2020 has been a year like no other. This holiday season we want to share something for advent. We also have more cooking for The Liturgists in 2021 which we are excited to share with you in January. Other Links Watch Immanuel by Morant The Holiday Thing event hosted by The Liturgists We have a holiday event coming up in December and we'd love to see you there! Find out more at theliturgists.com You can watch The Liturgists Podcast being recorded live each week (as well as The Alien Podcast) by j...
Dec 17, 2020•30 min
Dr. Joy Cox joins William Matthews, Dr. Hillary McBride, and Michael Gungor to talk about fatness and fatphobia. Dr. Cox is the author of Fat Girls in Black Bodies: Creating Communites of Our Own and received her Ph.D. in Communication from Rutgers University. Most of her work has focused on matters of intersectionality addressing race, body size, accessibility, and "health" within the context of body acceptance and fat liberation. You can follow Dr. Cox on Twitter and find out more about her wo...
Dec 04, 2020•1 hr 12 min
Nikki Blak joins William Matthews, Dr. Hillary McBride, and Michael Gungor to talk about womanism. Follow Nikki Blak on Instagram and Twitter. You can watch The Liturgists Podcast being recorded live each week (as well as The Alien Podcast) by joining The Liturgists. We love having everyone together where we can talk during the recordings. Check out theliturgists.com and find where it says "Join The Liturgists." Also, this Sunday at 11am Pacific you are invited to join us for The Sunday Thing. H...
Nov 19, 2020•53 min
Jamie Lee Finch joins William Matthews and Michael Gungor to talk about the election in the United States, the limbo many people feel, and how we move forward together from here. You can watch The Liturgists Podcast being recorded live each week (as well as The Alien Podcast) by joining The Liturgists. We love having everyone together where we can talk during the recordings. Check out theliturgists.com and find where it says "Join The Liturgists." Also, this Sunday at 11am Pacific you are invite...
Nov 05, 2020•44 min
Jason Fileta and Michael Wear join William Matthews, Dr. Hillary McBride, and Michael Gungor to talk about politics, the church, and how we can wade through the ways these interconnected spaces in our lives affect ourselves and those around us. Michael Wear is a leading strategist, speaker and practitioner at the intersection of faith, politics and public life. He advised President Obama, as well as some of the nation’s leading foundations, non-profits and public leaders, on some of the thornies...
Oct 22, 2020•1 hr 12 min
Fred Davis is a powerful non-dual spiritual teacher who has been helping people wake up to their true nature in surprising numbers for over a decade. In this episode, Michael laughs (and occasionally speaks) with Fred about non-duality, enlightenment, and the inherent beauty and joy of this very moment. You can watch The Liturgists Podcast being recorded live each week (as well as The Alien Podcast) by joining The Liturgists. We love having everyone together where we can talk during the recordin...
Oct 08, 2020•1 hr 14 min
“Cancel Culture” is a relatively recent phrase that has entered the cultural milieu in a profound and divisive way. In this “mega episode” of the Liturgists podcast, Michael Gungor, William Matthews, Dr. Hillary McBride, Jamie Lee Finch, Dr. Robyn Henderson-Espinoza, Chloé Valdary, and Peter Rollins engage in a series of conversations that deeply explore this potentially sensitive and polarizing topic through multiple lenses, identities, and experiences. You can watch The Liturgists Podcast bein...
Sep 24, 2020•2 hr 31 min
We have been working on a documentary for over a year about The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The full documentary will be released on September 22, 2020 and we will be hosting a live stream that same day with the people who produced it including William Matthews, Jamie Lee Finch, Christian Adkins, Anna Jane Joyner, Karlin Itchoak and others. To find out more visit https://theliturgists.com/arctic As we prep to launch the film, we wanted to re-release this episode from October 2019. In the la...
Sep 10, 2020•1 hr 18 min
Arielle Estoria joins William Matthews, Dr. Hillary McBride, and Michael Gungor to discuss art and our relationship to it. Whether art lives in our movement, prose, canvas, notebook, instrument, work, or play, it shapes us and pushes us towards something new. Many times we might feel like our art works as a calling out from within that seems beyond ourselves. However it takes shape, how can art help us process and work through struggle, pain, and trauma? Arielle is the co-author of two self-publ...
Aug 27, 2020•1 hr
Dr. Hillary McBride, William Matthews, and Michael Gungor discuss what happens after deconstruction - often called "reconstruction." They are joined by Kevin Garcia and work together through the different ways we change, build, form, or adapt what we believe and how we live when we want to find what is next. Kevin Garcia is a digital pastor, creative mystic, public theologian and intuitive soul coach based in Atlanta, GA. After coming out in the fall of 2015 as a queer Christian, Kevin has reach...
Aug 13, 2020•1 hr 17 min
In this bonus episode from The Liturgists Network show Loving This, Michael Gungor discusses and demos his new solo album Are You Perfect Yet? which is by his new artist Weiwu. The album follows the flow of Five Rhythms dance, which is a movement meditation practice devised by Gabrielle Roth. It draws from indigenous and world traditions using tenets of shamanistic, ecstatic, mystical and eastern philosophy. It also draws from Gestalt therapy, the human potential movement and transpersonal psych...
Jun 18, 2020•54 min
A special preview of The Alien Podcast which is our private podcast for patrons. This week Michael (The Alien) and Jamie (The Sex Witch) talk about all manner of rabbit trails. Each week on The Alien Podcast Michael has open ended conversations with wonderful people like William Matthews, Dr. Hillary McBride, Jamie Lee Finch, Peter Rollins, and more. Join The Liturgists at the $10 and get more episodes like this every single week: theliturgists.com/join This Sunday at 11am Pacific you are invite...
May 28, 2020•1 hr 12 min
William Matthews, Dr. Hillary McBride, and Michael Gungor discuss dissonance and how our minds work to make sense of things when we have two incongruent ideas occupy our minds at one time. How does our ability to survive affect how we approach those different ideas? What kind of new thing exists in the space of that dissonance? Michael describes the experience to be like that of a polychord from Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. This Sunday at 11am Pacific you are invited to join us for The ...
May 21, 2020•1 hr 3 min
Heather McCain talks with Dr. Hillary McBride to pull apart the story that disability is inherently negative. Heather McCain is Executive Director of Creating Accessible Neighbourhoods, a non-profit they founded in 2005. Heather’s experiences with multiple types of disabilities, inaccessibility, and ableism led them to become a well-known and respected speaker, advocate, educator, and activist, working with a variety of companies, cities, and non-profits to confront the issues that face disabled...
May 14, 2020•55 min
Christy Harrison talks with Dr. Hillary McBride and Michael Gungor about our culture's obsession with dieting and our views of our bodies. They dive into over one-hundred years of history to highlight how our modern day assumptions are often based on decades of social norms that have built up over time. Christy is an anti-diet registered dietitian, certified intuitive eating counselor, host of the podcast Food Psych, and author of Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Th...
May 07, 2020•1 hr 5 min
Peter Rollins and Michael Gungor talk about happiness and the many ways we seek it out. We may use the tools of religion, belief, work, ideals, pleasure, or others to help us be happy. By breaking down the stories we tell ourselves using nondual thinking and philosophy they seek a deeper understanding of what makes us happy. Peter Rollins is an author, philosopher, storyteller, producer and public speaker. He is the author of The Divine Magician (2015) and The Idolatry of God (2013) among other ...
Apr 30, 2020•46 min
We have all experienced or will experience grief at some point in our lives. Loss, whether unexpected or not, leaves us feeling alone. In this episode, Dr. Hillary McBride, William Matthews, and Michael Gungor talk about grief, how it affects us, and the toll COVID-19 is taking on the world by creating a large-scale sense of despair. We want to say a special thank you to the many liturgists who submitted their stories of working through grief. Your vulnerability helps us gain a deeper understand...
Apr 23, 2020•1 hr 23 min
Evelyn Tribole talks with Dr. Hillary McBride and Michael Gungor about our relationship with eating and our view of our body. Evelyn is an award-winning registered dietitian with a nutrition counseling practice in Newport Beach, CA, specializing in eating disorders. In 1995, Evelyn published Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program that Works with her co-author Elyse Resch which has become the go-to book on rebuilding a healthy body image and making peace with food. This Sunday at 11am Pacific ...
Apr 16, 2020•58 min
In this episode we want to share a liturgy we created for Holy Week called "Garden." This liturgy features Amena Brown, Rachel Held Evans, Rob Bell, Science Mike, and Gungor. If you are not a regular consumer of liturgies, it as a collection of related works of art that all cover a specific topic. As we are all social distancing, we want to offer this to you as a way to connect to the ideas of holy week and a way to connect with others while your normal Easter plans have been changed. This Sunda...
Apr 09, 2020•48 min
Ruthie Lindsey talks with Dr. Hillary McBride and Michael Gungor about her experience with pain and trauma. They also discuss some things we can do during the COVID-19 crisis. Ruthie's new book, There I Am: The Journey from Hopelessness to Healing, will be released on April 21, 2020. At seventeen years old, Ruthie Lindsey was hit by an ambulance near her home in rural Louisiana. She was given a five percent chance of survival and one percent chance of walking again. One month later after a spina...
Apr 02, 2020•1 hr 4 min
Most of us are cooped up inside our homes and are social distancing in response to COVID-19. If we live with people, this marathon of close proximity may engage our feelings and heighten both the good and bad elements in our relationships. In this episode, Lisa Gungor joins Michael to talk about fighting, communication, and how they have grown over the years. To put your event on the calendar for one of the virtual rooms, go to theliturgists.com/community and follow the link that says schedule. ...
Mar 26, 2020•1 hr 2 min
Dr. Hillary McBride, Science Mike, William Matthews, and Michael Gungor talk about COVID-19 and its impact on our health, culture, and economy. Many news sources are discussing the pandemic using the titles "Coronavirus" or "COVID-19." Here are some quick facts and terminology to help you understand what it all means: This virus is a "novel coronavirus," meaning it is a new coronavirus that humans have not experienced before The virus' name is SARS-CoV-2 The disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 is calle...
Mar 19, 2020•1 hr 12 min
Deconstruction is a common experience for people in The Liturgists Community. We all have stories of how we grew up, memories of what we were taught, and key ideas that still influence us. We may use many words to describe our deconstruction: freeing, scary, lonely, or exciting. The social cost of deconstruction can also be very high. We may feel like our social circles alienated us, or that our family abandoned us. In this episode, Dr. Hillary McBride and Michael Gungor talk about deconstructio...
Mar 12, 2020•34 min
While pleasure is usually positive and suffering usually negative, Christian culture often celebrates suffering while denigrating pleasure. Phrases like "dying to the flesh" highlight how we learn to internalize martyrdom in order to please God. Unfortunately, when we suppress our personal needs to conform to this social norm, the result can often lead to a loss of identity. In this episode, Linda Kay Klein, Dr. Hillary McBride, and Michael Gungor talk about the complexity of pleasure, and Linda...
Mar 05, 2020•44 min
In this episode, we highlight two poets: James Baldwin and Maya Angelou. Both were best selling authors and world-renown poets. We highlight their words as they relate to art, the creative process, and the moral responsibility the artist carries to humanity and society. James Baldwin wrestles with that tension in his speech at the University of Chicago in 1963. Maya Angelou discusses her love for humanity and performs her poem "Still I Rise." Let's listen to James Baldwin and Maya Angelou. If yo...
Feb 29, 2020•17 min
In this episode, we focus on the words of two men who early on had two very different opinions, but at the end of their lives they were much closer together — closer than you may think. These two men were Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Pay attention and hear the nuance in their words. Envision yourself transported back to the 1960's and be mindful to really hear their perspectives. Let's listen to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. If you like this podcast, join The Liturgists ...
Feb 28, 2020•19 min
Womanism doesn't position itself in relation to masculinity, whereas black feminism and feminism specifically seek to elevate women to the status of men socially, politically, and economically; and also overcome patriarchy, sexism, and oppression. Black feminism asserts that the experience of black women places them in a unique position as they relate to patriarchy, sexism, and oppression. There is a distinct focus on class, gender expression, and sexual orientation as it relates to the distribu...
Feb 27, 2020•34 min
There is a God shaped hole in your heart, or at least that's what a white Jesus texted his friend in the tract you read as a kid. We were told we need Jesus because total depravity — our inherent defect — has separated us from God. As well, the idea of hell is a strong incentive to share the story of Jesus with others, because if we don't share those people will be tormented forever. In many communities, Jesus was the way people cleaned up their lives, got off drugs or alcohol, and found stabili...
Feb 27, 2020•1 hr 2 min
An American lawyer, social justice activist, founder/executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, and a clinical professor at New York University School of Law. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, he has challenged bias against the poor and minorities in the criminal justice system, especially children. He has argued multiple cases in front of the Supreme Court and helped achieve decisions that prohibit sentencing children under 18 to death or to life imprisonment without parole. Stevenson has ...
Feb 26, 2020•22 min
An American political activist, philosopher, academic, and author. Ideologically a Marxist, she was a member of Communist Party USA until 1991 after which she joined the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. She is the author of over 10 books on class, feminism, and the US prison system. She involved herself in a range of leftist causes, including the second-wave feminist movement, the Black Panther Party, and the campaign against the Vietnam War. In 1991, she joined the femi...
Feb 25, 2020•15 min
