The Beached White Male Podcast with Ken Kemp

Send us Fan Mail Ken welcomes back author, journalist, and poet, Rick Pidcock. Recently, Andy Stanley sponsored an event called the Unconditional Conference designed specifically for parents whose children "come out" as Queer or LGBTQ. He expressed his deep concern for the ways in which the church has been complicit in creating family conflict that causes parents to choose their church a...

Send us Fan Mail When Wheaton College released it's anticipated Report on Race, there was a glaring omission. A comprehensive self-study over the history of the college had an arbitraty cut-off date of the year 2000. While it was an attempt to be transparent, vulnerable, and forthright over past mistakes, the report failed to address the painful departure of the first African American woman t...

Send us Fan Mail Ken welcomes author and advocate Liz Cooledge Jenkins to talk about her new book: Nice Churchy Patriarchy: Reclaiming Women’s Humanity from Evangelicalism . When Liz went off to Stanford University , she connected with a group of "Jesus Followers" who were part of an evangelical global campus ministry. In time, she believed she was "called" to pastoral ministry...

Send us Fan Mail Just this week. the two Kens both encountered church-related, disconcerting setbacks.  Kemp learned via an official, public email blast that the lead and founding pastor of the church that gave birth to the Center for Racial Reconciliation has been put on immediate leave of absence for "inappropriate texting." Just after recording this conversation, Fong uncovered some u...

Send us Fan Mail I feel the need to clarify some of the things you'll find in my recent Beach Talk with Betsey Newenhuyse. Many of you have already listened in. We had a heartfelt and meaningful conversation around Indigenous Peoples' Day, the congressional predicament over the crippling absence of a Speaker of the House, and the crisis in Israel - the unanticipated and monstrous attack...

Send us Fan Mail Ken is back from his travels. He and Betsey Newenhuyse connect for another Beach Talk. Just a few days before this recording, the world turned its attention to the Middle East and the vicious, surprise attack of Hamas on Israel. Betsey shares that she has extended family living in Tel Aviv. Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, who has been the focus of nationwide protests, takes interna...

Send us Fan Mail Ken returns from a month of travel and shares an essay he wrote for his new Substack Page entitled Woke Pride. The article got great responses - indicating that many are reacting to the current anti-woke crusade.  In this short episode, he reflects on the series Truth Quest aired this month, and shares plans for upcoming interviews. He encourages his listeners to call out the crit...

Send us Fan Mail In this final episode of the summer series TRUTH QUEST , our travelers make their way to Selma and the Edmund Pettus Bridge . In March of 1965, civil rights protesters were met by a lineup of armed police (many on horseback) with attack dogs and billy clubs who ordered them to turn back. When the marchers refused, they were brutally attacked on a day that became known as Bloody Su...

Send us Fan Mail Our exploration of the history of race in America takes us to Montgomery, Alabama . Harvard Attorney Bryan Stevenson opened the offices of the Equal Justice Initiative in the city where Rosa Parks refused to yield her seat on a public bus and where a young Dr. Martin Luther King became pastor of Dexter Street Baptist Church . The best-selling book which became a full-length featur...

Send us Fan Mail Ken invites John Williams back to the podcast, this time to talk about the summer series, TRUTH QUEST . John and Ken review the origins of the Civil Rights (C.R.) Tour of the South , and John's journey from his law practice to his first C.R. Tour. His experience became a catalyst for leaving his law practice behind. A vision was born to introduce others to the history of race...

Send us Fan Mail After a travel break, Ken and Betsey reconnect to catch up on the headlines. Mitt Romney's announcement that he will not seek another Senatorial term included his opnion that "it's time for a new generation of leaders" to take the stage. It puts the spotlight on both the current President (80) and the former President (77) and other hangers on like Mitch McConn...

Send us Fan Mail Historian and prolific author Martyn Whittock re-joins Ken to discuss his soon-to-be-released (November 7, 2023) book,  American Vikings - How the Norse Sailed into the Lands and Imaginations of America from  his study in the U.K. Martyn has appeared several times on the podcast - with conversations about the use and misuse of eschatology throughout history, the passing of Queen E...

Send us Fan Mail The tour bus delivers our travelers for two days in historic Memphis, Tennessee . The National Civil Rights Museum rests on the site of the Lorraine Motel , where Dr. Martin Luther King lost his life to an assassin's bullet while standing on the balcony with his trusted friends, Jesse Jackson , Ralph Abernathy, and Andrew Young . The Museum is housed in a comprehensive series...

Send us Fan Mail In this installment of Ken's TRUTH QUEST series,  we continue to relive the Civil Rights Tour of the South. Dr. John Perkins , author of 17 books, founder of Voice of Calvary and Harambee, and Christian activist in the Civil Rights movement welcomes our thirty-nine travelers in Jackson Mississippi. At age 92, he brings a Sunday morning message, entertains questions, and signs...

Send us Fan Mail In this second installment of Ken's special series, TRUTH QUEST - Exploring the History of Race in America , we launch the Civil Rights tour of the South in New Orleans.  The Whitney Plantation in St. John the Baptist Parish is a non-profit dedicated to preserving the history and legacy of slavery in Louisiana. You'll hear an in-depth description of the exhibits, display...

Send us Fan Mail TRUTH QUEST brings Ken's participation on the Civil Rights Tour of the South to his podcast. This is the first of five episodes, bringing sixteen voices (of 39 travelers) to the microphone. Each will share what motivated them to join the tour, how the history and sites impacted them, and the commitments that emerge from this quest. In future episodes, we'll visit the ico...

Send us Fan Mail In my Christian tradition, we were taught that we are all created in the imago Dei , the image of God. According to our scriptures, that idea entered human consciousness from the very beginning, when God played the role of Creator. He (our English translation of the Bible uses the male pronoun) created ex nihilo , out of nothing. If we are made in that image, then we were made to...

Send us Fan Mail Ken fielded so many recommendations that he took in the box-office hit of the "faith-based" summer "Sound of Freedom." While he was told that it was an important contribution to raising awareness of a global tragedy, it didn't take long to realize that this film has its critics. It has become a major rallying point for right-wing culture warriors including...

Send us Fan Mail This week's Beach Talk takes us to the shores of Maui and the tragic fire that stunned the world. The losses are immeasurable. The New York Times speaks to the pastor of the oldest church on the island. Ken shares something of the profoundly moving memorial he attended for his friend Sharon "Snoopy" Fong (born and raised in Hawaii) - Betsey tuned to the live stream...

Send us Fan Mail Carole Holiday thinks of herself as an "Accidental Author." Her new book (release date: September 19, 2023), "I Don't Know Who I Am Anymore," is heartily endorsed by Ken. He wrote, "I met Carole Holiday when she was seventeen. I was twenty-two. She was as engaging then as she is now. Over the decades, we’ve known some remarkable successes. But we both...

Send us Fan Mail This week, Ken and Betsey decide not to focus on politics - even with yet another indictment coming down. It's summer... time to dwell on "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."* They talk about Ken's new Substack proje...

Send us Fan Mail In his shortest episode ever, Ken announces the launch of his Substack Page - and his first post: "All My Friends Are Finding New Beliefs."* The podcast just passed a new milestone. After 283 episodes, in a phrase borrowed from author Steven Pressfield (The War of Art), this podcast is exactly what Ken "cannot not do." He expresses his deep appreciation to the...

Send us Fan Mail Rick Pidcock is a regular contributor to Baptist News Global, an independent news organization that provides "original and curated news, opinion and analysis about matters of faith." As a regular reader, Ken noticed Rick's impressive weekly article collection. With a background in homeschooling and private Christian schools, Rick graduated from Bob Jones University....

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Sharp's expansive book, The Other Evangelicals, dials back the clock to the early days of evangelicalism. Isaac identifies a significant collection of high-profile, self-identified "evangelical" Christians who just do not fit the current stereotype. Some were liberal, others black or progressive or feminist even gay. What these believers have in common is that t...

Send us Fan Mail After a courageous, tireless battle, Sharon "Snoopy" Fong left us on July 1, 2023. This Two Kens episode is the twenty-seventh time Ken Fong and Ken Kemp have come together for a podcast conversation - this time, it's a somber, solemn occasion.  It's a moment of reflection - filled with both grief and gratitude. Today's title comes from C.S. Lewis, the Bri...