On this episode, we are joined by Christena Cleveland, a social psychologist, public theologian, author, and activist. She is the founder and director of the Center for Justice + Renewal as well as its sister organization, Sacred Folk.

Christena has been on a living pilgrimage of transformation recently—the decolonizing pilgrimage. One of the products of this transformational journey was Christena’s awe-inspiring book, God is a Black Woman, which dropped onto bookstore shelves in February 2022. She’s also built a powerful Patreon community that is doing the work of decolonizing their faith and their minds. 

This is the era we are in. It is time to decolonize our minds.

We’d love to hear your thoughts. Tweet to Lisa @LisaSHarper or to Freedom Road at @FREEDOMROADUS. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to The Truth Is... And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think! 

www.christenacleveland.com

www.justiceandrenewal.org

www.christenacleveland.com/god-is-a-black-woman

twitter.com/lisasharper

twitter.com/FreedomRoadus

lisasharonharper.substack.com/

Christena Cleveland: I'm Too Sacred For This

This podcast is a forum for experiences that build common understanding, common commitment and common action. It is produced each month by FreedomRoad.us, and hosted by Lisa Sharon Harper.

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In this episode we are joined by theologian and author, Dr. Grace Ji-Sun Kim. Dr. Kim is Professor of Theology at Earlham School of Religion and the author or editor of 24 books, including: Surviving God, Spirit Life; Invisible; Hope in Disarray; Keeping Hope Alive and Reimagining Spirit. She is a co-editor for the Palgrave Macmillan Book Series, “Asian Christianity in the Diaspora” and she is the host of Madang podcast, which holds conversations on Christianity, religion and culture. Madang is hosted by Christian Century Magazine. Dr. Kim’s most recent book, When God Became White is already creating a stir and we’re here for it!

We’d love to hear your thoughts. Thread or Insta Lisa @lisasharper or to Freedom Road @freedomroad.us. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to freedomroad.substack.com. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think!

www.threads.net/@lisasharper

www.threads.net/@freedomroad.us

freedomroad.substack.com

gracejisunkim.wordpress.com/

www.amazon.com/When-God-Became-White-Christianity-ebook/dp/B0CKYJ3PGH?ref_=ast_author_mpb

Grace Ji-Sun Kim, When God Became White

This episode comes to you in partnership with Inverse Podcast. The diverse InVerse podcast community explores how the Scriptures can turn the world upside down, or be weaponized to uphold the status quo. So, this episode we’re going to talk the “T” word—theology. Theology is simply how we understand God and our relationship with God. Christian social ethics teaches that our understanding of God forms the basis for everything we do in the world. It impacts everything.

This will we be a very special deep dive into the theo-ethical questions rising in the context of the genocide in Gaza. We will talk with three leading Palestinian Christian theologians as they approach Good Friday and Easter Sunday in the context of genocide.

Rev. Dr Mitri Raheb is Founder and President of Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem. The most widely published Palestinian theologian to date, Dr. Raheb is the author and editor of 50 books including: Decolonizing Palestine: The Land, The People, The Bible; In the Eye of the Storm: Middle Eastern Christians in an Age of Empire and Faith in the Face of Empire: The Bible through Palestinian Eyes—among many, many others.

Rev. Dr. Muther Isaac is Pastor of the Christmas Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem and Dean of Bethlehem Bible College. Rev. Dr. Munther is the author of The Other Side of the Wall: A Palestinian Christian Narrative of Lament and Hope.

Omar Haramy, is an Arab, Palestinian, Jerusalemite, Christian, and Greek Orthodox. Since 2017, Omar has served as the director of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center. Sabeel is a Palestinian ecumenical grassroots liberation theology movement that deepens the faith of Palestinian Christians, promotes unity among them, and guides them to engage for justice and peace. Omar also serves on the Kairos Palestine steering committee.

Our Inverse Podcast cohost today will be Jarrod McKenna, a peace award winning Australian pastor and social change educator who has been described by American Civil Rights legend Rev. Jim Lawson as “an expert in nonviolent social change”. Jarrod is the Founding Director of “Common Grace” that represents over 65,000 Christians in Australia pursuing “Jesus and justice” and serves with Lisa as one of the co-founders of the global GazaCeasefirePilgrimage.com movement that is now found on every continent, including Antarctica, in over 150 cities around the world.

We’d love to hear your thoughts. Thread or Insta Lisa @lisasharper or to Freedom Road @freedomroad.us. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to freedomroad.substack.com. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think!

www.threads.net/@lisasharper

www.threads.net/@freedomroad.us

freedomroad.substack.com

www.inversebible.org/podcasts

www.gazaceasefirepilgrimage.com/

The Cross, The Resurrection and Gaza

This episode comes to you in partnership with The Historic African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In the spirit of the Historic Black Church, which has begun to rise up and call for a ceasefire in Gaza, St. Thomas’s 17th rector, The Very Rev. Canon Martini Shaw and his team decided to focus the church’s Lenten season on understanding what’s going on in Gaza and why it matters for our faith. So, a portion of this episode has been listened to by the St. Thomas’s Community!

Last episode we spoke with historian Dr. Rashid Khalidi to help us understand “What’s going on?” This episode we spoke with Lisa's friend and brother, Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac, Pastor of the Christmas Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem and Dean of Bethlehem Bible College. You may have seen the video of Dr. Isaac’s viral Christmas Eve sermon. If not, after listening to this conversation, the next thing you do must be to listen to that sermon. It as a theological plea to the global church to intervene in the ongoing genocide of Dr. Isaac’s people—the Palestinian people. Rev. Dr. Munther is the author of The Other Side of the Wall: A Palestinian Christian Narrative of Lament and Hope.

We’d love to hear your thoughts. Thread or Insta Lisa @lisasharper or to Freedom Road @freedomroad.us. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to freedomroad.substack.com. And keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think!

www.threads.net/@lisasharper

www.threads.net/@freedomroad.us

freedomroad.substack.com

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md_hw_A-oIs

www.ivpress.com/the-other-side-of-the-wall

www.aecst.org/

Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac “Jesus Under the Rubble”

This special episode comes to you in partnership The Historic African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas. In the spirit of the Black Church, which has begun to rise up and call for a ceasefire in Gaza, St. Thomas’s 17th rector, The Very Rev. Canon Martini Shaw and his team decided to focus the church’s Lenten season on understanding what’s going on in Gaza. So, a portion of this episode has been listened to by the parishioners of Historic African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas Church!

When considering who should help us understand “What’s going on?” there couldn't be anyone better than the author of The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine, Palestinian historian Dr. Rashid Khalidi (Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University in NYC). Dr. Khalidi is the author of eight books, in addition to The Hundred Years’ War, including: Palestinian Identity, Brokers of Deceit, and The Iron Cage.

We’d love to hear your thoughts. Thread or Insta Lisa @lisasharper or to Freedom Road @freedomroad.us. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to freedomroad.substack.com. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think!

www.threads.net/@lisasharper

www.threads.net/@freedomroad.us

freedomroad.substack.com

www.aecst.org

us.macmillan.com/books/9781627798556/thehundredyearswaronpalestine

history.columbia.edu/person/khalidi-rashid/

Rashid Khalidi “The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine”

In this critical election year where the most dedicated base for the GOP candidate is a rising tide of White Christian Nationalism within the evangelical community, we must take the time to understand it. So, we invited the producer/director of God & Country, Dan Partland, to join us in conversation. Based on the book, The Power Worshipers by Katherine Stewart, God & Country focuses in on the inner-workings of the White Christian Nationalism Movement, the decision-makers and the funders.

We’d love to hear your thoughts. Thread or Insta Lisa @lisasharper or to Freedom Road @freedomroad.us. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to freedomroad.substack.com. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think!

www.threads.net/@lisasharper

www.threads.net/@freedomroad.us

freedomroad.substack.com

godandcountrythemovie.com/

godandcountrythemovie.com/filmmakers/

Christena Cleveland: I'm Too Sacred For This

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