Love in a Dangerous Time

Love in a Dangerous Time

By Russ JenningsReligion & SpiritualityChristianitySpirituality
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Love in a Dangerous Time episodes

  • ARE YOU RELIG-ISH? – a talk with Rachelle Mee-Chapman on Spiritual-But-Not-Religious and her upcoming book, “Relig-ish” [LDT059]
    Rachell Mee-Chapman

    These days, a lot of people are leaving the Church communities they grew up with and not really replacing it with anything. They feel that they are deeply spiritual people, but find their churches and denominations to be oppressive and insular. Some folks are refocusing their view of Christianity and launching themselves into a faith that is more open and even more justice oriented. And some, are really done with church and are putting together their own brand of spirituality that doesn’t include any of what they consider to be the oppressive baggage of Christianity. These folks are, as you’ve probably guessed, the “Spiritual but not Religious.”

    Rachelle Mee-Chapman, my guest in this episode, is one of these folks. She was actually an ordained minister in the Vinyard denomination when she started having her doubts. Over a very difficult period of a few years, she left her church and eventually emerged as a leader among the Spiritual but not Religious. With some of her former co-congregants and some folks she met online, through her blog she has developed a community of seekers who are consciously working to bring the divine into their lives outside the Church. Rachelle also leads a women’s online community called “Flock.”

    We talked about the agony of leaving your faith tradition behind and the excitement of adding things to your life that bring meaning and help you stay oriented.

    Rachelle has a book coming out in June called (appropriately), “Relig-ish.”

     

    Check out Rachelle’s website:  rachellemeechapman.com/

    Rachelle’s book, “Relig-ish”, comes out in June of 2016. As soon as it appears on Amazon, I’ll add a link here.

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    39 min
  • IT ALL COMES DOWN TO LOVE – a chat with Evangelical leader, Tony Campolo [LDT058]
    For a long time now, the progressive Evangelical movement has been growing and deepening to the point where much of the best progressive work has been done by Evangelicals. One of the main leaders in that phenomenon is my guest today, Dr. Tony Campolo.
    Tony, who is a sociology professor in his day job at Eastern University in Pennsylvania, has, with Jim Wallis and others, lead in the articulation of a progressive and very Christian way of looking at the problems in our world. He’s been involved in every issue. Last July, on the stage at the Wild Goose Festival, he told Brian McLaren and the rest of us that he is, after many years of holding back, taking on the issue of justice for LGBT people, in all areas of life. We talk about this in the interview. This is an issue that has kept many Evangelicals tied in knots for decades, with sexual codes on one side and Jesus’ teachings about love and acceptance on the other. The result of taking this stand has had a big effect on the Evangelical world and on Tony’s life.
    He’s also one of the founders of the Red Letter Christians movement, where the red (i.e. spoken by Jesus) words in the Bible are pushed to the center to be taken very seriously by Christians.
    We’ll hear all about this in the interview.
    Tony’s Website: www.TonyCampolo.org
    Red Letter Christians:  www.RedLetterChristians.org
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    52 min
  • LDT057 - Mark Charles - The Doctrine of Discovery
    I have to say that today’s guest is one of the most interesting folks I’ve brought to you on this podcast. Mark Charles is a Native American who’s building a nation-wide movement around the Doctrine of Discovery, which is the statement by the Pope, in the 15th Century, saying that if explorers find a land that is not governed by Christians, there are really no people there and the land is free for the taking. This completely unleashed the European powers to launch out and pillage the whole world.
    I think that most of us knew that this was essentially the mindset of colonial-minded settlers, and entrepreneurs.  This pronouncement from the Vatican has led to all the laws and practices of land ownership that we know. It’s also led to most of the land grabs, massacres and genocides – both physical and cultural that are embedded in the history of the country that calls itself a great democracy.
    Pointing to the Doctrine of Discovery would certainly be the basis of building a movement to redress this wrong against Native Americans, but Mark Charles, who is a former Christian Reform pastor, is building his campaign in a way that can lead to a massive shift in consciousness and different way of living. His Christian faith is the driving force behind his work.
    I think you will find his ideas interesting and challenging, just like I did. Let me know your response, by commenting below, or leave a voice message using the tab on the right side of the page, or even email me at [email protected].
    I’m also giving you a bonus this week. Mark recently preached what I think is an amazing sermon on Biblical Dynamics of Power and Authority: Church of the Servant Grand Rapids MI.  (<< Click it) This is powerful stuff. You’ve really got to hear this.
    So let’s begin the interview. Mark Charles was in New York to give a lecture at New York Theological Seminary. My thanks (again) to Rev. Dr. Peter Heltzel for putting us together.
    Just so you’ll know: a “Papal bull” is a particular type of letter for, patent or charter, issued by a Pope . It is named after the lead seal (bulla) that was appended to the end in order to authenticate it.
     
    Links:
    Facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/wirelesshogan?fref=ts
    Mark’s website:   http://wirelesshogan.com 
    Mark’s YouTube Chnnel:    https://www.youtube.com/user/wirelesshogan
    Mark’s Blog:   http://wirelesshogan.blogspot.com
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    1 hr 8 min
  • CONFRONTING ISLAMOPHOBIA at WHEATON – A talk with student activist, Esther Kao [LDT056]
    Back in December, and continuing through January, Wheaton College, an Evangelical College in Chicago, was in the news because an associate professor in Political Science, Dr. Larycia Hawkins began wearing a Muslim hijab, or head covering, on the campus as her act of solidarity with Muslims around the world and to combat Islamophobia for the forty days of Advent. Later, on Facebook, she explained her decision with this statement:
    “I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book. And as Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God. … As part of my Advent Worship, I will wear the hijab to work at Wheaton College, to play in Chi-town, in the airport and on the airplane to my home state that initiated one of the first anti-Sharia laws (read: unconstitutional and Islamophobic), and at church.”
    Saying that Muslims and Christians worship the same God caused a major uproar on the Wheaton campus, which ended in her, apparently permanent, suspension.
    My guest today is Wheaton Sophomore, Esther Kao who was one of the activist that led protests demanding Dr. Hawkins’ reinstatement. We talked about the facts o
    f the case, the meaning of the statements that Dr. Hawkins made, and the involvement of the student body in the controversy.
    So let’s go to the interview with Wheaton student, Esther Kao, on Love in a Dangerous Time.
     
    Links:
    The Weaton Community Covenant – click here
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    28 min
  • THE REVOLUTION HAS COME – A chat with Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou on Ferguson and the Blues [LDT055]
    The music we’ll hear today comes from one of the new leaders to emerge on the national scene from the massive uprisings against the murders of Black people by police. In the late summer of 2014, Rev. Sekou went directly to Ferguson, along with thousands of others, to participate in the extremely important uprising that was taking place in that city. He represented the Fellowship of Reconciliation (see Love in a Dangerous Time #51) on the streets, in the meetings and in jail.
    He was troubled by the way the clergy was being used by the “civic” leaders to stifle the uprising, and after an open letter was published denouncing him as an outside agitator who would not forswear violence, he wrote a response that was published all over the internet explaining that the role of the clergy and the Church should be to stand with
    the protesters in such an important struggle. (See the link to the letter below.) The letter was published far and wide on the internet, and to my mind is the twenty-first century version of Dr. Martin Luther King’s 1963 “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
    In order to fill in some cultural gaps, and to provide some powerful music for the struggle, he turned to another important part of his life, music, and recorded a really great Blues album, “The Revolution is Here.”
    In this episode we’ll talk about the letter and the album. Even better, Lovers, we’ll hear a couple of cuts. So fasten your seatbelts. Here comes “We Comin’” from “The Revolution is Here, by Reverend Sekou and The Holy Ghost.
     
    Links:
    Rev. Sekou’s article: The clergy’s place is with the protesters in Ferguson, (on Patheos)
    The album: The Revolution Has Come, by Rev. Sekou & The Holy Ghost (on Amazon)
    Sekou’s blog (on Fellowship of Reconciliation) – forusa.org/blog/osagyefo-uhuru-sekou
    Facebook:  facebook.com/revsekou/
    Twitter: @RevSekou
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    44 min
  • LDT054 - Kristen Leigh - Singing From the Depths
    We’ve got a musical show for you today. One that focuses on both the Christian music scene, and the NOT-Christian-Music scene. The artist is Kristen Leigh, who now lives in Greensboro, North Carolina and has been performing around the country for several years. I met her when we worked together on the 2012 Wild Goose. Kristen is a graduate of Union Theological Seminary, here in New York, and her songs are terrific. She shies away from explicitly Christian lyrics, and does not do “worship music,” so she’s not really a part of the Christian Music industry. With her degree in Theology and the Arts, at Union, she’s deepened the understanding of the role culture plays in spirituality, and of how art (especially music) can deliver very important experiences to people if it is free of the expectations often imposed on the genre. We’ll hear some of her music in the recording. You’re going to like it.
    So let’s start out with a cut from her latest album, “Making Friends With Ghosts.” This one is called, “Sacred Heart”, by Kristen Leigh.
     
    Kristen’s website – kristenleighmusic.com/kristenleigh
    Click here for the music page
    Click here for her CD Baby page
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    1 hr 5 min
  • A THEOLOGY OF PLACE – Urban Minister, Chris Lawrence on the Neighborhood Church [LDT053]

    All over the country we see urban churches that are boarded up. No bells in the steeple there, nobody is helping the poor from there, and no community worships there. Many of the urban churches that do survive rely on their members driving many miles to services on Sunday. We’ve looked at several different strategies for dealing with this, on Love in a Dangerous Time. Some are designed to save the church and preserve it as it is, and some are focused on building new and innovative ways of being Christian. Today we have something that’s a little bit of both.
    Rev. Chris Lawrence is an immigrant from the UK and his nearly two years in New York City have been focused on reviving a neighborhood parish in the primarily Latino neighborhood of East Harlem. His theology is very much about place and community. His church, Church of the Living Hope, small as it is, has several projects designed to create a sense of home and community for all of its residents.
    A Note: Early in the interview I apologize for a lot of background noise that was just outside my window while we were recording. It was really awful, but we had to plow ahead. It seems that, due to my very careful editing and the wonderful sound enhancing service I use on my podcast (auphonic.com) you almost can’t hear the noise. Ahh… technology!!
    So today’s program is about a theology of place.
     
    Links:
    Church of the Living Hope website – www.churchofthelivinghope.org/
    East Harlem Flowers – Urban guerrilla art, by Naomi Lawrence – click here
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    1 hr 3 min
  • THE CHRISTIANS AND THE PAGANS: a talk with Rev. Phil Wyman of Salem, Massachusetts [LDT052]
     
    We’re going to talk with Rev. Phil Wyman, of Salem, Massachusetts. You might have heard somewhere that Salem was the center of the famous witch trials of the 17th century. The fact is that there are “witches” in Salem, and Pagans too. And Phil was actually thrown out of his denomination for making friends with them and working with them.  He has a just-published book, Burning Religion: navigating the impossible space between religion and secular society, which tells that story and looks at the whole question of working with “the other” and the special openings in people that happen in festival encounters with other people and with the mysteries themselves.
    Phil’s church, The Gathering at Salem, was founded in 2001 and was ejected from the denomination with him. They’re still functioning today, working to make cracks in our world. After all, that’s how the light gets in.
    Hang on, Lovers. This is going to be fun.
     
     
     
     
    Links:
    The Gathering at Salem – www.salemgathering.com
    Article: “Phil Wyman’s Experience. A 21st Century Witch Trial”
    Twitter: @PhilWyman
    Phil’s Blog: Burning Religion
     
     
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    59 min
  • LDT050 - Rosa Lee Harden - On Love
     
    If you’ve been listening to this show for a while, you know that some of the episodes are about innovations in the whole concept of Christian community, like the subtitle says: “A Conversation About Communities of Faith and How We Change the World.” Some episodes are about an interesting new book or an author who writes a lot of interesting books. Some are less didactic and are just conversations with friends, talking about interesting topics. You know, the all night conversations; the ones that start out with a little idea or story and keep going and going till the wee hours. Today is one of those “wee hour” episodes.
    Last summer, at the Wild Goose Festival, I was in the little tent near the main stage (I was the stage manager of the main stage), waiting for John Dear to go on and do his talk. So John and Festival Director, Rosa Lee Harden were back there chatting and Rosa Lee said, “It used to be that I’d always preach that God loves you just the way you are. That was my whole message. But at some point it didn’t seem like enough.” At that moment, John was called to the stage and our conversation was halted.
    I’ve been thinking about what Rosa Lee said for the five or six months since the Goose. So today’s episode is a chat with Rosa Lee to get deeper into it. It’s a rich discussion. And fortunately it doesn’t go into the wee hours.
    I’d love for you to join the bull session with us. Please leave a comment on the episode’s page on LoveInADangerousTime.net, or click on the microphone icon on the right and leave an audio recording (you know, the kind I could play on a future cast to keep the conversation going).
    Interesting links:
    Rosa Lee Harden’s bio on SOCAP website:  socialcapitalmarkets.net/staff/rosa-lee-harden-2/
    Twitter:  @MoneyMeaning
    Chuck Cannon, songwriter:  chuckcannon.com
     
     
     
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    1 hr 1 min

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A Conversation About Communities of Faith and How We Change The World