The Word As Resistance

"Where life is precious," says abolitionist Ruthie Wilson Gilmore, "life IS precious." Join Rev. Anne Dunlap as she explores what's happening in the healing stories of Mark 5:21-43. Hint: it is not what Christians have been taught! Transcipt available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/

In this episode, Rev. Claire thinks about the cosmic significance of Jesus calming the storm, and invites us to consider what our boats, storms, and fears might be in this season. Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/

Petrosomatoglyphs are images of humans and animals carved into rock. What does this have to do with the Gospel of Mark's parables about good soil, seeds, and sowing, and our task as white Christians? Join Rev. Seth Wispelwey to find out! Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/

How do we reckon with our history? Join Rev. Anne Dunlap and special guest Rev. Jennifer Butler, Executive Director of Faith in Public Life, as they talk about 1 Samuel 8, what happens when we choose kings over God's vision for just relationships, and how we reckon with the aftermath of that choice. Transcript (partial) here: https://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/the-word-is-resistance.html

How does the Acts 2 Pentecost story call us to action in solidarity with Palestine? Join Revs. Anne Dunlap and Claire Brown as they explore this story together. Transcript available here: https://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/the-word-is-resistance.html

Palestinians and people across the world are rising up for an end to Israel’s apartheid practices and its occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. In this special episode of The Word is Resistance, Rev. Margaret Ernst features an interview with Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg. Rev. Margaret and Rabbi Jessica talk about being religious leaders in solidarity with Palestine, how that ties to working for racial...

"The Movement for Black Lives is asking for us to abide in our love, deepen our moral imagination, and ask what God really wants for us. Does God want no knock warrants? Or does God want neighborhoods made safe by abundance? Made safe through enough food to eat, enough homes in which to sleep, enough money for rent and leisure, enough helping hands." Join Blyth Barnow in this exploration of all th...

There is no well-paved highway between here and Beloved Community. Travel this week with Nichola Torbett out onto a wilderness road that might, just might, move us closer to the tender, tenuous possibility of mutual relationship and collaboration across racial lines. Warning: There are no perfect stories here! Transcript available here: https://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/the-word-is-resista...

In this week's episode, Rev. Seth Wispelwey unpacks Jesus' words in John 10.11-18. We are asked to understand these words in context of our most recent litany of horrors on the streets as police continue to murder Black and brown people - adults AND children, and also what it means to be a Good Shepherd at the systemic and institutional level in the arena of health care - something we are all inve...

In Luke 24:36b-48, Jesus shows up to the disciples, resurrected. He eats some fish with them, and explains everything that has happened. He tells them they are his witnesses. Join Rev. Jean Jeffress as they as the question: how can there be witness in the whiteness? Transcript available here: https://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/the-word-is-resistance.html

What does the witness of Thomas speak to white folks embarking on antiracism work? Join Rev. Claire in this mini episode for some Eastertide reflections. https://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/the-word-is-resistance.html

Rev. Margaret Ernst tells the Easter story from Mark through the fear and amazement of the women who find Jesus’ empty tomb. What if we lived as if Jesus were alive? "What if systems of extraction and violence towards the earth and each other - including when it’s done in the name of Jesus - are not the only way? What would it require of me? What if we lived as if God has rolled away the stone?" T...

We continue in our Signposts In the Wilderness series: What can we learn from each other - from our mistakes and misperceptions, from our places of pain and also our places of joy, which can guide us in this time as white Christians working for racial justice? For our Good Friday episode, Rev. Anne Dunlap discovers 3 signposts for our work as white anti-racist Christians in the long and terrifying...

We continue in our Signposts In the Wilderness series: What can we learn from each other - from our mistakes and misperceptions, from our places of pain and also our places of joy, which can guide us in this time as white Christians working for racial justice? Palm Sunday is the story of the protest processional of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a Donkey and of an Imperial Parade with swords and s...

We continue in our Signposts In the Wilderness series: What can we learn from each other - from our mistakes and misperceptions, from our places of pain and also our places of joy, which can guide us in this time as white Christians working for racial justice? In this episode, we welcome back Allyn Maxfield-Steele, in conversation with Seth Wispelwey, about John 12:20-33 and why (and how) white pe...

We continue in our Signposts In the Wilderness series: What can we learn from each other - from our mistakes and misperceptions, from our places of pain and also our places of joy, which can guide us in this time as white Christians working for racial justice? In this episode, we welcome back Blyth Barnow, in conversation with Anne Dunlap, about John 3:14-21 (yes, including lots of talk about *tha...

We continue in our Signposts In the Wilderness series: What can we learn from each other - from our mistakes and misperceptions, from our places of pain and also our places of joy, which can guide us in this time as white Christians working for racial justice? In this episode, Nichola Torbett feels around in this question: How do we create in our movements the kind of heartbreaking beauty that mak...

We continue in our Signposts In the Wilderness series: What can we learn from each other - from our mistakes and misperceptions, from our places of pain and also our places of joy, which can guide us in this time as white Christians working for racial justice? In this episode, join Rev. Will Green as he ponders Psalm 22 and how we hold our pain without turning away from each other. The late Dr. Vi...

For special episodes of The Word is Resistance, listen in as podcast contributors join in self-reflection in community with each other. What can we learn from each other - from our mistakes and misperceptions, from our places of pain and also our places of joy, which can guide us in this time as white Christians working for racial justice? In this conversation, Revs. Claire Brown and Jean Jeffress...

For special episodes of The Word is Resistance, listen in as podcast contributors join in self-reflection in community with each other. What can we learn from each other - from our mistakes and misperceptions, from our places of pain and also our places of joy, which can guide us in this time as white Christians working for racial justice? For our first conversation, Rev. Anne Dunlap, Nichola Torb...

What are we to make of Jesus coming into the middle of multiple pandemics, and taking our hand and easing our fever? Why might the urgency of healing be so deeply felt by his community? Join Rev. Anne Dunlap for her take on Mark 1:29-39. Transcript available here: https://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/the-word-is-resistance.html

Rev. Margaret Ernst celebrates the Black, indigenous, and people of color-led movements and multi-racial coalitions which under Trumpian tyranny, succeeded in getting him out of office and which have put racial justice at the center of national public policy. In the spirit of that celebration and with belief in what can happen when we organize with clarity and purpose, she invites White Christians...

Join Jean Jeffress as they have no idea what to say in the wake of the attempted violent take over of the Capital. The chickens of hundreds years of white supremacist violence are coming home to roost. The love talked about in Psalm 139 is a resting place to which we need to invite our white cousins (perhaps after they are all held accountable). Did I mention they didn't know what to say? Download...

In a moment of national terror hiding behind giant crosses and "Jesus 2020" banners, it is more important than ever that we articulate as clearly and open-heartedly as possible the meaning we derive from the life, ministry, and death of Jesus. In this episode, Nichola Torbett explores baptism as a an entry point to a community of solidarity that has nothing to do with triumphalism and everything t...

***SPOILER ALERT*** Hark! Jesus is Born!!! After #AbolitionAdvent, Rev. Margaret Ernst shares a Christmas message for 2020: including stories of feeling shame at needing support and solidarity after loss, and reflections on something Rev. Lynice Pinkard said in a recent bible study that she can’t get out of her head: that in a world full of Empire and suffering, it’s not that God is not powerful....