Faithful Disruption: Religion in Public Life

Kelli Driscoll Crews and Emilee Bounds discuss the importance and value of community organizing in this episode of Faithful Disruption with Trista Soendker Nicholson.  They share how community organizing isn't just about problems. It's about people connecting and building solutions together. Email Trista Soendker Nicholson , interim executive director of the Center for Religion in Public...

Emma Olson Sharkey visits with Faithful Disruption host Trista Soendker Nicholson about the way congressional and other voting districts are changing to increase political power for some and disenfranchise others. Sharkey is a partner at Elias Law Group. She focuses her practice on nonprofit tax and campaign finance law, and legal issues related to ballot measures. Emma advises clients participati...

The Rev. Jesse Jackson Jr., a Phillips alum and longest serving pastor at East Sixth Street Christian Church in Oklahoma City, discusses his lifelong commitment to resistance and change. He also shares how this part of his ministry has changed as he has faced several health concerns. Email Trista Soendker Nicholson , interim executive director of the Center for Religion in Public LIfe, to let...

On this episode, Trista Soendker-Nicholson talks with the artist Anthony Suber about the intersection of his art, resistance and faith. He is the featured artist for an exhibition opening April 27th at Phillips called, “Speculative Liturgies: The Perpetual B loom of Greenwood.” That is also the date for our annual Tulsa Race Massacre Lectureship with Teresa L. Fry Brown. Special thanks to the Nico...

Join Trista Soendker Nicholson as she discusses the origins of the Center for Religion in Public LIfe with its founder, Gary Peluso-Verdend. You can also read Trista's latest blogs . Email Trista Soendker Nicholson , interim executive director of the Center for Religion in Public LIfe, to let her know about someone in the community you've seen practicing faithful disruption. Hosted on Acast....

The relationship between Judaism and the New Testament has often been clouded by misinterpretation and bias. On the new episode of Committing Faith in Public, Phillips Theological Seminary President Doug Powe welcomes New Testament scholar and faculty member Dr. Warren Carter to discuss his new co-authored Baker Academic volume, Early Judaism and the New Testament: Troubling Misunderstandings. BOO...

Before his retirement from Phillips, Gary Peluso-Verdend met with several faith leaders for a series of interfaith conversations. On this episode, Gary talks with the Rev. Barbara Prose, who until recently served at Tulsa, Oklahoma’s All Souls Unitarian Church. Email Kurt Gwartney with your questions, comments, or possible guests for this podcast. Email Trista Soendker Nicholson , interim exe...

What drives a person to seminary? What makes one choose a life of service and ministry in an everchanging world. Committing Faith in Public host Kurt Gwartney interviews Phillips Theological Seminary Student Services members to get their perspectives on why they chose their journey. This episode, Kurt will interview Cortney Lemke, the Director of Admissions. Email Trista Soendker Nicholson ,...

It has become cliché to note that America is highly polarized. Polarization has become something like the weather: something to complain about rather than act on. Braver Angels is an organization dedicated to depolarize America and to revive the spirit of our democracy. One cannot imagine a more important contribution to reviving civic faith of America and in America than helping citizens of oppos...

What does one do with the master of divinity degree these days? The answer is not necessarily simple! In this episode of committing faith in public, the Rev. Loren Richmond (MDiv 2013) talks about his journey after seminary. He has been a church pastor, a church planter, a hospital chaplain, and a student in an MBA program specializing in nonprofit management. In this very challenging era for the...

Marcia McFee, PhD , is one of the speakers and is worship designer for this year’s  Remind and Renew , January 25-27, at Phillips Seminary and online. She is a visiting professor at Redlands University where San Francisco Theological Seminary finds its home. With a PhD in Liturgical Studies and Ethics, and related work in cultural anthropology, she brings a rich perspective on the inters...

The Rev. Dr. Chelsea Yarborough is one of the speakers this year at Phillips’ Remind and Renew event, January 25-27, in Tulsa and online. She is assistant professor of liturgical studies at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL. Dr. Yarborough recently completed her PhD at Vanderbilt Divinity School. She is a professor and minister known for exploring liturgy in the context of b...

Victoria Loorz, MDiv, is one of the speakers at this year’s Remind & Renew Conference at Phillips and online, January 25-27. Rev. Loorz is a "wild church pastor," an "eco-spiritual director" and co-founder of several transformation-focused organizations focused on the integration of nature and spirituality. After 20 years as a pastor of indoor churches, she launched the first Church of the Wil...

On this special edition of Committing Faith in Public, Gary Peluso-Verdend walks and talks with  Woody Guthrie Center executive director Deana McCloud through the exhibit,  “Songs of Conscience, Sounds of Freedom.” This traveling exhibit debuted in Tulsa and is at the WGC through October 11. Listen as Gary interviews Deana regarding select items from the collection that sweeps from...

In September 2020, Center for Religion in Public Life director Gary Peluso-Verdend interviewed Dr. Lockhart-Gilroy , Assistant Professor of Christian Education and Practical Theology. Besides introducing her work generally, Dr. Lockhart-Gilroy talked about the book which she co-edited and to which she contributed: From Lament to Advocacy: Black Religious Education and Public Ministry . She is also...

One of the most unfortunate pieces of data from graduate seminary graduating student interviews is which courses graduands wish they had fewer of: history. In this pivotal era of the churches’, the nation’s, and the planet’s lives, there is a great deal of re-imagining and re-telling history happening; and that work directly feeds our current sense of what is necessary today for faithful living. T...

“What were the challenges of doing and being church during a pandemic? How prepared was your congregation? What were the learning curves you embraced? What did you learn about church that you might not have known or that became more or less important? What did you start that you will continue doing?” These are some of the questions host Gary Peluso-Verdend (executive director, Center for Religion...

In October 2020, Center for Religion in Public Life director Gary Peluso-Verdend interviewed Dr. Lisa Davison , the Johnnie Eargle Cadieux Professor of Hebrew Bible and Director of Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Denominational Formation. Dr. Davison joined the Phillips faculty in 2010. Since coming to Tulsa, she has continued her work of teaching in many settings—academy, church, training...

Many listeners and readers will know the Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar as the senior pastor of All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Marlin is well-known in Tulsa and, in UU circles far beyond Tulsa, for his preaching, leadership, and for his community work in matters of race and of race and policing. But Marlin is also an amateur cartoonist. His topics range from the religion to the political...

When the Nazi regime essentially nationalized the Christian churches in Germany, making them one of the legitimizing arms of their evil program, some church leaders capitulated and embraced their roles. Others resisted. One of the most famous expressions of that resistance was the  Barmen Declaration . The threat of Christian nationalism in the U.S. today has brought renewed attention to the...

Dr. Russell Cobb, currently Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Latin American Studies at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, is a longtime Tulsa who wrote many essays for This Land Press. Some of those essay and other writings are the basis of The Great Oklahoma Swindle , an eye-popping read for anyone interested in what makes Oklahoma the unique and often weird place tha...

Chaplains can be found in all kinds of institutional roles these days, from Tyson Foods to the military and hospitals. The Rev. Dr. Jacob George is the director of pastoral care at Hillcrest Medical Center in Tulsa. After years in hospice work, he moved into the hospital setting. He is a Clinical Pastoral Education supervisor at the highest level, directs a very religiously-diverse program at Hill...

Committing Faith in Public with Toby Jenkins, Oklahomans for Equality Oklahomans for Equality is a state-wide 40-year old organization that seeks equal rights for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) individuals and families through advocacy, education, programs, alliances, and the operation of the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center. It is led by Toby Jenkins. On this edition of Co...

Committing Faith in Public: Talking Reconciliation is Not Enough with the Rev. Robert Turner and the Rev. David Wiggs In this special collaborative edition of the  Boston Avenue United Methodist Church podcast ASCENDS, its hosts are joined by co-host, Dr. Gary Peluso-Verdend from the Committing Faith in Public podcast. The guests are the Rev. Robert Turner and the Rev. David Wiggs to discuss...

Committing Faith in Public Podcast with Jesse Ulrich What was it like growing up Jewish in Tulsa, attending a nearly all African-American elementary school where one was a dual minority, then having the experience of living in a large Jewish community in Boston before returning to Tulsa? Jesse Ulrich talks about these and other formational experiences that have helped him navigate the boundaries b...