Good God

Byron Keith Sanders is back on Good God talking about racial inequity in Dallas and the ways in which we can help create a better Dallas for the next generation.

Conversations like this are so important in fostering an awareness among white people of what life is like in Dallas for people of color. Byron shares a recent personal experience of having the police called on him for block-walking with his daughter for a political campaign.

There is so much to learn and work toward. Start by listening to this episode.

Cheryl Allison, an actress and film maker, made a documentary called Shatter the Silence, about the Me Too movement specifically in Dallas. Listen to her talk about that process and why it is an important topic for all of us, woman and men alike.

Shatter the Silence premiers April 28.

Neil Cazares Thomas is the pastor of Cathedral of Hope in Dallas, a mostly LGBTQ faith community. He and George talk about the theology behind affirming LGBTQ identifying people and their faith. Here’s an excerpt from their conversation:

Neil: It's incumbent on us if we really want to follow the way, the truth, the life, then we have to take up that place of discipline or discipleship and to understand that personally. I don't think the role of the church is to tell people how to live. I think the role of the church is to point people to their better selves.

George: Good.

Neil: Especially in a community of oppressed peoples who have always been countercultural, who have always been on the margins, who have always been told they're not good enough, they're not acceptable, they may as well go eat worms for the rest of their lives, because they're going to go to hell in a handbasket anyway. It is easy for a group of people, a marginalized people, to not want to buy-in to a system that calls them to behavior.

So we've learned, or I've learned, that in my conversations with people, is to actually find a way to help people build a better self-esteem, because if you start to love yourself, there are certain things you won't do to yourself. My job, I constantly believe as a pastor, is to help people to find their self-esteem, to find a place within them that says "I'm worth more than what I've been doing."

Rev. Starsky D. Wilson is a pastor, a foundation president for child wellbeing, and activist. In the wake of Michael Brown's death by police brutality, he was charged with leading the Ferguson Commission, and they helped elect black leadership, advocate a political agenda that was created by the people, and change laws.

His vision is to create a place where people's life expectancy is not determinable or or predictable by race or by zip code. He does this through his work at the Deaconess Foundation in St. Louis, that makes grants that support sustainable solutions for children and families in urban areas. He does this through his work with the Ferguson Commission and Black Lives Matter. And now he has come to Dallas to help make that same vision a reality here too.

On this episode of Good God, Peggy Wehmeyer talks more about being a religion reporter in America. She also describes her own journey of faith, including her discovery as an adult that her family is Jewish and escaped Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. She talks about her commitment to showing solidarity with her Jewish family despite her chosen Christian faith:

"And so for some reason, George, Pittsburgh maybe launched it for me, but all of a sudden I feel like it's me. It could be me. You want to kill me, and I embrace that. I don't want to run from it. I am like, 'No, I am with them.'"

Fake news. A biased media. It seems this is all we hear about when discussing the role of media these days. 

Today’s guest on Good God was America’s first religion reporter, Peggy Wehmeyer. She and George talk about the role of the media, how to keep objectivity, and the importance of reporting on religion to help us understand one another better. 

George sums it up when he says to Peggy: “What you were trying to do in the mainstream media is to drive us toward the center, when so many forces are pushing us toward the edges.”

After growing up in Dallas and getting a private school education, @Byron Keith Sanders left his successful career to lead a nonprofit, Big Thought, that mentors kids in a unique way for future success. His story will inspire you.

She grew up a good Baptist girl, singing in the youth choir, only to realize eventually that she was gay. How did that affect her relationship to the church and to God? Listen to Cheryl Allison talk about all this and more on this episode of Good God.

You can also read the full transcript of this and every episode ongoodgodproject.com.

The United Methodists made a historic decision last week about LGBTQ people. This episode of Good God was recorded late spring of 2018. George talks with pastor of First United Methodist Church of Dallas Andy Stoker about the expected events in the upcoming year and how he hoped it would go:

"My hope and prayer for Methodism is that we don't have to vote congregationally. My hope and prayer for Methodism is that it becomes a denominational decision where we together are deciding what an open table really means."

Listen to their conversation and hear more about what Andy means by the church being an open table, as well as the church's role in the City of Dallas.

George Mason and Sports Personality Matt Mosley talk about the ever-changing world of journalism. At center of this fascinating conversation is Matt’s journey from print journalism at the The Dallas Morning News to a contributor online at Dallasnews.com and from a weekday show on 103.3 ESPN radio to his ventures in podcasting with Ed Werder and The Doomsday Podcast and Brent Musberger and "You Are Looking Live." Matt reveals how his faith, friends, family and church uplifted him through difficult decisions he had to make along the way.