Holy Week culminates with the arrival of Easter, a time when Christians gather to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus – the triumph of life over death. While Holy Week provides a time for prayer, worship, and community, the power of faith language to draw people together continues to be misused – most recently to feed the rise of Christian nationalism. Joining host Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush on this week’s State of Belief, Interfaith Alliance’s weekly radio show and podcast, is Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, who leads the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C. – the first woman to do so. The two discuss the message of Easter, and how it applies to the challenges we all face today – Christians and non-Christians alike.

Bishop Budde is a faith leader in the nation’s capital who rarely wades into political conflicts – but felt compelled to do so when, in June of 2020, then-President Trump used force to clear peaceful protesters to facilitate a photo op at St. John’s Episcopal Church, bible in hand. She and Paul spend some time reviewing that seminal moment, and what led the bishop to make the strong statement she did condemning the events of that day.

As religion continues to be subjugated to political agendas, Bishop Budde recalls her journey from activist to parish priest to becoming the first woman Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, DC – and how that background prepared her for the unique challenges of her ministry. And she shares what gives her hope in this difficult time.

Bishop Mariann Budde is the chair and president of the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation, and author of several books including Receiving Jesus: The Way of Love and, coming this May, How We Learn To Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith.

Passover starts this year at sundown on Wednesday, April 5. A sacred holiday for the Jewish people, congregations this year are taking extra precautions ahead of this year’s holiday after antisemitic incidents have reached a record high in the United States. Joining host Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush on this week’s State of Belief, Interfaith Alliance’s weekly radio show and podcast, is Rabbi Jonah Pesner, who serves as the Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and Senior Vice President of the Union for Reform Judaism. The two discuss Passover, its traditions, and why its lessons still resonate today.

Jonah Pesner has led the Religious Action Center since 2015. An advocate for social justice, interfaith leader, and among the most influential rabbis in America, his work focuses on encouraging Jewish communities to reach across lines of race, class, and faith to achieve social justice. He is dedicated to building bridges to confront antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hate, and we’re privileged to have him on the show this week.

Movements are made up of individuals – each with fears, biases, relationships and beliefs. That’s why understanding – and if needed, countering – any movement requires a close and empathetic look at the individuals comprising it. Otherwise, it’s just too easy to fall into the paralyzing “those people are all insane” dismissiveness so many Americans seem to lean into these days when they think about those they disagree with. “They” can’t all be insane, though. So how can they possibly believe (fill in the blank)? And the more dangerous the movement, the more essential it is to grasp its appeal at a human level.

The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War, is the brilliant new book from best-selling author Jeff Sharlet that tries to do exactly that. Described in a glowing New York Times review as “an anguished quest to understand the rise of antidemocratic extremism,” The Undertow is a guided road trip across the country, both geographically and psychologically, with Jeff Sharlet – a leading investigator of the political religious right. And this week, Jeff is back on State of Belief, Interfaith Alliance’s weekly radio show and podcast, to share the stories he collected in an America that seems fractured, frightened, and angry with State of Belief host Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush.

Jeff is the best-selling author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, later a Netflix documentary series, and C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy. While Jeff tells some truly alarming stories in The Undertow, he also offers a substantial – and very hard-won – message of hope that everyone who values our union needs to hear.

This week, many Muslim Americans will begin observing the holy month of Ramadan. A time of intense spiritual discipline, and fasting during the daylight hours from dawn to dusk, Ramadan allows for contemplation of one’s relationship with God, intensive prayer, charity, and study of the Quran. As the seasons of Lent and Ramadan cross over this year, Dr. Najeeba Syeed, Executive Director of Interfaith at Augsburg University, joins State of Belief, Interfaith Alliance’s weekly radio show and podcast, to talk about how these diverse traditions provide us with an opportunity to strengthen relationships with our neighbors across faith and place.

Najeeba is the inaugural El Hibri Endowed Chair and Executive Director of Interfaith at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, where she also serves as faculty advisor for Augsburg’s Interfaith Scholars. In this role, she partners with campus leaders on initiatives related to interreligious learning and living. Over the past two decades, she has been a professor, expert practitioner, and public speaker in conflict resolution, interfaith studies, mediation, education, deliberative democracy, and social, gender and racial equity. She joins Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, host of State of Belief, to speak about her background and what the broader interfaith and American community can learn from the teachings of Ramadan.

And Paul shares some impressions from his recent trip to Fresno, California, full of encounters with a broad community of diverse interreligious activists there.

2023 is already a record year for anti-LGBTQ+ bills in the U.S, with at least 385 anti-LGBTQ+ laws having been introduced at the state level as of March 3. This week on State of Belief, Interfaith Alliance’s weekly radio show and podcast, Maharat Rori Picker Neiss, Executive Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis, and Rev. Nicole Garcia, Faith Work Director at the National LGBTQ Task Force, will dissect these attacks and how people are fighting back in their own communities. Then, Sarah Levin, founder and principal at Secular Strategies, will discuss how to most effectively build a coalition well-equipped to take on the dangers of Christian nationalism, from the grassroots to grasstops.

In addition to her work with the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis, Maharat Rori Picker Neiss is a rabbinic fellow at the David Hartman Center, and the loving mom of an 11-year-old son who identifies as Transgender. At JCRC, she works to build bridges between the Jewish community and other faith, ethnic, civic, and political groups. In the activist spirit of his mother, her son began testifying on anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the State of Missouri when he was just 8 years old. The National LGBTQ Task Force’s Rev. Nicole Garcia, who identifies as a Queer Transgender Latina and is a licensed professional counselor in the state of Colorado, will join Rori and Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, host of State of Belief, to share how everyday Americans can oppose bigotry in their communities and in the halls of power.

Sarah Levin is founder and principal of Secular Strategies, and a co-chair on the Democratic National Committee’s Interfaith Council. She joins Paul this week to raise up the inspired, and growing, opposition to the Christian nationalist movement in the U.S. Defending a pluralistic democracy for this and future generations will take all of us – and Sarah is expert at coalition-building across communities of identities and beliefs.

As we turn the calendar page to March, celebrated as Women’s History Month, this week on State of Belief, Interfaith Alliance’s weekly radio show and podcast we’re excited to be speaking with Rev. Jennifer Bailey, founder and executive director of Faith Matters Network. Nowadays, there are endless opportunities for connecting along intersecting identities and priorities. It gives greater voice to what each of us have in common and allows us to learn deeply from our differences. Rev. Jen will walk us through how our differences should be utilized in connecting with one another rather than driving us further apart.

Rev. Jen is the founder and executive director of Faith Matters Network, a Womanist-led organization equipping community organizers, faith leaders, and activists with resources for connection, spiritual sustainability, and accompaniment. She’s also the co-founder of the People’s Supper, an initiative to host shared meals across the U.S. in hopes of building trust and connection among people of different ideologies and perspectives.

She joins Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, host  of State of Belief, Interfaith Alliance’s weekly radio show and podcast, to speak about the work of her organizations and where her passion for bringing people together stems from – and about her book, To My Beloveds: Letters on Faith, Race, Loss and Radical Hope as well as about Weave: the Social Fabric Project from the Aspen Institute.

Americans may have defeated Christian nationalist candidates at the ballot box this past November, but the ideology’s influence still pervades our public life. That was the main takeaway from new survey data released last week, the most comprehensive poll to date on support for Christian nationalism across the nation. This week on State of Belief, Interfaith Alliance’s weekly radio show and podcast, we will dive into the new report and discuss the stakes for the future of religion and democracy in America.

A newly-released report from the Public Religion Research Institute, A Christian Nation? Understanding the Threat of Christian Nationalism to American Democracy and Culture, provides some disturbing findings about the influence that Christian nationalism continues to hold over our politics. For instance, nearly two-thirds of white evangelical Protestants qualify as either Christian nationalism adherents (29%) or sympathizers (35%). Meanwhile, 10% of all Americans can be categorized as avowed Christian nationalists, and an additional 19% are sympathetic to its ideals. Who better to walk us through these findings than Dr. Robert P. Jones, Founding CEO of PRRI, and Amanda Tyler, Executive Director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Freedom which launched Christians Against Christian Nationalism to address this pressing issue. They’ll be joining Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, host of State of Belief, to analyze the new data and discuss the long road ahead in combating this dangerous, anti-democratic ideology.

In 2017, Rev. Elizabeth Edman and Rev. Marian Edmonds-Allen teamed up for Glitter Ash Wednesday, a way to observe the start of the pre-Easter season of Lent in a visibly inclusive way. The practice has spread every year since then, with more than 150 churches nationwide taking part today. Liz, an activist and political strategist who spent two decades in the struggle to become an openly queer priest in the Episcopal Church, and Marian, an ordained minister and the executive director of Parity, will join Paul ahead of Ash Wednesday, March 22, 2023, to discuss the practice and its relevance in an age of growing institutionalized bigotry against LGBTQI+ identities and lives.

At a time when we’re witnessing an alarming erosion in the rights of women, surging racism, increasing antisemitic rhetoric and violence, and growing attempts to erase the truth of queer identity and experience, it’s crucial for us to be able to turn to leaders who can articulate a powerful, positive moral mandate for a more just future. This week on State of Belief, Interfaith Alliance’s weekly radio show and podcast, you’ll hear from a religious leader doing just that. With increasing bigotry and hate spreading across social media platforms, it’s important to remember our potential to support one another, build community and provide inspiration.

An activist, public speaker and musician, known by many as the “TikTok Rabbi,” Rabbi Sandra Lawson is the Inaugural Director of Racial Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Reconstructing Judaism. Rabbi Sandra lives and works at the intersection of queer, Black, female, and Jewish identities – and speaks powerfully about the dangers of the division and supremacy that are rending our nation. This week, she joins Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, host of State of Belief, to discuss how, despite such threats, she maintains positivity and a commitment to keeping others empowered by gratitude and hope as well.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is making national headlines once again, this time for being the impetus for College Board gutting its AP African American studies curriculum. The same people pushing to turn the United States into a Christian nation are working to erase the history of Black and Brown Americans, making it easier to spread white Christian nationalism.

The fight against Christian nationalism is not just a fight for religious freedom. It’s also a fight for a democracy that includes all of us, not just a privileged few. This week on State of Belief, Interfaith Alliance’s weekly radio show and podcast, we will explore how religion can be used as a force for good, and a counter to the Christian right.

More and more, the idea that the American political realm is a place of “spiritual warfare” is making its way into the mainstream. We’re seeing this take hold in Florida especially–Governor DeSantis’s recent ad claiming he was sent by God is just one example. Katherine Stewart, author of The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism, will join Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, host of State of Belief, to discuss how Christian nationalism is taking hold in the state, and what we can do about it.

We talk a lot about the dangers of weaponized religion on this show. But organized religion can be–and already is–a tremendous source of strength for many, and a vehicle for justice. Dr. Diana Butler Bass will speak with Paul this week about how those united for justice can tap into faith and religious communities to spark social change.