What In God's Name

Does the pandemic give us an opening to re-assess the trajectory of our social life and systems? Can we tell a different story going forward? Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic c...

This is a Best of WIGN replay from May 2019.

An educational consideration of the horn solo in Symphony 2, Movement 2, and how this music projects defiance in the face of forces--viral, moral-- that are brutish, ugly, and coarse.

This show originally aired in August 2019. We recorded this show before the most recent mass shooting in El Paso. That murderous violence, part of a pattern of white nationalist violence in our recent (and not-so-recent) past, underscores the What In God’s Name conversation about What powers are currently at work in the American spirit? What values do we believe in? How can a sense of the Transcen...

The Easter bunny has cooties! How do we hold hope of new life, while living in the middle of a moment  when disease leads to death, uncertainty, and fear?   Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political...

We don’t do suffering well. Kate Bowler’s perspectives, captured in an interview published in the New York Times, is our point of departure.  Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic c...

Settling into the long haul: walking the pandemic path with endurance. Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is...

This is the second of our special 5-minute Tuesday shows in response to Covid-19

How do we respond to anxiety and uncertainty in a time of pandemic? Shayna brings wisdom to us, from her experience and knowledge in working as a chaplain with first responders. Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the na...

How do we respond to anxiety and uncertainty? Some practices and perspectives for life at this time of a novel coronavirus. Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who...

Three practices for dealing with anxiety and fear. And don't forget to stay curious, go deep, and shine light - no matter what!

Three practices for dealing with anxiety and fear. And don't forget to stay curious, go deep, and shine light - no matter what!

How you respond to jerks matters: theology and evolutionary biology shed light on forgiveness as a society-wide, rather than interpersonal, dynamic. Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and eco...

Abortion is one of the wedge issues in the culture wars. The quality of the moral thinking in the public conversation is lackluster. What In God’s Name draws on recent scholarship to bring some fresh air to a stale room. Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing as...

Shayna sends Chris on assignment to the borderlands near Nogales, Arizona. Chris brings back audio of a hike into the desert, to sites where migrant remains were found. No vision of God’s dream for the world would include these deaths. So what are we missing? It’s complicated, but the lack of moral imagination is one thing. Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that w...

What are the pros and cons, the benefits and the costs, of secularization? We take Jose Casanova’s work in the sociology of religion as a point of departure.   Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing association of people who are critical of the narrowness of pol...

Do we have the discipline to play the long game that making a more moral, more fair, more humane society requires?   Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing association of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who wan...

If you pray for your enemies and seek to regard your enemies in their humanity, aren’t you going to get steamrolled? More broadly: how should spiritual practice inform political engagement?   Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing association of people who are c...

Within the larger effort to create a more healthy society, what is the difference between offering “service,” and partnering with people who want your help?   What is social justice? Why is social justice often perceived as synonymous with liberal political agendas?   Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic mode...

Today our topic is selfishness: how does selfishness manifest in our culture? Are there new ways to shed light on selfishness, new insights that can deepen our understanding of how selfishness operates in American society?   Part of the What In God’s Name mission is to create a cohort or community of people who see, as we do, the need to renew certain habits of feeling and being together in commun...

Part Two of our conversation focuses on the ways our culture reduces human beings to consumers, and what we can do about it.   As we begin the new year, we re-emphasize part of the What In God’s Name mission: we want to create a cohort or community of people who see, as we do, the need to renew certain habits of feeling and being together in community, and ways of thinking about and understanding...

Jeff MacDonald is our guest. Jeff’s award-winning reporting on religion has appeared in Time, Conde Nast Traveler, the Boston Globe, the Christian Science Monitor , and other publications. He is the author of Thieves in the Temple: The Christian Church and the Selling of the American Soul . His new book, Part Time Is Plenty: Thriving Without Full-Time Clergy will be released in April.   Part One o...

This show was recorded in October 2019. What In God’s Name has a conversation with Mark Koyama, Tina O’Neil, Sarah Ellis, and Mona Brooks of the United Church of Jaffrey, New Hampshire. Our conversation: their community’s religiously anchored response to the number of Americans killed by gun violence in 2019. In this second part of our conversation, visual artist Mona Brooks talks about the physic...

This is a replay of a show from April 2019. Our conversation with Dan Andrus, fire chief of Concord, the capital of New Hampshire, touches on PTSD in first responders, depression and suicide. Here is the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline website: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ The Lifeline phone number is: 1-800-273-8255 . Also, in part one of our conversation, Dan mentions 3 firefighte...

Awe and wonder, part two: what gets in the way of awe and wonder? We consider certain kinds of reductionisms, including scientific materialist reductionism, as a way that wonder can be dismissed. Are there limits to human knowing? We think so.   What In God’s Name continues to celebrate being one year old! We give thanks to you, our loyal, thoughtful, caring, and supportive listeners.   Our fall f...