Freedom Loves Company

Carter Warden is a former conservative pastor of 25 years, now openly atheist. Using the pseudonym “Adam Mann”, he was a founder of The Clergy Project, an on-line support group for clergy who no longer believe the doctrines of the churches they serve. “Adam” was one of the original five interviewees in the 2010 Dennett-LaScola article, “Preachers who are not Believers.” While still in ministry, he was interviewed undercover by ABC World News Tonight and the Canadian Broadcasting Company.

Last fall he "came out" publicly as an atheist at the Freedom From Religion Foundation's annual gathering. A press release was picked up by the Johnson City Press and Carter was outed to his church, friends, and extended family. In this interview, he talks about that experience, the challenge facing clergy who no longer believe yet who make a living for their families by serving their churches, and the liberation when people are able to be honest with themselves and others about what they really believe.

Hear previous interviews on Progressive Spirit with individuals connected to the Clergy Project including Linda LaScola, Daniel Dennett, Dan Barker, Gretta Vosper, Ryan Bell, David Hayward, Pat Green, John Loftus, Bart Campolo, and Jerry DeWitt.

Tony Campolo has been a fixture in the evangelical Christian scene for decades. For the past 30 years his son, Bart has followed in his footsteps. Their brand of Christianity is evangelical (personal salvation through Jesus) but with an emphasis on social justice and care for least of these.

Just over two years ago, Bart decided to tell his parents that he no longer could believe in God. Out of this painful and liberating revelation is their story, the film, Far From the Tree, and the book, Why I Left: Why I Stayed: Conversations on Christianity Between an Evangelical Father and His Humanist Son.

Bart is still in ministry. It isn’t Christianity, however. He is the University of Southern California’s first Humanist Chaplain. He speaks with me about what happens in many families when religion divides. Many families stop talking. The Campolos keep the conversation going.

(This is the 52 minute podcast version for Beloved Community)

In this episode we discuss a condition that is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of millions of people. It is a condition that is completely preventable. Hunger.

Why are so many people in the world…why is anyone in the world malnourished? What can we do about it? The answer according to today’s guest is simple. We can end hunger by the force of law.

John Teton is the director of the International Food Security Treaty. The International Food Security Treaty or IFST aims to establish enforceable international law guaranteeing the right to be free from hunger, and to oblige countries to establish their own related national laws.

John Teton lives in Lake Oswego, Oregon. He is a writer. He has written three science fiction novels. The novels are Upsurge, Appearing Live at the Final Test, and Elevation: The Cave Logs of New Hale, Tibet.

John’s work with the International Food Security Treaty is not science fiction. Instead, it is a shift to recognize in our consciences that hunger is a crime like slavery. It is a crime that like slavery can be ended by force of law.

John has written two articles about the International Food Security Treaty. In 2010 he published in the Yale Journal of International Affairs, an article entitled “The Armless Hand: The Call for Anti-Hunger Law and the International Food Security Treaty.”

This was followed in 2016 by an article in the Harvard International Review, “On the Origin of a Hunger-Free Species By Means of Enforceable Natural Law.”

John Teton is a graduate from Harvard and studied film-making at NYU. He released a short film in 2016 about the IFST called Thunderhead Clearing.

(This is the 27 minute podcast version for Progressive Spirit.)

In this episode we discuss a condition that is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of millions of people. It is a condition that is completely preventable. Hunger.

Why are so many people in the world…why is anyone in the world malnourished? What can we do about it? The answer according to today’s guest is simple. We can end hunger by the force of law.

John Teton is the director of the International Food Security Treaty. The International Food Security Treaty or IFST aims to establish enforceable international law guaranteeing the right to be free from hunger, and to oblige countries to establish their own related national laws.

John Teton lives in Lake Oswego, Oregon. He is a writer. He has written three science fiction novels. The novels are Upsurge, Appearing Live at the Final Test, and Elevation: The Cave Logs of New Hale, Tibet.

John’s work with the International Food Security Treaty is not science fiction. Instead, it is a shift to recognize in our consciences that hunger is a crime like slavery. It is a crime that like slavery can be ended by force of law.

John has written two articles about the International Food Security Treaty. In 2010 he published in the Yale Journal of International Affairs, an article entitled “The Armless Hand: The Call for Anti-Hunger Law and the International Food Security Treaty.”

This was followed in 2016 by an article in the Harvard International Review, “On the Origin of a Hunger-Free Species By Means of Enforceable Natural Law.”

John Teton is a graduate from Harvard and studied film-making at NYU. He released a short film in 2016 about the IFST called Thunderhead Clearing.

This is the funniest book about the fear of hell I have read. Actress and comedian, Maggie Rowe, producer and performer of Comedy Central’s stage show sitnspin writes about her three month experience in an evangelical psychiatric institution. Diagnosed with a form of OCD known as scrupulosity she couldn’t shake the fear that she might not avoid hell.

Maggie is not alone with this fear. She took her heaven and hell religion more seriously than many. Her book is Sin Bravely: A Memoir of Spiritual Disobedience. Because she writes with honesty and deadpan humor she has found a way to reframe her own experience of spiritual abuse and offer a path to others as well.

She has written for “Arrested Development” and “Flaked” for Netflix. She co-wrote the screenplay for and directed the New Age religious mockumentary “Bright Day” and is the creator of the theatrical satires “Hollywood Hellhouse” and “Hollywood Purity Ball.”

This is the third of my three-part series on Holy, Healing, Spiritually Disobedient, Creative, and Awakened Women, women authors changing religion for the better.

Carol Howard Merritt is an author, speaker, and minister who grew up in a white evangelical church and with an unpredictable and sometimes violent father. These experiences shaped her view of a punitive, judgmental God. She writes from personal experience and as professional minister about spiritual wounds inflicted by the church and how people can heal from them in her latest book.

In Healing Spiritual Wounds: Reconnecting with a Loving God After Experiencing a Hurtful Church, she discusses her experience and that of others who have been spiritually abused by authoritarianism, patriarchy, and negative self-image propagated by a fundamentalist religion. She devotes each chapter to specific wounds with exercises as to how healing can happen.

She has written several books on the church with a special focus on the needs of younger generations. She was previously on Progressive Spirit when we discussed Reframing Hope: Vital Ministry in a New Generation.

Carol hosts God Complex Radio and is a regular contributor to the Christian Century, the Huffington Post and she blogs at Tribal Church. Carol and I are both Presbyterian Church (USA) ministers and it is a pleasure to introduce her compassionate and honest work to my listeners.

This is the second in my series of interviews with holy, healing, spiritually disobedient, creative, and awakened women.

Not many congregations have two out lesbians as a clergy team. They do that kind of thing in North Carolina. Rev. Dr. Angela Yarber is a trailblazer. She is author of several books that address the intersections among religion, the arts, gender and sexuality. She holds a Ph.D. in Art and Religion from the Graduate Theological Union. Dr. Yarber has been a clergywoman and professional artist since 1999. Her books include:

Microagressions in Ministry: Confronting the Hidden Violence of Everyday Church,

The Gendered Pulpit: Sex, Body, and Desire in Preaching and Worship,

Tearing Open the Heavens,

Dance in Scripture, How Biblical Dancers Can Revolutionize Scripture,

Holy Women Icons,

Holy Women Icons Contemplative Coloring Book, and

Embodying the Feminine in the Dances of the World’s Religions.

We spend most of our time talking about The Holy Women Icons Project. According to her website, this project…

seeks to empower women by telling the stories of revolutionary holy women through art, writing, and special events.

Holy Women Icons art gives traditional iconography a folk-feminist twist. Books focus on the intersections among gender/sexuality, religion/spirituality, and the arts.

You will enjoy this conversation with this creative and thoughtful justice seeker.

This is part one of a three-part series on holy, healing, spiritually disobedient, creative, and awakened women.

A Panel Discussion on Dismantling Racism

On Tuesday, January 17th two Portland activists, Jo Ann Hardesty and Ibrahim Mubarak, spoke to five Beaverton congregations about racism. The presentation was entitled, “The Dream Under Siege: A Community Forum On Racism.” It was held at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Beaverton.

Five Beaverton congregations: Murray Hills Christian Church, Christ United Methodist Church, Cedar Hills United Church of Christ, Spirit of Grace, and Southminster Presbyterian hosted this event as an opportunity for suburban residents to interact with leading activists in Portland to talk about critical issues facing the Portland metro in regards to diversity, race, privilege, housing, policing, gentrification and economic justice.

The Honorable JoAnn Hardesty is president of the Portland chapter of the NAACP. She is a community organizer and activist who advocates for those on the downside of power. She campaigns for police accountability and racial and economic justice. She hosts Voices from the Edge Thursday mornings at 8 on KBOO.

Ibrahim Mubarak is an advocate for the rights of unhoused people, and has been involved in the houseless community, in Portland, Oregon for over 15 years. Ibrahim is a co-founder of Dignity Village (2000), Right to Survive (2009), and Right 2 Dream Too (2011).

This is the audio of that presentation (edited for time). The event received newspaper coverage from the Beaverton Valley Times.

- See more at: http://kboo.fm/media/55408-dream-under-siege#sthash.4IQ63yNy.dpuf

Dr. Catherine Meeks is a retired professor of socio-cultural studies at Wesleyan College. She is the editor of the newly released book, Living Into God’s Dream: Dismantling Racism in America. From the publisher:

"This book is a report from the front, combining personal stories and theoretical and theological reflection with examples of the work of dismantling racism and methods for creating the much-needed “safe space” for dialogue on race to occur. Its aim is to demonstrate the ways in which a new conversation on race can be forged."

Her book contains chapters from eight different contributors including herself. Some white, some people of color, some men, some women.

The first chapter is written by Luther E. Smith, Jr. Dr. Smith is professor emeritus of Church and Community at the Candler School of Theology of Emory University. He writes:

“Racism also persists because a large segment of the population benefits from it. This explains why and how individuals perpetuate the system of racism, even without their conscious awareness of the implications of their actions. The existence of racism relies upon it having the personal commitment of some and the inaction of many.”

Celebrate the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and dismantle racism.

Sister Maura Clarke, a Catholic nun and three other women were assassinated by the El Salvadoran government in December 1980. This was a government supported by the United States. What did Sister Maura do that resulted in her violent death? Under the context of Vatican II, liberation theology, and oppressive dictatorships, we hear a story of radical faith.

Investigative journalist, Eileen Markey, whose work has appeared in New York Times, New York Magazine, Wall Street Journal, National Catholic Reporter, America, Commonweal, and Killing the Buddha. wrote Sister Maura's biography, in A Radical Faith: The Assassination of Sister Maura.

This is from America Magazine:

'No one remembered Maura thirty years later because she was the most pious or the most correct. People didn't hang her picture on their plaster wall or name their daughter after her or wipe away tears even as they smiled at the mention of her name because she was the most severe, the best at self- flagellation, the most familiar with the desert. They caressed her memory because she visited with love. When Maura talked to you, you felt beloved, person after person told me. She walked into cardboard slum shacks in Nicaragua and terrified villages in El Salvador and addressed individuals with a disarming, open kindness.

It turns out that's what the story is about. Not death and torture – on a cross or at the hands of a military junta – but warm, flowering, life-giving love.'