Jesus, Justice + Mercy: Bold faith, radical love and justice for the church

White Christian nationalism shaped more than politics. It shaped discipleship.

In this episode, Kristen traces the formation story beneath today’s headlines. Long before it became a political slogan, white Christian nationalism formed reflexes on what felt holy, what felt threatening, and what felt worth defending.

This conversation explores:

• How “chosen nation” theology reshaped American Christian identity
• Why security, order, and national blessing began to feel spiritual
• The rise of “law and order” rhetoric within white evangelical institutions
• The Moral Majority era and the consolidation of faith and political power
• The contrast between white Christian formation and the formation of the Black church
• How Jesus consistently refused the fusion of faith and empire

Through Scripture (John 6; Luke 19; Mark 10, 11, 12; John 2), we trace a pattern: Jesus steps away from coercive crowns, mourns violent nationalism, redefines power, limits Caesar, and disrupts sacred systems.

This is not an episode about condemnation. It is about formation.

Because if we want to be formed by Jesus and shaped by justice, we have to be honest about what shaped us first.

White Christian nationalism is not just political. It distorts discipleship.

And discipleship can be re-formed.

Further Reading: Books on White Christian Nationalism and Christian Formation

If you want to go deeper, here is a list of books that trace patterns historically and theologically. 

Core Recommendations

The Color of Compromise | Jemar Tisby
How the American church has been complicit in racism from slavery to today.

Jesus and John Wayne | Kristin Kobes Du Mez
How evangelical masculinity and militarism intertwined with Christian nationalism from the Cold War through Trump.

The Flag and the Cross | Philip Gorski & Samuel Perry
A sociological study of Christian nationalism as a cultural framework.

Taking America Back for God | Andrew Whitehead & Samuel Perry
Data-driven analysis of who embraces Christian nationalism and why.

White Too Long | Robert P. Jones
How white Christianity shaped racism and continues to perpetuate it, especially in the American South.

Historical Depth

The Cross and the Lynching Tree | James Cone
How white Christianity spiritualized violence & how Black theology confronted it.

Baptizing America | Melani McAlister
How evangelicals came to see the U.S. as central to God’s global plan.

One Nation Under God | Kevin Kruse
How “Christian America” rhetoric was constructed in the 1950s as a corporate and political strategy.

Theological Depth

The Myth of a Christian Nation | Gregory Boyd
An evangelical critique of fusing faith with political power.

The Politics of Jesus | Obery M. Hendricks Jr.
How Jesus’ ministry confronted empire & challenged systems of domination.

For women who stayed small and called it faithfulness : a reading list to start finding your way back. Get it here!

If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:

• Text this episode to a friend who might need it
• Leave a 5-star rating and review
• Subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes
• Wrestling with faith and justice and not sure where to start? 
• Grab my free theological reading list, Beyond Faith as Usual, HERE!

Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.

RESOURCES:

www.kristenabrock.com

The Cost of Staying Awake can feel unbearable. This week isn’t a teaching episode; it’s a lament.

In this raw and personal reflection, Kristen shares how cultural hypocrisy, sacred language used as cover, and the grief of watching injustice normalized have weighed heavily on her heart. Drawing from Psalm 13’s cry “How long, O Lord?” this mini episode holds sorrow and defiant trust together.

This isn’t about outrage. It’s about moral exhaustion, embodied faith, and the courage to pause when the weight is too much.

For women who stayed small and called it faithfulness : a reading list to start finding your way back. Get it here!

If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:

• Text this episode to a friend who might need it
• Leave a 5-star rating and review
• Subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes
• Wrestling with faith and justice and not sure where to start? 
• Grab my free theological reading list, Beyond Faith as Usual, HERE!

Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.

RESOURCES:

www.kristenabrock.com

What is Black theology, and why does it matter for Christian discipleship today?

In this episode, Kristen offers an introduction to Black theology, not as a political framework or academic debate, but as wisdom forged in survival, resistance, and hope. Drawing from history and the voices of Black theologians, pastors, and writers, we explore how faith shaped under oppression reveals a gospel that is embodied, costly, and communal.

Rather than explaining Black theology from a distance, Kristen invites listeners, especially white Christians, to examine posture, formation, and centering. What happens when discipleship is shaped from the margins rather than the center? How has dominant American theology been formed alongside power? And why does this wisdom speak so clearly to the church's exhaustion, shallow discipleship, and longing for hope today?

This episode lays theological groundwork for Black History Month conversations, framing the month as formation, not consumption, and prepares listeners to receive the interviews ahead as testimony flowing from a living tradition.

Foundational Voices in Black Theology:

• The Cross and the Lynching Tree | James H. Cone
• God of the Oppressed | James H. Cone
• Jesus and the Disinherited | Howard Thurman
• The Politics of Jesus | Obery M. Hendricks Jr.
• A Fire in the Bones: Reflections on African American Religious History | Albert J. Raboteau

Contemporary Voices:

• The Color of Compromise: The Truth About the American Church’s Complicity in Racism | Jemar Tisby
• Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope | Esau McCaulley
• Shoutin' in the Fire: An American Epistle | Dante Stewart

Essential Reading:

• The Fire Next Time | James Baldwin
• After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging | Willie James Jennings
• Howard Thurman: Essential Writings | Luther E. Smith Jr. 

Note: This is not a comprehensive list, but these are the voices that have most deeply re-formed my own discipleship. Start anywhere. Read slowly. Let the work do what it's meant to do.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why Black theology emerged from lived experience, not theory
• How social location shapes theology and discipleship
• The difference between faith formed at the center and faith formed under pressure
• Why liberation is not optional to the gospel
• How dominant American theology has been shaped alongside power
• The cost of a disembodied faith, especially for Black bodies
• Why turning toward Black theology does not polarize the church
• How listening itself becomes an act of discipleship

This episode is for you if:

• You're exhausted by shallow discipleship and culture-war Christianity
• You want to understand why Black theology matters without consuming it
• You're willing to listen from a different posture

For women who stayed small and called it faithfulness : a reading list to start finding your way back. Get it here!

If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:

• Text this episode to a friend who might need it
• Leave a 5-star rating and review
• Subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes
• Wrestling with faith and justice and not sure where to start? 
• Grab my free theological reading list, Beyond Faith as Usual, HERE!

Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.

RESOURCES:

www.kristenabrock.com

The empire wants you exhausted. Because exhausted people don't resist, they can only survive.

This week, we're talking about rest as resistance. Not self-care. Not work-life balance. But Sabbath as protest against a system that defines your worth by your productivity.

We explore:

• How Sabbath was woven into creation itself, and became an act of defiance under Pharaoh
• Why Jesus withdrew constantly, even with only three years to accomplish the most urgent mission in history
• What trauma does to your nervous system, and why some of us can't rest even when we desperately need to
• Elijah's breakdown and God's response: rest first, then work
• What white Christians need to grieve before we can move into repair
• Three starting points for practicing Sabbath as resistance

Before we can do the repair work coming in February, March, and April, we have to stop long enough to tend to what's broken in us.

Rest isn't retreat. Rest is how we stay in this for the long haul.

Resources:

• Walter Brueggemann, Sabbath as Resistance
• Trauma and grief resources 
• Journal Gently - an 8-week guided journaling experience for women who are ready to listen to what still hurts without fixing or forcing anything. (Kari Bartkus, Love Does That)
• Flamingo Trauma Recovery - Faith integrated mental health education and therapy access for the underserved. Healing trauma from childhood, transition, and harmful religious doctrine
• Kristen Humiston, MSW, APSW: Courageous Healing Therapy (WI residents) or Kristen Joy Coaching
• Kristen A. Brock (me!) Trauma-Informed Coaching
• The Body Keeps the Score: Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D.
• My Grandmother's Hands: Resmaa Menakem
• Trauma and Grace: Theology in a Ruptured World. Serena Jones
• Othered: Finding Belonging with the God who Pursues the Hurt, Harmed & Marginalized: Jenai Auman
• Translating Your Past: Finding Meaning in Family Ancestry, Genetic Clues and Generational Trauma: Michelle Van Loon

For women who stayed small and called it faithfulness : a reading list to start finding your way back. Get it here!

If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:

• Text this episode to a friend who might need it
• Leave a 5-star rating and review
• Subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes
• Wrestling with faith and justice and not sure where to start? 
• Grab my free theological reading list, Beyond Faith as Usual, HERE!

Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.

RESOURCES:

www.kristenabrock.com

What does holy risk actually look like, and how is it formed?

In a moment when the church has confused nationalism with faithfulness and cruelty with obedience, we need to recover what it means to follow Jesus courageously. But courage isn't something we summon in a crisis. It's cultivated long before the moment arrives.

This episode explores the essential components of holy risk through the lives of people who chose obedience over safety: Esther, who prepared spiritually before approaching the king. Jesus, who deliberately broke the Sabbath to expose a broken system. Bonhoeffer, who returned to Nazi Germany when he could have stayed safe.

Their stories reveal a pattern and a path. Holy risk requires spiritual preparation, community discernment, and a willingness to act when the cost is real. And it's formed through practices most of us are skipping.

We close with six ancient disciplines that shape risk-ready disciples: practices that ground us in Scripture, anchor us in community, and prepare us to respond faithfully when neutrality is no longer an option.

The crisis is already here. The question isn't whether you'll be ready someday. It's whether you're being formed today.

Content Note: This episode discusses immigration policies, family separation, Christian nationalism, and historical references to Nazi Germany.

Primary Passages:

• Esther 4:13-16 - "For such a time as this" & "If I perish, I perish"
• Luke 14:1-6 - Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath
• John 5:1-18 - Jesus heals the paralyzed man, tells him to carry his mat on the Sabbath
• Exodus 1:15-21 - Hebrew midwives (Shiphrah and Puah) defy Pharaoh's order
• Daniel 3:16-18 - Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: "But if not..."
• Mark 5:25-34 - The bleeding woman touches Jesus' garment
• Joshua 4 - Stones of remembrance

Music:

• Kirk Franklin - "The Last Jesus"

Books:

• Dietrich Bonhoeffer - The Cost of Discipleship

For women who stayed small and called it faithfulness : a reading list to start finding your way back. Get it here!

If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:

• Text this episode to a friend who might need it
• Leave a 5-star rating and review
• Subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes
• Wrestling with faith and justice and not sure where to start? 
• Grab my free theological reading list, Beyond Faith as Usual, HERE!

Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.

RESOURCES:

www.kristenabrock.com

What King said about white moderates still confronts the church today.

In this MLK bonus episode, Kristen reflects on being born in 1963, the same year Martin Luther King Jr. wrote Letter from Birmingham Jail, and what his words reveal about comfort, delay, and Christian resistance to justice.

Rather than beginning with King’s now-famous letter, this episode starts with the lesser-known statement that provoked it: A Call for Unity, written by eight white clergymen who urged patience, order, and restraint in the face of segregation, brutality, and state violence. Their words sound measured. Reasonable. Even familiar.

This is not another tribute to Dr. King. It’s a reckoning with who he was actually writing to in 1963, not the extremists, but the moderates. The well-meaning religious leaders who agreed with justice in theory but were unwilling to be disrupted by it in practice.

Kristen reflects on what it means to inherit that distance, socially, theologically, and spiritually, and how many of us are still living inside an unfinished revolution. The systems King confronted were never fully dismantled; they were managed, delayed, and reframed as “order.” And generations later, we are still being asked to wait—often by people who are not the ones waiting.

In this bonus episode of Jesus, Justice & Mercy, we explore:

• Why Letter from Birmingham Jail was written in response—not isolation
• What King meant by the “white moderate.”
• How Christian calls for “order,” “unity,” and “patience” delay justice
• The difference between negative peace and positive peace
• Why comfort—not hatred—is often the greatest obstacle to liberation
• What it means to inherit an unfinished revolution

For women who stayed small and called it faithfulness : a reading list to start finding your way back. Get it here!

If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:

• Text this episode to a friend who might need it
• Leave a 5-star rating and review
• Subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes
• Wrestling with faith and justice and not sure where to start? 
• Grab my free theological reading list, Beyond Faith as Usual, HERE!

Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.

RESOURCES:

www.kristenabrock.com

We're launching this season in a week when the gap between what Christians claim to believe and what we're willing to rationalize has never felt clearer. This week alone, we've watched violence unfold, lies amplified, and harm defended, often by Christians claiming Jesus' name.

If you've ever wondered what you would have done as authoritarianism took hold, as violence was rationalized, as truth became optional, you're doing it right now.

This episode is for Christians wrestling with what following Jesus actually looks like when faith comes at a cost. We explore Joshua, Esther, and Jesus to understand courage not as fearlessness, but as obedience when neutrality is no longer possible.

In this episode:

• Why staying silent becomes complicity when harm is being done
• What Scripture teaches about courage in moments of crisis
• How spiritual formation happens under pressure
• The cost of discipleship and what it asks of us right now

This is Re-Center: the inner work of faith before we can rebuild or reimagine anything.

Scripture Referenced: Joshua 1:9, Esther 4:13-14, Matthew 4:1-11, John 6:15, Mark 8:34-35, 2 Timothy 1:7, 2 Timothy 2:1, Isaiah 61:11, Isaiah 62:1

Connect with Kristen at kristenannette.com

For women who stayed small and called it faithfulness : a reading list to start finding your way back. Get it here!

If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:

• Text this episode to a friend who might need it
• Leave a 5-star rating and review
• Subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes
• Wrestling with faith and justice and not sure where to start? 
• Grab my free theological reading list, Beyond Faith as Usual, HERE!

Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.

RESOURCES:

www.kristenabrock.com

Discipleship on Fire is Season 3 of the Jesus, Justice + Mercy podcast, exploring Christian discipleship, justice, and faith in a complex world. 

New episodes begin January 15th

For women who stayed small and called it faithfulness : a reading list to start finding your way back. Get it here!

If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:

• Text this episode to a friend who might need it
• Leave a 5-star rating and review
• Subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes
• Wrestling with faith and justice and not sure where to start? 
• Grab my free theological reading list, Beyond Faith as Usual, HERE!

Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.

RESOURCES:

www.kristenabrock.com

Christian discipleship and spiritual formation are not about resolutions, self-improvement, or fixing yourself at the start of a new year. In this New Year mini-episode of Jesus, Justice & Mercy, Kristen offers a different invitation, one rooted in humility, formation, and becoming more like Christ.

This is not a resolution episode.

Instead, we reflect on Christian discipleship and spiritual formation as a slow, faithful process shaped by God, not productivity tools. Drawing on the biblical image of the potter and the clay (Jeremiah 18:1–6; Isaiah 64:8), this episode explores spiritual formation as slow, patient shaping rather than self-improvement. Paul later echoes this imagery in Romans 9:20–21, reminding the early church that formation begins with humility, recognizing ourselves as clay in God's hands. We also explore why so many of us try to fill spiritual hunger with things that can organize our lives but cannot hold our souls, and why that leaves us exhausted. 

This episode also highlights the distinction between legalism, cultural power, and Christlikeness, reminding us that justice is not a prerequisite for faithfulness; it is the fruit of a life shaped by Jesus.

If you’re weary of “New Year, New You” faith, this episode invites you to pause, breathe, and begin again, without pretending.

In this episode, we explore:

• Christian discipleship as formation, not performance
• Why resolutions and optimization can’t shape our souls
• The potter and the clay as a model for spiritual formation
• Christlikeness as the true goal of faith
• Justice as the fruit of the Spirit, not a checklist
• Letting weakness, humility, and openness guide our growth

Kristen also invites listeners to revisit Season 2 episodes that resonate with where they are right now and to reach out with questions or topics they’re eager to explore.

Email kristen: [email protected]

For women who stayed small and called it faithfulness : a reading list to start finding your way back. Get it here!

If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:

• Text this episode to a friend who might need it
• Leave a 5-star rating and review
• Subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes
• Wrestling with faith and justice and not sure where to start? 
• Grab my free theological reading list, Beyond Faith as Usual, HERE!

Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.

RESOURCES:

www.kristenabrock.com

Advent of Justice God With Us invites us into the heart of Advent’s final theme: love, not romantic or Hallmark movie love, but the justice-rooted, presence-filled love Isaiah proclaimed, and Jesus lived.

In this Christmas Eve episode of Jesus, Justice & Mercy, Kristen explores Isaiah 7 and Isaiah 11, tracing how Emmanuel, God with us, was first a sign of real hope for people in crisis, and later became fully visible in Jesus.

This episode reflects on:

• Emmanuel as God’s commitment to presence, not distance
• Isaiah’s vision of justice that centers the poor and disarms violence
• Why God chooses closeness over control and presence over power
• How Jesus fulfills Isaiah’s hope through a life of humility, compassion, and solidarity
• What it means to practice presence in a world shaped by fear, injustice, and exhaustion

As we move through the quiet space between Christmas and the New Year, this episode invites listeners to slow down, receive God’s nearness, and consider how love that comes close can reshape both our faith and our lives.

For women who stayed small and called it faithfulness : a reading list to start finding your way back. Get it here!

If this episode was meaningful for you, the best way to help others find the show is to:

• Text this episode to a friend who might need it
• Leave a 5-star rating and review
• Subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes
• Wrestling with faith and justice and not sure where to start? 
• Grab my free theological reading list, Beyond Faith as Usual, HERE!

Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.

RESOURCES:

www.kristenabrock.com