After months of debate and struggle, a COVID relief and government funding bill has been signed into law. The bill includes over 2 trillion in funding, and sets aside $900 billion for unemployment benefits and a $600 per person stimulus payment for most Americans. Two small stimulus payments in nine months.

Meanwhile, America's billionaires have gained over $1 trillion dollars in additional wealth in 2020. That equals about $8000 per US household.

It is worth asking: Who does our system serve? Who does congress work for?

The far-right aren't simply being duped with "fake news" and fraudulent claims. It would seem that Trump supporters don't seem interested in news or evidence at all. Rather, they are caught up in a game. A deadly game.

QAnon works as an ARG (Alternative Reality Game) with its own in-world mythology. One that provides an escape from the actual world with its tangled and seemingly insurmountable problems. And many of Trump's agents appear to know this. They willingly step into a performance, playing along in order to maintain power within the game.

What would it look like for churches—as individual congregations or networks of congregations or even denominations—to function as an effective counter-culture? What would it take for us to be the beloved community, a radical alternative, a sustaining spring of subversive spirituality? And what is it that holds us back? What's getting in the way?

Today we explore the relationship between mysticism as a spiritual posture and fascism as a political force. Scholars suggest that fascism requires mystical elements in order to take root. Meanwhile many contemplative practitioners believe that mystical experience and contemplative practice serve to undermine and confront fascist impulses. Engaging the example of St. Bernard of Clairvaux (a beloved contemplative saint who is partly responsible for the 2nd Crusade) we explore how our political analysis is an important part of developing mystical awareness.

White politicians in our system play games with human life. Publically proclaiming themselves allies in the struggle for justice, they carefully advance a racist carceral corporatocracy.

We begin by discussing the case of Myron Burrell, sentenced as a teenager to life imprisonment, senator and former presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar used Myron Burrell as a pawn to bolster her career as a law and order candidate. Now, after growing criticism for prosecuting a flawed case, she is trying to take credit for his release.

The devastating force of neoliberalism has accelerated during the pandemic. Employment has shifted from conventional jobs to "gig" jobs that provide no security. Meanwhile, the accessibility and proliferation of new technologies have intensified the sense that cultural workers—artists, musicians, photographers, filmmakers, communicators...even clergy—should offer their labor for free, since the fruits of such labor seem astonishingly abundant on the web.

US billionaires gain over $1 trillion in wealth during this pandemic. Meanwhile, precarity rises and creative work is devalued. What can we do to nurture a different economy? A better society that honors the contributions of its people?

Join us as we reflect on "ways of knowing." How does a fundamentalist insistence on a "belief" help create Trumpism? What does faith look like beyond belief?

Fascism is a hard-to-define thing. But commonly fascistic movements rigidly enforce what are deemed to be natural hierarchies, through means of violence and intimidation and derision. According to cultural critic Susan Sontag, fascists will often embrace "a preoccupation with situations of control, submissive behavior." In this episode, we examine the way the sexualized aggression towards AOC reveals a facet of American fascism.

Seventeen state Attorneys General informed the Supreme Court that they support a lawsuit by the Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, to reverse President-elect Joe Biden’s projected win in the Electoral College. The states supporting the lawsuit are Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia.

If the biggest challenge facing our society is polarization, then dialogue seems to be the remedy. We are frequently told that being civil and conciliatory, particularly in political contexts, is the virtuous path. Today we discuss the limits and problems with this mindset.