Love in a Dangerous Time

In World War 1, soldiers from all sides refused to fight on Christmas Eve 1914

Today we’re going to take a close look at the phenomenon of progressive Evangelicals. I do not come from an Evangelical background, so my stereotype has always been the right wing, xenophobic, anti-gay, right to lifer model that we all remember from the heyday of the Religious Right of Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Jim & Tammy Fay Baker, Francis Schaeffer and that whole gang. I lived in that bubble for a long time. But in the last ten years or so, I’ve met so many extremely progressive Evangelicals that my bubble was popped. The biggest eye opener is the Wild Goose Festival, which I have attended since 2012. Most of the people there are Evangelicals and you’ll never find a more open and committed bunch of progressive people, working in all kinds of really great ministries.

My guest in this episode, Deborah Jian Lee, has a new book, Rescuing Jesus: How People of Color, Women, and Queer Christians are Reclaiming Evangelicalism. In it she tell her own story, in addition to several others, of becoming fed up with the right wing expectations of the church. Through these stories and a lot of very well researched history and analysis, she points out that there have always been progressive Evangelicals and there have been times where it looked like they may actually become the leadership of the movement. And better still, she shows that they are in ascendency today.

Deborah Jian Lee lives in Chicago. She’s an award-winning journalist and radio producer. She’s been a staff reporter for the Associated Press, taught journalism at Columbia University, and written for Foreign Policy, Forbes, Slate, GOOD, Reuters, WBEZ, WNYC, and others.

Let me know your response to this interview. Leave a comment below, or click on the microphone icon on the right side of your screen, at www dot Love In A Dangerous Time dot net, and leave an audio comment. Maybe you have a story that fits in with this episode.

Now, let’s join the conversation with Deborah Jian Lee.

Deborah’s website: www.deborahjianlee.com/

On Twitter: @DeborahJianLee

On Huffington Post: www.huffingtonpost.com/deborah-jian-lee/

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Today’s episode is focused on two topics. First, we want to commemorate the life of the wonderful Phyllis Tickle, who passed away on September 22. And secondly, we want to take a close look at the whole idea of spiritual practices, particularly daily prayer offices, and how they fit into a twenty first century Christian life. Of course, Phyllis published a series of books on “The Hours”, as they are called. So it all fits together.

 

 

The perfect person to talk with about both Phyllis and daily prayer practice is Rev. Tripp Huggins, of Berkeley,

California. Tripp is the director of admissions at American Baptist Seminary of the West, and a newly confirmed Episcopalian. I met him at The Wild Goose Festival, where this year he was the “Liturgical Coordinator.” This means that he would lead pop-up daily offices, three times a day, using the pocket edition of Phyllis’s book, The Divine Hours.

We have a pretty wide-ranging discussion about Phyllis, The Hours, the role of icons and liturgy in our faith, both historically and in contemporary applications.

 

So pour yourself a cup of tea (or what ever tickles your fancy), get a pen and a pad for notes, put on some headphones, and enjoy this very interesting episode of Love in a Dangerous Time.

www.phyllistickle.com

Phyllis Tickle’s Amazon Author Page

Tripp Hudgins’ twitter handle: @anglobaptist

Tripp’s blog: anglobaptist.org

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You may have noticed that it’s been more than a week since our last episode. There are lots of reasons why this happened, but I’ve been thinking about what is the best weekly schedule for this podcast. I’ve been trying to get the shows up and running on Wednesday mornings, but more than once it’s proven to be either really difficult or even impossible. It’s hard to integrate a weekly rhythm into my schedule, but I do think that Monday is a much better day. You know, it’ll give me the weekend to get it all together. So henceforth, you’ll be getting your dose of love on Mondays.

As I write, it’s about two weeks since the tragic and appalling attacks in Paris. They are still very much on everyone’s mind. The attacks even come up in the interview that follows here. I don’t have a special program in response to that unholy brew of religion and nationalism, but such programs in the near future. I really think that we have to get serious and figure out how we, people of faith, can play a role to change our world to the point where things like that are unimaginable. So I will be bringing on guest to talk about this whole area, perhaps in the Open Ended Conversations series.

But today, my guest is, for the second time, Dr. Grace Ji-Sun Kim. We did an interview just a few weeks ago on her recent book, “Embracing the Other,” which discusses racism and prejudice in the Church (Episode 40).

Grace’s newest book is, “Here I Am: Faith Stories of Korean American Clergywomen.” Grace is the editor and a contributor to this volume which contains contributions by about 20 Korean American & Canadian clergywomen and women who do work within the structure of the Korean American Church. The book is released to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Korean American Presbyterian Clergywomen’s Association.

It’s really an interesting book and our conversation goes from the difficulties faced by Korean women who want to work within the church, the history of the Korean Church, its role today, and some of the outstanding work being done by Korean women clergy.

If you want to add any thoughts, or question anything we talk about, please leave a comment either on the webpage for this episode at www.loveInADangerousTime.net. If you want to say it, rather than type it, just click on the little microphone on the right side of the page and leave a voice recording. I’d love to hear from you.

 

gracejisunkim.wordpress.com

@GraceJiSunKim

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You may have noticed that this episode of Love in a Dangerous Time is a few days late. Well, there’s a good reason for that.

First, let me announce to the world that I am one of those Christians who doesn’t believe in Hell. Sorry if the fiery pit is important to your understanding of the god of love, but I just don’t believe in it as a place or a concept.

Accept…..

I have been in Computer Hell for about a week. I’m taking some extraordinary measures to get this episode up and on the internet, but my usual world of electronics has become absolute Hell. It’s a long story, and I hope it’ll be over soon. I’m sure many of you have had the experience and you know what I’m talking about.

But this episode is now available and I really hope you enjoy it.

No matter where you live, you area probably aware of the deep and scandalous problem of homelessness that plagues the United States and the whole world, for that matter. While we see expensive living spaces and fancy restaurants popping up all over, we also see people couch surfing or panhandling to make the entrance fee of shelters, or camping in the doorways of our towns and cities.

Yes. You’re right. It just shouldn’t be. It’s wrong that our societies allow this to happen to people. But what can you do?

My guest today is Marc Greenberg and he is one person has never had a problem thinking up what to do to about homelessness. Mark is the Executive director of the Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing, here in New York City. As you’ll hear in the interview, this organization has done some amazing things in its thirty-one years. This is mostly based on Marc’s drive and commitment to a better world. Let’s just get into it now. Here’s Marc Greenberg king about homelessness, on Love in a Dangerous Time.

 

Some useful Links:

IAHH Website – http://www.iahh.org/

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/InterfaithAssembly/

Twitter – @InterfaithAssem

Marc’s email address – [email protected]

 

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Today we’re going to step over the line and talk to a Jewish Rabbi about the state of faith communities and how he has created a successful online worship community for Jews.

Rabbi Steven Blane is our guest, and in addition to his online community and his innovative rabbinical school, he’s a really good singer and songwriter, who gigs all the time, here in New York City. It’s going to be fun.

We’ll hear a couple of his more “pop” recordings in the podcast, but for now, let’s ease into the interview with some liturgical music – Rabbi Steve style – from his Yom Kippur service only a couple of months

ago.

 

@SimShalomOnline

www.stevenblane.com – Lots of his songs here

www.facebook.com/stevenblanesongwriter

Sim Shalom, the online congregation – www.simshalom.com/

Jewish Spiritual Leaders Institute – www.jsli.net/

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Every once in a while, I read something or hear something that gives me a whole new way to understand my faith. This happened in September when I read an article in the Religion & Ethics online newsletter by Dr. John Thatanamil. John is an Associate Professor of Theology and World Religions at Union Theological Seminary – right up the street from the Love in a Dangerous Time world headquarters.

John used the occasion of Pope Francis’s visit and the ascendency of Donald Trump as

the leading Republican candidate for president to contrast this dichotomous duo’s stance in the world. The Pope, of course, represents the vulnerability of humans, while Trump claims he’s invulnerable and he can make all Americans invulnerable too.

This is not a theology lesson, or a look at how to deal with the church. It’s more of an all-nighter, where the conversation is to keep you going deeper and deeper into your own understanding. Please discuss this topic with your friends and write a comment here at Love In A Dangerous Time Dot Net.

Oh, and this is probably the episode with the most construction noise in it. My apologies. The work outside my window was finished shortly after the interview, so maybe this is the last time.

 

This interview is a response to an article written by John Thatamanil in the Religion & Ethics online newsletter: “Francis and Trump: Opposites Competing for the American Soul (click here).

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My guest is none other than Brian McLaren. For those of you who don’t know who he is (there might be somebody out there who doesn’t know…), Brian is the author of 14 books that have opened the hearts and minds of huge numbers of Christians. He was one of the top leaders of the Emergent movement that gave people the permission and the understanding to look at scripture and theology in a new way and to create new ways of being together.

Brian has also written a lot about how our faith calls us to really stand for justice and to, in many ways, re-make the world. My world was rocked by “The Secret Message of Jesus” and then I was thrilled by the call of “A New Kind of Christianity,” and “Everything Must Change.”

I’ve heard Brian speak many times, both live and online. He’s always compelling, but this year at Wild Goose, he seemed to be on fire. He was talking about his next book (September 2016), called “Converting Christianity,” in which he proposes three crucial conversions that Christianity must go through. 1) That Christianity is a way of life, not a belief system; 2) That God is not violent; and 3) That the Church is not an institution, but a movement.

This is some good stuff. You’re going to like this interview

Let’s get right into it. But first, I need to explain that the interview was done over Skype and there are several (what I would call) “Skypisms” in it. Sometimes the words get a little garbled and syllables may drop out. I’ve fixed most of them but there are some places where you’ll have to imagine what he must have said. It’s not going to be hard.

Brian’s Blog:  http://www.brianmclaren.net/

Brian’s Books on Amazon  (Click here to order Brian’s books and to support Love in a Dangerous Time)

Brian’s interview with Krista Tippet on “On Being” – Recorded at Wild Goose Festival, June 2013

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My guest is a PhD candidate at Union Theological Seminary, right here in New York. His name is Nkosi Anderson and he’s involved in the planning of what looks to be a large protest event on October 22-24, here in New York, called #Rise Up October. #RiseUpOctober is a national protest, focused here, where the largest events will be happening. I’m not in the habit of inviting people on to talk about their upcoming political activity, but this particular protest is important to all of us Lovers for two reasons.

First, it’s addressing a very important problem in our society, the relentless killings of mostly young Black & Latino men by the police. We experienced a lot of activity late last year, after the non-indictment of the officers who killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner, here in New York. Since then there have been killings on an average of 3 per day. An important feature of #RiseUpOctober will be the 100 Families program, where the relatives of the victims of police violence will be coming to New York to join the protest. The leaders of #RiseUpOctober are pulling people together to say, very dramatically, that this simply must stop.

The other reason this these events are important to us Lovers is that one of the two co-conveners of the events is none other than Dr. Cornel West, probably our leading academic activist Christian leader. #RiseUpOctober has established a Faith Task Force, led by Rev. Jerome McCorry, of Dayton, Ohio. The task force is charged with mobilizing people of faith to come to the events and to host and take care of the 100 families who will be here to protest the death of their loved ones.

Cornel West and Carl Dix, a spokesperson for the Revolutionary Communist Party co-founded The Stop Mass Incarceration Network (SMIN) a few years ago, and SMIN is calling for

#RiseUpOctober.  So then we have to think about who we can work with in this turbulent world.

As a Christian, my overall outlook is that our job is to create a new world within the old. Cornel West calls himself a “Revolutionary Christian.” That’s something that we need to think about.

We’ll start thinking about it in this episode.

 

 

Websites:

#RiseUpOctober

Stop Mass Incarceration Network

Contribute to #RiseUpOcbober’s Indigogo fundraising campaign. (Be sure to watch the video of family members telling their stories.

Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail

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I’m sure you felt the excitement. I’m sure you had already guessed. Or maybe you saw it all over the media, but today is International Podcast Day. I’ve got a link in the show notes to their website (internationalpodcastday.com) and it’s actually pretty interesting. So if you like to listen to podcasts, or if you’re a podcaster yourself, you may enjoy checking it out.

We live it a time of particularly harsh racial and cultural animosity. We here a major presidential candidate joking about “killing Muslims,” white supremacists feel compelled and empowered to kill African Americans in a church, and daily we see videos on our phones showing mostly young African American men murdered with absolute impunity by police. We are obsessed with “The Other.”

Today’s guest, Dr. Grace Ji-Sun Kim is a Korean-Canadian theologian who is tackling the question of “The Other,” in her new book, which is being released today, September 30, entitled Embracing the Other: The Transformative Spirit of Love. It’s published by Wm. B. Eerdmans and is part of a series on Prophetic Christianity. The series, by the way, is co-edited by the Rev. Dr. Peter Heltzel, who has been a great friend to this podcast and has appeared in two episodes.

This is a complicated topic and the conversation is very helpful. So enjoy this conversation about Embracing the Other, by Grace Ji-Sun Kim.

 

 

 

Links:

Grace’s Amazon Author Page – Click here

Grace’s Blog – Click Here

@GraceJiSunKim

Facebook – Click here

Eerdman’s series – Click here

HomeBrewed series – Click here

HBC interview – Click here

International Podcast Day – Click here

 

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