Heart and Soul

A year after George Floyd's death, what positives and negatives can Black Christians take away from the tragic series of events that unfolded?

In the year since, many black Christian groups have been at the forefront of large protests across the US. Leaders, the media and people from all communities have engaged in conversations about the future of race relations in United States. In addition, churches and church leaders began to work together to understand, to learn, and instigate change. But has the Church gone far enough and what part can and should Christians, both black and white, play in bringing together communities and tackling racism.

Professor Robert Beckford hosts a discussion featuring Revd. Minister Elijah McDavid III from The Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in Minnesota, Dr. Love Sechrest who is Vice President for Academic Affairs at Columbia Theological Seminary and Dr Richard Land, President of Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte and former faith advisor to President George W. Bush.

Producers: Rajeev Gupta and Emb Hashmi

(Photo: A mural painted by artist Kenny Altidor depicting George Floyd is unveiled on 13 Jul 2020, Brooklyn, New York City/ Credit: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

Bob Dylan was brought up in a Jewish household in the American Midwest, but kept his faith away from the spotlight of his professional counter-culture persona. That was until the late 1970s when he converted to evangelical Christianity and released an album that shared his born again beliefs with the world.

We join his childhood friend, Louie Kemp, as we delve into why the boy he met at a Jewish summer camp turned to Christianity.

We hear from Regina McCray, his backing singer from the time, who retells the story of her audition where she sang Amazing Grace. She went on to get the job, but little did she know that the song would go on to inspire Dylan’s sound for his next three albums - Slow Train Coming, Saved, and Shot of Love.

We also hear from Australian journalist, Karen Hughes, whose in-depth interview with the singer broke to the world how serious Dylan was about Christianity - and from Swedish doctor and musician, Valdemar Erling, whose accidental discovery of Slow Train Coming has been the foundation of his faith for many years.

Along with live music tracks, archive excerpts from outraged fans and even the sounds of Bob Dylan preaching to his crowds, we hear how Dylan’s often overlooked ‘Gospel Period’ helped people develop a deeper connection to spirituality that is still relevant today, years after the singer-songwriter appears to have turned his back on organised religion altogether.

(Photo: Bob Dylan in concert in Atlanta, Georgia, 1974. Credit: Rick Diamond/WireImage/Getty Images)

He was once the third most powerful Catholic in the world, overseeing financial reform at the Vatican. But for Cardinal George Pell, the fall from grace was hard when he was accused, convicted, and imprisoned for sexual abuse in his home country of Australia. It was a huge blow for the Catholic church across Australia.

Abuse victim groups celebrated his conviction, however not everyone was convinced, and a debate began to rage as to the credibility of the accusations levied against him, as well as the fairness of his trial.

Cardinal George Pell always maintained his innocence, and after spending a year in jail, in a startling twist to the story, Australia's highest court overturned his conviction, seven high court judges unanimously ruling.

Today, Cardinal George Pell is back in the eternal city of Rome and living right next to the Vatican. In this Heart and Soul special, Colm Flynn meets Cardinal Pell at his home for a one-on-one extended interview to talk about the accusations that were made against him, the time he spent in prison, and why he decided to return to Rome after his release.

Presenter and producer: Colm Flynn

(Photo: Cardinal George Pell is surrounded by Australian police as he leaves the Melbourne Magistrates Court in Australia, 6 October, 2017. Credit: Mark Dadswell/Reuters)

The death of George Floyd Jr in May 2020 started a wave of unforeseen protests. As these protests consumed the United States, groups of people from various beliefs, backgrounds and origins came out in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, which started in 2014. A year later, under a new US president, the US still faces the same challenges even though police officer Derek Chauvin has been found guilty with murder, many still believe that they are still fighting against institutionalised racism in the US.

Monitoring the news in the US, journalist Amie Liebowitz has repeatedly seen images of groups of Jewish people stand side by side, holding placards and wearing t-shirts that said “Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof” (Deuteronomy 16:20) – a passage from the Torah meaning “Justice, Justice you shall pursue”. This message has been adopted by the Jews for Black Lives Matter movement which has always been associated with the act of social justice. This made her reflect on her own context as a white, Ashkenazi Jew from Australia and what this movement meant for her religious community.

(Picture: April N. Baskin at the Women's March in Washington DC in January 2019 representing Jewish Women of Color / Courtesy of April N. Baskin)

France is on its way to passing The Bill Comforting the Respect of Republican Principles, one of the most controversial laws of President Macron’s presidency. It aims to fight back against what Emmanuel Macron and his ministers are calling “Islamist separatism”, what he says is an assault by Islamist extremists on the values of the French Republic.

John Laurenson meets people on both sides of this fractious debate. He visits a closed-down Paris school that its head teacher says is an early victim of President Macron’s war against “Islamist separatism” and meets another teacher – also Muslim - who describes her struggle with what she says is religious extremism in the classroom.

John meets an MP and the head of a militant secularist organisation both keen on the law. He also goes to Trappes, a suburb of Paris that many say is a breeding ground for Islamic extremism, and drinks mint tea with a scholar of Islam. He meets an Islamic bookseller called John, goes to the mosque and talks to the mayor, eats a “halal ham” sandwich, meets an inhabitant who says she lives “Islamist separatism” every day and another who says the new law stigmatises Muslims in general and will separate them still further from the non-Muslim people of France.

(Photo: A woman holds a placard reading "Freedom leads all the people" as protesters demonstrate against a bill dubbed as "anti-separatism", in Paris. Credit: Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt/AFP/Getty Images)

Villagers believe Prince Philip is returning to his ancestral home on their Pacific island. In a handful of villages on the island of Tanna, in Vanuatu, he has been revered as an ancestral spirit and son of their mountain god, and they have been waiting for him to return to them, either in person during his lifetime or in spirit form after his death.

The prince never visited the island of Tanna, but letters, photographs and gifts were exchanged over the years and the prince met a delegation of islanders at Windsor Castle in 2007. Tanna elders sent Prince Philip a "nal nal" pig hunting club. He sent them back a picture of himself holding the club, which the villagers cherish. It is thought the religious movement started after the 1974 royal tour of the Pacific, during which the Queen and Prince Philip visited Vanuatu, then known as the New Hebrides.

Presenter: Jo Dwyer

(Photo: Sikor Natuan holds a water damaged portrait of Britain's Prince Philip in a partially built monument to the British royal near the remote village of Yaohnanen. Credit: Torsten Blackwood/AFP/Getty Images)

For thousands of years Jews have sought to understand the Bible, with all its inconsistencies and contradictions, through “midrash”. Midrash is a combination of interpretation and teaching based on the written texts of the Old Testament that tell the story of the ancient Hebrews, from the creation of the world, through God making his covenant with Abraham, the Exodus from Egypt, the destruction of Jerusalem, the Temple and the exile to Babylon.

As what it means to be Jewish has changed over the millennia, Jews have used midrash to re-interpret their identity in the world. In this edition of “Heart and Soul,” Michael Goldfarb searches through the ancient texts for clues to what it is to be Jewish in the 21st Century. He looks for modern midrash in conversations with a rabbi, an archaeologist, a Jewish Studies professor, a psychoanalyst, and a composer who is writing musical midrash for each part of the Torah, the five books of Moses. They talk about the historical truth of the Bible, and can midrashic interpretation help find meaning in the Holocaust, and even these days of the pandemic.

The world watched on as Pope Francis embarked on what he called a pilgrimage to the Middle East, a journey that could possibly be the Holy Father's legacy. Despite worries of the Covid pandemic and the real threat of a terrorist attack, Pope Francis became the first pontiff in history to visit Iraq. Standing among rubble and ruins in the devastated city of Mosul where ISIS took root and threatened to behead him, Pope Francis proclaimed "hope is more powerful than hatred, that peace more powerful than war."

In this programme Colm Flynn travels on the papal flight to Iraq to talk to Iraqi Christians and Muslims who have come out to welcome Pope Francis to their nation. The programme will bring you behind the scenes on a papal trip, and let you experience real moments with the Iraqi people who hope that the Pope's visit will bring long-lasting healing and peace to their land.

Presenter and Producer: Colm Flynn

Additional audio supplied by EWTN

Everyone tells five-year-old Shira Malka she looks just like her dad. She has his green eyes. But she’s never met him, because he died seven years before she was born. Shira was conceived through posthumous reproduction, where a child is created from the frozen sperm or eggs of a person who has died. The practice is banned in some places, tightly restricted in others. But Israel - a country that leads the world in assisted reproduction - is testing the boundaries on allowing this new method of family creation.

Shira is a one of a small but growing number of children to be born through posthumous reproduction in Israel over the last two decades. Her grandmother, Julia Pozniansky describes how she struggled for seven years to fulfil her son’s dying wish to father a child and leave her a grandchild. She was helped by Irit Rosenblum, a family lawyer who specialises in these cases and has even created a legal tool document she called the ‘Biological Will’ that enables people to express their wishes about becoming a parent after death. Shira’s mother, Liat Malka discusses why posthumous reproduction was a good alternative for her to anonymous sperm donation. Irit is adamant that the state should be removing barriers to the practice and instead allowing those who die, and their bereaved loved ones, to continue their legacy. But the practice does have its critics and has generated headlines and national debate. Israeli bioethicist Vardit Ravitsky - professor at the University of Montreal and the President of the International Association of Bioethics - explores the ethical arguments on both sides of the issue, and describes how Israeli culture and Jewish tradition have allowed the country to become ‘a unique pressure cooker for allowing reproduction’. She debates the subject with the fiercest critic she knows - her son.

Producer/presenter: Viv Jones

(Photo: Shira and Liat Malka, courtesy of the family)

In 1971, Aziz BineBine – a junior officer in the Moroccan army – was ordered to take part in a military exercise. Unbeknown to him, the attack on King Hassan’s summer palace near Casablanca was in fact a coup attempt.

(Photo: The prison of Tazmamart, a former barracks in the eastern Middle Atlas mountains 60km from the city of Errachidia, Morocco. Credit:: Abdelhak Senna/AFP/Getty Images)