Good God

Poet Malcolm Guite, on how God comes to us through the arts:

"When God comes to us fully and richly as a person, and in and through the lives of other people, it's almost like we're scared, like God's got too close, so we abstract him again. We turn God into a bunch of propositions and put him back up into some intellectual realm. He's always getting past that and coming back to us. One of the ways I think, in our age, that God does that is through the arts. Because I think our age is so emphasized on analysis and reason and breaking things down into constituent parts, that people are in some sense rebelling against that. They need something with soul, but a lot of people instead of seeing the heart and soul of that as in the gift of the revelation of the gospel, are finding it through the arts instead."

Listen to George and Malcolm Guite talk about the art of poetry and how it cultivates the spiritual imagination. Lots of wonderful is poetry is quoted here, and referenced in the comments below, by Seamus Heaney, Edwin Muir, John Donne, and Malcolm Guite himself.

If you want to hear about the history of race justice and social activism in Dallas, tune in to this episode with Gerald Britt. He was at the front lines with civil rights leaders like Peter Johnson, Zan Holmes, Martin Luther King III and many others, fighting for equality and opportunity for the black community.

The border crisis is all we can think about these days. Images from the news stain our minds and still our hearts. Most Americans agree that we need good immigration policies, but that the current policies aren't working and are inhumane and immoral.

Bill Holston, a Dallas immigration lawyer at the Human Rights Initiative of North Texas, Inc., talks about his work with immigrants and refugees and helps educate us on what's really going on at our southern border.

Miguel Solis, DISD Trustee and president of the Latino Center for Leadership Development - LCLD, discusses the challenges of education, immigration and leadership facing Latinos as they become the majority of the U.S. population in coming years, with Dr. George Mason on Good God.

Today on Good God, George talks with Bob Mong, the president of the University of North Texas at Dallas, about the importance of higher education for under-resourced populations. UNTD is being intentional about reaching that group and serving the community.

In the second half of the episode, they discuss Mong’s previous career at the Dallas Morning News: the launching of the religion section in the 90s, and the importance of good religious news coverage.

As always you can see the video and read the full transcript of this podcast at www.goodgodproject.com.

As always you can see the video and read the full transcript of this podcast at www.goodgodproject.com.

This week on Good God is Richie Butler, pastor of St. Paul UMC in downtown Dallas. He and George talk about being called to pastoral ministry, and the work Richie has been involved in to help Dallas become a more equitable city. We also learn about DFW Year of Unity - a project that brings together people from different backgrounds to find commonalities. Learn more at yearofunity.com.

As always you can see the video and read the full transcript of this podcast at www.goodgodproject.com.

We've all seen how a pyramid structure of debt and loyalty is the way gratitude is often used in the public square. Diana Butler Bass studied this public system, and says:

"It led me into some really interesting historical exploration of how hierarchically structured political systems, whether it was Medieval Europe or Ancient Rome or 19th century American south, often deploy gratitude as a mechanism to elicit loyalty. Gratitude has often politically been used in these sort of hierarchal pyramid shaped structures by people in upper classes, people in authority to make sure that the folks underneath them say thank you, and as part of that gratitude directed up to the people on the top, are loyal."

But this is a warped version of gratitude. Bass suggests a new framework. A more circular model that happens around the table. This non-hierarchical practice of gratitude is found in nearly every religious tradition, and it is a healthier and more life-giving model for us individually and communally.

You can view a video of their conversation at www.goodgodproject.com.

Are you ever guilty of feeling a sense of entitlement in your relationships and friendships? Did you know that the opposite of entitlement is gratitude, and that practicing gratefulness can pull us out of that scarcity/entitlement mindset?

Diana Butler Bass is on Good God talking about her book, Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks. She describes the spiritual practice of gratefulness and her own journey of discovering gratitude.

Neil Cazares-Thomas is back on Good God talking about the history of Cathedral of Hope in Dallas, and how it came to be a place for all Christians to find a spiritual home regardless of their sexual identity. He tells wonderful and heartbreaking stories about the life of the Cathedral during the AIDS epidemic in the 80s, and his own spiritual journey that started as a British Mormon.