In this episode I welcome back Dr. Jonathan “Jay” Augustine to discuss the sequel to his book Called to Reconciliation: How the Church Can Model Justice, Diversity, and Inclusion. You can listen to my interview with Dr. Augustine on that book in episode 89. The sequel is When Prophets Preach: Leadership and the Politics of the Pulpit. If Called to Reconciliation is about the Church’s responsibility to fulfill its ministry of reconciliation given to it by our God, When Prophets Preach is about the leadership necessary to enable the Church to engage in and seek to achieve its mini ..read more

The final year of the Trump administration and the beginning of the Biden administration has seen a flurry of issues bearing on religious liberty. There were two cases before the Supreme Court, one, Tanzin vs Tanvir, upon which the court ruled and another, Fulton vs The City of Philadelphia, the ruling of which is still pending. There was a new justice, Amy Barrett, appointed to the Supreme Court after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The riot on the capital on Jan. 6th exposed a rooting in and connection with Christian Nationalism. On the first day of the Biden administration, President Bide ..read more

As. early as one hundred years after the time of Jesus and the first generations of Christians, Christian thinkers recognized that Jewish Christian Scripture was not exhaustive in its claim to knowledge and there was insight and wisdom into the way and truth of things in non-Christian sources. While there have always been objections on the part of some Christians to doing so, as Tertullian’s famous question, ‘What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?’ indicates, the predominance of Christian thinkers have drawn from, incorporated into their thinking, build upon the ideas of, and felt the need to r ..read more

My guest for this episode is Dr. David Bjorlin. Dr. Bjorlin is a hymn text writer. As an Assistant Professor of Worship at North Park University, David prepares his students for lives of significance and service by guiding and equipping them with practical skills centered around worship. “I believe what and how we worship forms the people we are and the way we interact with the world,” he says. As the assistant chapel coordinator at North Park and the pastor of worship and creative arts at the Resurrection Covenant Church, Bjorlin incorporates his experiences into the classroom by combining th ..read more

One of the things we have gotten wrong for too long has been our understanding of and, consequently, treatment of people with disabilities. Although it is not happening broadly enough or quickly enough, efforts to correct our understanding and our behavior are taking place. One of those efforts is The Penguin Project which is a nation-wide organization and effort to involve people with disabilities in musical theater. My guest for this episode is here to discuss her work with the project. Lisa Heath Jinkins (Choreographer for Golden Isles Penguin Project in Brunswick, GA) began her career as a ..read more

This episode is a continuation of my series on palliative care and end of life issues. My guest is Dr. Aditi Sethi. Dr. Sethi is a hospice and palliative care physician, end-of-life doula, and musician. Featured in the forthcoming film The Last Ecstatic Days, Aditi is an emerging and important voice for shifting our culture’s understanding and approach to dying, death, and bereavement care. Dr. Sethi is the Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Conscious Living and Dying which will formally launch in the near future. The mission of Center for Conscious Living and Dying is to create ..read more

The reason I feature storytelling as often as I do in this show is because of its capacity as an art form to build bridges between people and connect them, existentially and emotionally to experience the ‘world’ within the story, and thereby existentially and emotionally to experience the lives of others and The Other. Storytelling is a therapy and, as you know from my interviews with Meta Commerce and Mark Yaconelli, a medicine. And it can also be a joyful means of entertainment, fellowship, and communion. It is a way we make sense and meaning of our lives and realities. This episode focuses ..read more

There is an increasing awareness of a several things related to aging. One is the fact that modern medicine and health practices are making it possible for people to live longer so that more people are able to live to being senior adults and to do so for a long time. Another is that members of the Baby Boom generation are retiring. A third is that for many people the experience if aging is not a good experience. So, efforts are being made and practices developed to address the present circumstances related to aging. This episode will focus on the ideas, practices, and events connected with the ..read more

This episode is a part of a continuing series to enable you to hear the spectrum of American Indian/Native American/Indigenous/First Nations voices, especially in their response to Christianity and its history in the United States. If you are interested in this interview, you may also be interested in my interview with Dr. Tink Tinker, an Osage man, in Episode 8. My guest for this episode is The Reverend Dr. Tim Ross. Tim is a close friend of mine. Until Covid, we were in a prayer/conversation group together for over a decade. Tim is a pastor, teacher, cross-cultural worker, husband, dad of fo ..read more

My guest for this episode is Jim Jinkins. Jim is a progressive Christian who is an American animator, cartoonist, and children’s book author. He is most notably known for his animated character, Doug. Jim is here to tell us the story of his career and work in creating and producing children’s educational animation series and writing children’s books and to talk about how he has integrated his work and his faith. You can learn more about Jim from his Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Jinkins His IMDB page: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0423132/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm Searching ..read more