful to the democracy and culture of the United States. Over 22 states have passed or are considering passing laws that prohibit the teaching of Critical Race Theory.
Based on what I have read from the 'The Key Writings' book and what I have heard or read about Critical Race Theory from the political and Christian Right, it is my conclusion that what is being presented by the political and Christian Right is some mixture, depending upon whose perspective is being presented, of being uniformed, misinformed, simply wrong, and often intentionally maliciously deceiving.
In order to help provide some fuller, deeper, and more accurate understanding and to help correct what is being presented from the political and Christian Right, Professor Kendall Thomas, one of the co-authors and co-editors of 'The Key Writings,' has graciously agreed to be my guest for this episode. Professor Thomas is the Nash Professor of Law at Columbia Law School. He is a scholar of comparative constitutional law and human rights whose teaching and research focus on critical race theory, legal philosophy, feminist legal theory, and law and sexuality. Professor Thomas is the co-founder and director of the Center for the Study of Law and Culture at Columbia Law School, where he leads interdisciplinary projects and programs that explore how the law operates as one of the central ways to create meaning in society. He is also a founder of Amend the 13th, a movement to amend the U.S. Constitution to end enforced prison labor. The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project.
Irie Price is a writer, blogger, and stakeholder engagement consultant interested in asking questions that lead to growth. The author of the blog, WELL, Irie believes hearing other people’s stories is a powerful way of understanding our own. That is why her work and blog explore race, culture, and wellness through the power of personal narrative. You can learn more about Irie and read her blog at her website:
https://irieprice.com/ The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project.
This episode is part of one of my ongoing series I call "Christian Music Not Played On Christian Radio." The purpose of the series is heighten awareness that although traditional Christian music may no longer be the dominant music style experienced in Christian Churches in the United States, the composition of new music in the traditional forms of hymns and anthems is thriving.
In this episode we get the pleasure of experiencing the fruit of a long and wonderful partnership between lyricist, Dr. Mary Louise, 'Mel,' Bringle and composer Sally Ann Morris. Much of their music is intended for congregational singing. They share with us a smidgen of the range of their work and give us insights into the process of their partnership. Sally Ann Morris has composed upwards of 200 hymn tunes and congregational songs, many of which are found in multiple denominational hymnals in the United States, Canada, the UK, New Zealand, and Japan. Her musical styles range from classically traditional influences to lyric melodies, jazz, folk, and pop. Sally is a Life Member of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, and, in 2021, was named a Fellow of the Society, its highest honor. She lives in Winston-Salem, NC, and is Musician in Residence at the Wake Forest University School of Divinity where she leads, enlivens, encourages, demonstrates and teaches the diverse wealth of congregational song for chapel services. Mary Louise (Mel) Bringle is a Professor of Philosophy and Religion and coordinator of interdisciplinary studies at Brevard College in Brevard, NC; she is also a ruling elder at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Hendersonville, NC. Her Ph.D. in practical and pastoral theology is from Emory University. An award-winning hymn writer whose original texts and translations appear in the hymnals of numerous denominations in North America and Scotland, she has served as President of The Hymn Society in the US and Canada and as chair of the Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Song, responsible for creating the hymnal Glory to God. In the summer of 2020, she was named a Fellow of the Hymn Society.
Mel and Sally's music played for this episode is published by GIA Publications and is used by permission. The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project.
Peacebuilding, social justice, and bridge building all overlap and interweave. My guest for this episode exemplifies the desire and quest for all three of these.
The Rabbi Dr. Joseph A. Edelheit has been a long-time activist in interfaith dialogue. He is Emeritus Professor of Religious and Jewish Studies at St. Cloud State University (St. Cloud, Minnesota) where he initiated and facilitated the transition of a Religious Studies program from a minor in the Philosophy Department to an independent college level program in the College of Liberal Arts, and worked in the surrounding communities on issues of anti-Semitism and interfaith dialogue. In addition to teaching for over 25 years in university settings, Rabbi Edelheit served over 45 in the rabbinate, serving Reform Jewish congregations in Michigan City, Chicago, and Minneapolis. He is currently volunteering in Jewish communities in Brazil.
Rabbi Edelheit served on the Clinton administration’s Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (1995-2000) and also initiated and directed a non-governmental organization, Living India, for almost a decade, providing HIV/AIDS care to orphans in India.
Rabbi Edelheit is coeditor of and contributor to Reading Scripture with Paul Ricoeur and is the author of What Am I Missing: Questions on Being Human.
Rabbi Edelheit is the 2021 University of Chicago Divinity School Alumnus of the Year. The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project.
There are folks who approach faith creatively. They use their gifted intelligence and artistry to explore the Mystery, the Divine, the Sacred, God. In doing so, they often have profound encounters. When they are gracious to share with us their experiences and learnings they provide us with resources for our own journeys that enable us to understand and experience the Holy more deeply and fully. They provide insights, guidance, and wisdom that equip and empower us. One such explorer is my guest for this episode, The Reverend Dr. John R. Mabry.
John is an author, songwriter, spiritual director, and seminary professor. A retired United Church of Christ minister, John served as pastor at Grace North Church in Berkeley for 27 years. His 35 books include, on the academic and non-fiction side, spirituality, spiritual direction, and theology, and, on the fiction side, science fiction and fantasy. John is the vocalist for two progressive rock bands—Mind Future, and Metaphor—but has also just released his first solo album, the folk-influenced "I Want To Be Changed."
The two songs John shares with us, "Come on In", and "The Harlot at the Side of the Road" come from that solo album and are used by permission.
You can learn more about John and have access both to his music and books from his website.
johnrmabry.com The music for the intro and outro of this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
My guest for this episode is David LaMotte. David is an internationally know musician, speaker, writer, and peacebuilder. The best access to all that David has done and is doing--his twelve cds, his three books, the store, videos of his speaking engagements and performances, his calendar and touring information, and the means of contacting his--is his website:
https://www.davidlamotte.com/
Fuller bio information about David is here:
https://www.davidlamotte.com/about/
Two of the projects we discuss in the interview that David is involved in and helped create are his Let's Be Neighbors project and the musical group Abraham Jam, which is a Muslim, Jewish, and Christian trio of musicians performing together seeking to build peace and bridges across conflict.
The website for Let's Be Neighbors is here:
https://www.letsbeneighbors.org/
The website for Abraham Jam is here:
https://abrahamjam.com/
David has been so kind and gracious as to let me debut the song, Coming Alive, from his soon to be released thirteenth cd/album, Still. That and the Abraham Jam song, Braided Prayer, which is from the album White Moon, are used with permission. The music for the intro and outro for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is also used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
When folks think about ethics common thoughts relate either to decisions about daily behaviors or to university philosophy or theology departments developing and discussion the merits of various ethical theories. There are organizations where the daily activity so regularly bears on ethical situations that they employ ethicists to help the organization navigate decisions that must be made regarding ethically infused contexts. One such type of organization is the hospital and one such context is medicine and medical ethics.
My guest today is The Reverend Mary Caldwell. Reverend Caldwell was a chaplain and clinical ethicist for thirty years at Mission Health in Asheville, North Carolina and is here to help us understand the work of a medical ethicist.
Mary earned her Bachelor of Arts in religion from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, her Master of Divinity from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and her Master of Arts in philosophy with a concentration in medical ethics from The University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
Mary has provided the following links to equip us with end-of-life planning.
https://www.planningmyway.org/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAmKiQBhClARIsAKtSj-nDwhKJaZvgvdEXMwKfY_9aLS_FRMpgKZSWQNCU1yc8xtWWWNT96hIaAlWVEALw_wcB
https://compassionandchoices.org/end-of-life-planning/
https://www.cdc.gov/aging/pdf/acp-resources-public.pdf
The last option is the one Mary recommends if you only choose to read one. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
In this episode, Dr. John Pierce explains the Jesus Worldview Initiative and offers it as an alternative to the 'Biblical worldview' as defined by Conservative evangelicals. In doing so, John is enabling those participants in the Jesus Worldview Initiative to provide a counter-voice to a position that is compatible with the growth of Christian nationalism, and to provide another means of being a passionate and faithful Christian.
Dr. Pierce is Executive Editor/Publisher for Good Faith Media — formed in 2020 by combining the resources of two nonprofits, Nurturing Faith and EthicsDaily. In this role he continues to serve as editor of the national publication, Nurturing Faith Journal, a position he assumed in 2000. Previously he was managing editor of The Christian Index and, earlier, Baptist campus minister at Kennesaw State University and then Georgia Tech. Frequently, he speaks in churches and consults with congregations concerning communication strategies. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
The election of Donald Trump was surprising, but, once people began to explain why they voted the way the did, it became understandable. What hasn't been understandable, however, is the subsequent devotion to him by white evangelicals. His past and continuing lifestyle is so at odds with the things white evangelicals have publicly professed to value. This devotion seems different from the type of hero status given to President Reagan or the support given to any incumbent Republican president considered the most likely to advance the Christian Republican religious and political agenda. The devotion being expressed goes beyond these, seemingly to elevate Trump to the status of God's chosen and thus an almost Messianic position.
My guest today, Dr. Dan Stiver, believes this devotion to Trump by white evangelicals is, in part, rooted in their approach to understanding and interpreting the Bible. Dan helps us understand this white evangelical hermeneutic and then offers us an alternative and a way forward drawing from the insights of Christian philosopher Paul Ricoeur.
Dr. Stiver came to Logsdon Seminary of Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, in 1998 from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he taught Christian philosophy for 14 years. His books include The Philosophy of Religious Language: Sign, Symbol, and Story (1996) Theology after Ricoeur: New Directions in Hermeneutical Theology (2001), Life Together in the Way of Jesus Christ: An Introduction to Christian Theology (2009), and Ricoeur and Theology (2012). He has served as pastor in Missouri and Indiana and as chair of the board for the non-profit organization Just People. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
One of the most important lessons I have learned from Meta Commerse is the importance of white people telling their own race story. A significant part of the problem with our ability as white people to fulfill that task is due to the truth that because we are so conditioned by our white-dominated culture, we both don't tend to think about ourselves as having a race story and don't know how to go about telling our own race story. Gentle and wise guides like Meta have been helping us white folks learn to do that for over 25 years, but the burden needs to shift. We as white people need to take more responsibility in recognizing that we all and each have a race story, in beginning to tell our own race story, and in being more active in creating change away from the white-dominated culture.
Robert P. Jones has given us a good model in his two books, The End of White Christian America, and White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity,. These books include Robert's own story, but focus more on the cultural level. They do not enable us as individuals know how to tell our own race story.
My guest for this episode has provide us with such a resource. Dr. Benjamin Boswell has developed a course that can be used in multiple contexts and by a variety of people. Ben is here to tell us is own race story and then to give us an understanding of his course, why he developed it, and how we can have access to it.
Rev. Dr. Benjamin Boswell (he/him) serves at the intersection of strategic leadership, spiritual formation, and social justice. In his professional capacity, Dr. Boswell is a preacher, pastor, author, civil rights leader, and sought after public speaker. Dr. Boswell is also a former infantry officer in the U.S. Army National Guard, a graduate of Marion Military Institute (AA), Campbell University (BA), Duke Divinity School (MDIV), and Saint Paul’s School of Theology (DMIN) where his doctoral thesis was “Identifying Whiteness: Discerning Race through Spiritual Practice in the White Dominant Church.” Dr. Boswell was born in Lynchburg, VA, grew up in Bethlehem, PA, and graduated from high school in Kannapolis, NC. Before joining the staff at MPBC, Dr. Boswell served as Senior Pastor at Greenwood Forest Baptist Church in Cary, NC. Prior to his time in Cary, Dr. Boswell was Pastor at Commonwealth Baptist Church in Alexandria, VA, and an Adjunct Professor of Political Theology and Ethics at the John Leland Center for Theological Studies. He was also the lone clergy member of the NC Commission of Inquiry on Torture; a citizen group that worked to expose North Carolina's participation in the CIA’s post-9/11 torture program. Dr. Boswell has received numerous awards and honors for his work as a pastor and civil rights leader. In 2021 he was was awarded the prestigious Martin Luther King Jr. Medallion, which is the city’s highest honor given to a person who promotes racial equality, social justice, and community service. In addition to his pastoral responsibilities, Dr. Boswell facilitates spiritual formation anti-racism trainings called, “What Does It Mean to Be White?” and he is the author of the forthcoming book Confronting Whiteness to be published by Upper Room in July of 2022.
You can learn more about and have access Ben's course from the two websites: brownicity.com, and myerspartbaptist.org. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
Mohandas (know by the honorific, 'Mahatma,' meaning 'great-souled') Gandhi is one of humanity's great figures in making the world better. His lifestyle and teachings of nonviolence and his leadership in non-violent resistance has brought great change, especially in India. Many have followed Gandhi's methods--The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the United States being a significant example--so that his influence is global.
What is not as well know is that Gandhi's children and their families and his grandchildren and their families have continued his work and carried it forward. One of those grandchildren is my guest for this episode, Arun Gandhi. Arun, as he prefers to be called, is the fifth grandson of Mahatma Gandhi through his second son Manilal.
There are two things for me that seem to characterize Arun's life. The first is drawn from a story Arun tells about advice he learned from his mother, Sushila. In helping to teach her children how to deal with being a close relative of Gandhi and his legacy, Arun's mother advised all of her children by saying, "There are two ways of dealing with it. You can either choose to be overwhelmed and live in Grandfather's shadow, or you can use the glow of his light to illuminate your path (Legacy of Love, p.11)." Arun has allowed the glow of his grandfather's light to illuminate his path.
The second thing is drawn from Gandhi's often expressed conviction to be the change one wishes to see in the world. In living out this teaching, among the many things Arun and his wife, Sunanda, have done, they rescued over 125 orphan children from the streets and placed them in loving homes around the world and began a Center for Social Change, which transformed the lives of millions in villages in the western state of Maharashtra. Together, Arun and Sunanda started projects for the social and economic uplifting of the oppressed using constructive programs, the backbone of Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence.The programs changed the lives of more than half a million people in over 300 villages and they still continue to grow. In 1987 Sunanda and Arun came to the US and in 1991 they started the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence. In the time Arun was associated with the Institute, he took the message of nonviolence and peace to hundreds of thousands of high school and University youth around the US and much of the Western World. After his wife died in 2007, Arun founded the Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute in 2008, headquartered in a suburb outside of Chicago, ILL. The Institute was founded to promote community building in economically depressed areas of the world through the joining of Gandhian philosophy and vocational education for children and their parents. In November 2013, Arun was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Council for a Parliament of the World Religions.
Arun has written numerous books. Among them are Legacy of Love: My Education in the Path of Nonviolence, The Gift of Anger: And Other Lessons from My Grandfather Mahatma Gandhi, Kasturba: A Life, and two children's books, Grandfather Gandhi, and Be the Change: A Grandfather Gandhi Story. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
My guest for this episode is novelist Jeanine Joyner. If you have been listening to podcast, you may remember Jeanine from my interview with the folks of Foundling House in episode 33.
Christians who are artists understand the relationship between their art and their faith in different ways and perceive the purpose of their art in different ways. Exploring this relationship between a particular Christian's art and that Christian's faith is a significant part of my interest in interviewing the Christians who are artists that I do.
Jeanine's novel is Paper Dolls: Trust Your Instincts. I chose Jeanine's book not just as a specific example of how Jeanine understands the relationship between her faith and her art, but also because of the subject matter of the book. To talk about that subject matter requires a fundamental spoiler, but Jeanine is more concerned about discussing the topic than preventing spoiler.
Paper Dolls is about the sexual trafficing and prostituting of children. It is an open and hard look at a terrible reality. Consequently, as different art forms have always done, Paper Dolls is a means of raising awareness and providing options and incentive for action. Thanks to Theodore Roosevelt's reading of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, the food we eat is safe and more healthy, due to government oversight and protection. Art can create change. Hopefully your reading of Jeanine's Paper Dolls will do just that! Jeanine is a native Texan transplanted into Middle Tennessee. A mother of five, she somehow carved out the time to write her debut novel Paper Dolls: Trust Your Instincts between homeschooling and hosting house concerts. She now lives in a home surrounded by rolling hills and farmlands, appropriately named Arundelle Green, after a character who captured her imagination in the Andrew Peterson book, The Warden and the Wolf King. You can learn more about Jeanine at arundellegreen.com. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
This episode is the second in a two-part interview on decolonizing worship. My guests are again Becca Whitla, Marcell Silva Steuernagel, and Brian Hehn.
In the first episode we talked about the importance of decolonizing worship as beginning steps for Christians and churches to repent of the Church's complicity in creating, promoting, and perpetuating colonial imperialism and white male supremacy, and also as a means of helping the church regain its relevance in an age of post-Christendom. The focus was upon understanding how the legacy of colonial imperialism and white male supremacy influences what happens each Sunday morning in worship and upon specific practices that can and should occur in local congregations to change and decolonize their experience of worship.
In this episode we discuss how thinking about and practicing decolonizing worship requires broadening the focus not just on local practices and experiences but also on ecumenical, transcultural, and transnational factors. We begin to explore some of what those factors are and why those factors bear on the local congregation. As you will learn, conversations like these are just the start of the process. Many more such conversations need to be had and a great deal more experimentation and sharing of experiences will need to occur for important changes to be made that will help bring into joyful rhythm and harmony the body of Christ. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
Among the great evils of human history has been colonial imperialism and the rise of white male supremacy. The terrible legacy of these two interwoven realities still continues. Tragically and shamefully for the Church and Christianity, is that in a twisted and perverted logic that was and is a contradiction to the Gospel, the Church has played and continues to play a fundamental role in the creation, propagation, affirmation, support, and maintenance of that legacy. The Legacy permeates all aspects of Western culture and its relationships globally.
In my mind the consequence of The Legacy has contributed substantively to the marked decline in Christianity and Evangelical and Mainline denominations in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe.
For the Church to relevance and integrity it must repent by acknowledging the sinfulness and evil of The Legacy and the Church's complicity in it. But as Standing Rock Sioux Vine Deloria, Jr. persuasively made the case in his book, God Is Red: A Native View of Religion, repentance is not enough. Change must occur in the life and practices of Christians and the Church.
One of the continuing influences of The Legacy has been in its standards of what counts as good, appropriate, and acceptable. These standards apply to a broad diversity of culture in things like proper behavior and etiquette, what counts as good scholarship, good art, good music, and, for Christianity, what counts as appropriate worship.
Because worship is fundamental to who we are and what we do as Christians, one of the essential ways for the Church to repent and to change its life and practices is to decolonize its worship. What decolonizing Christianity's worship means is complicated and extensive. Conversations and experiments in change are just beginning and are in the process. There are not only issues related to local practices in congregations, but interconnected international issues as well.
To help us begin our conversation on this podcast about decolonizing worship, I am grateful to Brian Hehn of The Hymn Society , who volunteered to invite conversation partners. So, it is my honor and delight to welcome to this two-part interview, Dr. Becca Whitla and Dr. Marcell Silva Steuernagel along with welcoming back Brian.
Dr. Becca Whitla is the Professor of Pastoral Studies at St. Andrew’s College in Saskatoon where she teachers worship, preaching, and Christian Education. She worked in Toronto for many years as a music director in both Anglican and United Churches (Church of the Holy Trinity, and Trinity St Paul’s United Church). She also co-directed Echo, a 70 voice women’s choir, and worked in the trade union movement developing leadership through choral singing. Becca recently published her first book, Liberation, (De)Coloniality, and Liturgical Practices: Flipping the Song Bird (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).
Dr. Marcell Silva Steuernagel is Assistant Professor of Church Music and Director of the Master of Sacred Music Program at Southern Methodist University's Perkins School of Theology. Marcell writes at the intersection of church music, theology, musicology, and performance theory. He served as Minister of Worship, Arts, and Communication at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Curitiba, Brazil, for more than a decade and is an internationally active composer and performer. His most recent monograph is Church Music Through the Lens of Performance. Brian Hehn is Director of The Center for Congregational Song. Experienced using a variety of genres and instrumentations, he has lead worship for Baptists, Roman Catholics, United Methodists, Presbyterians, and many more across the U.S. and Canada. He received his Bachelor of Music Education from Wingate University, his Master of Sacred Music from Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, and is certified in children’s church music (K-12) by Choristers Guild. He has articles published on sacred music and congregational song in multipl...
This episode is my second interview with The Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon. As I say in my spoken introduction, Dr. Cannon is a peacebuilder, advocate, author, and speaker. She is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Covenant Church. She has two doctorates and multiple degrees in areas as diverse as history, bioethics, business, ministry. Currently she is Executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace.
In Episode 13 of this podcast I interviewed Mae on her book, Social Justice Handbook: Small Steps to a Better World. In this episode I interview her on her latest book, Beyond Hashtag Activism: Comprehensive Justice in a Complicated Age.
The reason I want you to know of Dr. Cannon's books and work is that she not only provides clear and perceptive insights into the complexity of most current social justice issues, but she also a) gives excellent resources for each issue so that anyone interested in a particular issue has a good place to start in developing an understanding of the issue, and b) gives multiple examples and suggestions for how anyone can become personally involved and engaged in a social justice issue. Mae balances the theoretical and the practical is especially helpful ways. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
Regardless of where a church is on the theological and political spectrum, all churches have always been interested in and concerned about youth. There are many reasons for this that exist at the same time and with varying degrees of intensity. As volunteer organizations, churches know that their survival depends on the continual and prolonged inclusion of new people. Churches also know that the age-range from middle school through college is when people are most receptive to the Gospel. Churches also have the desire to provide pastoral care to all within their ministries, including young people.
However, with the reality of the growing diversity and pluralism in the United States and also the increasing decline of Christianity in our nation, churches have been especially focused upon this issue of youth, because, if the statistics are accurate, it is young people who are the primary ones opting out of church.
This episode focuses upon what is going on with young people today in general and also what is going on with those young people who are Christians.
My guest is Laura Addis. Laura Addis has been involved in youth ministry since 2000 in both staff and volunteer roles. She currently serves as the Ministry Associate with Students at First Baptist Church in Asheville, North Carolina, as Director of Programs for Life in Trinity Ministry, and as a consultant for Ministry Architects. Laura has regularly written for various youth magazines, online sites, and curriculum publishers. Based upon Laura's extensive experience, we are going to lean into her insight and wisdom in understanding what is happening with young people, including Christian young people today.
The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
My guest for this episode is Dr. Thomas Bandy. Tom was part of a panel discussion on Alternative Lectionaries in PGE 21 of this podcast. At the time, Tom noted that his consideration of the usefulness of lectionaries had been modified since he published his on alternative lectionary in Introducing The Uncommon Lectionary: Opening The Bible to Seekers and Disciples. His coming to understand the significance of demographic and life-style research and adaptive ministry had created a shift in his thinking.
Tom has graciously agreed to return as a guest to help us understand the importance of these demographic and life-style research tools. Those who use these tools in businesses, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations are often called futurists because the research results enables them to understand trends.
Tom is an internationally recognized author, consultant, and leadership coach for Christian organizations and faith-based non-profits and has published over 25 books and numerous articles some of which have been translated into Spanish, Korean, and Afrikaans. He received his academic doctorate in philosophical theology from the University of Toronto and Victoria University. He has participated in the American Academy of Religion since 1981, and has served the board of the North American Paul Tillich Society.
Tom's most recent publication is Why Tillich? Why Now?. It is a book addressed primarily to academic audiences.
His work upon which this interview is primarily based is Sideline Church: Bridging the Chasm between Churches and Cultures. As you will hear, Tom brings together insights from demographic and life-style research and Paul Tillich to enable the church to both look toward and plan for the future. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
I love interviewing artists and having conversations about the arts not just because I love the arts but know, despite opinions by some to the contrary, that the arts are vehicles of truth and provide the means of insights and understanding about reality, ethics, faith, worldview, beauty, the quest for meaning, and all manner of other important issues and questions. The arts have been and are an integral part of every people group and civilization I know. Of course, as a Christian, I am especially interested in the way the Christian faith and the arts interweave.
To approach a conversation about all of these kinds of questions about and interests in the arts, I could think of no one better to interview than Terry Roberts!
Terry is many things, but there are three dimensions of Terry's life that apply to this interview. First, Terry is an educator. Specifically, Terry is the Director of The National Paideia Center--an organization whose purpose is to promote critical and creative thinking. Second, Terry is a novelist. Having a Ph.D. in American Literature, Terry not only has studied writing and literature deeply, but is a practitioner of the art. Third, Terry is a Christian. So, questions of the relationship between faith, art, and larger ideas that matter intermingle for Terry, in his life, thinking, and his craftsmanship as an artist.
Terry is the author of four novels. He has just released the fourth novel, My Mistress' Eyes are Raven Black. You can learn more about Terry and his novels for his website, terryrobertsauthor.com. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
One might think that an interview with a couple of editors of a music publishing company might be an episode targeted only to a select audience, but, to the contrary, decisions made by such publishers can be worthy of national news. In my interview with the deans of three theological schools, when I asked what is going on in theological education presently, Dr. Karen Massey described the situation as a reckoning. There are several causes of that reckoning, but one of the significant causes is the need to confront and address the centuries long legacy and impact of colonial imperialism and white male supremacy. Another, closely related reckoning, is the issue of abuse in some way by those leading lights in a specific field. These reckonings are about power and politics because something like colonial imperialism or the abuses by dominant power brokers are by nature brought about by power and politics. Therefore any decisions made to confront and correct such legacies require political judgments. When those decisions are made, they can draw the attention of some news source. This was the experience of GIA Publications.
This interview occurred on Thursday, June 17. The day before, on Wednesday, June 16, Fox News ran a segment about how GIA Music and one the composers they publish had ended their relationship. So, when the interview occurred, my guests and GIA Music were still in the maelstrom of that event.
Publishers make choices about who and what will be published. That requires a judgment that cannot be separated from questions of theology, philosophy, ideology, ethics, and power.
To help us understand what is happening in Christian music these days and the challenges faced by Christian music publishers are my guests, Kate Williams and Michael Silhavey.
Kate Williams is the Vice President of Sacred Music for GIA Publications, Inc. In addition to her work as an editor, Kate serves as a workshop leader, consultant, and musician in the Archdiocese of Chicago and abroad, following her passion to serve in multicultural, multigenerational communities while mentoring young voices and building bridges through music ministry. Kate holds a Bachelor of Music Composition degree from DePaul University in Chicago as well as a Master of Arts degree in liturgical studies from Catholic Theological Union where it was her privilege to study as a distinguished Bernadin Scholar.
Michael Silhavy is GIA’s Senior Project Editor. With degrees in music education, theology, and liturgical studies from De Paul University, Loyola University (Chicago), and Saint John’s University (Collegeville, MN), Michael has worked in parish, grade school, university, cathedral, and diocesan settings. His work at GIA centers around choral and congregational music, hymnals, and working with composers and authors to create musical and liturgical resources for both Roman Catholic congregations and the wider ecumenical community. He has authored biographies on American composers and authors for the Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
Dr. Michael L. Budde is Professor of Catholic Studies and Political Science at DePaul University, where he also serves as Senior Research Scholar in the Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology (CWCIT). His research explores the intersections of ecclesiology, political economy, and culture. Much of his contemporary research flows from the work of DePaul’s Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology, a research center focusing on Catholicism in the so-called global South and as a worldwide religious community. Mike serves the Center as a senior research professor, and, with his colleagues, hosts visiting scholars from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and elsewhere in exploring important questions in theology, politics, history, and culture.
Mike is the author or editor of ten books, including The Borders of Baptism: Identities, Allegiances and the Church, The (Magic) Kingdom of God: Christianity and Global Culture Industries, Christianity Incorporated: How Big Business is Buying the Church, and The Two Churches: Catholicism and Capitalism in the World System. His work has appeared in journals including Modern Theology, Concilium, Journal of Scriptural Reasoning, and Studies in Christian Ethics. He received his Ph.D. in Political Economy from Northwestern University. His upcoming book is Foolishness to the Gentiles.
Mike is one of the founders and was the first coordinator of the Ekklesia Project and has contributed significantly to the resources it offers.
In this episode we talk broadly about Mike's thought and about how both the political and economic agendas of the United States have formative influences on Christians and churches that compromise the capacity of Christians and churches to live faithfully the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Mike has an exceptionally prophetic ability to hold a mirror up to us so that we as Christians and churches are able to see ourselves and our compromises more fully and truthfully. At the same time, he also has a wonderfully pastoral way of providing us the wisdom and guidance in knowing how to move forward as more authentic witnesses to the Gospel. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
With the significant decline in the numbers of people calling themselves 'Christian,' and the closing of thousands of churches each year in the United States, a lot of us who are Christians across the theological spectrum are asking the questions, "What is God doing? How and where is God moving, especially in God's church?"
In Amos 3:7-8, the prophet Amos declares, "Surely the Lord God does nothing, without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken; who can but prophesy?" I like the way the American Bible Society's Contemporary English Version translates this passage. It reads, " Whatever the Lord God plans to do, he tells his servants, the prophets. Everyone is terrified when a lion roars--and ordinary people become prophets when the Lord God speaks."
My guest for this episode, Guy Sayles, may not follow Amos's example of proclaiming, "Thus says the Lord!," but for those of us who know Guy, we know he is one who deeply loves God and who, with every fiber of his being, seeks to be opened to and learn the lessons God has to teach. We know that when Guy speaks, what he says arises from long, prayerful, contemplative discernment that is the fruit of spending continuous time in communion and fellowship with and in the presence of God. Thus, we know his voice to be prophetic.
As you can learn from his website, fromtheintersection.org, Guy is a writer, speaker, guide, coach, and consultant who focuses on the intersections of faith and life, of meaning and culture, of love and fear. He explores healing and reconciling spirituality, ethical and effective leadership, and purposeful and empowering organizations. He also draws on his ongoing struggle with an incurable, but presently manageable, illness which has forced him to come to terms with limits and the illusion of control, to seek meaningful responses to suffering and the questions it raises, and to reflect on the ethics of healthcare and end-of-life-issues. If you’re interested in some of his reflections on his experience with cancer, you can find them at www.caringbridge.org/visit/guysayles.
Since he was in college and until recently, Guy has been the pastor of churches. He has also been a university teacher. So Guy brings to us a depth and breadth of experience that provides a guiding voice for us and for churches in these times.
In light of seeking to know what God is doing and what lessons God is teaching and wanting us to learn for the Church, Guy is here to share with us what he has learned, especially about both the lessons and opportunities for the Church brought about from the global Covid-19 pandemic. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
For those of you who have been listening to this podcast from its beginning, you know Donna Marie Todd as a storyteller. She was one of the first people who graciously and generously gave her time and talent to allow me to interview her or him. Donna Marie introduced us to the wonderful art of Biblical Storytelling, and that art has been an ongoing series for me as I continue to interview Biblical Storytellers. The link to that side of Donna Marie's life can be found here:
http://www.donnamarietodd.com/
And the link to Network of Biblical Storytellers International can be found here:
https://www.nbsint.org/
In this episode, Donna Marie tells us a very different sort of story. In 2011, her husband, Perrin, died, and Donna Marie became a widow and a single parent. That experience set her on an unplanned and challenging journey. However, an important and vitally needed outgrowth of that journey is a group of resources Donna Marie has developed for widows. Key among those is her book, Navigating Loss: A Survival Guide for the Newly Widowed. She also has a Navigating Loss video series and a blog and she offers private coaching and retreats. Access to all of these resources can be found on her website, A Widow's Tale.
Donna Marie is here to share with us her experience, resources, wisdom, and, most importantly, hope! The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
What does it mean to be a Christian peacebuilder and peacemaker? In addition to the capacity and willingness to listen to others with caring, compassion, and respect, it also involves Christians asking themselves questions about what God wants of us and how we understand our relationship to others who are not Christian. These questions extend to further questions about the practices throughout Christian history of Christian misssions and evangelism.
It has been these sorts of questions that have occupied the spiritual journey of my guest for this episode.
Robert (Rob) P. Sellers was a teacher in Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world, for 25 years. He is Professor of Theology and Missions Emeritus at Hardin-Simmons University's Logsdon Seminary where he taught for 18 years. Throughout his ministry, Rob has sought and still seeks to serve God's mission in the world by engaging in and promoting interfaith friendships across lines of racial, cultural, and religious diversity locally, nationally, and internationally. He has been president of the Abilene Interfaith Council, a member of the Interfaith Commission of the National Council of Churches, USA, a member of the Interfaith Relations Commission of the Baptist World Alliance, and the past Chair of the Parliament of the World's Religions. Rob was asked to be a non-Muslim observer in Morocco when the Marrakesh Declaration was ratified in 2016 and for the Alliance of Virtues Conference in Washington, D.C. in 2018. He was also invited to be a participant in the United Arab Emirates meeting in 2019 where The Charter for a New Alliance of Virtues was discussed and approved.
Rob considers himself a Christian pluralist who argues that an acknowledgement of the legitimacy of different approaches to the Divine is a distinctly Christian way to live in a diverse world.
In this episode, Rob shares his journey of interfaith discoveries and theological epiphanies, and provides both his wisdom and guidance in enabling us to engage in interfaith friendships and conversations ourselves.
Rob is a frequent contributor to Good Faith Media and Baptist News Global. For a good summary of how Rob integrates his concerns for interfaith friendships, his understanding of missions and peacebuilding, and his theology of Christian pluralism and Christ's atonement, see his article, 'Toward a multifaith view of atonement,' in the June 10, 2021 edition of Review & Expositor. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
This episode is Part 2 of a conversation with Dean Emilie Townes of Vanderbilt Divinity School, Dean Kelly Brown Douglas of the Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary, and Associate Dean Karen Massey at Mercer University McAfee School of Theology on the state of theological education. Throughout the conversation, we have been using Willie James Jennings's book, After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging, as a reference. Dr. Jennings is the former dean of Yale Divinity School.
In Part 1, my guests told of their own experiences in theological education and in taking on leadership responsibility for an institution of theological education. They also provided their own assessment of the state of theological education.
In this episode, Part 2, my guests describe how theological education is being done in each of their institutions in terms of curriculum design, in light of the decline of Christianity in the United States, and in the experience of the Covid pandemic. They conclude by offering their thoughts on what conversations still need to occur about theological education as we move forward into the future. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
All Christians should be interested in what is going on in institutions that train people for Christian ministry because what happens in those institutions--how people are trained and what they are taught--finds it way, for good or not, into churches.
Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s there was such dissatisfaction with theological education that the stirrings of an extensive and extended conversation about what was wrong and what needed to be done had begun. The first significant work of that conversation to appear in print was Vanderbilt theologian Edward Farley's Theologia: The Fragmentation and Unity of Theological Education, published in 1983. Farley's assessment of the problem was that because of the impact the modern sciences, theological schools had become places that trained people in the increasing number of Biblical, historical, theological/philosophical, and practical sciences. He urged the recovery of what he called theologia which he defined as the capacity for judgment and wisdom or a habitus--a habit of mind and sapiential knowledge that arises from the experiences of a devoted life of faith. Farleys research was deep, illuminating, and perceptive. His conclusions and proposal resonated across the conversation. However, Farley's contribution had a significant blind spot.
Even though no reference was made to Farley and his contribution, that blind spot was revealed and named two years later, in 1985 by the Mud Flower Collective--a group of seven feminists scholars of different races and ethnicities--in their book, God's Fierce Whimsy: Christian Feminism and Theological Education. Their assessment of the problem is that it is due to the so-deeply-embedded-that-it-goes-unnoticed legacy of colonial imperialism and white male supremacy. Their proposal was to reveal this legacy, challenge it, and correct it. It could be argued that Farley's contribution is an example of how deep and unnoticed this legacy is because he fails to even be aware of it and thus to acknowledge it.
As is often the case, initial prophetic voices goes unheeded. So it was with the Mud Flower Collective's contribution.
Last year, nearly forty years since conversation of the 1980s, Willie James Jennings, former dean of Yale Divinity School, has both revived that conversation about the inadequacy of theological education and the Mud Flower Collective's critique in his book, After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging. The fact of his assessment that the inadequacy of theological education is still due to the legacy of colonial imperialism and white male supremacy reveals how little has changed in forty years and how deeply the legacy in embedded.
In my mind, both The Mud Flower Collective's and Jennings contributions in the accuracy of their assessments and in the way they demonstrated theological learning and inquiry, not only through critical analysis, but also the use of personal stories and poetry, are exceptional examples of the theologia Farley was seeking and proposing.
To tell us of their own experiences in theological education, to provide their own assessment of state of theological education in conversation with Jennings's book, to provide us with a description of what is going on with theological education in their respective institutions, and to give us some sense of theological education's future, I have invited three deans of seminaries and divinity schools to be my guests for a two part conversation. Each are in positions to shape and guide theological programs in the schools where they are. In this episode, Part 1, we will focus on their experiences and assessments. In the next episode, Part 2, we will focus on what is happening in their institutions and the future of theological education.
Dr. Emilie M. Townes is Dean of Vanderbilt University Divinity School and Distinguished Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society.
The Reverend Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas is Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School at U...
In this episode, I have invited back as my guest Dr. C. Michael Hawn. Michael is University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Church Music and Adjunct Professor and Director of the Doctor of Pastoral Music Program in the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX and was one of my professors during my church music training at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. In the book he compiled, edited, and co-authored with a team of outstanding church music scholars (James Abbington, Emily R. Brink, Kathleen Harmon, Lim Swee Hong, Deborah Carlton Loftis, David W. Music, and Greg Scheer), New Songs of Celebration Render, Michael begins his Introduction by asking the question, "Are hymns relevant to Christians today? (p. xxv)" He goes on to say the book is an effort to address that question (p. xxvi).
The reason I think this question and this book are important is that both the question and the book are a part of a vital reckoning taking place. Christianity is struggling with its complicity in the evils of European colonial imperialism and male white supremacy that have so shaped all aspects of the cultures of Europe and the United States and the work of global Christian missions.
In the 1960s, due to the impact of secularism, it was becoming apparent Christendom was losing its influence and power and denominational Christianity was declining. Theologians were declaring God is dead and pastors were decrying the relevance of the hymns in the hymnbooks available to them for their worship planning because those hymns either did not speak to the situations in which the pastors were ministering or the theology expressed in those hymns was inadequate or false.
It wasn't that God was not and isn't still at work, or that the Church and congregational song were dying due to irrelevance. Rather, Christianity was and still is going through a transition of loosing itself from a dominant and questionable legacy. As Christians and their congregations began to do this, congregational song blossomed in immensely creative ways into new, what Michael calls, 'streams.'
What we discuss in this episode is the fruit of this blossoming, especially since the 1960s and the impact of Vatican II. The book focuses on seven streams in this creative outpouring and flow. In doing so, we will get a better picture of how God is still active with, in, and through the Church and how congregational song is one of the integral means by which the Church is continuing to thrive. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
This episode will be the first in a new series on democracy. In the United States, democracy is the way our cities, counties, states, and nation is governed. In many faith groups democracy is the way the faith community is governed. Democracy has provided such a vision for change both in our nation and around the world, we have a hard time imagining anyone raising questions about it or its value. Yet there are different voices that still have much to say about democracy, some of it critical.
American Indian scholars argue that the lack of acknowledgement of how democratic practices among American Indians shaped the formation of democracy in the United States continues to contribute to the exclusion of American Indians from our nation's electoral processes.
Theologians like Stanley Hauerwas argue that by so integrating themselves into the agenda of United States politics and by accepting as their own concepts like justice, religious liberty, and democracy as our nation has defined them, churches have compromised their capacity to act faithfully as the church.
Economic anthropologist Jason Hickel argues that many indigenous cultures around the world are rejecting democracy, in part due to its being partnered with free-market capitalism, because it is destructive of the cultures and identities of those peoples, making their lives worse and not better.
The disputes over voting laws and practices reveal that many contend that democracy still needs to be improved.
We know that other nations who consider the United States to be their enemy pose external threats to our democracy, but the ambitions and aspirations of Donald Trump and the willingness of his devoted followers to use violence to seek their will and impose their way pose an internal threat to our democracy.
So, to me, democracy is something we need to think and talk about. That is the purpose of this series.
To begin our conversation, I am turning to Dr. Gary Peluso-Verdend. Dr. Peluso-Verdend is the executive director of the Center for Religion in Public Life at Phillips Theological Seminary. He is also president emeritus and a visiting research professor at Phillips. He is a clergy member of the Northern Illinois Conference of The United Methodist Church. Dr. Peluso-Verdend teaches seminary classes and also conducts discussion-groups with lay people on faith and democracy. You can email Dr. Peluso-Verdend to communicate with him or connect with what he is doing at Gary.Peluso@ptstulsa.edu The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
In 2017 The United States Department of Health and Human Services declared a public health emergency concerning the epidemic of opioid addiction. That epidemic has greatly increased and, consequently, made terribly worse because of the Covid-19 Coronavirus disease pandemic. However, attention to the opioid epidemic was diverted due to the Covid-19 crisis. It is vital that we as the general public have a deeper and more expansive awareness of this disease so that we have the information and can seek the training that will help fight this epidemic.
There are few people better to help us understand this disease and crisis than Wayne Smith, founder and director of Samaritan Ministry in Knoxville, TN. I interviewed Wayne about the HIV and Hepatitis C crises in episode 16 of this podcast. I encourage you to listen to that episode also, because, as you will learn in the interview, these crises are interlinked and can compound each other.
The opioid addiction crisis has its roots the interplay of people seeking to control their pain, especially after medical procedures, of pharmaceutical companies's assurances that opioids were not addictive, of the medical community over prescribing the medication, and of pharmacies accepting prescriptions on too broad a basis. Sadly, there is also are unhelpful political disputes over treatment issues that hinder progress.
Opioid addiction is not a moral failure but a disease that is treatable!
Links to the Center for Disease Control and the United States Department on Health and Human services about the opioid epidemic are here:
https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/epidemic/index.html
https://www.hhs.gov/opioids/about-the-epidemic/index.html
A link to an ABC news article relating to the politics around Opioid treatment in West Virginia is found here:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/west-virginia-lawmakers-pass-needle-exchange-regulation-bill-76995131
An excellent interview by Wayne with Jason Goodman about the recovery process is found here:
youtube.com/watch?v=dErx16myLSE&t=2s
An interview by Pastor Wade Bibb with Dr. Stephen Lloyd about his addiction experience can be found here (the actual interview occurs at minute 52 and thirty seconds during the video:
https://youtube/EUQlldlx9u4?t=3128 The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
The final year of the Trump administration and the beginning of the Biden administration has seen a flurry of issues bearing on religious liberty. There were two cases before the Supreme Court, one, Tanzin vs Tanvir, upon which the court ruled and another, Fulton vs The City of Philadelphia, the ruling of which is still pending. There was a new justice, Amy Barrett, appointed to the Supreme Court after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The riot on the capital on Jan. 6th exposed a rooting in and connection with Christian Nationalism. On the first day of the Biden administration, President Biden issued an executive order ending the travel ban of Muslims and Africans, and since taking office, President Biden has reestablished the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships and reappointed Melissa Rogers as its Director.
My guest, Jennifer Hawks helps us understand each of these issues and also helps us understand more clearly the ongoing work and efforts of the BJC.
Jennifer Hawks, a native of Germantown, Tennessee, is the associate general counsel at BJC. She provides legal analysis on church-state issues that arise before Congress, the courts and administrative agencies. Hawks also assists in education efforts and responds to pastors and other constituents who have questions about church-state matters.
Before coming to BJC, Hawks was the director of advocacy and outreach services for the Family Abuse Center in Waco, Texas, where she conducted a legal clinic and led educational programs. She previously worked for two judges in the state of Mississippi and served as a staff attorney for the Mississippi Department of Human Services. Hawks also served in both paid and volunteer ministry positions in Tennessee, Mississippi and Texas. She has published papers in the journal of the Texas Baptist Historical Society and Baptist History & Heritage Journal.
A graduate of Mississippi College and the University of Mississippi School of Law, Hawks earned a Master of Divinity degree from George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University. She is a member of the U.S. Supreme Court, Texas and Mississippi bars, and she was ordained into the Gospel ministry by McLean Baptist Church in McLean, Virginia.
How learn more about the BJC and how you and your church can be involved go to bjconline.org.
To read and, hopefully, sign the statement on Christians against Christian Nationalism go to chrisitansagainstchristiannationalism.org. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
Within the context of our nation at this time, our perceptions of Islam are driving our greatest fears. Islam is the subject of deep misinformation, misunderstanding, and political distortion. As the result, few of us have an accurate understanding of Islam or are aware that there are broad-based efforts and many Muslim activists in peacebuilding throughout the Muslim communities around the world. Consequently, it is vital, in my mind, that we hear often from the voices of Muslim peace workers. There is no better place to start than with my guest for this episode. Chaplain Rabia Terri Harris, Founder of the Muslim Peace Fellowship, launched MPF as an associate organization of the Fellowship of Reconciliation in 1994, and has nurtured it ever since. The child of a Jewish father and a Christian mother, Rabia embraced Islam in 1978, receiving her religious education through the Halveti-Jerrahi Order. She holds a BA in Religion from Princeton University, an MA in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures from Columbia University, and a Graduate Certificate in Islamic Chaplaincy from Hartford Seminary. In 2009, her three decades of experience in spirituality and community service led to her being chosen as the first president of the Association of Muslim Chaplains. As a theorist and investigator in Islamic peacebuilding and multireligious solidarity for justice, Rabia writes extensively and has lectured and offered workshops nationally and internationally. Currently Rabia serves as Chaplain and Scholar with Community of Living Traditions, a multireligious organization devoted to the pursuit of peace and justice through earthcare and hospitality. You can learn more about Community of Living Traditions on their Facebook page here. Rabia coauthored Peace Primer II: Quotes from Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Scripture and Tradition with Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb and Rev. Ken Sehested. There are references from this book made in the interview. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
As. early as one hundred years after the time of Jesus and the first generations of Christians, Christian thinkers recognized that Jewish Christian Scripture was not exhaustive in its claim to knowledge and there was insight and wisdom into the way and truth of things in non-Christian sources. While there have always been objections on the part of some Christians to doing so, as Tertullian's famous question, 'What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?' indicates, the predominance of Christian thinkers have drawn from, incorporated into their thinking, build upon the ideas of, and felt the need to respond to the challenges of non-Christian thinkers. Greek philosophers, especially Plato and eventually Aristotle, have been the primary conversation partners throughout Christian history but these have not been the only ones.
Because of Western culture's preference for definitions of truth being unchanging, stable, and absolute, the Christian West has been slow to dialogue with and embrace insights from Eastern philosophies which tend to have more dynamic worldviews. However, with the rise of such things as theories of relativity, quantum physics, process thinking, insights into paradigm shifts, and deconstruction thinking, that reluctance is changing.
For much of his life, my guest, Dr. Marc Mullinax, Christian theologian and Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Mars Hill University, in Mars Hill, NC, has found helpful insights and wisdom for living one's life wisely, healthily and peacefully, and for the Christian faith in the ancient Chinese resource, the Tao Te Ching (You have already met Marc in episodes 10 and 11 of this podcast). Marc was not satisfied with the translations of the Tao he was using for the courses he teaches on Eastern/Asian thought. Consequently, he has provided us with a new and especially accessible translation of his own--Tao Te Ching: Power for the Peaceful.
There are three things that make this new book so valuable. The first is the care and quality of the translation. Marc's target is us all, not just scholars or experts. In this he has succeed. His translation is easily read and understandable. The second, as a creative element, Marc has added sayings from around the world, from all periods of history, and even from popular culture that mirror the teachings and insights of Tao. The third is Marc has added notes and reflections after each block of verses that increase the accessibility and one's understanding of the teachings of Tao.
Marc is also doing an ongoing Youtube podcast which you can find here or, by typing into the search box the title of the book, Tao Te Ching: Power to the Peaceful. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
From the beginning of the Church on the day of Pentecost just after our Lord ascended back to God, congregational singing and, in particular, hymns have been a part of Christian worship. Two of Christianity's earliest documents, the New Testament letters to the Ephesians and Colossians, use the same trilogy of words to describe the music of Christian worship. Ephesians 5: 18-19 (NRSV) reads, '...but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts...' Colossians 3:16 (NRSV) reads, 'Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.'
Both congregational singing and hymns have had a varied and sometimes controversial history throughout the Church's existence. In the earliest experience of the Church, congregational singing was almost exclusively the music of worship, especially during the times of persecution. After the conversion of Constantine, when the Church gained status, power, and wealth, when Latin became the mandated language of worship, and when monks and priests were often the only people who could read, singing in worship came to be done mostly by choirs. It was not until after the Protestant Reformation, when the mass was rejected as the pattern of worship by numerous Protestant groups and scripture was translated into the languages of the people, that congregational singing once again became the dominant form of music in worship. However, due to the influence of the Calvinist or Reform tradition within the Protestant Reformation, congregational singing was limited to psalmody, being the language of scripture. Hymns, understood as texts having been written by human hands, were looked upon with suspicion. It was only gradually that hymns became accepted back into worship. Once they did, however, collections of them into hymnals came to be the primary worship books of many Protestant denominations. There have been times when the words 'hymn' and 'congregational singing' have been synonymous. When the global evangelism and mission efforts began in the 1800s, hymns were the most useful resource for proclamation, worship, and discipleship efforts. With the rise of seeker-oriented worship services in the 1980s and 1990s, a sharp distinction was made between hymns, seen as a part of traditional worship and choruses, preferred by seeker-oriented services.
As degrees in church music have developed, courses in hymnology have been required and for nearly one hundred years, a Society, The Hymn Society, has been devoted to the hymn. Recently The Hymn Society formalized a project that was always an understood dimension of The Hymn Society's efforts--The Center for Congregational Song.
My guests help us to understand more fully the hymn, its definitions and uses, and the work both of The Hymn Society and The Center for Congregational Song.
J. Michael McMahon has served as Executive Director of The Hymn Society since September 1, 2018. An ordained minister of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Mike is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, holds a Master of Divinity degree from the Washington Theological Union, a Master of Arts degree in liturgical studies from the University of Notre Dame, and a Doctor of Ministry degree from The Catholic University of America. From 2001 until 2013 Mike served as President and CEO of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians (NPM). For nearly thirty years he worked in full-time church ministry, most recently from 2013 to 2018 as Minister of Music at National City Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Washington, D.C. Prior to 2001 Mike served churches in Virginia and Delaware as a full-time pastoral minister in the areas of music, worship, and Christian initiation. In addition to his full-time work as a pastoral minister, music director,
Part of the outgrowth of Meta Commerse's work in racial healing is the development of The Race Relations Station. The Race Relations Station is a community action project which has the vision of a well, diverse, and just community and has as its mission racial healing and relationship building through story.
In this episode my guests, Liz Huesemann and Father Dennis Fotinos, introduce us to The Race Relations Station, its beginnings, and its ongoing work.
As I say in the episode, healing work is a form and part of peace work. For those of us who are Christians, peace is rooted in the Jewish concept of shalom. Shalom is a state experienced not only as a lack of conflict but also as one of being well and whole. Peace, for Christians (and not just for Christians), is brought about and sustained by expressions of love. Among those expressions of love is the practice of edification, or the practice of building a person up to enable her or him to be fully who she or he can be. Edification occurs as much through little daily behaviors of caring as it does through bigger gestures. Consequently, healing work and peace work must always mover beyond awareness, understanding, and acknowledgment to specific actions in daily life. The work of The Race Relations Station gives us specific practices that enable us to brings about both healing and peace. You can learn of these practices in detail by participating in the resources offered by The Race Relations Station. You can learn more about those resources from Meta's website: storymedicineworldwide.com and from The Race Relations Station page on that website.
Liz Huesemann has over 40 years of working in the non-profit world in both administration as well as direct services. She has been an activist for human rights since she can remember.
Father Dennis Fotinos is an Episcopal priest who, since 1972 has served churches in South Florida, Western North Carolina, Western Louisiana, Pittsburg, PA, and Houston, TX. Since retiring to Asheville, Father Fotinos has been active in issues of racial justice and healing, including helping Meta start The Race Relations Station. He also assists with the Diocese of Western North Carolina in providing guidance to congregations in the search and call process of new clergy.
My guests for this episode are the creators and editors of and some of the artists who participate with Foundling House. Foundling House is a website, journal, and resource, birthed in Knoxville, TN, dedicated to exploring the human truths of the Kingdom of Christ through story, art, and music.
It has been the tendency of conservative Christianity to desire and often demand answers that are certain and unquestionable. Consequently, complicated questions, hard, troubling questions are often ignored, handled superficially and inadequately, discouraged, and sometimes even rebuked. But all faiths, and especially the Christian faith, have questions, frequently troubling.
Art has always been a source of exposing troubling questions. Progressive Christian thinkers have as well. What is wonderful about the Foundling House folks is that they bring together the questioning person of faith and questioning art, doing their work, as they say they do, at the intersection of faith and art. You can learn about and enjoy the art of these folks on their website: foundlinghouse.com and their facebook page: facebook.com/foundlinghouse/
My guests for this episode are:
Adam Whipple (to whom, if you have been listening to this podcast, you have already been introduced in PGE14):
Adam is a skilled multi-instrumentalist, arranger, composer, studio musician, photographer, writer, and founder and primary editor of Foundling House. You can learn more about Adam at adamwhipple.com and have access to his albums, poetry, prose, and visual art.
Janna Barbar:
Janna is a teller of stories, a writer of poems, and a lifelong member of the tribe of humanity. The grownup daughter of a Baptist preacher and his Southern belle wife, she now lives in Knoxville, TN, with her pastor husband, two teenagers, and three pets. She is the author of Hidden in Shadow: Tales of Grief, Lamentation, and Faith. You can learn more about Janna at jannabarber.com.
Jeanine Joyner:
Jeanine is a native Texan transplanted into Middle Tennessee. A mother of five, she somehow carved out the time to write her debut novel Paper Dolls: Trust Your Instincts between homeschooling and hosting house concerts. She now lives in a home surrounded by rolling hills and farmlands, appropriately named Arundelle Green, after a character who captured her imagination in the Andrew Peterson book, The Warden and the Wolf King. You can learn more about Jeanine at arundellegreen.com.
Stephen and Rachel Mosley:
Rachel and Stephen Mosley met in a freshman year high school geography class sometime late last century. Married for twenty years, they've just recently begun to write and perform their own earthy, soft brand of folk, and to share it beyond their own front porch. Their music is heavily influenced by whatever they're reading - Flannery O'Connor, Wendell Berry, and G.K. Chesterton are favorites - as well by their five wild and unruly red-headed children. You can learn more about Stephen and Rachel at themosleysmusic.com. Their song heard on this episode, 'Eiderdown,' comes from their album, Ordinary Time and is used by permission.
Rachel, Inspired by her artistic, book-loving family, discovered her love of children's illustration and was delighted to find that she has a real knack for it. She uses a combination of hand drawing and digital illustration in her work, and loves to experiment with new and unique printing processes. As the proud mom of five little citizens of the world, her work is particularly inspired by travel, nature and classic children's literature. You can learn more about Rachel's work at rachelmosley.com.
Chris Yokel:
Chris is an Associate Professor of English at Bristol Community College in Massachusetts, and is an arts and culture writer whose works have appeared in publications such as, Tweetspeak Poetry, The Curator, The Molehill, and currently on The Rabbit Room. Chris is also the author of several books of poetry,
During my interview with Ken Sehested in the previous episode, and especially as I reflected on the interview immediately afterwards, I felt there was more that need to be discussed and it shouldn't wait until a date several months in the future as I initially planned. So, I contacted Ken and he graciously agreed to a follow-up interview. This episode, therefore, is Part 2.
What I have understood more deeply form my conversation with Ken is that peace work should be, must be, is, fundamentally, in its essence and defining character, concrete and practical. It is realized in real life and daily situations. While peace theory is vital and essential to providing understanding, grounding, vision, and a framework, the theory is only as valuable as its ability to create real difference in negotiating differences, resolving conflicts, changing attitudes and behaviors, and enabling people to live together productively, positively, harmoniously, and in community, without violence and abuse.
Even though we discussed it some in the previous interview, this episode will focus on the transition Ken made from being the Director of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America to being co-pastor of the congregation, Circle of Mercy.
As you will hear Ken explain, disarming the nations is rooted in and linked to the disarming of the hearts of individuals and that effective change begins and occurs through mobilized organization on a local level. This gives local congregations and other local groups powerful opportunities to make real difference.
We conclude our discussion talking about Ken's most recent transition, that of his focus on writing though his website, prayer&politiks.
An award-winning activist and author, Ken’s greater honor came when a four year-old granddaughter memorized and recited his favorite Mary Oliver poem as a Father’s Day gift. His most recent books are Peace Primer II: Quotes from Jewish, Christian and Islamic Scripture & Tradition (published by the Baptist Peace Fellowship) and two collections of litanies, prayers and poems, In the Land of the Living and In the Land of the Willing (Wipf & Stock). The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
As I say in the introduction to this episode, I have two goals in this ongoing series on peacebuilding. The first goal is to enable you to become aware of the extent of people active in peace work and peacebuilding efforts and to learn how each person draws resources from her or his faith or worldview perspective to do her or his peace work. The second goal is to provide for you practical resources for peace work and peacebuilding in your own life.
You may have noticed a change in my terminology. Formerly, I was using 'peacemaking,' because that is the term used by Glen Stassen in his book, Just Peacemaking, and Irfan Omar and Michael Duffey in their book, which inspired this series, Peacemaking and the Challenge of Violence in World Religions. However, I like the distinctions Rabbi Amy Eilberg makes in her book, From Enemy to Friend. She describes 'peacekeeping' as that which militaries do to prevent further violence in a situation, 'peacemaking' as the negotiation process diplomats or mediators do with larger groups or nations, and 'peacebuilding' as what ordinary people do in the course of their daily lives. Since my focus in this series is on what we can do, I am changing my term.
Although I didn't know this at the time of recording, this episode is the first of a two-part interview. In this episode and the next, I focus on resources from my Baptist heritage.
My guest is Ken Sehested.
Ken is the editor/author of the online journal, prayer&politiks. Once upon a time he played football at Baylor University, back when few outside Texas had heard of the place (and its sports teams were the ragamuffins of their conference). And a traveling teenage youth evangelist. No longer a teenager, he is still an evangelist, though his understanding of what it means to follow Jesus has changed considerably.
Ken’s closest brush with jobs people understand were as a typesetter and, later, as a stonemason. Being picky about your work means creating your own, as a full-time mendicant with Seeds magazine (1978) when it became a monthly magazine focusing on food security and world hunger concerns; then as the founding director of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America (1984); as founding co-pastor of Circle of Mercy Congregation in Asheville, NC (2001); and now as the electronic ink slinger of this site.
An award-winning activist and author, Ken’s greater honor came when a four year-old granddaughter memorized and recited his favorite Mary Oliver poem as a Father’s Day gift. His most recent books are Peace Primer II: Quotes from Jewish, Christian and Islamic Scripture & Tradition (published by the Baptist Peace Fellowship) and two collections of litanies, prayers and poems, In the Land of the Living and In the Land of the Willing (Wipf & Stock). The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
In her extensive work with peacebuilding, Rabbi Nancy Fuchs Kreimer (Listen to PGE12 below.) stresses the importance of focusing more on the heart than the head. By this she means that building bridges of peace and relationships between people who disagree and/or are in conflict more often occurs when the people involved in the disagreement/conflict tell and listen to each other's personal stories and life-journeys rather that when each tries to persuade the other through reasoning. Focusing on the head tends to devolve into further conflict and destructive behavior.
Meta Commerse (Listen to PGEs 24-26 below.) speaks of this process of bridge building, peacebuilding, and healing through the telling of personal stories as story medicine.
In the efforts to deal with LGBTQ rights and issues through the head, bitter conflict, destructive behavior, and tragic brokenness has been the result. Drowned out in these efforts has been the stories of LGBTQ people, especially LGBTQ Christians. But heeding the wisdom of Rabbi Fuchs Kreimer and Meta Commerse is vital. It is what changes minds and brings healing and reconciliation. Hearing stories such as the ones you will hear in this episode is what helped change my mind and has helped me to grow in my walk with Christ.
So, the purpose of this episode is to let you hear the personal life stories and journeys of four LGBTQ Christians who span three generations. My guests are Nancy Flippin, Mindy Allen, Amy Cantrell, and Sully Hart.
Nancy and Mindy are married to each other. Nancy is the daughter of missionaries and lived in Seoul, Korea for six years moving back to the United States to attend Biola College where she earned a B.S. in Mathematics. After working for a few years for Corporate America, Nancy knew this was not her calling in life. She worked as a campus minister for three years at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in Atlanta, GA, and then began working in affordable housing development in the inner city of Atlanta for ten years. After that she worked for eighteen years with the Atlanta Community Food Bank. Currently, Nancy is the CFO at Manna Food Bank in Asheville, NC. Nancy serves as a deacon at First Baptist Church, Asheville and as treasurer for the Alliance of Baptists. Nancy's faith journey has led her to engage in social justice initiatives and to advocate for systemic changes that will lift up those who have been and are oppressed.
Mindy holds both an undergraduate degree (B.A. from Shepherd College) and a graduate degree (M.A. from Marshall University) in Health and Physical Education. She is a life-long educator, having taught in West Virginia, Hawaii, Georgia, and North Carolina. After living and working in Atlanta for thirty one years, Mindy and Nancy moved to Asheville, NC, where Mindy currently works at Evergreen Community Charter School. Mindy is a runner/walker, photographer, and outdoor enthusiast. As a life-long seeker and follower of Jesus, Mindy has a passion for social justice and serves on the Mission Council at her beloved community of faith, First Baptist Church, Asheville.
Amy (Reverend Amy Cantrell) lives, moves, and has her being in the intentional community, BeLoved Asheville where she is deeply engaged in the daily life of loving neighbors and building community with people on the streets, Latinx and African American neighbors, and a whole host of people committed to making love real in the world in our daily lives. She was school educated at Converse College and Columbia Theological Seminary and street educated in Harlem, NY; Ponce DeLeon Ave, Atlanta; and on South French Broad Ave. and Grove Streets in downtown Asheville, NC. She is a pastor in the Presbyterian Church, USA. A queer woman who is married and who loves being mom to twin six year olds. She loves the color purple, playing guitar, studying movement history, and being a pretend alligator with her kids on the playground.
As I say in my introduction to this interview, in her superb book, These Truths: A History of the United States, historian Jill Lepore holds a particular understanding of history. She says that history is, ‘…not merely a form of memory but also a form of investigation, to be disputed, like philosophy, its premises questioned, its evidence examined, its arguments countered (p. xvi).’ She argues that such an understanding of history-as-inquiry was central to the nation’s founding and that to study the past is to unlock the prison of the present (pp. xvi-xvii). In my mind, such an understanding of history-as-inquiry and as a key for unlocking the prison of the present is also central to a church that needs to be continuously reforming. What we call the Reformation was a first occasion of significant Church reform. During that time the Church was in crisis because of the mutually reinforcing interplay between certain Christian doctrines and clerical/ecclesial corruption. While it is true that since the Reformation, the church has been in the process of continuously reforming, it seems to me that we may be in the process of a second significant reformation. The Church is in significant crisis again, and for similar reasons as before. We are in what is broadly being called a time that is post-modern, post-colonial, and post-Christendom. For a lot of us, especially those of us who have been his students, a person whom we believe to be one of the most astute interpreters of the Church is Dr. Bill Leonard. It is to him that we turn for insight into how the Church has come to be in its present crisis and for wisdom about what Christians and the Church should do moving forward.
Dr. Leonard is the founding dean and now Professor of Divinity Emeritus at Wake Forest University's School of Divinity. Dr. Leonard’s research focuses on Church History with particular attention to American religion, Baptist studies, and Appalachian religion. He is the author or editor of some 25 books. His most recent works include A Sense of the Heart: Christian Religious Experience in the U.S., and The Homebrewed Christianity Guide to Church History: Flaming Heretics and Heavy Drinkers.
An essential resource to broaden and deepen your understanding of the insights and wisdom Dr. Leonard shares in this interview is the archives for his regular contributions to Baptist News Global. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
As I say in the introduction to this episode, an article in The Lancet by Jane Davis makes the case that reading literature out loud has potential for healing and wellness. As a part of The Reader Organization, Davis says, "Our hypothesis is that reading literature aloud with others offers something uniquely valuable." She goes on to say, It "...facilitates the creation of a series of powerful interplays: between the written text and the aural experience; between hearing the text from outside and processing it within; between one's own experience and that of the author and characters; between the privacy of personal consciousness and the public experience of group...For by reading aloud in a group it may be that readers experience what we might call interpersonality both with the book, and its author and characters, and with other group members...To see oneself in others, to see others in oneself, this is the rich experience going on within the group and with the book ('Enjoying and Enduring: groups read aloud for wellbeing,' by Jane Davis, The Lancet Vol. 373, Issue 9665, February 28, 2009, pp. 714-715.).
Jewish and Christian scripture have always ranked among the worlds greatest literature, and both Jews and Christians have known since the time each community was started that the reading aloud of their scripture was something important and profound in multiple ways, not the least of which was for healing and wellbeing.
What I love about the art of Biblical Storytelling is that, as my guest, Dr. Kathy Culmer says, the telling of scripture adds something more that simply the reading of scripture. It enables, as The Lancet article claims, an interplay and interpersonality for people in which they identify with the characters, the story, and others listening to the story. They are enabled to live the story and see themselves in others and others in themselves.
Of course it takes wonderful storytellers to enable such experiences to happen, and my guest is one such storyteller! If anyone can transport you into the story, it is Dr. Culmer!
Dr. Kathy Hood Culmer is an author, storyteller, speaker and teacher and Christian educator. A graduate of Spelman College, the University of South Florida, and United Theological Seminary, Kathy holds a B.A. in English, an M.A. in English, and a D. Min. in Biblical Storytelling. She has taught on the secondary and college levels in a variety of subject areas ranging from English to Speech Communications, to Broadcast Journalism, to Religious Education. As a professional storyteller, she has been a teller and workshop presenter in churches, schools, libraries, at festivals, retreats, on college campuses, in business settings, and a variety of other venues. Kathy has performed at the Exchange Place at the National Storytelling Festival, Georgia State University, Duke University's Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture, the Texas Storytelling Festival, and was the Featured Storyteller at the Network of Biblical Storytellers 2008 Festival Gathering. She was a part of a 2008 Biblical Storytelling Mission Trip to The Gambia in West Africa. Her life's work is to provide words of encouragement, truth, and inspiration to others through telling, writing, and speaking. She is the editor of a collection of personal narratives called Yes, Jesus Loves Me: 31 Love Stories and is also author of "Big Wheel Cookies: Two For A Penny," published in The Rolling Stone and Other Read Aloud Stories and "Feasts a Plenty," published in Holiday Stories All Year Round.
You can learn more about Dr. Culmer here and from her website: kathyculmer.com. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
The reason I am seeking to keep Steady State Economics as a subject before you, as my audience, is that few other economic options subsume economics under the ecosystem. Rather other economic options subsume the ecosystem under the economy. In addition, most other economic options growth oriented economies and assume that the ecology can be saved while still growing the economy and this does not provide solution enough to address the stress every world economy is putting on our planet. If those monitoring the changes in our planet are correct, our time to make necessary and important changes is getting shorter. Awareness and implementation of a better economic option is vital!
In every field of thought and research there are the visionaries, pioneers, and trailblazers. In Steady State Economics that visionary/pioneer/trailblazer is Herman Daly!
Herman E. Daly is professor emeritus at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. From 1988 to 1994 he was senior economist in the Environment Department of the World Bank. Prior to 1988 he was alumni professor of economics at Louisiana State University, where he taught economics for twenty years. He holds a BA from Rice University and a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University. He has served as Ford Foundation Visiting Professor at the University of Ceará (Brazil), as a Research Associate at Yale University, as a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University, and as a Senior Fulbright Lecturer in Brazil. He has served on the boards of directors of numerous environmental organizations, and was co-founder and associate editor of the journal Ecological Economics. His interest in economic development, population, resources, and environment has resulted in over a hundred articles in professional journals and anthologies, as well as numerous books, including Toward a Steady-State Economy (1973); Steady-State Economics (1977; 1991); Valuing the Earth(1993); Beyond Growth (1996); Ecological Economics and the Ecology of Economics (1999); Ecological Economics: Theory and Applications (with J. Farley, 2003, 2011); Ecological Economics and Sustainable Development (2007); and From Uneconomic Growth to a Steady-State Economy (2014).
He is co-author with theologian John B. Cobb, Jr. of For the Common Good (1989 ;1994) which received the 1991 Grawemeyer Award for Ideas for Improving World Order. In 1996 he received Sweden's Honorary Right Livelihood Award, and the Heineken Prize for Environmental Science awarded by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1999 he was awarded the Sophie Prize (Norway) for contributions in the area of Environment and Development; in 2001 the Leontief Prize for contributions to economic thought, and in 2002 the Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Republic for his work in steady-state economics. In 2010 the National Council for Science and the Environment (USA) gave him its Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2014 he received the Blue Planet Prize awarded by the Asahi Glass Foundation of Japan. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
This episode is Part 3 of my interviews with Meta Commerse. In this episode we bring together the threads of Meta's writing and aesthetic arts and her healing arts into the tapestry of their use in racial healing. As I say in the interview, if we are going to have a better future, especially together as people broken by prejudice, misperception, understanding, and the terrible history of hate, violence, and oppression that is the legacy of white supremacy, we have to know where we are going--a vision of the future and what it looks like-- and have a way to get there--a map or guide.
Meta offers one option both for the vision and guide/mission. On her website, storymedicineworldwide.com, there is a tab called The Race Relations Station. Under that tab is a tab for Community Action Project. On the Community Action Project page there is a Vision and a Mission statement. The Vision is: A Well, Diverse, and Just Community. The Mission is: Racial Healing and Relationship Building through Story.
Under Meta's wise and practiced guidance and the guidance of other good visionaries like her, it is a realizable journey I am eager to take together with any of you willing to join.
One of my favorite posters that I had on over the desk of my office in the church I pastored is one of Sitting Bull saying, "Let us put our minds together and see what life we will make for our children." If we follow folks like Meta, it will be a better one! The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
This episode is the Part 2 of 3 interviews with Meta Commerse. Part 1 focused on Meta's poetry and novel. In this episode we discuss the story/journey of Meta's development of Story Medicine and her use of it to facilitate healing.
As Meta said in Part 1, "My work with people, it takes them to those stories, to those places that they had not told and they had not spent time with, and that they had spent a lot of energy not telling. And preparing a way, working with them, somehow, to prepare a way for them to find their language and break their silence and go ahead and tell it." This is the nature and purpose of story medicine.
You can learn more about Meta, her Story Medicine Wisdom School, and her publications (in addition to how to buy her books) from her website:
storymedicineworldwide.com The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
My guest for this episode is Meta Commerse. Meta is a poet, a novelist, and a healer. My initial motivation for this interview was and still is as a continuation of my series on Racial Reconciliation, because Meta offers a class through her Story Medicine Wisdom School titled, 'Story Medicine for Racial Healing.' But as I learned that Meta was a poet and novelist and had developed this resource she calls story medicine, I wanted to talk with her about each of those aspects--her art, her development of story medicine, and the use of her art and story medicine is facilitating racial healing. As you will learn, Meta prefers to speak of racial healing rather than racial reconciliation. It is because of her reasoning on this issue that I am changing the name of my ongoing series.
Consequently, this episode is the first of three. In this episode I talk with Meta about her story as it lead to her being poet and novelist and you will get to hear Meta read some of her poems and a selection from her novel.
Meta is the author of six books: Landscapes of Abuse (2001), Rainsongs: Poems of a Woman's Life (2012), The Mending Time, a novel (2014), Blues Doula, poems by Meta Commerse (2019), Womaning, a memoir (forthcoming), and Diamonds and Pyramids: Story Medicine for Racial Healing (forthcoming).
You can learn more about Meta, her Story Medicine Wisdom School, the courses, lectures, and internships she offers in that school, the Community Action Projects offered through The Race Relations Station, and purchase Meta's books through her website, storymedicineworldwide.com.
I want to offer a special word of thanks to Carol and Tony Asiaghi for letting Meta and I use their beautiful and peaceful West Asheville Garden Retreat and Sanctuary to record these three interviews.
The audio clip of Womanist theologian and ethicist, Dr. Katie Cannon, from the documentary, Journey to Liberation: The Legacy of Womanist Theology and Womanist Ethics at Union Theological Seminary, is used by permission from Union Theological Seminary. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
The Ekklesia Project began as the result of conversations about the works of Catholic political scientist, Mike Budde, and Protestant theologian, Stanley Hauerwas. Both Budde and Hauerwas hold that the primary task of Christian churches is to live as faithful followers of Jesus Christ. Budde and Hauerwas, each in their on way, go on to claim that churches' efforts to live faithfully to Christ in the United States have been compromised by their own self-understanding and purpose, and hindered by their accommodation to the culture of the United States. To live as faithful followers of Jesus Christ is to give priority of one's allegiance and loyalty to God's Kingdom over any other entity seeking that same allegiance and loyalty. Such a commitment is a political commitment, thus making faithful followers of Jesus Christ a unique politics.
Those involved with the Ekklesia Project agree with Budde and Hauerwas and have believed it useful and helpful to organized in such a way that their shared efforts enable them as individuals, congregations, institutions, and traditions live more faithfully as the Church.
As the Ekklesia Project's website, ekklesiaproject.org, states, participants share the four core convictions that they are unapologetically God-centered, Church-centered, Shalom-centered, and Political. In order to live more faithfully, participants in the EP do a variety of things to strengthen the church, encourage one another, and seek out new friendships. Among the things they do, they say probably the most important thing they do is to talk with one another about being faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. Those conversations, with intention, involve scholars, pastors, and laypeople.
Consequently, my guests for this episode are Kelly Johnson, a scholar/theologian, Kyle Childress, a pastor, and Chi-Ming Chien, a layperson. They help us understand the Ekklesia Project better and its importance. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
Although I have interviewed Melissa Rogers on her book, Faith in American Public Life, this episode will be the first in an ongoing conversation with The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, now called BJC.
The purpose of this series is to do two things. First it is to keep before you that there have always been certain Baptists who have, since their beginnings, argued for/advocated for/championed religious liberty for all people and the separation of church and state. These Baptists have done so because of their fundamental conviction that 'soul freedom' is a gift from God that enables everyone to have an active relationship with God. For these Baptists, for faith to a true faith, it must be embraced without any coercion of any kind. Since governments and religious bodies have often been the source of coerced faith, these Baptists have insisted that there must be a separation from government and institutional religious bodies.
The reason I want to keep before you the awareness of 'these certain Baptists' is for two reasons. The first is that many who are Baptist and, of course, most non-Baptists are unaware of the history of Baptist's contribution to and advocacy for religious liberty for all and the separation of church and state. The second is that there are a growing number of Baptists who are a part of what is being called Christian Nationalism that have sought and continue to seek to undermine religious liberty for all and the separation of church and state.
The second reason for this series is to make you aware and educate you on specific challenges to religious liberty in government. The BJC is an excellent source for keeping you apprised of these challenges. In addition, the BJC seeks to challenge and thwart these aggression on religious liberty by actions in The Supreme Court and in Congress.
You can find the BJC at: bjconline.org
An excellent video introducing the BJC can be found on their website and here.
My guest is Amanda Tyler. Amanda is the Executive Director of the BJC. She is a member of the Texas and United States Supreme Court Bar. After graduating with a degree in foreign service from Georgetown University, Amanda worked for the BJC as an assistant to the general counsel. She left the BJC to earn her law degree from the University of Texas. Before returning to the BJC, Amanda has worked in private practice, as a law clerk for a U.S. district court judge in Dallas, and on the staff of U.S. Representative Lloyd Dogget, where she served as his district director and counsel for the Ways and Means Committee.
In addition to the resources provided by the BJC about the history of Baptists' contribution to religious liberty and the separation of church and state, numerous links can be found by Googling 'Baptists and Religious Liberty.' An excellent link is Middle Tennessee State University's The Free Speech Center: First Amendment News and Insights from MTSU. One of the resources of The Free Speech Center is The First Amendment Encyclopedia that has an article on Baptist contributions to the first amendment. That article is found here. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
The Revised Common Lectionary came about ultimately as the product of the Ecumenical Movement and the conviction that it is God's will that the Church be united--one body--the body of Christ. Specifically, it was the product of The Consultation on Common Texts which was formed by Catholic and Protestant liturgical scholars in response to the reforms in the liturgy mandated by the Second Vatican Council, especially in the area of English texts for the liturgy and then in the dissemination of the 1969 Roman Lectionary (Ordo Lectionum Missae). In 1983, The Common Lectionary was published as the outcome of the CCT’s work on the lectionary. In 1992, The Revised Common Lectionary was published in light of several years of comment and use of The Common Lectionary.
Because The Revised Common Lectionary was embraced so broadly across denominations, it moved the Ecumenical Movement forward by enabling the movement to go beyond focus on doctrine to lived and shared worship experiences. That achievement, in addition to significant improvements the RCL made over other historical lectionaries, made the RCL momentous and important.
However, since the RCL has been used/lived with/experienced now for nearly 30 years, reassessment has been occurring for some time, especially in the form of alternative lectionaries.
An article by Steve Thorngate in the October 30, 2013 issue of The Christian Century discusses some of these alternatives to the RCL.
I used the RCL during my nearly 13 years as a full-time pastor, which meant that I went through its three year cycle four times. While I found the RCL very useful and suited to my preaching abilities, I also found limitations similar to those mentioned in Thorngate's article, so the article sparked my interest. However, since the article was published just as I was leaving my pastorate, I did not get the chance to explore the alternatives it lists and discusses.
In his book, Ecclesial Reflection, Edward Farley argues that many of the problems with which theology was struggling were, in part, due to theologies dependence on a type of foundationalism Farley calls 'The House of Authority.' In light of his understanding of the Gospel, Farley critiques the House of Authority, demonstrates its necessary collapse, and offers suggestions for doing theology in a post-House of Authority ecclesia. In his book, Practicing Gospel (This is the book that inspired the name of this podcast. I named this podcast, in part, in Farley's memory since he is one of my favorite theologians.), in his three chapters on preaching, Farley argues that the lectionary is a remnant of the House of Authority and is thus, unwittingly, continuing some of the problems created by the House of Authority. Consequently, Farley urges an alternative approach to preaching.
While Farley doesn't advise an alternative lectionary, his argument rekindled my interest and curiosity about alternative lectionaries.
Each of my guests have created an alternative lectionary and are here to discuss why they each did so and what their respective lectionaries seek to do.
Dr. Rolf Jacobson is Professor of Old Testament and the Alvin N. Rogness Chair of Scripture, Theology, and Ministry at Luther Seminary. He is known for his humor and faithful biblical interpretation. With Craig Koester, he developed and supports the Narrative Lectionary. He enjoys collaborating with other teachers and pastors. His collaborative projects include The Book of Psalms (NICOT; with Beth Tanner and Nancy deClaissé-Walford), Invitation to the Psalms (with Karl Jacobson), Crazy Talk: A Not-So-Stuffy Dictionary of Theological Terms (with five fellow Luther Seminary graduates), and Crazy Book: A Not-So-Stuffy Dictionary of Biblical Terms(with Hans Wiersma and Karl Jacobon). He is also the author of The Homebrewed Christianity Guide to the Old Testament: Israel’s In-Your-Face, Holy God. His voice can be heard on two weekly preaching podcasts,
This episode is the second of what will be an ongoing series on Steady State Economics. In my mind, this approach to the economy provides the best option moving forward in light of the environmental crises developing due to approaches to the economy focused upon economic growth. One of the things that appeals to me about this approach is that it is compatible with both capitalism and socialism, so that it is adaptable and adoptable to most of the worlds existing economies. A country does not have to switch to capitalism or socialism or deal with the struggle that would be the result of debating and seeking such a switch. My guest for this episode is Dr. Brian Czech. Brian is the founder and present Executive Director of Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE). Brian’s books are listed below, but the one this interview is based upon is his Supply Shock: Economic Growth at the Crossroads and the Steady State Solution. Although Brian does not get beyond the understanding of those of us who are not economists, he provides us with a thorough and excellent understanding of the development of growth economies and why those approaches to the economy not only are not sustainable, but are the cause of the crises we are beginning to experience. Such an understanding is necessary to recognize why a Steady State Economy is an essential solution for our future. In addition to Supply Shock, Brian’s other works include: The Endangered Species Act: History, Conservation, Biology, and Public Policy Shoveling Fuel for a Runaway Train: Errant Economists, Shameful Spenders, and a Plan to Stop Them All Best of the Daly News: Selected Essays from the Leading Blog in Steady State Economics, 2010-2018 The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
As long as Biblical Storytellers are willing to be guests for this podcast, I want to have an ongoing series that enables you to enjoy this art form. There are multiple reasons why I enjoy this art form, but one of the main reasons is that it combines two ancient practices--storytelling and the public reading of scripture.
Throughout human history storytelling has played a fundamental role in human culture. It is one of humanity's oldest art forms. There has always been an entertainment dimension in story telling, but story has used to do so much more. Stories have been used to give people their sense of identity, their understanding of reality, the notion of their place in the world. Stories been used to teach, guide, enlighten, reveal, change minds, and motivate. This is only a small list of the ways story has been used.
For the Jewish and Christian heritage, story is the primary dimension of scripture. As such it is understood to be a primary means by which Jews and Christians claim to understand and experience God. Both Jews and Christians see as a central to their obligation to God the task of bearing witness to God and God's deeds. In order to fulfill that task, storytelling is necessary.
Since story makes up the primary dimension of Jewish and Christian scripture, it is not surprising that the public reading of scripture has been integral to both traditions. From the time of Moses forward, the public reading of scripture has been a part of Jewish worship, and since Christianity was birthed within Judaism, that tradition carried over has continued.
For Christian's the biblical story has an interplay of two components relating to the task of witness--the prophetic and the Gospel. In light of God's holiness and justice, the prophetic holds up a standard that calls us into question and accountability for the sinfulness, brokenness, and evil we choose to create. In light of God's loving nature, the Gospel gives reveals to us the good news that God reaches out to us for reconciliation, healing, and redemption. Christian witness to God is thus an interplay of being prophetic and proclaiming the Gospel.
To give us an example of how biblical storytelling is a means of the interplay of these two components, especially as the biblical story relates to present circumstances and events is my guest, Drew Willard. Drew Willard is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ, seeking to be what Dennis Dewey of the Network of Biblical Storytellers, Int. calls a “storyvangelist”. Biblical storytelling and graphic arts have been important interpretive skills he brings to ministry. Since the 1990s, he has been performing his own paraphrased translations of the Gospels – notably at 19 venues while on a roadtrip in 2007. He has used his drawings for PowerPoint presentations to accompany Lenten readings, as well as for bulletin cover illustrations. He has organized and participated in interfaith worship events – including “Evenings of Sacred Storytelling” with Jewish and Muslim storytellers. While on sabbatical in 2017, he was an artist-in-residence at the Grunewald Guild in Washington state. In the winter of 2019, he was a Fringe Teller at the Florida Storytelling Association annual festival in Mt Dora, FL and that summer, he performed as a Co-Creator at the Wild Goose Festival in Asheville, NC. A collection of Drew’s paraphrased translations and artwork Gospel Pilgrimage Stories was published in 2017 by Westbow. He is available for preaching, teaching, drawing & storytelling by mutual agreement.
Gospel Pilgrim Storyteller (website)
https://www.gospelpilgrimstoryteller.com/
Drew Willard - Youtube (sample stories) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-H-9FKwcydjBhTKcI9-7hg Gospel Pilgrimage Storytelling (program recitations) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdkJueeuyOQ&list=PLP3PRBPVgY6WuGjmoD-UwVSEtMMtbPF5c
Gospel Pilgrimage Stories (book) Westbow [ISBN-13: 978-1512777222] https://www.
As I say in the interview, I am always thankful for those who open me to new insights and possibilities, especially as those insights and possibilities relate to my faith and enable me more fully to experience God, even if the terms they/she/he use(s) are not the same as mine. Judaism and Christianity have always been influenced/shaped by and borrowed concepts, ideas, and practices from other peoples, creatively adopting and adapting those things, sometimes even transforming them into something new.
Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:45 says that God makes God's sun to rise and gives rain to us all. For me that is one of the ways of God expressing God's love for us all. In loving us all, God has given us each and all something to share with each other and together. So, part of what this podcast seeks to do is to build caring and opened bridges between those of us who are Christians and others to listen and find ways to share together ideas, practices, and experiences that make the world better and edify us all. Doing so seems to be a very Christian practice to me, although Christians are not the only ones who do such practices, as you will learn from this interview.
A person in my life who has opened me to new insights and possibilities in a loving and caring way is Michael Moses. I came to know Michael during my efforts at initiating the Institute for Christianity and the Arts at Palm Beach Atlantic College. In exploring the art form of liturgical dance, I developed a relationship with one of the dance instructors at the college. She was working with Michael in having him play percussion for rehearsals and performances. Realizing the connection with my interests, she introduced me to Michael. After getting to know him, he became a regular guest in both my Christianity and the Arts and Worship courses that I offered.
Michael's heritage is Jewish and he lives in and through that heritage, but his own spiritual journey and experiences have led him to seek a broader, more inclusive spirituality. He says that he is guided by his personal trinity of an inclusive spirituality, the love of the arts, and the love of and care for the planet and its environment.
One of the opening things for me is that Michael has chosen to explore his spirituality especially through sound and rhythm. His concepts of the limitation of music, the importance of silence following a performance, the use of words with no meaning, and the ability of instrumental music to allow people to bring and connect with their own spirituality are wonderful insights that provide new possibilities for worship and communication.
Below are links to learn more about Michael and his work:
For those that want to hear more of the music from KABU. https://www.musicartdesign.com/kabu.html (feel free to download music if you would like)
To hear Carolyn Forche's piece in full (16 minutes). https://www.musicartdesign.com/media/Angel.mp3 This link is a music video Michael produced for a friend's song called Johnny Spirit.... It's a young man's search for self and spirit. https://www.musicartdesign.com/video/johnny_spirit.mp4
This is a link to Michael's Bio and background. https://www.musicartdesign.com/CV.pdf
The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
The challenge of Christianity and Christian churches in the United States and Europe is that traditional churches and denominational organizations are struggling. The gap between growth of the population as a whole and the number of those identifying themselves as Christians is increasing. In addition, attendance in 'traditional' denominational churches has been on the decline for over two decades. Hundreds of churches each year are closing. The result of the decline has created strain on denominational agencies. Since individual church budgets have declined because of the decline in attendance, denominational organizations, dependent upon church budgets, greatly have had to reduce their own staff, ministry, and budgets. These declines and closings are happening across the denominational and theological spectrum. As the other-than-Christian population continues to outdistance the Christian population, there is a rise in the numbers of those identifying themselves as the 'nones,' meaning that they do not identify with any organized religious group. 'Spiritual' but not 'religious' is a common expression of identity.
What does all of this mean for Christianity and for churches and denominations in the United States? How is God moving and leading during this time? What are we as Christians and churches supposed to do and to be in the context of these challenges? These are the sorts of questions to which we all, as Christians, are seeking to find answers. Consequently, there is, in an ironic way, or maybe even in a divinely providential way, a shared (dare I say 'united') conversation going on among us across the Christian spectrum.
Some, like Stanley Hauerwas, make the case that as Christianity and the Church become less connected to, disentangled from, and disassociated with the dominant culture and politics of the nation, the better able they are to be more truly Christian the church, since the dominant culture and politics of a nation is always corrupting.
Others, in seeing every problem and challenge as also an opportunity, envision, with eagerness, the possibility of the flourishing of new creativity within and from churches and Christian organizations. There is great deal of experimentation taking place. One such effort is Fresh Expressions. It is an effort that began in England, but has also taken root here in the United States.
My guest is Dr. Chris Backert, who is the National Director of Fresh Expressions US. In addition to his role as National Director of Fresh Expressions US, he serves with the Baptist General Association of Virginia in the area of growth and venture development. He also serves as National Director for both Ecclesia, a US network of missional churches, as well as Missio Alliance. Previously, he served as pastor of New Life Christian Fellowship, a large university congregation in Blacksburg, Virginia and has been involved in the planting of three new congregations. Chris holds a D.Min. in Missional Church Leadership from Fuller Theological Seminary.
You can learn more about Fresh Expressions, Chris, and his work at the Fresh Expressions' website: freshexpressionus.org.
In addition, an excellent book that gives a thorough understanding of this creative effort and how it is done is: From the Steeple to the Street: Innovating Mission and Ministry through Fresh Expressions of the Church by Dr. Travis Collins who is Fresh Expressions' Director of Mission Advancement and Southeast Regional Coordinator. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
Even though great progress has been made addressing the spread of Human Immunodeficiency Virus and in treating those who have been infected with it, thousands are still being infected each year and people are still dying from it. To bring us up to date on this disease and issues related to it, such as Hepatitis C and Opioid addiction, and to learn how we, as Christians, can join with those who have or are effected in some way by the disease to do ministry, I have turned to Wayne Smith. Wayne is the founder of Samaritan Ministry, which is a ministry out of Central Baptist Bearden in Knoxville, TN.
You can learn more about Wayne and Samaritan Ministry at the excellent resource: samaritancentral.org.
Other important resources Wayne mentions in the interview are:
aidsvu.org
hiv.gov
Burden of a Secret: The Story of Truth and Mercy in the Face of AIDS by Jimmy Allen
Breaking the Conspiracy of Silence: Christian Churches and the Global AIDS Crisis by Donald E. Messer
This I Know: A Simple Biblical Defense for LGBTQ Christians by Jim Dant
Changing Our Mind: Definitive 3rd of the Landmark Call for Inclusion of LGBTQ Christians with Response to Critics by David P. Gushee The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
My guest for this episode is Dr. Melissa Rogers. Dr. Rogers was Associate General Counsel then General Counsel for the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. Following this, she became Executive Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships during the Obama administration and Special Assistant to President Obama.
Questions about the place of religion in American public life are continuously being raised and debated. Confusion and misconceptions abound. A significant part of what divides us in the political and cultural situation in our nation at this time revolves around religious liberty and plurality.
Dr. Rogers has provided an excellent resource to guide us on the confusing and complex issues relating to government and religion, religious liberty, and the separation of church and state in her recently published book, Faith in American Public Life (Baylor University Press, 2019). This book is the subject of my discussion with Dr. Rogers.
My kind of Baptists have, since the time before the American Revolution, been advocates for and active in issues of religious liberty (I use the phrase, 'My kind of Baptists' because there are many different kinds of Baptists and not all support religious liberty, plurality, and the separation of church and state). The existence of the Baptist Joint Committee is a key example of that advocacy and activity. Even though Dr. Rogers is no longer with the BJC, this episode serves as the first in an ongoing series I will have with the BJC about religious liberty and the policies and laws constantly arising concerning it.
Dr. Rogers is presently Visiting Professor at Wake Forest University and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
This episode is the first in my series, 'Christian Music not Played on Christian Radio.' Since the series was inspired in part by my guest, I thought it appropriate to have him begin the series.
My guest is Adam Whipple. I learned about and was able to connect with Adam through his pastor and my former board chair, Dr. Wade Bibb. Wade is presently pastor of Central Baptist Bearden, in Knoxville, TN. As so many churches are doing, Central Baptist Bearden is seeking to navigate the challenges that have come about with the rise of 'contemporary' Christian music and its 'conflict' with 'traditional' Christian music. Because Central Baptist Bearden is large enough and has the resources, it has services devoted to each style. Consequently, Wade is in conversation with musicians from each style.
Wade and I were discussing this challenge and he told of an occasion when he asked one of the 'contemporary' musicians where the laments and the contemplative/reflective songs were in 'contemporary' Christian music. The answer given was that those songs are there, but they are not heard on Christian radio. The musician/composer Wade was speaking to and talking about was Adam.
As you will hear in this episode, Adam offers important insights into the nature and breadth of 'contemporary' Christian music and into a Christian perspective on the interpretation of all art.
As you will also hear, Adam blends an eclectic, highly literate brand of folk rock with a more traditional Appalachian sound. His music has been described as equal parts Rich Mullins and Garrison Keillor and compared to Andrew Peterson, Paul Simon, and Counting Crows.
Adam's latest record is The Broken Season, released in 2018 to critical acclaim.
In addition to being a musician and composer, Adam is also an artist, photographer, poet, and writer. He has written for The Rabbit Room, Analogue, and Curator magazine.
Adam is one of the editors for the arts journal and growing creative community, Foundling House, base in Knoxville, TN.
You can learn more about Adam, how to book a performance, and how to purchase his albums at his website: adamwhipple.com
You can learn more about Foundling House and experience the art provided there by going to its website: foundlinghouse.com The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
My guest for this episode is The Reverend Doctor Mae Elise Cannon. Dr. Cannon is an author of six books, a speaker, advocate, and the Executive Director of Churches for Middle East Peace.
Dr.Cannon is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC). Her ministry and professional background includes serving as the Senior Director of Advocacy and Outreach for World Vision-US, the executive pastor of Hillside Covenant Church (Walnut Creek, California), Director of Development and Transformation for Extension Ministries at Willow Creek Community Church (Barrington, Illinois), and as a consultant to the Middle East for child advocacy issues for Compassion International.
She earned doctorates in History (Ph.D) and Spiritual Formation (D. Min). Her Ph.D focused on American History with the minor in Middle Eastern studies from the University of California – Davis, focusing her dissertation on the history of the American Protestant church in Israel and Palestine. Cannon’s Doctorate of Ministry in Spiritual Formation is from Northern Theological Seminary. Cannon holds an M.Div. From North Park Theological Seminary, an M.B.A. from North Park University’s School of Business and Nonprofit Management, and an M.A. in bioethics from Trinity International University. Cannon completed her Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Chicago in History, Philosophy, Social Studies, of Science and Medicine.
I will have more interviews with Dr. Cannon about some of her books and her work with peacebuilding, especially in the Middle East. However, I wanted to begin with a conversation about her first book, Social Justice Handbook: Small Steps for a Better World.
Most of us who are caring people want to live our lives is ways that help make our world a better place. We want to participate in and advance the causes of justice, compassion, and caring so that there are less of such things as poverty, homelessness, hunger, injustice, crime, violence, and war. Often, however, the daily demands of life absorb our energies and hinder us from being involved. In addition, so many of the issues that we care about are so complex we are uncertain about how we can be involved and whether our efforts will matter.
What Dr. Cannon does in Social Justice Handbook: Small Steps for a Better World is to provide us with a resource so that we can know how to become involved in something that matters to us which we believe will help make the world more just, compassionate, and caring. As the subtitle indicates, small steps do matter and make a difference. Even though this work is now ten years old, I wanted you, as my audience, to know of this resource because of its continued usefulness in helping us learn about issues that concern us and becoming aware of specific initial steps we can take to get involved.
In the first part of the book, Dr. Cannon gives us an orientation about what social justice is and involves. My interview with her focuses on this part.
In the second part of the book (which is especially why I wanted you to know of this resource), she provides an encyclopedic list of social issues. For each issue she gives an introduction to the issue; resources, such as books and websites, for learning more about the issue; and then specific steps one can take to become involved with that issue.
You can learn more about Dr. Cannon, her books, how to contact her, and how to arrange for her come and speak for your organization from her website:
maecannon.com
You can learn more about the work of Churches for Middle East Peace from its website:
cmep.org
Other books by Dr. Cannon on to which she contributed are:
Forgive Us: Confessions of a Complicated Faith
A Land Full of God: Christian Perspectives on The Holy Land
Just Spirituality: How Faith Practices Fuel Social Action
Evangelical Theologies of Liberation and Justice
Beyond Hashtag Activism: Comprehensive Justice in a Complicated Age
You may notice that I have changed the title of this series slightly. Formerly, I called it Peacemaking. However, I have learned from Rabbi Amy Eilberg's wonderful book, From Enemy to Friend: Jewish Wisdom and the Pursuit of Peace, that many extensively involved in peace efforts make a distinction in those efforts between three terms. 'Peacekeeping' is used to refer to military intervention for the purpose of ending violence and keeping it in check. 'Peacemaking' is used primarily to refer to large-group, national, and international efforts at diplomacy. 'Peacebuilding' however, refers to efforts on any level, but especially on the personal level of developing habits, relationship skills, and relationships that work to prevent violence coming about. This last definition fits more closely what I am seeking to explore in the conversations I am having with peace activists from the different world religions and humanist perspectives. I am wanting to enable you to be aware that there are peace activists in all of the world's different faiths and worldviews. I am also wanting us all to become aware of the peacebuilding resources that come from each of the world's faiths and worldviews.
In this episode I look at peacebuilding resources from Judaism. On the day this episode was recorded it was Holocaust Remembrance Day. If there ever is a reason for us to be urgently working at peacebuilding, it is the memory of the Holocaust! The wisdom and resources from Judaism that have come in response to that experience are profound and vital for us all in peacebuilding.
My guest for this episode is Rabbi Nancy Fuchs Kreimer. Rabbi Kreimer has been involved in interfaith communication and peacebuilding efforts for nearly four decades. She has been so creative, innovative, and extensively involved in so many important peacebuilding conversations and projects, one simply can Google her name and vast information and resources are available.
Rabbi Kreimer is a part of Reconstructionist Judaism. She received her rabbinical training at Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and is now Associate Professor Emeritus at that College. She earned her Ph.D. in Religious Studies at Temple University.
I drew my questions for Rabbi Kreimer from three sources: The book she co-authored with Kelly James Clark and Aziz Abu Sarah, titled, Strangers, Neighbors, Friends: Muslim-Christian-Jewish Reflections on Compassion and Peace; Her delightful book, Parenting as a Spiritual Journey: Deepening Ordinary and Extraordinary Events into Sacred Occasions; and the Reconstructing Judaism website ( reconstructingjudaism.org ) where you can learn more about Rabbi Kreimer, the projects in which she is involved, and the resource from Judaism that are vital for peacebuilding. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
This episode is the second part of a conversation I have with Dr. Marc Mullinax, who is Professor of Religion at Mars Hill University in Mars Hill, North Carolina and who is also a charter member of the creative and progressive church, Circle of Mercy.
In Part I Marc and I explored and discussed our awareness that Christians across the theological spectrum in the United States are experiencing a deep sense of anxiety. Marc proposed that we each have a worldview that gives order and guidance to our experiences, even to what we anticipate for the future. It is when our worldview is interrupted for by something significant that we experience anxiety. In my mind this worldview interruption comes with the awareness that Christianity is losing its place as the dominant culture of our nation. For progressive Christians, our anxiety was heightened by the election of President Trump and has the possibility of continuing to increase with the possibility of his re-election.
In response, Marc offers a second kind of interruption--an intentional interruption provided by the spiritual resources in all religions and faiths. This second, intentional interruption comes in the form of prayer, meditation, and practices. For the Christian, these practices arise out of our beliefs in the resurrection and are ways of practicing that resurrection in our lives and congregations. As Marc says, progressive churches have a golden moment to develop the kind of intentional interruption and resilience helpful for addressing our anxiety and the situation of our times.
Marc provides sixteen insights and practices to guide our actions and thoughts and uses the congregation he attends, Circle of Mercy . These sixteen insights and practices can be reviewed on YouTube by searching for the title, 'Being the Church in Anxious Times.' youtu.be/UNR804DIG-s
To have a conversation with Marc, you can reach him at mmullinax@mhu.edu.
Again, on a separate note, to repeat the promo given in Part 1, Marc has a new book coming out entitled,Tao te Ching: Power for the Peaceful to be published by Fortress Press. In The Atlantic’s September 2018 issue, editors reported out results of “The Big Question” they had asked a couple months earlier on Twitter: “What book or article would you make required reading for everyone on Earth?” Tao te Ching was the fourth most-popular text of the responses, after Fahrenheit 451, Silent Spring and The Brothers Karamazov. About the book, Marc says, 'This English translation of Tao te Ching is for modern readers, one that poses questions and answers about how to live in peace and intentionally in chaotic times. I have made it my quest to provide a scholarly translation, but to render it in a vernacular that can also surprise as it liberates the intents of the Chinese text.' You can anticipate a future conversation with Marc about this work! The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
This episode is the first of a two part conversation I have with Dr. Marc Mullinax who is Professor of Religion at Mars Hill University in Mars Hill, North Carolina and who is also a charter member of the creative and progressive church, Circle of Mercy, in Asheville, North Carolina.
Even before, but now enhanced by, the experiences with the Coronavirus, Christians across the theological spectrum have been experiencing a deep sense of anxiety. In this episode, we explore and discuss the reasons for that anxiety. Marc roots the anxiety in the interruption of our worldview.
In Part 2, Marc offers sixteen insights and practices, that are ways of practicing the resurrection in which we believe, to address that anxiety, especially for progressive churches. He draws on his own experiences with the congregation he attends, Circle of Mercy.
For those who wish to have further conversation with Marc, he can be reached at mmullinax@mhu.edu.
On a separate note, Marc has a new book coming out entitledTao te Ching: Power for the Peaceful to be published by Fortress Press late this year or early next year. As the title shows, the book relates to my series on peacemaking/peacebuilding, so expect a future conversation with Marc about his new work. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
The Coronavirus has played havoc with my interviewing schedule. Melissa Rogers was to be my next episode, and she may be my next guest, but I had to cancel her interview due to the travel restrictions caused by the virus. So, while I am regrouping and rescheduling and had the ideas in this episode on my mind, I decided to present them now.
Solving the pandemic and ending the deaths of people caused by the coronavirus is the major problem facing our globe at the present, but this problem has created a second dire problem, which is the threat of the collapse of national economies. These two problems have created a division within the United States over which is the primary problem to solve. Some fear that the collapse of the economy could be worse than the effects of the virus.
We need a way forward that helps us solve both problems. In this episode I offer my thoughts on two sets of resources that I believe can help us more forward more productively. They are Glen Stassen's seven steps to peacemaking in his book, Just Peacemaking: A New Paradigm for the Ethics of Peace and War, and the creative thinking tools of such people as Edward de Bono, Michael Michalko, and the ideas of William McDonough and Michael Braungart. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
This episode begins a series on peacemaking. I learned of the book, Peacemaking and the Challenge of Violence in World Religions by Drs. Irfan Omar and Michael Duffey. The authors are professors in the Department of Theology at Marquette University. In conjunction with the book, the authors held a one-day symposium by the same title. The book (and symposium) consists of seven scholars representing seven of the world's religions. Each scholar is also a practitioner of the religion she or he represents. What each scholar/practitioner provided was an essay/presentation on resources for peacemaking from her or his religion. This essay/presentation was followed by a response from two of the other participants.
I thought this book provided an excellent model for developing my series. I will be seeking to have conversations with scholar/practitioners of peacemaking from different world religions, discussing the resources from my guest's faith that contribute to peacemaking and her or his own peacemaking efforts/experiences.
My guest today is one of the contributors from the book. Dr. Tink Tinker is Emeritus Professor in the Iliff School of Theology, a Methodist graduate school in Denver Colorado. Dr. Tinker is a member of the wazhazhe, Osage Nation. He teaches courses in American Indian cultures, history, and religious traditions; cross-cultural and Third-World theologies; and justice and peace studies and is a frequent speaker on these topics both in the U.S. and internationally. His publications include American Indian Liberation: A Theology of Sovereignty (2008); Spirit and Resistance: Political Theology and American Indian Liberation (2004); and Missionary Conquest: The Gospel and Native American Genocide (1993). He co-authored A Native American Theology (2001); and he is co-editor of Native Voices: American Indian Identity and Resistance (2003), and Fortress Press’ The Peoples’ Companion to the Bible (2008).
The Tink Tinker Program Endowment Fund was launched following the celebration of Tink's career. Donations can be make to this fund here.
The title of his contribution to Peacemaking and the Challenge of Violence in World Religions is, 'The Irrelevance of euro-christian Dichotomies for Indigenous Peoples: Beyond Nonviolence to a Vision of Comic Balance (Chapter 7).' The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
In this episode I begin a series of conversations with other-than-Christian folks. As the dominant religion in the United States, Christianity has often acted oppressively and hostilely to non-Christian groups. The Christian Left has contributed to those actions with its tendency toward moral and academic elitism and with its complicity in supporting oppressive and hostile structures. Some confessing and repenting on our part as Christians needs to occur as well as some efforts at taking steps to bring healing and reconciliation. Initiating such steps in its on modest way is, in part, what this on-going series is intended to begin.
As I said in the trailer for this episode at the end of the last episode, doing this series connects two values of my own experience that overlap. The first value is my heritage as the type of Baptist I was raised to be. In that Baptist tradition, cooperation on what one has in common with another is more important and useful than breaking or excluding relationships due to differences. A lot can be accomplished with others, despite significant differences, that cannot be achieved alone which makes the things better locally, nationally, and globally when such cooperation is undertaken. That desire for cooperation has not always been extended, but can and should be extended beyond fellow Baptists or Christians to all people of good will seeking to increase the common good. The second value is my own patriotism. Among the many things about my nation about which I am thankful and value deeply is its vision of creating a place where people of radically differing faiths/world views/values/perspectives/interests/etc. can live together in peace and even harmony without resorting to violence and war. However, to be a citizen of such a nation requires certain habits and people skills to realize that cultural environment and goal. Included among these habits and people skills are behaviors such as respect, tolerance, and peacemaking. Such actions help contribute to the declared purpose of our nation stated in our Constitution to establish a more perfect union. The values of my kind of Baptists and that of our nation have worked hand in hand in seeking to realize these goals. Having conversations with others of significant difference that seek understanding, respect, and areas of commonality and cooperation is one way to help realize both faith and national goals.
A group with whom Christians have had especially tragic and terrible experiences are those from Pagan communities. Witch trials are among the more notable examples. Large groups of Christians assume that paganism is synonymous with satanism. To help bring some clarity, dispel misunderstanding, and to begin to build bridges of reconciliation and respect, I want to introduce to you the gracious and delightful Byron Ballard, Wiccan High Priestess. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
In this episode I have a conversation with the Reverend Robert Randolph. He was a pastor who, in his early 30s had two strokes. He discusses his experience of surviving and of continuing in ministry as a chaplain. He also gives us a clearer understanding about strokes and insight into the experiences of stroke survivors. In doing this Robert equips us and enables us more fully, in both a caring and encouraging way, to relate to and journey along side of stroke survivors.
Robert has written an article that gives the details he discusses in the interview: 'Out of Exile: A Spiritual View of Stroke Recovery,' Nurturing Faith, Vol. 39, Issue 2, March/April 2020, pp. 40-41. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
In this episode I begin the first of what will be a series of conversations with Steady State economists. Steady State Economics is an alternative to both Neoclassical free-market capitalism and socialism, which, if I understand Steady State economists correctly, they classify as being growth-oriented economies. I have been persuaded by Steady State economists description of the limitations of existing approaches to the economy, particularly in light of climate change, pollution, and global poverty, and by what they have to offer as solutions. Many people do not know of this alternative, so I hope to help bring about greater awareness of this type of economy through an on-going dialogue over time with various Steady State economists and advocates.
My guest is Rob Dietz, who was the Executive Director for Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE) and is presently Program Director at Post Carbon Institute. You can learn more about CASSE at steadystate.org and Post Carbon Institute at postcarbon.org.
I am interviewing Rob about the book he co-authored with Dan O'Neill called Enough Is Enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources. The music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project. You can learn more about the album and the Worship Project at theportersgate.com.
In this episode, my guest, Donna Marie Todd, treats us to the wonderful art form of storytelling. Donna Marie calls herself a singer of stories. Stories are one of the most ancient forms of entertainment, education, and insight. The International Storytelling Festival held in Jonesboro, Tennessee each year celebrates this art form.
In this episode, Donna Marie introduces us to a particular kind of storytelling called Biblical storytelling. Jewish and Christian scripture, referred to by Christians as the Bible, is full of stories and the overall arch of Jewish and Christian scripture is that of story. Christian hymns such as 'I Love to Tell the Story,' 'Tell Me the Story of Jesus,' and 'I Will Sing the Wondrous Story' make reference to that overarching story.
Jewish Rabbis use story extensively as commentary on the Torah and as a tool for moral instruction. Rabbi Jesus followed that tradition in his use of parables.
In Biblical storytelling, the storyteller uses a passage of scripture as the basis for the story. Sometimes the passage is quoted verbatim with vocal and bodily dramatic emphases. Sometimes the scripture passage is blended with creative additions or paraphrased in creative ways. In all of its forms, Biblical storytelling brings insight out of the passage that causes 'Ah!' and 'A-ha!' moments.
In this episode, Donna Marie tells us the story of David, Bathsheba, and Uriah.
You can learn more about Donna Marie on her website at donnamarietodd.com
Donna Marie is also the editor of The Biblical Storyteller.
You can learn more about Network of Biblical Storytellers International and get a subscription to The Biblical Storyteller on their website: nbsint.org
The music from this episode comes from the CD, Faith of Our Fathers: An Acoustic Celebration of Old Hymns which Donna Marie made in partnership with Will Straughan and Chris Rosser, and is used by permission.
In this episode I explain why I am doing this show and the ideas and experiences that are shaping my thinking and approach. I describe the cultural, political, and theological contexts that motivate me.
The music for the episode is the anthem, 'A Place at the Table,' words by Shirley Erena Murray, music by Mary McDonald, published by Hope Publishing Company and is used by permission.
This episode is a continuation of the discussion on racial reconciliation. My guest for this episode is Dr. Michael Hawn who is University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Church Music and Adjunct Professor and Director of the Doctor of Pastoral Music Program in the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. Dr. Hawn discusses cross-cultural worship and especially the use of music as a valence or combining and binding medium for facilitating racial reconciliation through cross-cultural worship. He establishes the practice of cross-cultural worship in the event of the first Christian disciples at Pentecost, which was a boundary-crossing experience. Dr. Hawn discusses many of the concepts and practices developed in his book, One Bread, One Body: Exploring Cultural Diversity in Worship.
The music for the episode is the anthem, 'A Place at the Table,' words by Shirley Erena Murray, music by Mary McDonald, published by Hope Publishing Company and is used by permission.
In this first episode of Practicing Gospel, my guests are Father Jim Abbott, a retired Episcopal priest, Tyrone Greenley, Director of Christians for a United Community, and Dr. Jim McCoy, former pastor of First Baptist Church, Weaverville, NC. Each of my guest have long been active in racial reconciliation both in their personal and professional lives. Based upon their experiences, they are with me to discuss issues involved in engaging in racial reconciliation, especially in light of the present political climate in which racist and hate groups have been emboldened by the election of President Trump. Each are involved in the organization, Christians from a United Community, which is an organization that seeks to provide occasions, opportunities, and resources for believers from various denominations, cultures, and traditions to come together for shared worship, reflection, service, and fellowship.
You can learn more about Christians for a United Community on their facebook page.
The music for the episode is the anthem, 'A Place at the Table,' words by Shirley Erena Murray, music by Mary McDonald, published by Hope Publishing Company and is used by permission.