In this special re-release from Soul of a Nation, Jim Wallis shares a powerful address delivered at Villanova University on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, reflecting on King’s vision of the Beloved Community and the urgent work of crossing the lines that divide us. With stories from his own upbringing in Detroit and a call to confront racism as both a personal and structural reality, Wallis argues that faith must move beyond private belief into public witness.

Released in the season of Pentecost, this message takes on renewed meaning. Pentecost is the story of a Spirit that breaks through fear, language, and division, calling people into a wider community shaped by courage, truth, and justice; Wallis’s speech echoes that same call to build relationships across barriers and to imagine a multiracial democracy rooted in love.

As Wallis reminds us, the work is difficult, but not impossible. In a time of polarization and rising extremism, this episode invites listeners to consider what it means to be Spirit-led now—and how faith communities can help lead the way toward repair, redemption, and the common good.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this episode of the Jim Wallis Podcast, Jim Wallis speaks with Mark Labberton, pastor, theologian, and author of The Dangerous Act of Loving Your Neighbor, about what it means for Christians to say Christ Alone in a time of political pressure, Christian nationalism, and public religion.

Recorded on the eve of Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving, the conversation asks whether public rededication language reflects the teachings of Jesus or drifts into civil religion, false loyalty, and the temptation to bless the nation without naming its failures.

Jim and Mark also discuss: 

• Why loving your neighbor is costly, 
• Why evangelical Christians should resist tribalism and worship of nation or party, and 
• Why the church must become a “communion of unlike people” if it is to remain faithful to the gospel.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this episode of the Jim Wallis Podcast, Jim Wallis talks with Aaron Graham, pastor of The District Church and author of Unshakable Faith, on Ascension Day about what Jesus’ ascension means, why the Great Commission is not just about conversion but discipleship, and how Christians can live with courage, humility, and public faithfulness.

Jim and Aaron also discuss how the church can become a “school of formation,” why faith is personal but never private, and how believers can resist cultural drift, selective scripture, and the temptation to make Christianity comfortable rather than costly. The conversation closes with a prayer for listeners to find strength, hope, and the boldness to act in this moment.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this episode of the Jim Wallis Podcast, Jim Wallis speaks with Maria J. Stephan of the Horizons Project about the effectiveness of nonviolence in confronting political violence, repression, and authoritarianism. Horizons Project and partners have developed an entire training curriculum focused on political violence and how to make political violence and repression backfire. You can go to the Harnessing Our Power to Make Political Violence and Repression Backfire (HOPE) website  to learn more and to request trainings.

Jim and Maria discuss the recent White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting, America’s long history of assassinations and assassination attempts, and why political violence has no place in a healthy democracy.

Stephan makes a sustained case that nonviolence is not only more ethical and religiously grounded, but also more effective than violence in building durable change, shifting power, and making repression backfire.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this episode of the Jim Wallis Podcast, Jim Wallis talks with Maya Wiley, President and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, about the Supreme Court decision that weakens the Voting Rights Act and threatens multiracial democracy. 

Wiley explains 

• how the ruling ignores both the law and Congress’s intent, 
• why it opens the door to voter suppression and racial dilution, and 
• what faith leaders and ordinary people can do to fight back.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this episode of the Jim Wallis Podcast, Jim Wallis speaks with David Cortright, Visiting Scholar at Cornell’s Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, about the current crisis with Iran, the fallout from Trump’s decision to torpedo the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and why war is not the answer. 

They discuss how the 2015 agreement under the Obama Administration worked, why withdrawal accelerated danger, and why the rhetoric of “just war” collapses when politics, escalation, and civilian suffering take over. Cortright also argues that in the nuclear age, diplomacy is not weakness but the strongest and most moral path forward.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this episode of the Jim Wallis Podcast, Jim Wallis talks with Kim Daniels and Christopher White of Georgetown about 

• Pope Leo’s forceful response to Donald Trump, 
• Trump’s own social media image that portrayed him in Christ-like terms, and 
• what Catholics are making of this moment. 

They discuss why 

• the Pope’s “I have no fear of the Trump administration” remarks matter, 
• why Christians are calling the image blasphemous, and 
• how the Vatican is trying to keep the focus on peace, war, and the suffering of real people. 

They also reflect on the upsurge in Catholic converts, especially among younger people, and what that suggests about the hunger for truth, beauty, mystery, and a more serious faith.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this episode of the Jim Wallis Podcast, Cathleen Kaveny joins Jim Wallis to explore how Catholic Social Teaching speaks to democracy under pressure. They discuss 

• the Trump administration’s treatment of immigrants; 
• the rule of law, voting rights, institutional trust; and 
• why the Church must resist cruelty, manipulation, and political tribalism. 

Kaveny argues that democracy depends on treating people as “co-rulers and co-subjects,” and that Catholics must hold together human dignity, solidarity, subsidiarity, and the common good in both public policy and church witness.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this episode of the Jim Wallis Podcast, Jim Wallis talks with Diana Butler Bass about what she calls “quiet Christianity” waking up in response to authoritarianism, Christian nationalism, and the Trump administration’s policies. 

They explore how mainline Protestant churches, especially in places like Minnesota, are moving from inward debate to public courage through accompaniment, immigration advocacy, and solidarity with vulnerable neighbors. 

Bass argues that democracy is sustained not only by elections and institutions but by local acts of love, truth-telling, and moral witness rooted in the Gospel.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Veteran journalist and former public television host Ray Suarez joins Jim Wallis to unpack how decades of deregulation and consolidation brought us to a media landscape dominated by a handful of billionaires and hedge funds.

Suarez traces the shift from the days when “most adults in America saw at least part of a network newscast every day” and “we knew the same things” to a fractured ecosystem where the Ellison family, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and other moguls increasingly shape what the public knows. 

He warns that public broadcasting is being “weaponized” through zeroed‑out funding and that “the truth isn’t free… reporters need to be paid,” urging more activist media consumers and new subscription‑style models to sustain independent journalism. 

Wallis connects this to a shared vocation of truth‑telling in journalism and the church, insisting that for people of faith, defending a free and independent press is a core democracy and discipleship issue.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.