Rev. Jim Wallis talks with theologian and immigrant advocate Karen González about the lessons of immigration in the Bible.

The metrics of the COVID-19 pandemic show how disproportionately affected our immigrant and refugee neighbors have been.

González says, "The story of the Bible isn't just a story of moving from being lost to being saved, but it's one of being a foreigner and moving toward being part of the family of God to belonging. And that's a trajectory we can see throughout the scriptures from the very beginning when we meet Abraham — God is asking him to migrate, and we see he and Sarah's vulnerability in Egypt. Over and over again the scripture restates some 83 times ... that we're to treat the immigrant as ourselves, we're to love the immigrant as ourselves, we're to do justice for the immigrant. And there's judgment. There's a whole book of the Bible, Obadiah. And it's judgment for those who did not treat the refugee and immigrant well, for those who did not do justice for the immigrant."

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President-elect of Bread for the World Rev. Eugene Cho talks with Rev. Jim Wallis about the need for faith leaders to speak out about politics in the time of the coronavirus.

"I think the word 'politics,' for lots of reasons, it's grown to become this difficult, challenging word in our culture and context. Especially I think in the evangelical context," Cho said. "... That's not the only thing that we as Christians do. But it is one way, a significant way, in which we try to live out this calling to be a good neighbor, because politics, it shapes and informs policies that impact people. And the last time I read the Bible, God really cares about people. ... I share in that prayer that more Christians would get engaged in advocacy, in speaking up and to urge our lawmakers and leaders to lead with moral courage, and to lead with empathy and compassion."

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Ahead of Mother's Day, New York times bestselling author and historian of Christianity at Duke Divinity School, Kate Bowler and Rev. Jim Wallis dig into a meaningful discussion about what being human looks like amid a global pandemic. From waking up in the morning to parent and raise a child to navigating the inevitable suffering life brings, Kate provides a clarifying voice and perspective for how to live through these trying times. 

Her scholarship in American heresies, like the fallacy of the Prosperity Gospel, make for an interesting investigation into America's unique, and sometimes upsetting, response to our current crisis. Bowler says, "In the end, bad things happen to good people because there is no cure to being human. And the world will not mete out its punishments in relationship to our faithfulness or whether we don't cheat at golf. And  if there is math, we don't get to see it. So the problem is of course, is that we're left with suffering without apparent meaning. That's scary for us because we derive a lot of purpose from meaning."

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Marie Dennis, senior advisor and former co-president of Pax Christi International, and Rev. Jim Wallis analyze the importance of government social programs to provide true security to our nation.

Dennis says, "What we're seeing in this pandemic is the result of a distorted sense of priorities for years in our own country, and that is echoed in the rest of the world. What we're seeing is the need to rethink what we mean by security and talk about security in a different way. ... According to a new definition of security, our investment [needs to be] in health care, in the safety of children, in ending hunger, in reducing food insecurity and on and on and on."

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Rev. Dr. Cynthia Hale, the founder and senior pastor of the Ray of Hope Christian Church talks with Rev. Jim Wallis about the need to observe the Sabbath during this time of the COVID-19 crisis.  

"The emotional strain of this experience has been undeniable. The uncertainty is a beast. One day when I was feeling overwhelmed by it, all my Apple watch vibrated and when I looked at it, it simply said, breathe. All of us need to receive this message on a regular basis and particularly right now we all need to take time to breathe because as ministers we spend our lives in perpetual motion sometimes without stopping to even catch our breath."

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Peggy Flanagan, Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota, talks with Rev. Jim Wallis about state and federal responses to the coronavirus.

"We started as part of our overall response to COVID-19, something called our community resiliency and recovery work group, which is really grounded in ensuring that we don't return back to normal and that we are centering people of color, Native Americans, immigrants and refugees, low-income folks, and people experiencing homelessness at the center of our response."

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Rev. Dr. Frederick Haynes III and Rev. Jim Wallis discuss how the coronavirus pandemic has further revealed the structural and racial inequalities embedded in our nation and in our society.

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Billy Shore, founder and chairman of Share Our Strength and the architect of the No Kid Hungry campaign, talks with Rev. Jim Wallis about how to feed the kids who are missing nearly 34 million meals each day now that schools are shuttered because of the coronavirus.

"Hopefully one of our responsibilities or charges from a leadership point of view is to help people see how we can make some permanent changes, so the next time there's such a crisis, the vulnerable are not as vulnerable; we're more on an equal footing," Shore says.

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Latin American theologian, missiologist, and educator Ruth Padilla DeBorst and Rev. Jim Wallis discuss the importance of social consciousness in the creation of government policy. 

Speaking of government priorities, Padilla DeBorst says, "If there is an awareness that the place of government is to guarantee the wellbeing of people and not just to serve the interests of a few or to line one's pockets, it makes a big difference. That's something we can be grateful for at same time as we mourn the lack of that kind of consciousness on the part of many governments in the world."

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Brian Gallagher, the CEO of United Way Worldwide, speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis about the catastrophic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on his perspective as the leader of a global network that represents organizations from 40 countries and six continents, Gallagher says, "Extreme political leaders are crushing the soul of our country right now."

Addressing extremism from the political right and left, Gallagher calls for us to work together for the common good, especially in the wake of the devastation of the coronavirus.

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