Bakker is back, and he wants you to argue better! "Can't we all get along?" sounds like one of the most naive questions in the world, but in truth, it's one of the most Christlike things we can do. Our guest Jay Bakker, punk-rock pastor, author, and independent scholar, has long been a champion of arguing well, giving others grace, and also calling out intolerance--both on the right and on the left. In this conversation, we dig into what is going on in our country, the deep and wounding polarization, and the lessons we can learn from how figures ranging from Paul to MLK Jr to John Hume to our beloved Tammy Faye (Jay's mom) found a foundation for dialogue in the midst of the conflicts of their times. Jay Bakker is the pastor and founder of Revolution Gathering (https://revolutionchurch.com/), a radically inclusive online community of believers and seekers who want to do church in a way that fits their values, without the partisanship and division. He's on YouTube with his latest message every week--go watch, like, and subscribe at https://www.youtube.com/@revolutionbroadcasting! Jay is also the author of "Son of a Preacher Man", which recounts his experience growing up as the son of famed televangelists Jim and Tammy Bakker, and the more recent books "Fall to Grace: A Revolution of God, Self & Society" and "Faith, Doubt, and Other Lines I've Crossed."

Find your guides at Quoir Academy! If you’ve ever deconstructed your faith you know it’s not easy. But just imagine if you could have people to guide you through your process? People like, Jim Palmer, Kristin Du Mez, Jennifer Knapp, Brad Jersak, Brian Zahnd, Paul Young, and more? Well, if you head over to Quoir Academy and register for SQUARE 2 using the Promo Code [RAD] you’ll get 10% off the regular registration cost of this awesome course and community just for being a fan of our show. Follow this registration link: https://www.bk2sq1.com/square-2-next-steps-into-reconstruction?coupon=RAD

There is a growing awareness of the impact that religious trauma—damaging things we’ve been told, that have been done to us, and that we’ve believed in negative religious environments—can have a lasting affects on our self-esteem, our relationships, and can even get down into our very nervous systems. This is a heartfelt conversation with Dr Mark Karris that focuses on his experiences in helping others heal the trauma of their adverse religious experiences, as well as the story of his own journey to heal his own traumatic experiences in the church. This is an important discussion for anyone who wants to understand religious trauma better, for those who pastor or counsel others who may have religious trauma, or for those who know that something wasn’t right in the religious environment they were brought up in, and need to hear it: you’re not crazy. Dr Mark G Karris a licensed Marriage and Family therapist who works with youth, families, couples, and individuals. He brings a range of professional, academic, and travel experiences that give him a breadth of knowledge and empathy. In addition to his role as therapist, Karris is also a prolific author. His latest book is Beyond Fairy Tales: A Couple’s Guide to Finding Clarity, Doing the Work, and Building a Lasting Relationship. He is also the author of Religious Refugees: (De)Constructing Toward Spiritual and Emotional Healing; The Diabolical Trinity:Healing Religious Trauma from a Wrathful God, Tormenting Hell, and a Sinful Self; and Divine Echoes: Reconciling Prayer with the Uncontrolling Love of God. You can find out more about Dr. Karris and his work at https://markgregorykarris.com.

Find your guides at Quoir Academy! If you’ve ever deconstructed your faith you know it’s not easy. But just imagine if you could have people to guide you through your process? People like, Jim Palmer, Kristin Du Mez, Jennifer Knapp, Brad Jersak, Brian Zahnd, Paul Young, and more? Well, if you head over to Quoir Academy and register for SQUARE 2 using the Promo Code [RAD] you’ll get 10% off the regular registration cost of this awesome course and community just for being a fan of our show. Follow this registration link: https://www.bk2sq1.com/square-2-next-steps-into-reconstruction?coupon=RAD

On March 10, a demolition crew tore up the pavement of Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington DC, and Reverend Starlette Thomas was there to bear witness. With this moment of government-ordered erasure as our starting point, we talk with Thomas about the protest and community that happened on that very ground after the killing of George Floyd in 2020—and why recent history has made many African-American protestors avoid the recent “Hands Off” rallies across the country. In this fiery and revelatory conversation, Thomas explains how our “color-coded” society is a facade for a destructive caste system, how those who are “racialized” with the identity of “white body supremacy” need to squelch the voices of others to stay in power, and makes the case for finding our holy “somebodyness” in something other than race.

Starlette Thomas is an author, activist, visual artist, and race abolitionist. She is also editor and director of the Raceless Gospel Initiative. She regularly preaches and teaches throughout the country and her sermons have been featured by Sojourners and other publications. Starlette is also a contributing author for the book Faith Forward: A Dialogue on Children, Youth & a New Kind of Christianity and author of the the book, “Take Me to the Water”: The Raceless Gospel as Baptismal Pedagogy for a Desegregated Church (Nurturing Faith). She is also the host of the Raceless Gospel podcast, now in its fifth season.

Find more of her work at racelessgospel.com or on social media at @racelessgospel.

Find your guides at Quoir Academy! If you’ve ever deconstructed your faith you know it’s not easy. But just imagine if you could have people to guide you through your process? People like, Jim Palmer, Kristin Du Mez, Jennifer Knapp, Brad Jersak, Brian Zahnd, Paul Young, and more? Well, if you head over to Quoir Academy and register for SQUARE 2 using the Promo Code [RAD] you’ll get 10% off the regular registration cost of this awesome course and community just for being a fan of our show. Follow this registration link: https://www.bk2sq1.com/square-2-next-steps-into-reconstruction?coupon=RAD

What’s so crazy about diversity, equity, and inclusion? We are so glad to welcome back Melanie Hood-Wilson, DEI consultant and educator, to talk about her work and mission in the midst of the current administration’s attacks on programs it calls “Radical and Wasteful.” Melanie is incisive, bold, and clearly lays out the issues we’re facing as America “says the quiet part out loud”, the core issues of identity and belonging that are driving the backlash against DEI programs, and opens up the possibilities for things that all of us can do to help ensure that our companies and organizations include every qualified candidate, without preferencing or shutting out anyone because of their identity. Melanie is the leader of Melanie Hood-Wilson and Associates, a “consulting company providing services designed to teach, enlighten, and change lives through teaching, learning, diversity, equity, and inclusion.” She and her team are dedicated to helping organizations improve their cultural competency and increase the representation of communities of color, women, individuals with differing abilities, the LGBTQIA community, and those of diverse religious and national backgrounds. Her company also sponsors an innovative range of “caucuses,” where groups of open-minded people with similar backgrounds can learn more about disrupting biased systems and advocating for themselves. Prior to being a consultant, Melanie gained tremendous experience as a teacher both in middle school and at the Community college of Baltimore County.

Find your guides at Quoir Academy! If you’ve ever deconstructed your faith you know it’s not easy. But just imagine if you could have people to guide you through your process? People like, Jim Palmer, Kristin Du Mez, Jennifer Knapp, Brad Jersak, Brian Zahnd, Paul Young, and more? Well, if you head over to Quoir Academy and register for SQUARE 2 using the Promo Code [RAD] you’ll get 10% off the regular registration cost of this awesome course and community just for being a fan of our show. Follow this registration link: https://www.bk2sq1.com/square-2-next-steps-into-reconstruction?coupon=RAD

Tamice Spencer-Helms (they/she) riffs on wisdom. They take us on a vast, universe-spanning theological journey that is rooted in our bodies, our ancestry, and our feet right here on the ground. In the church and in our culture in America, there is something hidden and pervasive, Tamice says, and it will continue to eat at us until we find it, name it, and respond to it. Efforts to address it through the lens of race or through the lens of economics only scratch the surface. The “leaven” that contaminates our systems is deeper than that, based we relate to ourselves, to God, and to one another. It’s a wild ride! Tamice unleashes some wisdom that will have you thinking long after you’ve finished listening.

Tamice Spencer-Helms (they/she) is a theologian, public speaker, curriculum developer, and consultant based in Richmond, Virginia, with over two decades of experience in young adult leadership, spiritual innovation, and social change. She is the founder of the Soulful Leadership Project, Sub:Culture Inc., and the R.E.S.T. Mixtape. Tamice is also known for their contributions to theoactivism and the philosophy of religion. In February 2021, they published their powerhouse debut, Faith Unleavened: The Wilderness Between Trayvon Martin & George Floyd, and host the Life After Leaven podcast. Find more of their work at www.tamicenamaespeaks.com.

Links:

www.tamicenamaespeaks.com

IG: @tamicenamaespeaks

Find your guides at Quoir Academy! If you’ve ever deconstructed your faith you know it’s not easy. But just imagine if you could have people to guide you through your process? People like, Jim Palmer, Kristin Du Mez, Jennifer Knapp, Brad Jersak, Brian Zahnd, Paul Young, and more? Well, if you head over to Quoir Academy and register for SQUARE 2 using the Promo Code [RAD] you’ll get 10% off the regular registration cost of this awesome course and community just for being a fan of our show. Follow this registration link: https://www.bk2sq1.com/square-2-next-steps-into-reconstruction?coupon=RAD

For Kevin Sweeney (author, speaker, spiritual director), Christian faith is all about experiencing God, not in having abstract beliefs about God. And the experiences that have kept him a Christian, even after his first dogmatic teachings about the Bible fell by the wayside, have been at the intersection of the great, transcendent, mystical Cosmic Christ, and the real, authentic, liberating, earthly Concrete Jesus.

Kevin talks with us about fading back from a front-and-center role as a pastor to being a servant and part of the whole body of Christ, as a writer and hospice chaplain helping people transition into their next phase. And he also talks with us about how tangible, boots-on-the ground liberation theology—particularly Black theology taught by James Cone, Kelly Brown Douglas, and others—has kept him grounded in the understanding that love is real, love is now, and love is active in this world. Jesus isn’t here just to save our individual souls, he tells us. Without liberation, there is no Jesus. Listen for this great perspective on how the cosmic vision and real world works of faith can be reconciled into a single cohesive Christian faith.

Kevin is the author of the new book, “Cosmic Christ and Cosmic Jesus,” which is available for pre-order and will be released in May 2025. He is also the author of the previous books “The Making of a Mystic: My Journey With Mushrooms, My Life as a Pastor, and Why It's Okay for Everyone to Relax” and “The Joy of Letting Go: How One Thing Has the Power to Change Everything.” He is also the host of “The Church Needs Therapy” podcast, and co-founder of Imagine Church in Honolulu. To learn more about Kevin’s work, visit www.kevinsweeneynow.com or follow him on IG: @kevinsweeneynow

Find your guides at Quoir Academy! If you’ve ever deconstructed your faith you know it’s not easy. But just imagine if you could have people to guide you through your process? People like, Jim Palmer, Kristin Du Mez, Jennifer Knapp, Brad Jersak, Brian Zahnd, Paul Young, and more? Well, if you head over to Quoir Academy and register for SQUARE 2 using the Promo Code [RAD] you’ll get 10% off the regular registration cost of this awesome course and community just for being a fan of our show. Follow this registration link: https://www.bk2sq1.com/square-2-next-steps-into-reconstruction?coupon=RAD

“The Tattooed Theologian” has something to say about all of it: racism, LGBTQIA bigotry, ecology, capitalism, fundamentalism, Christian nationalism, “F*CKWITTERY” & the questions — and revelations — that drive his work. This week’s conversation with public theologian Dillon Naber Cruz covers the gamut of his musings about theology through the lens of permaculture—(which, defined too simply here, is a kind of eco-theology of partnering with nature achieve sustainable goals). It’s a sweeping conversation with immediate impact. Cruz is a public theologian, blogger, podcaster, and author, whose most recent book is “Theological Musings Volume 2.” He is also the author of “Go Golden: Applying a Universal Religious Teaching and the Ethics of Permaculture to Create a Sustainable, Just, Happier World” He is also a co-host on The God Squad Pod, a regular guest on theological podcasts and a panelist on John Fugelsang’s show Tell Me Everything on SiriusXM Progress.

Dillon Naber Cruz Website: https://tattooed-theologian.com Podcast: https://tattooed-theologian.com/the-god-squad-podcast Instagram: @tattooed_theologian

Find your guides at Quoir Academy! If you’ve ever deconstructed your faith you know it’s not easy. But just imagine if you could have people to guide you through your process? People like, Jim Palmer, Kristin Du Mez, Jennifer Knapp, Brad Jersak, Brian Zahnd, Paul Young, and more? Well, if you head over to Quoir Academy and register for SQUARE 2 using the Promo Code [RAD] you’ll get 10% off the regular registration cost of this awesome course and community just for being a fan of our show. Follow this registration link: https://www.bk2sq1.com/square-2-next-steps-into-reconstruction?coupon=RAD