Gravity Commons Podcast

What does it look like to love someone you disagree with? In Loving Disagreement: Fighting for Community through the Fruit of the Spirit , Kathy Khang and Matt Mikalatos share how the fruit of the Spirit informs our ability to engage in profound difference and conflict with love. Kathy Khang is a writer, speaker, and yoga teacher. She's contributed to  More than Serving Tea  and  Voices of Lam...

Most of us assume that all shame is toxic shame (feeling bad for the person I am). But can shame be "good"? In this episode we continue a conversation we started a few episodes ago in our Christmas episode, where we wondered about the way Jesus seems to leverage shame to seek repentance and restitution from oppressors. We received some excellent reflections from Naomi, a member of the Grav...

We started Gravity in 2015, and up until recently the official name of the organization was Gravity Leadership. But we recently changed our name to Gravity Commons . Why? Show notes: Read the article online: Why We Changed Our Name to Gravity Commons Join the Gravity Community . Connect with Gravity: Leave us a message or ask a question  about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a...

In her book Eve Isn't Evil: Feminist Readings of the Bible to Upend Our Assumptions , the Rev. Dr. Julie Faith Parker reads biblical texts through a feminist lens, discussing how vital our readings of the Bible can be as a source of strength, guidance, and joyful defiance. Julie Faith Parker lives in NYC where she is a visiting scholar at Union Theological Seminary and biblical scholar in resi...

We talk with pastor and professor Cheryl Bridges Johns about why our reading of the Bible needs to be "re-enchanted" for us to encounter it as God's Word. She is the author of Re-Enchanting the Text: Discovering the Bible as Sacred, Dangerous, and Mysterious. Cheryl Bridges Johns is a pastor and theologian who has taught collee and seminary students for over 40 years. She is visiting p...

Christy, Matt, and Ben spend some time reflecting on the past year: what they're learning and hoping for in the new year (and opening Christmas presents!). Connect with Gravity: Leave us a message or ask a question  about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode. Join the Gravity Community to interact with other listeners, and get our list of curated links each wee...

As part of our series on how to understand and read the Bible, we talk with New Testament scholar Robyn Whitaker about why and how to read the Bible on its own terms (instead of trying to make it into something it's not). Robyn Whitaker is Associate Professor of New Testament Studies at Pilgrim Theological College and the University of Divinity in Melbourne Australia. She co-hosts the By the W...

We talk with Rev. Dr. Miguel A. De La Torre about his book Reading the Bible From the Margins and how learning to read from the perspective of the poor, oppressed, and marginalized can enrich our perspective on what Scripture means and does. Rev. Dr. Miguel A. De La Torre, Professor of Social Ethics and Latinx Studies at the  Iliff School of Theology  in Denver, Colorado. He has served as the elec...

We talk with New Testament scholar Scot McKnight about his new translation of the New Testament, entitled The Second Testament: A New Translation , and why encountering the strangeness of the Bible can help us to read it anew. Connect with Gravity: Leave us a message or ask a question  about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode. Join the Gravity Community to intera...

What if the imperfections and contradictions in Scripture aren't an accident? What if they were allowed to be there by the Holy Spirit in order to draw us beyond the literal words on the page and deeper into the spiritual truth God is trying to teach us? As provocative or unorthodox as that might sound, it is in fact a very ancient way of understanding what it means for the Bible to be divinel...

In response to our conversation with Chris Green, we've received a couple questions asking for examples of how this "new/old" way of interpreting the Scriptures works. So we used a recent sermon from Matt on 2 Samuel 21:1-14 (David avenging the Gibeonites) as an example and talked about the implications. Here's a link to Matt's original sermon, if you'd like to listen: Rizp...

As part of our series on the Bible, we talk with Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg about Jewish interpretation of Scripture, repentance and forgiveness, and some of the commons things Christians miss in the Hebrew Scriptures (aka the Old Testament). Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg is author of numerous books, including On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World --winner of the National Jewish Bo...

“Scripture is a spring of life-giving, life-altering truth, but when we don’t understand how and why it came to us, we end up misusing it.” Karen Keen joins us to talk about how we got the Bible, why that matters, and how history shows us that Scripture can be used for both life-giving and destructive purposes. Karen's book The Word of a Humble God: The Origins, Inspiration, and Interpretation...

As part of our series on reading and interpreting the Bible, we talk with pastor Melissa Florer-Bixler about how to find God in the Old Testament, reading it as a Christian without succumbing to the pitfalls of antisemitism and supercessionism. She wrote about these issues in her book Fire by Night: Finding God in the Pages of the Old Testament . Melissa is the pastor of Raleigh Mennonite Church,...

To kick off our series on reading and interpreting the Bible, we talk with pastor and professor Chris Green about how his reading of the Bible has changed over the years from his upbringing in pentecostal holiness to his recent consecration as an Anglican bishop. We touch on how to read disturbing texts, as well as other elements of his book Sanctifying Interpretation: Vocation, Holiness and Scrip...

Critical race theory (CRT) has become a lightning rod in contemporary American politics and evangelical Christianity. In this interview, Dr, Robert Chao Romero and Dr. Jeff Liou offer a critical but constructive and sympathetic introduction to CRT written from a perspective rooted in Scripture and Christian theology, moving us beyond caricatures and misinformation to consider how critical race the...

CW: Domestic violence and abuse. On any given Sunday morning, a pastor can look over the 100 members of the congregation and see 25 women and 14 men who have been crippled by domestic violence and trauma--no matter the race or socio-economic group. The church is more than a hospital for sinners, it is also an emergency room for those who have been sinned against. But emergency rooms are not the pl...

That love does not control seems obvious to many people. And yet the temptation to control—often with good motives — is strong. The long-term results of yielding to this temptation damage everyone. Thomas Oord and Christy Gunter join us to talk about uncontrolling love from a theological and therapeutic perspective. They are both contributers to Love Does Not Control: Therapists, Psychologists, an...

We talk with Dr. Janyne McConnaughey about her book  Trauma in the Pews: The Impact on Faith and Spiritual Practices , which is a practical and compassionate roadmap for spiritual leaders to effectively minister to those struggling with the effects of trauma. Janyne McConnaughey, PhD is a trauma survivor who draws from her life-long involvement in church ministries to train teachers and ministry w...

Religious trauma is something that happens far more often than most people realize. In When Religion Hurts You , Dr. Laura Anderson takes an honest look at a side of religion that few like to talk about. Drawing from her own life and therapy practice, she helps readers understand what religious trauma is and isn't, and how high-control churches can be harmful and abusive, often resulting in tr...

What does it look like to live a flourishing, messy, wonderful life together with our kids? As parents, we’re tasked with nurturing and guiding our children, even as we navigate our own wonderings about faith. In the overwhelm and constant demands of life, is it possible to tend to our own souls and to our family’s flourishing? Kayla Craig's book Every Season Sacred i s a weekly invitation to...

Pastor and discipler E. K. Strawser shows that when discipleship becomes central to your leadership and community, then discipleship becomes central to congregational mission and cultural renewal. Her new book Centering Discipleship is a practice-based guidebook for leaders who are doing the hard work of re-imagining and re-structuring their churches and communities to turn spectators into mission...

We talked with Rev. Fran Tilton Shelton about the complex nature of grief, and what it looks like to walk through grief with God. Fran expounds on these themes in her book The Spirituality of Grief: Ten Practices for Those Who Remain . Fran is a founder of  Faith & Grief Ministries , and leads bereavement workshops and spiritual retreats. She is a preacher and a keynote speaker at conferences....

This is a follow-up to our interview with Andrew Whitehead to chat about what the "kingdom antidotes" are for the fear, self-interested power, and violence that animate Christian Nationalism. Connect with Gravity Leadership Leave us a message or ask a question  about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode. Join our online community  for free to get a curated...

Power. Fear. Violence. These three idols of Christian nationalism are corrupting American Christianity. Andrew Whitehead is a leading scholar on Christian nationalism in America and speaks widely on its effects within Christian communities. In this book, he shares his journey and reveals how Christian nationalism threatens the spiritual lives of American Christians and the church. Whitehead shows...