Christian faith has been politicized. Arguably, this is not new. But what we see in America and other societies has a jarring impact for those who seek a credible public Christian faith. To examine how Christian faith has been politicized in recent years, preacher and public theologian Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove joins Mark Labberton, asking what moral resistance requires in this authoritarian moment.

"I couldn't know Jesus in the fullness of who Jesus is without integrating faith and justice."

In this episode: Wilson-Hartgrove reflects on his Southern Baptist formation, his political awakening, and a conversion that reordered his understanding of Jesus, justice, and public life.

And: Trying to understand Christian nationalism, authoritarian power, poverty and race, moral fusion movements, just war theology, the discipline of prayer, and how churches can reclaim biblical values for the common good.

Episode Highlights

"I couldn't know Jesus in the fullness of who Jesus is without integrating faith and justice."

"The radical separation of faith from justice was a way my faith was stolen from me."

"We are in an authoritarian crisis that tells its own version of reality."

"Christian nationalism offers an alternative reality that very sincere people come to trust."

"Prayer interrupts the liturgy of consumerism and gives us another story."

About Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is an author, preacher, and public theologian working at the intersection of Christian faith, moral movements, and public life. He serves as Assistant Director of the Yale Center for Public Theology and Public Policy and has spent more than two decades in faith-rooted movements for social change. A longtime collaborator with Bishop William J. Barber II, he has helped articulate the Moral Movement's moral framing of poverty, race, and democracy. Wilson-Hartgrove is the author of multiple books on public faith, justice, and Christian discipleship, and a co-creator of the widely used prayer resource Common Prayer. He lives in North Carolina, where his work remains grounded in local churches and communities.

Learn more and follow at jonathanwilsonhartgrove.com and @wilsonhartgrove

Helpful Links and Resources

Revolution of Values: Reclaiming Public Faith for the Common Good https://www.broadleafbooks.com/store/product/9781506484136/Revolution-of-Values

Common Prayer (with Shane Claiborne) https://www.zondervan.com/p/common-prayer/

White Poverty (with William J. Barber II) https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469661927/white-poverty/

Yale Center for Public Theology and Public Policy https://publictheology.yale.edu/

Show Notes

– Growing up in rural North Carolina tobacco country; The Andy Griffith Show based on his former community

– Southern Baptist formation, scripture memorization, and the King James Bible

– Moral Majority era shaping faith and politics

– Early ambition to serve Jesus through political power

– Greyhound trip to Washington, DC with grandfather

– Becoming a Senate page at sixteen

– Working in the office of Strom Thurmond

– Encountering the racial subtext of American politics

– "There was a distance between Sunday school and what was practiced"

– Learning how southern politics realigned after civil rights

– Leaving partisan politics searching for faithful public life

– Disorientation and not knowing another way to be Christian

– Meeting a preacher shaped by the civil rights movement

– Discovering a faith that named injustice without condemnation

– "I needed another way to be Christian in public"

– Colorblind theology and segregated church life

– Conversion as seeing Jesus and reality differently

– Faith reordered by relationships, not ideology

– Christian opposition to the Iraq War

– Traveling to Iraq during U.S. bombing

– "According to just war theory, this wouldn't be a just war"

– How common sense changes over time

– Christian nationalism and manufactured moral narratives

– Alternative realities formed by trusted information sources

– "We are in an authoritarian crisis"

– Mutual aid, churches, and local resistance

– Poverty as a moral and political vulnerability

– Prayer as resistance to consumerist liturgy

– Common Prayer and the rhythm of scripture

– "Prayer gives us another story to live inside"

#JonathanWilsonHartgrove

#Authoritarianism

#PublicFaith

#ChristianNationalism

#MoralMovement

#FaithAndJustice

#CommonGood

Production Credits

Conversing is produced and distributed in partnership with Comment Magazine and Fuller Seminary.