The movement for acceptance and equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender people over the last 40+ years has been in many respects a church movement. The sanctuary is the arena and ordination to ministry has been the prize. RW "Obie" Holman describes the movement and the participants in his newly released book, Queer Clergy: A History of Gay and Lesbian Ministry in American Protestantism. He blogs at Spirit of a Liberal. He spoke with me on Religion For Life about the civil rights movemen...
Jan 09, 2014•29 min
Rev. Frank Schaefer is no longer a United Methodist Minister. He lost his credentials because he was found guilty of violating church discipline. His crime? He officiated at a wedding. The wedding was for his son, Tim, and Tim's partner. He was given a thirty day suspension, a time out to think about it and come back to church officials with his hat in his hand and say he wouldn't do it again. If he couldn't, he would have to give up his ministry. This is his career. His livelihood. He spoke to ...
Jan 02, 2014•29 min
James Tabor is Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina Charlotte. He is the author of The Jesus Dynasty: The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity, and most recently, Paul and Jesus: How the Apostle Transformed Christianity which has just been released in paperback. This book is an excellent introduction regarding Christian origins, particularly regarding the difference between the historical Jesus and how ...
Dec 23, 2013•29 min
N. T. Wright is a retired Anglican Bishop and leading New Testament scholar. He has just published a 1700 page volume on Paul called Paul and The Faithfulness of God. He spoke to me about this work and about the legacy and influence of Paul. N. T. Wright is my first guest in my series on Paul, Acts, and Christian origins. Visit his Facebook page for more information about him and his work.
Dec 19, 2013•29 min
Gretta Vosper is a minister in the United Church of Canada. She identifies herself as “author, minister, atheist.” She is a minister at the West Hill United Church in Toronto. She has written a number of books including With Or Without God: Why the Way We Live Is More Important than What We Believe and Amen: What Prayer Can Mean In A World Beyond Belief. She spoke with me about her own journey as a minister and an atheist and what church looks like beyond god.
Dec 12, 2013•28 min
A twist. Nick Hernandez is the host of Community Matters on KZUM in Lincoln, Nebraska. He interviewed me live on his show. I recorded it, added some more conversation between us and made a program of it! We talk about religion, life's strange turns, and positive psychology!
Dec 06, 2013•29 min
Janet Heimlich is an award journalist and former freelance reporter for NPR. She is the president of the Child-Friendly Faith Project and the author of Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment. She speaks with me about how religion has been used to justify and excuse mistreatment of children. From medical neglect to corporal punishment to emotional abuse, religion can serve to harm children. We can make a difference by breaking the silence.
Nov 28, 2013•28 min
Carolyn Baker was an adjunct professor of history and psychology for 11 years and a psychotherapist in private practice for 17 years. Her mission is to offer emotional and spiritual tools for those who are becoming aware of the collapse of industrial civilization. She is the author of Sacred Demise: Walking The Spiritual Path of Industrial Civilization’s Collapse, Navigating the Coming Chaos: A Handbook for Inner Transition, and her latest published in November 2013, Collapsing Consciously: Tran...
Nov 21, 2013•28 min
Mike and Leah Short are the managers of Artisans’ Village, a Fair Trade retailer that opened in April of 2013 in the King Centre (300 E. Main) in Johnson City. They spoke to me about their passion for Fair Trade, “a global organization working to secure a better deal for farmers and workers.”
Nov 14, 2013•29 min
Debbie Blue is a founding minister of House of Mercy in St. Paul, Minnesota. She describes it as a “pretty great church.” She is also the author of Consider the Birds: A Provocative Guide to Birds of the Bible. She highlights ten birds in the Bible and through them finds a window into scripture, theology, and into conversations about social and ecological issues. Join us as we “consider the birds” on Religion For Life.
Nov 07, 2013•4 min
JC Farris describes herself as “a child of Appalachia, having grown up in the hills and valleys of Southwest Virginia and East Tennessee.” She also says she is “one of God’s most irritating children” because she asks a lot of questions! She is the author of Fundamentalism to Faith: Memoirs of a Recovering Free Will Baptist. (Amazon) She speaks candidly about agoraphobia, being gay, God, and a faith that reaches out to others on Religion For Life.
Oct 31, 2013•28 min
Bishop John Shelby Spong has sold over a million books. He has been an outspoken advocate for religious literacy and social change in regards to race, gender, and sexuality. In 2013 he published his latest book , The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic. Bishop Spong found this gospel “almost repellent” because it has been used to foster an outdated pre-modern view of God, religious exclusivism, literalism, and anti-semitism. But when it is seen through the eyes of Jewish mysticism, it comes ...
Oct 24, 2013•29 min
Spiritual leader and Catholic priest, Henri Nouwen, died in 1996. He left a legacy of honest, insightful writing in his unpublished journals and other writings. Michael Christensen (Drew University), and Rebecca Laird (Point Loma Nazarene University), have compiled and edited some of Henri’s work in three volumes. The first was Spiritual Direction: Wisdom for the Long Walk of Faith. It was followed by Spiritual Formation: Following Movements of the Spirit. In 2013 they published the third of thi...
Oct 17, 2013•29 min
Did you know that religious people distrust atheists as much as rapists? Kile Jones, a Ph. D. student in religion at Claremont Lincoln University is doing something about prejudice against atheists by promoting “Interview An Atheist At Church Day.” Kile speaks to me about this project and shares his experience of being an atheist in America. To get an idea of what this is about, here is an interview in church with Neil Carter who is an atheist in Jackson, Mississippi. Learn more about “Interview...
Oct 10, 2013•29 min
One of the most significant discoveries in regards to early Christianity in the 20th century was the collection of texts found at Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945. These codices had been preserved in clay jars since the 4th century. Among them was the Gospel of Thomas. This gospel is contemporary with other New Testament gospels. It contains sayings of Jesus, some familiar to those in the canonical gospels, some quite different. The Jesus Seminar regarded Thomas as the fifth gospel. Milton Moreland (R...
Oct 01, 2013•29 min
This week my guest is Larry Easterling of the Spiritual and Pastoral Care Department of Mountain States Health Alliance. He has written an article that will be published this Fall in the Journal of Pastoral Care and Counseling, entitled “Spiritual Care with Appalachians: Beyond Stereotypes.” He is also an organizer of “Prays Well With Others: The Use of Meditation/Prayer in Various Faith Groups.” Dr. Easterling describes the seminar and article in this way: The whole purpose of our seminar “The ...
Sep 25, 2013•28 min
What is the state of religion, including progressive Christianity, in Australia? To explore that question I spoke with Rex A. E. Hunt, a retired Uniting Church minister, who lives just north of Sydney. He spoke to me about his work as a progressive minister, author, liturgist, and social ecologist. He is the chair of the Common Dreams Conference, September 19-22, 2013 and is the co-editor of Why Weren’t We Told? A Handbook on “progressive” Christianity. According to the book’s description: Progr...
Sep 19, 2013•28 min
"Gentle Jesus, Meek and Mild" is not Reza Aslan's Jesus. Professor Aslan has discovered a Jesus who is a revolutionary, a zealot, and who had a mission that was political and practical. Aslan's book, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth became a number one bestseller thanks to this attack interview on Fox News that went viral. In this candid and in depth conversation, Dr. Aslan reveals a Jesus more like Malcom X than Martin Luther King and worth following regardless of one's religion....
Sep 12, 2013•29 min
The history of the United States could be defined as one of racism. Theologians have called racism America's original sin. Jesus is in the midst of it. My guest, Dr. Edward J. Blum, co-author of The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America, speaks to me about how the "whitening" of Christ in popular imagery symbolized our combustible divisions. Dr. Blum will be in East Tennessee on the following dates to discuss race and religion. Thursday, September 19th, 5:30 p.m. Univer...
Sep 05, 2013•28 min
I continue my conversation with Joseph Bessler, author of A Scandalous Jesus: How Three Historic Quests Changed Theology for the Better. This week we explore the "renewed quest" led by Robert Funk and the Jesus Seminar. We explore the reasons for this quest and the forces that drove it.
Aug 27, 2013•28 min
This week we get behind the question of the historical Jesus and ask what is historic about these quests for the Jesus of history? What was and is at stake? Joseph Bessler is a theology professor at Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He just published A Scandalous Jesus: How Three Historic Quests Changed Theology for the Better. He says that historic questions can be the most scandalous as they challenge assumptions governing societies.
Aug 20, 2013•27 min
Thomas Hill is a Clinical Assistant Professor at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs, where he oversees the peacebuilding concentration within the Master of Science in Global Affairs program. Earlier in 2013 he took several students to the University of Duhok. Dr. Hill and one of his students, Barbara Augustine spoke to me via skype from Iraq regarding their work and study particularly around issues of the effects of religious conversion on peacebuilding. Here is the podcast of a pre...
Aug 13, 2013•26 min
David Felten and Jeff Proctor-Murphy are Methodist ministers who felt a need for resources for people and congregations who want to explore questions that most churches are unwilling to ask. So they created the DVD series, Living the Questions. They bring scholars and leaders to talk about matters of faith and scholarship that address real questions we all have. They recently put some of these programs in book form by coauthoring Living the Questions: The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity. Davi...
Aug 09, 2013•28 min
As fellows of the Jesus Seminar search for the historical Jesus behind the Gospel and Creed, so Lesley Hazleton searches for the historical Muhammad behind the Qur'an and Hadith. In 2013 she released, The First Muslim: The Story of Muhammad and talked with me about this fascinating person who changed history. Lesley Hazleton has reported from the Middle East and her work focuses on the the intersection of politics and religion. Previous books include After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Sunn...
Jul 31, 2013•29 min
This week's guest is a direct descendant of Roger Williams. Religion writer, Becky Garrison, writes about the radical commitments to freedom of conscience and equality that this 17th century religious pioneer embraced and how his virtues could inspire us. With wit and insight she takes on contemporary religiosity and how prophetic voices mute themselves at the expense of profit and fame. It is an important discussion of the cost of speaking truth. Pick up her e-book, Roger Williams' Little Book ...
Jul 30, 2013•27 min
One of the most interesting theologians of our time is Matthew Fox. He is the author of over 20 books and the founder of the Creation Spirituality movement. In the 1980s he was silenced by the Vatican (by then Cardinal Ratzinger who became Pope Benedict). He is the author of The Pope's War: Why Ratzinger's Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved, the just released, Letters to Pope Francis: Rebuilding a Church with Justice and Compassion, and coming in September 2013, Occupy Spir...
Jul 20, 2013•29 min
Val Webb is a theologian and scientist who beautifully and thoughtfully integrates these two ways of thinking in her work. She is the author of a number of books including In Defence of Doubt: An Invitation to Adventure, Like Catching Water in A Net: Human Attempts to Describe the Divine, and the book we discuss this week on Religion For Life, Stepping Out With the Sacred: Human Attempts to Engage the Divine. I caught up with her via skype at her home in Mudgee, New South Wales, and had a fantas...
Jul 12, 2013•29 min
This is the second of an exciting two-part conversation with Sir Lloyd Geering. He is a radical theologian from New Zealand. He was tried for heresy in 1967 and his life and theological contributions have been noted in the film, The Last Western Heretic. He is the author of over 15 books including, Christianity Without God, Coming Back to Earth: From gods to God to Gaia, and Tomorrow's God: How We Create our Worlds. He is going strong at 95 and has just published his latest book, From the Big Ba...
Jul 04, 2013•26 min
This is the first of an exciting two-part conversation with Sir Lloyd Geering. He is a radical theologian from New Zealand. He was tried for heresy in 1967 and his life and theological contributions have been noted in the film, The Last Western Heretic. He is the author of over 15 books including, Christianity Without God, Coming Back to Earth: From gods to God to Gaia, and Tomorrow's God: How We Create our Worlds. He is going strong at 95 and has just published his latest book, From the Big Ban...
Jun 25, 2013•26 min
The fastest growing religious group in the United States is the "nones," those who claim no religious affiliation. Does this mean people are no longer religious? Not so says Gary Laderman, professor of religion at Emory University and editor of the on-line magazine, Religion Dispatches. People may be exiting organized religion but everything from sports to celebrity, music, sex, and violence can be the focus of religious ritual as well. He speaks with me about baseball, Oprah, "beliebers" (Justi...
Jun 17, 2013•28 min
