The Word Is Resistance
Religion & Spirituality Podcas
From January 2017 to December 2023, “The Word Is Resistance” was a weekly podcast from SURJ-Faith by white anti-racist Christians based on the Christian lectionary, offering an anti-racist Word for other white Christians -- though all are welcome to check it out. We are pleased to keep this incredible resource alive here as an ongoing resource to help us all get free. What do our sacred texts have to teach us about living, surviving, even thriving, in the context of empire, tyranny, violence, repression - the times in which we are living today? What do they have to teach us, as white Christians, about our role in resistance, in showing up, in liberation? They teach us this: Our traditions were made for these times. They come from these times. So we have resources in our texts, our practices, to help us right now. We can reclaim our stories and re-tell them to nourish our resistance against white supremacy and our work for collective liberation.
Location:
United States
Description:
From January 2017 to December 2023, “The Word Is Resistance” was a weekly podcast from SURJ-Faith by white anti-racist Christians based on the Christian lectionary, offering an anti-racist Word for other white Christians -- though all are welcome to check it out. We are pleased to keep this incredible resource alive here as an ongoing resource to help us all get free. What do our sacred texts have to teach us about living, surviving, even thriving, in the context of empire, tyranny, violence, repression - the times in which we are living today? What do they have to teach us, as white Christians, about our role in resistance, in showing up, in liberation? They teach us this: Our traditions were made for these times. They come from these times. So we have resources in our texts, our practices, to help us right now. We can reclaim our stories and re-tell them to nourish our resistance against white supremacy and our work for collective liberation.
Twitter:
@SURJ_Faith
Language:
English
Contact:
720-940-7141
Email:
faith@showup4rj.org
Episodes
We Are Building Up a New World
1/1/2024
This live recording of Dr. Vincent Harding’s song for the freedom movement is of a multi-racial “movement choir practice” in Denver, CO in December 2014, being led by Minister Daryl J. Walker. We are deeply grateful to the Freeney-Harding family for letting us use the song for this podcast. This song has been the theme song of our podcast since the beginning. Enjoy it now in its entirety. Lyrics: 1 - We are building up a new world (3x) Builders must be strong. 2 - Courage, sisters, don't get weary, courage, brothers, don't get weary. Courage, people, don't get weary, though the way be long. 3 - Rise, shine, give God glory (3x) Children of the light!
Duration:00:01:58
TWIR 12.24.23 Parting Gifts: Magnificat
12/22/2023
As "The Word Is Resistance" comes to completion, enjoy this final episode from Rev. Anne Dunlap, which includes brief reflections on the Magnificat and highlights offerings from 2 of our long-time listeners. Much gratitude for your presence with us over these 7 years! Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/
Duration:00:15:43
TWIR 12.17.23 Parting Gifts: Grief and Community
12/15/2023
As "The Word Is Resistance" podcast comes to completion, we are wrapping up with 4 special "Parting Gift" episodes. For this episode, enjoy a group conversation with Liz Kearny, Jean Jeffress, and Brigitta Vieyra, hosted by Anne Dunlap, as they reflect on how the podcast has changed them and what parting gifts they hope listeners take with them as we all go home by another way. Transcript available here: surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir
Duration:01:08:12
TWIR 12.10.23 Parting Gifts: Unlearning, Wrestling, and Paying Attention
12/7/2023
As "The Word Is Resistance" podcast comes to completion, we are wrapping up with 4 special "Parting Gift" episodes. For this episode, enjoy a group conversation with M Jade Kaiser and Sharon Fennema, hosted by Anne Dunlap, as they reflect on their how the podcast has changed them and what parting gifts they hope listeners take with them as we all go home by another way. Transcript available here: surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir
Duration:00:34:13
TWIR 12.3.23 Parting Gifts: Choices and Power and Community
12/1/2023
As "The Word Is Resistance" podcast comes to completion, we are wrapping up with 4 special "Parting Gift" episodes. For this episode, enjoy a group conversation with OG contributors Rev. Anne Dunlap, Nichola Torbett, and Rev. Margaret Ernst, as they reflect on their how the podcast has changed them and what parting gifts they hope listeners take with them as we all go home by another way. Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/
Duration:01:07:51
TWIR 11.19.23 #CeasefireNow: Keeping Our Resistance Vigil and Rejecting Christian Zionism
11/17/2023
Paul is writing to his dear ones in Thessalonica about how to keep up their resistance under Roman occupation. Spoiler alert: This work involves 1) debunking the lie empire tells them (us) about “peace and security” while 2) depending on the beloveds around them (us) to fight off the numbing spell of this lie so we can keep resisting together. Tune in for this episode with Rev. Liz Kearny to explore the connections between the themes of this text, the toxic theology of Christian Zionism fueling so much of the violence of this moment, and our role as white Christians in taking action to stop the genocide unfolding in Gaza. Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/
Duration:00:31:16
TWIR 11.12.23 Readying Ourselves
11/8/2023
In this episode, Rev. M Jade Kaiser wonders what it means to spiritually prepare individually and collectively for both times of disaster and openings of freedom. What wise or foolish actions or non-actions are we taking in the present that will serve us come what may - tomorrow, next year, or generations to come? Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/
Duration:00:24:53
TWIR 10.29.23 The Path to the Water
10/28/2023
Join Rev. Anne Dunlap and Rev. Liz Kearny for a conversation about facing, embracing, wrestling with, and healing our lineages as white folx who seek to build up a new world. As we observe All Saints Day, where are the places of trauma in the stories of our own ancestors? What did they give up to assimilate into whiteness? Where did they show us how to resist oppression? With grounding in the lectionary's psalms for this day (1 and 90), how might we follow the path to the water that will impact the generations coming after us? Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/
Duration:01:15:41
TWIR 10.22.23 Everything Belongs to Love
10/20/2023
In a world that wants to force us into either/or thinking, wants to push us to choose - with us or against us - Dr. Sharon Fennema explores Jesus' invitation to discern our callings beyond the binaries. Join in lamenting all that we have given over to Caesar, and in imagining what it would look like to give ourselves and our world over to Love. Transcript available here: surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/
Duration:00:18:34
TWIR 9.21.23 BONUS CONTENT! #WrestlingWithRomans: Reflections from the Colosseum
9/21/2023
Rev. Liz Kearny was in Italy this month on a family trip and recorded these reflections from her hotel room in Rome after touring the Colosseum. After witnessing these remains of Rome’s death machinery, Rev. Liz wanted to share some #WrestlingWithRomans bonus content as she connects what she saw at the Colosseum with what we’ve been learning together in this series on Paul’s anti-empire missive to Gentile Christians. Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/
Duration:00:10:01
TWIR 9.17.23 #WrestlingWithRomans: Solidarity Forever
9/15/2023
Paul doesn't shy away from practical matters in his letter to the Romans and this week's episode takes a look at his admonitions against letting differences divide us. Dr. Sharon Fennema explores contemporary and historical examples of the ways solidarity is a threat to empire and asks what these have to show us about resisting "divide and conquer" tactics and building the kind of community we are called to create as kindom-makers and Jesus-followers. Transcript available here: surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/
Duration:00:18:12
TWIR 9.10.23 #WrestlingWithRomans: Dear Rome, We Belong To Each Other. Love, Paul
9/10/2023
For our 300th episode, join Rev. Jean Jeffress as they wrestle with Romans 13:8-14. Paul is beginning to finalize his argument to the Roman Jesus-followers. He needs them to understand that what the love of Christ Jesus offers is belonging. And he really, really wants God's people to act like it. https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/
Duration:00:24:32
TWIR 7.2.23 #WrestlingWithRomans: Grounded Grace
9/7/2023
What does grace mean? What does grace mean for white Christians hoping to resist white supremacy? Rev. Margaret Ernst wrestles with Romans 6:12-23 to help us get a view of grace as grounded in Paul's Jewish understandings of God's love, and as the gift of being invited to take action for liberation. Note: This episode for Pentecost 5A was posted late into the series. Sometimes wrestling takes longer than we think it will. Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/
Duration:00:29:03
TWIR 9.3.2023 #WrestlingWithRomans: We Are Building Up a New World
9/1/2023
This new reality Paul’s been sharing with us - about everyone being included in a mighty tree as one beloved community - seems a long way off, doesn’t it? Join Rev. Liz Kearny as she asks, “How do we get from here to there?” We can imagine that Paul’s Gentile audience in Rome is asking the very same question. In response, Paul gives the church in Rome - and all of us - daily practices and ways of being that disrupt empire and help us build up a new world. Note: The opening and closing grounding moments in this episode use the words of Silvia Federici, quoted in an Instagram post from Chiara Francesca (linked in the transcript). Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/
Duration:00:34:59
TWIR 8.27.23 #WrestlingWithRomans: Radical Tenderness
8/25/2023
What is Paul saying about what it means to be a people of transformation? Join Brigitta Vieyra in an exploration of how radical tenderness is a liberatory spiritual disposition of interdependence. Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/
Duration:00:26:36
TWIR 8.20.23 #WrestlingWithRomans: Trees and Mysteries
8/18/2023
All means all. Join Rev. Anne Dunlap as she sorts through trees and branches and calluses and grafts in Romans 11 to discover that what Paul really does mean is: All. Means. All. Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/
Duration:00:38:38
TWIR 8.13.23 #WrestlingWithRomans: A Better Proclamation
8/10/2023
What is the good news that Paul longs for his beloveds to tell each other again and again, in the midst of Rome’s lies? Join Rev. Liz Kearny in unlearning what the empire’s religion has taught us about “confessing with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believing in your heart that God raised him from the dead,” and find out what Paul says will actually save us. ***Content warning: Mention of suicide*** Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/
Duration:00:33:57
TWIR 8.6.23 #WrestlingWithRomans: The Anguish of a Love Song
8/5/2023
What does Paul actually think about his own Jewish people? Does the love song he sings in Romans 9: 1-5 offer us some clues? (Hint: it is a love song, after all). Join Rev. Anne Dunlap for this episode that definitely required some wrestling with so many layers and burdens of interpretation that she needed multiple metaphors to find a way through. Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/
Duration:00:44:36
TWIR 7.30.23 #WrestlingWithRomans: Finding "Us" for Collective Liberation (doubleposting)
7/28/2023
(So good we accidentally posted it twice!) Who do we imagine when we read "us" in the book of Romans? When is "us" just a substitute for dominant and normalized? When is "us" collective liberation? Sharon Fennema explores these questions in starts and stops as she wonders what it means for God to be "for us" as white Christians with access to privilege and dominant culture Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/
Duration:00:22:57
TWIR 7.30.23 #WrestlingWithRomans: Finding "Us" for Collective Liberation
7/26/2023
Who do we imagine when we read "us" in the book of Romans? When is "us" just a substitute for dominant and normalized? When is "us" collective liberation? Sharon Fennema explores these questions in starts and stops as she wonders what it means for God to be "for us" as white Christians with access to privilege and dominant culture. Transcript available here: surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/
Duration:00:22:57