The Progressive Christians Podcast

Has Christianity lost its positive public perception? The season premiere of South Park revealed a lot about our current political and religious climate. Their portrayal of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount exposes the hypocrisy that an increasing number of non-religious people see within our tradition. In this week's episode, we discuss the declining public image of Christianity, the role evangelical, c...

What if the person you elected president to save the country from a global cabal of child sex-traffickers actually was a part of the cabal? At first glance, this question sounds strange. However, when you consider that a 2022 poll by PRRI revealed that 1 in 5 people and 1 in 4 Republicans believe the QAnon conspiracy theory that the government, media, and financial sector are controlled by a group...

If you thought the world was ending, how would you spend the last days of your life? While this may be a theoretical question that many of us can use to help discern what we believe are the most essential things in our lives, it is also a very pragmatic question for others. In this episode, we discuss how the eschatological belief in the Rapture has informed our governments' response to the Guadal...

A few weeks ago, at a Bible study on Capitol Hill titled "God's Design for a Societal Safety Net," political conservative and Christian pastor Ralph Drollinger argued that the New Testament never discusses governments helping people. He told the Senators that helping the truly needy is for individuals, then families, then the church, but not the government. With this, he morally justified the suff...

Modern society tells us that we should constantly reinvent ourselves to stay interesting and that we should do whatever it takes to get wherever we want to go. In her book, Here: A Spirituality of Staying in a Culture of Leaving, Lydia Sohn argues for the opposite: stay. Stay and cultivate the immense potential and beauty that currently lies dormant within your circumstances. In this episode, we s...

In part one of our episode, we discuss the No Kings Marches across the country, the detainment of NYC Mayoral Candidate Brad Lander by ICE, and the political assassinations of two Minnesota State Representatives. In part two (19:00), we are joined by Jonas Williams, an undergraduate student at UCLA who has been researching the masculinity crisis for a film project. In our conversation with Jonas,...

No one enjoys being labeled immature, particularly when it comes to our faith journey. However, Paul the Apostle reminds us in his first letter to the Corinthian church that we ought to mature in our Christian faith, recognizing that we currently know God only partially and will ultimately come to know God fully after we transition from this life to whatever is next. In this episode, we explore tw...

While LA is not the war zone that Fox News would have you believe, what we are experiencing in our community is not normal. In this episode, Rev. Dr. Carter, Westley, and Everest discuss the immigration raids and protests that have erupted across Los Angeles County, share our thoughts on why Trump is doing this right now, and describe what a progressive Christian response could look like. The Prog...

"The American Government gives the most help to those who need it the least. This is the true nature of our welfare state, and it has far-reaching implications, not only for our bank accounts and poverty levels but also for our psychology and civic spirit." This quote from Matthew Desmond's book, Poverty, by America , is a hard truth, but it is true. It is certainly not the story we tell ourselves...

How do you know when it is time to walk away and retire? The last eight members of Congress to die in office were Democrats. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a trailblazer, and yet her decision to continue serving on the Supreme Court until her death in September of 2020 is a part of her legacy that can't be overlooked. In this episode, we discuss ageism and how it is keeping young people out of both polit...

Many progressives often find themselves in communities where very few, if any, of their peers identify as religious, let alone as Christians. In America, many people associate the word "Christian" with the type of theological and political conservatism that has theologically justified historic harms against every minority group in our country. Yet, we have chosen to identify ourselves as Progressi...

We want to hear from you! If you have a question you'd like us to discuss on the pod, please email us at progressivechristians@theloftla.org .  There is a lot of talk about fascism in politics today, but what is fascism, and how, if at all, does it impact our faith? In this episode, Everest, Westley, and Rev. Dr. Carter discuss what fascism is, the role conservative Christianity is playing in supp...

We have a new email address and we want to hear from you! If you have a question you'd love for us to discuss on the pod, please email us at  progressivechristians@theloftla.org .  How do you hold onto hope when everything feels like, or actually is, falling apart? Given the state of US politics and the global lurch to the political right, how, if at all, are you holding onto hope? In this episode...

We have a new email address and we want to hear from you! If you have a question you'd love for us to discuss on the pod please email us at progressivechristians@theloftla.org . In addition to our weekly episodes, we hope to publish 1-2 short episodes per month that will be dedicated to answering listener questions about theology, politics, church, parenting, pop culture, or anything else that you...

We are entangled in systems full of wicked problems that we cannot solve on our own. For Dr. Copeland, sin is the most appropriate theological language for naming what has gone wrong in the world and for beginning to repair those wrongs, despite modern resistance to the use of sin-talk. In this episode, we discuss sin, suffering, and the problem of evil with Dr. Copeland, whose new book, Entangled...

"Authoritarian parenting—especially the evangelical variety—isn't just abuse. It's training. It teaches kids that love = fear. That power = safety. That obedience is the highest virtue, and questioning authority gets you a backhand and a one-way ticket to Hell," writes journalist Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez. In this episode we discuss the psychological consequences of authoritarian parenting and how it...

How do progressive Christians interpret Christ's life, death, and resurection as reconciling human beings to God? What are the theological implications of conservative Christians viewing Trump as a "messiah" figure? In this episode, we discuss the historical approaches that Christians have used to interpret Jesus' role in mediating salvation for human beings. We also discuss the dangers of conflat...

In our polarized culture, it has become increasingly difficult to talk across political or religious differences. Yet we know that in order to get people to see the merits of—or even begin to practice—progressive Christianity, we must speak to them and invite them to do so. In this episode, we are joined by Malynda Hale to discuss her approach to talking to religious and political conservatives. T...

In this pop culture minisode, Rev. Blair, Juila, and Westley discuss aspects of arts and culture rattling in their brains this week. We offer our recommendations for what to watch and listen to and close with some more serious reflection on the challenges and opportunities of being in a relationship with emerging generations. The Progressive Christians Podcast is a ministry of The Loft , a worship...

Why was Mahmoud Khalil, a legal resident of the US arrested, and why has his arrest led to hundres of protests across the country? What does it have to do with Project Esther, a policy created by the Heritage Foundation (the same foundation that created Project 2025) to curb speech that critiques Isreal and the US policy on Palestinian civil rights? In today's episode, we discuss the weaponization...

A significant percentage of Trump supporters are conservative Christians, and in this episode we ask - how can they support him despite all of his lies? Using Trump's joint address to Congress as a starting point, we examine the current conservative movement's moral flexibility around what is "technically true" and what "feels true." We end our conversation on a high note by discussing some good n...

Failing to bother to love is the scriptural concept of sin Jesus teaches in the gospels. In this episode, we build on this concept of sin and discuss why moral injury can make it difficult for progressive Christians to talk about sin constructively. We then discuss our theology of sin in light of President Trump's meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the defunding of USAID.  Th...

Christians should not believe in the bible, they should believe in the living God attested by the bible. This statement used to be reflect an orthodox (i.e., traditional) approach to the bible, but now belief in the bible is often a litmus text for how serious a Christians faith is. In this episode, we describe some of the problematic approaches to the bible, notably the biblicist approach and the...

Can you be queer and Christian? Does gender and sexuality even matter with respect to your theological beliefs? In today's episode we address the surprisingly recent disagreement about whether Christianity can accept the full participation of persons in same-sex relationships and persons whose gender identity does not match the one assigned at birth by medical authorities. We were grateful to be j...

In today's episode we discuss the dangerous and inhumane treatment of undocumented immigrants under the Trump administration. We were grateful to be joined by the Rev. Dr. Britta Meiers Carlson, whose research focuses on the church's engagement with the US immigration system. Rev. Dr. Meiers Carlson is a Visiting Assistant Professor in Practical Theology at the University of the South and an ordai...