The Convocation Unscripted

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld President Trump’s order to remove Temporary Protected Status from hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants. The lead opinion, written by Justice Alito, declared that Trump’s derogatory language about these groups (“they’re eating the pets”) and their country of origin (“sh*thole countries”) was not “OVERTLY” racist and therefore not a factor in discerning his motivation for the order. Justice Sotomayor, in a blistering dissent, declared that “the references—of filth, disease, and primitiveness—are shot through with racial stereotypes.” Meanwhile, Trump is giving white South African refugees welcome bags with a PragerU children’s book on so-called reverse racism, and a document that defends the country’s founding on slavery. We talk about how these moves violate not only basic moral decency but Christian teaching about treating immigrants with hospitality and respect and, well, just not bearing false witness against your neighbor. We close by reminding listeners of the need to pay attention to the bright lines being crossed and to not cede the flag or patriotism to the Christian nationalists who distort their meaning.

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Jemar Tisby- JemarTisby.Substack.com

This week, the Convocation Unscripted team talk about the implications of the silencing of women’s voices in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) and the erasure of women’s voices in the New Testament. On the even of Juneteenth, we also discuss the importance of embracing Juneteenth as our newest federal holiday, and the power of commemorating that holiday alongside Independence Day, which falls just 15 days later. And we wrap by reflecting on the findings of the latest survey, which shows that the loud voices of Christian nationalism only represent about three in ten Americans. Two thirds of our fellow citizens still embrace the ideals of a racially and religiously pluralistic America.

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Jemar Tisby- JemarTisby.Substack.com

Because it’s the first week of the month, this week’s Convocation Unscripted episode was live. We talked about the latest happenings in the world of religion and politics: the drastic narrowing of officially recognized religions within the Department of Defense, the further politicization of the civil service by the Trump administration, and moral bright lines being crossed that we must continue to see and resist. And we answered your questions for the second half of the show. Hope you’ll tune in if you missed it! It was lively as always. Thanks so much for reading, listening, and supporting our work.

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In this episode, we talk about the broad interdisciplinary research across the humanities and social sciences that has converged to establish the clear threat of Christian nationalism to pluralistic democracy, both here and across Europe. From the headlines, we also discuss the surprising victory by scandal-laden Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican primary race in Texas. The coming showdown between Paxton and Democratic nominee James Talarico promises not only to be the most expensive senate campaign in American history but also a clear contest between two visions of religion and the nation: Christian nationalism from Paxton and faith-infused support for pluralistic democracy by Talarico. In this race and so many others, we’ll be sure to see the Christian nationalist tactic of literally demonizing political opponents—a practice that destroys democratic ideals, short circuits moral thinking, and distorts Christian theology.

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In this episode of The Convocation Unscripted, we wrestle in real time with two competing visions of America unfolding side-by-side. On one hand, we discuss the “Rededicate 250” event and the growing effort to frame the United States as a distinctly Christian nation rooted in white Christian nationalist mythology. On the other hand, we reflect on “All Roads Lead to the South,” a contemporary voting rights pilgrimage through Montgomery and Selma that reminds us democracy has always required organized resistance, moral courage, and collective action.

We connect the current political moment to deeper historical currents: the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act, the myth of “Christian America,” the weaponization of religious liberty rhetoric, and the ways memory and public history shape our understanding of democracy itself. Along the way, we talk about political performance art in Washington, DC, the emotional and spiritual weight of visiting civil rights landmarks, and why this moment increasingly feels like the Civil Rights Movement of our generation.

As always, this conversation is unscripted, historically grounded, and deeply engaged with the urgent questions shaping religion, culture, and politics in America today.

• The Supreme Court’s continued dismantling of voting rights protections
• The significance of Selma, Montgomery, and “All Roads Lead to the South”
• The “Rededicate 250” event and the resurgence of Christian nationalist rhetoric
• The myth of “Christian America” and why it remains politically powerful
• How public memory and historical storytelling shape democracy
• Political performance art, protest, and creative resistance
• The difference between patriotism and nationalism
• Why this political moment echoes earlier struggles for civil rights and democratic participation

• The Search for Christian America by Mark Noll, Nathan Hatch, and George Marsden

Subscribe to The Convocation Unscripted on Substack for weekly conversations at the intersection of faith, politics, history, and culture. You can also follow the individual work of Robby Jones, Jemar Tisby, Kristin Du Mez, and Diana Butler Bass. 

This week, we talk about the dismay our friends in Canada and other nations are expressing about the decline of America as a good neighbor. We also talk about two events that are taking place this weekend: 1) Jemar is attending the “All Roads Lead to the South” event, a day of action in Selma in response to the dismantling of the voting rights act; and 2) Robby is attending the Trump administration’s Christian nationalist event called “Rededicate 250” that is taking place this Sunday on the National mall in Washington, DC. Diana gives some hopeful examples of how Virginia, home to the former capitol of the Confederacy, is honestly facing the troubling parts of its past while illuminating a new path forward.

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In this live episode, we talk about the hollowing out of the Voting Rights Act that the U.S. Supreme Court has accomplished with its recent LOUISIANA v. CALLAIS ET AL. ruling. The court’s conservative majority found that the Louisiana district represented by Democrat Cleo Fields relied too heavily on race. In its wake, a number of southern states with white Republican-dominated legislatures have raced to redraw their electoral maps to further dilute the power of African American voters. We talk about the perfect storm of the erasure of history, faulty logic, and gaslighting that is turning the clock back on voting rights for Black Americans and what we can do in response. And we took viewers questions on a wide range of topics in the last half of the show.

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The White House released a report on so-called “anti-Christian bias.” But who counts as Christian in these claims?

Diana, Kristin, and Jemar discuss how this regime is narrowing the definition of Christianity to a particular ideological and political express, while positioning that version as under threat.

This is not about defending religious freedom, it’s about reframing power as persecution.

Then we turn to the Voting Rights Act and how the latest decision from the conservative majority on the Supreme Court renders it all but a dead letter law.

The justices’ claim to colorblindness actually ignores the historical conditions that made an intervention like the VRA necessary in the first place. The ruling is part of a pattern on the far-right to view structures built to address racial inequality as unfair while leaving the inequalities themselves in place.

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In this week's episode of TCU, we talk about Trump's participation in a public reading of the Bible, sponsored by a white evangelical group, where he read II Chronicles 7:14, a favorite of Christian nationalists. We also talk about the continued platforming of self-described Christian nationalist, "paleo-Confederate" pastor Doug Wilson not only by the likes of Pete Hegseth but by more mainstream outlets in the evangelical world. But we also review his recent dressing down by Wajahat Ali on the Piers Morgan show. Finally, we talk about the ways local churches are banding together to advocate for and serve immigrants who have been wrongfully detained by ICE.

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On parallel channels over the last two weeks, we’ve witnessed Hegseth’s dangerous holy war rants, Vance’s arrogant lecturing Pope Leo XIV on Catholic theology, and Trump’s direct attacks on the pope, followed by an unhinged promotion of an AI image of himself as Jesus. Just typical post-Easter weeks in the MAGA era. In this week's Convocation Unscripted, we were joined LIVE by nearly 300 in TCU community. Tune in to hear a rich conversation based on your questions.

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