In part one of our episode, we discuss the No Kings Marches across the country, the detainment of NYC Mayoral Candidate Brad Lander by ICE, and the political assassinations of two Minnesota State Representatives. In part two (19:00), we are joined by Jonas Williams, an undergraduate student at UCLA who has been researching the masculinity crisis for a film project. In our conversation with Jonas, we explore why young men are increasingly isolated, depressed, and angry at a time when wealth, economic, and political power are still held mainly in the hands of, you guessed it, men. We covered a lot of ground and therefore didn’t have time to discuss a theological response to the masculinity crisis. However, we will address it in a future episode this summer.

The Progressive Christians Podcast is a ministry of The Loft, a worship community of Westwood United Methodist Church. If you have an idea for the show or want to connect with us, please email us at [email protected]. 

Show Notes

1. Queer Theology by Linn Marie Tonstad https://wipfandstock.com/9781498218795/queer-theology/
2. Elliot Rodger: How misogynist killer became ‘incel hero’ https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43892189 
3. Antioch Shooting: https://www.adl.org/resources/article/antioch-tenn-shooter-inspired-broad-extremist-beliefs-and-previous-mass-killers 
4. Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon: https://monoskop.org/images/a/a5/Fanon_Frantz_Black_Skin_White_Masks_1986.pdf 
5. Together by Vivek Murphy: https://www.vivekmurthy.com/together-book 
6. Looksmaxing Intro: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/feb/15/from-bone-smashing-to-chin-extensions-how-looksmaxxing-is-reshaping-young-mens-faces

No one enjoys being labeled immature, particularly when it comes to our faith journey. However, Paul the Apostle reminds us in his first letter to the Corinthian church that we ought to mature in our Christian faith, recognizing that we currently know God only partially and will ultimately come to know God fully after we transition from this life to whatever is next.

In this episode, we explore two different approaches to assessing our faith journeys and discuss how spiritual “arrested development” can help us understand the current resurgence of White Christian Nationalism.

The Progressive Christians Podcast is a ministry of The Loft, a worship community of Westwood United Methodist Church. If you have an idea for the show or want to connect with us, please email us at [email protected].

Show Notes

1. https://www.institute4learning.com/2020/06/12/the-stages-of-faith-according-to-james-w-fowler/
2. Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning https://books.google.com/books/about/Stages_of_Faith.html?id=EYlvzgEACAAJ 
3. Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life by Richard Rohr https://store.cac.org/products/falling-upward-revised-and-updated?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=762906715&gbraid=0AAAAADlE41wr9sIjy1pe8OdkZtOT4eSPC&gclid=Cj0KCQjwjJrCBhCXARIsAI5x66WXTNMIUXEOYgmreIM-cDcBNiNbpXSTzsRZ2DLq6J7n6wwidd67fLgaAt8YEALw_wcB
4. Compassion in Practice by Frank Rogers, Jr. https://upperroombooks.com/book/compassion-in-practice/ 
5. Children’s Books
   1. Old Turtle by Douglass Wood and Cheng-Khee Chee
   2. The Book of Belonging by Mariko Clark and Rachel Eleanor
   3. What is God Like? by Rachel Held Evans and Matthew Paul Turner
   4. The Blessing of You by Mark Batterson and Summer Batterson Daily
   5. The Story of Passover by David A. Adler and Jill Weber
   6. Little Sid: The Tiny Prince Who Became Buddha by Ian Lendler and Xanthe Bouma

While LA is not the war zone that Fox News would have you believe, what we are experiencing in our community is not normal. In this episode, Rev. Dr. Carter, Westley, and Everest discuss the immigration raids and protests that have erupted across Los Angeles County, share our thoughts on why Trump is doing this right now, and describe what a progressive Christian response could look like.

The Progressive Christians Podcast is a ministry of The Loft, a worship community of Westwood United Methodist Church. If you have an idea for the show or want to connect with us, please email us at [email protected].

Show Notes

1. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/06/08/us/la-immigration-protests-photos-map.html
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZQcVPtkMdc
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP1_FC6cj24

“The American Government gives the most help to those who need it the least. This is the true nature of our welfare state, and it has far-reaching implications, not only for our bank accounts and poverty levels but also for our psychology and civic spirit.” This quote from Matthew Desmond’s book, Poverty, by America, is a hard truth, but it is true.

It is certainly not the story we tell ourselves, and it is definitely not the narrative that the writers of Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill Act would have us believe. Most Christians recognize that how we spend our money should be influenced by our belief in God, but what this looks like in practice varies greatly. In this episode, we explore what the Bible says about wealth and poverty in light of our current state of affairs and envision what a progressive theology of economics could look like.

The Progressive Christians Podcast is a ministry of The Loft, a worship community of Westwood United Methodist Church. If you have an idea for the show or want to connect with us, please email us at [email protected].

1. Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/675683/poverty-by-america-by-matthew-desmond/ 
2. https://www.crfb.org/blogs/breaking-down-one-big-beautiful-bill
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrhrhPtnogs
4. https://www.npr.org/2025/02/26/nx-s1-5309695/trump-gaza-video
5. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/how-trump-family-took-over-crypto-firm-it-raised-hundreds-millions-2025-03-31/
6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM
7. LA Homeless services controversy https://laist.com/news/housing-homelessness/la-county-supervisors-lahsa-vote-homeless-spending-accountability 
8. https://www.foxla.com/news/la-homeless-funding-federal-hearing-may-29

How do you know when it is time to walk away and retire? The last eight members of Congress to die in office were Democrats. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a trailblazer, and yet her decision to continue serving on the Supreme Court until her death in September of 2020 is a part of her legacy that can’t be overlooked. In this episode, we discuss ageism and how it is keeping young people out of both politics and the church.

The Progressive Christians Podcast is a ministry of The Loft, a worship community of Westwood United Methodist Church. If you have a question that you'd like us to answer on the show, a topic you'd like us to discuss, or want to connect with us, please email us at [email protected].

Show notes:

1. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwywqg7lq1zo
2. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/03/the-white-savior-industrial-complex/254843/
3. https://www.qasimrashid.com/p/breaking-gerry-connolly-resigns-as
4. https://leaderswedeserve.com/
5. https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/24/politics/dnc-pushes-back-david-hogg-primary-challenge
6. https://www.thedailybeast.com/desperate-democrats-dying-off-in-retirement-home-congress/

Many progressives often find themselves in communities where very few, if any, of their peers identify as religious, let alone as Christians. In America, many people associate the word “Christian” with the type of theological and political conservatism that has theologically justified historic harms against every minority group in our country. Yet, we have chosen to identify ourselves as Progressive Christians, making the word “Christian” deeply significant to our understanding of who we are. In this episode, we explain why we still refer to ourselves as Christians and explore why others, who don’t seem committed to acting Christ-like, still see themselves as Christians.

We want to hear from you! If you have a question you’d love for us to discuss on the pod, please email us at [email protected].

The Progressive Christians Podcast is a ministry of The Loft, a worship community of Westwood United Methodist Church. If you have an idea for the show or want to connect with us, please email us at [email protected].

Show notes

1. https://bookshop.org/p/books/stages-of-faith-the-psychology-of-human-development-james-w-fowler/7943233
2. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-religion-of-whiteness-9780197746288?cc=us&lang=en&
3. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/586030/how-fascism-works-by-jason-stanley/
4. https://www.hfg.org/grant_summaries/the-farm-killings/
5. https://www.fortresspress.com/store/product/2267/Theories-of-Culture-A-New-Agenda-for-Theology
6. https://www.pcusastore.com/Products/0664233155/just-hospitality.aspx

We want to hear from you! If you have a question you’d like us to discuss on the pod, please email us at [email protected]. 

There is a lot of talk about fascism in politics today, but what is fascism, and how, if at all, does it impact our faith? In this episode, Everest, Westley, and Rev. Dr. Carter discuss what fascism is, the role conservative Christianity is playing in supporting it in America, and how a progressive Christian vision of community can help us resist the lure of fascist thinking.

The Progressive Christians Podcast is a ministry of The Loft, a worship community of Westwood United Methodist Church.

Articles mentioned in this episode:

1. https://newtranscendentalist.medium.com/christofascism-by-dorothee-s%C3%B6lle-633273379b68
2. https://x.com/FrankLuntz/status/1911463710029488317
3. https://hazlitt.net/longreads/death-village

We have a new email address and we want to hear from you!

If you have a question you’d love for us to discuss on the pod, please email us at [email protected]. 

How do you hold onto hope when everything feels like, or actually is, falling apart? Given the state of US politics and the global lurch to the political right, how, if at all, are you holding onto hope? In this episode, we begin with a conversation about the Roman Catholic conclave and share our thoughts about what we hope for in a new leader of the Roman Catholic Church. Then we discuss how neo-apocalyptic conservative theology reinforces a social and economic selfishness that is antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus. We end this episode discussing a progressive theology of hope and the practices we employ to cultivate hope.

The Progressive Christians Podcast is a ministry of The Loft, a worship community of Westwood United Methodist Church. If you have an idea for the show or want to connect with us, please email us at [email protected].

We have a new email address and we want to hear from you! If you have a question you’d love for us to discuss on the pod please email us at [email protected]. In addition to our weekly episodes, we hope to publish 1-2 short episodes per month that will be dedicated to answering listener questions about theology, politics, church, parenting, pop culture, or anything else that you’d like our opinion on.

What is a progressive Christian response to meeting the needs of intellectually disabled children? It’s pretty much the opposite of what Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been doing since he became the US Secretary of Heath and Human Services. In this episode we discuss what RFK Jr. has been saying about autism and vaccines and how it is contributing to a measles outbreak in Texas. We end our show responding to an email from a listener about how to talk to their parent about theology when you have very different perspectives.

The Progressive Christians Podcast is a ministry of The Loft, a worship community of Westwood United Methodist Church. If you have an idea for the show or want to connect with us, please email us at [email protected].

Articles referenced on the podcast

1. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/900-measles-cases-us/story?id=121156969
2. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj0z9nmzvdlo
3. https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/20/texas-measles-family-gaines-county-death/
4. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/fact-checking-robert-f-kennedy-jr-s-statements-on-autism

We are entangled in systems full of wicked problems that we cannot solve on our own. For Dr. Copeland, sin is the most appropriate theological language for naming what has gone wrong in the world and for beginning to repair those wrongs, despite modern resistance to the use of sin-talk. In this episode, we discuss sin, suffering, and the problem of evil with Dr. Copeland, whose new book, Entangled Being: Unoriginal Sin and Wicked Problems offers a vision of how we might imagine and build a future where we continue to re-solve our society's most wicked problems.

The Progressive Christians Podcast is a ministry of The Loft, a worship community of Westwood United Methodist Church. If you have an idea for the show or want to connect with us, please email us at [email protected].

You can follow Dr. Copeland on Blue Sky @beckycopeland.bsky.social and purchase her book here: https://www.baylorpress.com/9781481321426/entangled-being/