Freedom Road Podcast

In this episode we are joined by the filmmaker of the new power-house documentary, True Believer, Kristen Irving. You might have noticed we’ve spoken with several filmmakers recently. All have released documentaries focused on White Christian Nationalism. They are all fabulous. But, folks, as Lisa mentioned, "True Believer hit me in a place I didn’t even know I had. As the credits rolled, I wept like a baby." True Believer is an intimate story of healing within and between a daughter and her mother, as they examine the impacts of their years inside a White Christian Nationalist church. #POWERFUL And in the interest of transparency, Lisa is in it. Such an honor. We’d love to hear your thoughts. Thread or Insta Lisa @lisasharper or to Freedom Road @freedomroad.us. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to freedomroad.substack.com. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think! www.threads.net/@lisasharper www.threads.net/@freedomroad.us freedomroad.substack.com https://truebelieverfilm.com/ IG: @truebelieverfilm FB: https://www.facebook.com/people/True-Believer-Film/61556623256360/ Purity Culture Resources Erica Smith: Site: https://www.ericasmitheac.com/ IG: @ericasmith.sex.ed Dr. Laura Anderson Site: https://drlauraeanderson.com/links IG: @drlauraeanderson Books: PURE Here's a list: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/158935.Unlearning_Purity_Culture

In this episode we are joined by theologian and author, Dr. Grace Ji-Sun Kim. Dr. Kim is Professor of Theology at Earlham School of Religion and the author or editor of 24 books, including: Surviving God, Spirit Life; Invisible; Hope in Disarray; Keeping Hope Alive and Reimagining Spirit. She is a co-editor for the Palgrave Macmillan Book Series, “Asian Christianity in the Diaspora” and she is the host of Madang podcast, which holds conversations on Christianity, religion and culture. Madang is hosted by Christian Century Magazine. Dr. Kim’s most recent book, When God Became White is already creating a stir and we’re here for it! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Thread or Insta Lisa @lisasharper or to Freedom Road @freedomroad.us. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to freedomroad.substack.com. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think! www.threads.net/@lisasharper www.threads.net/@freedomroad.us freedomroad.substack.com gracejisunkim.wordpress.com/ www.amazon.com/When-God-Became-White-Christianity-ebook/dp/B0CKYJ3PGH?ref_=ast_author_mpb

This episode comes to you in partnership with Inverse Podcast. The diverse InVerse podcast community explores how the Scriptures can turn the world upside down, or be weaponized to uphold the status quo. So, this episode we’re going to talk the “T” word—theology. Theology is simply how we understand God and our relationship with God. Christian social ethics teaches that our understanding of God forms the basis for everything we do in the world. It impacts everything. This will we be a very special deep dive into the theo-ethical questions rising in the context of the genocide in Gaza. We will talk with three leading Palestinian Christian theologians as they approach Good Friday and Easter Sunday in the context of genocide. Rev. Dr Mitri Raheb is Founder and President of Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem. The most widely published Palestinian theologian to date, Dr. Raheb is the author and editor of 50 books including: Decolonizing Palestine: The Land, The People, The Bible; In the Eye of the Storm: Middle Eastern Christians in an Age of Empire and Faith in the Face of Empire: The Bible through Palestinian Eyes—among many, many others. Rev. Dr. Muther Isaac is Pastor of the Christmas Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem and Dean of Bethlehem Bible College. Rev. Dr. Munther is the author of The Other Side of the Wall: A Palestinian Christian Narrative of Lament and Hope. Omar Haramy, is an Arab, Palestinian, Jerusalemite, Christian, and Greek Orthodox. Since 2017, Omar has served as the director of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center. Sabeel is a Palestinian ecumenical grassroots liberation theology movement that deepens the faith of Palestinian Christians, promotes unity among them, and guides them to engage for justice and peace. Omar also serves on the Kairos Palestine steering committee. Our Inverse Podcast cohost today will be Jarrod McKenna, a peace award winning Australian pastor and social change educator who has been described by American Civil Rights legend Rev. Jim Lawson as “an expert in nonviolent social change”. Jarrod is the Founding Director of “Common Grace” that represents over 65,000 Christians in Australia pursuing “Jesus and justice” and serves with Lisa as one of the co-founders of the global GazaCeasefirePilgrimage.com movement that is now found on every continent, including Antarctica, in over 150 cities around the world. We’d love to hear your thoughts. Thread or Insta Lisa @lisasharper or to Freedom Road @freedomroad.us. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to freedomroad.substack.com. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think! www.threads.net/@lisasharper www.threads.net/@freedomroad.us freedomroad.substack.com www.inversebible.org/podcasts www.gazaceasefirepilgrimage.com/

This episode comes to you in partnership with The Historic African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In the spirit of the Historic Black Church, which has begun to rise up and call for a ceasefire in Gaza, St. Thomas’s 17th rector, The Very Rev. Canon Martini Shaw and his team decided to focus the church’s Lenten season on understanding what’s going on in Gaza and why it matters for our faith. So, a portion of this episode has been listened to by the St. Thomas’s Community! Last episode we spoke with historian Dr. Rashid Khalidi to help us understand “What’s going on?” This episode we spoke with Lisa's friend and brother, Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac, Pastor of the Christmas Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem and Dean of Bethlehem Bible College. You may have seen the video of Dr. Isaac’s viral Christmas Eve sermon. If not, after listening to this conversation, the next thing you do must be to listen to that sermon. It as a theological plea to the global church to intervene in the ongoing genocide of Dr. Isaac’s people—the Palestinian people. Rev. Dr. Munther is the author of The Other Side of the Wall: A Palestinian Christian Narrative of Lament and Hope. We’d love to hear your thoughts. Thread or Insta Lisa @lisasharper or to Freedom Road @freedomroad.us. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to freedomroad.substack.com. And keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think! www.threads.net/@lisasharper www.threads.net/@freedomroad.us freedomroad.substack.com www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md_hw_A-oIs www.ivpress.com/the-other-side-of-the-wall www.aecst.org/

This special episode comes to you in partnership The Historic African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas. In the spirit of the Black Church, which has begun to rise up and call for a ceasefire in Gaza, St. Thomas’s 17th rector, The Very Rev. Canon Martini Shaw and his team decided to focus the church’s Lenten season on understanding what’s going on in Gaza. So, a portion of this episode has been listened to by the parishioners of Historic African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas Church! When considering who should help us understand “What’s going on?” there couldn't be anyone better than the author of The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine, Palestinian historian Dr. Rashid Khalidi (Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University in NYC). Dr. Khalidi is the author of eight books, in addition to The Hundred Years’ War, including: Palestinian Identity, Brokers of Deceit, and The Iron Cage. We’d love to hear your thoughts. Thread or Insta Lisa @lisasharper or to Freedom Road @freedomroad.us. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to freedomroad.substack.com. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think! www.threads.net/@lisasharper www.threads.net/@freedomroad.us freedomroad.substack.com www.aecst.org us.macmillan.com/books/9781627798556/thehundredyearswaronpalestine history.columbia.edu/person/khalidi-rashid/

In this critical election year where the most dedicated base for the GOP candidate is a rising tide of White Christian Nationalism within the evangelical community, we must take the time to understand it. So, we invited the producer/director of God & Country, Dan Partland, to join us in conversation. Based on the book, The Power Worshipers by Katherine Stewart, God & Country focuses in on the inner-workings of the White Christian Nationalism Movement, the decision-makers and the funders. We’d love to hear your thoughts. Thread or Insta Lisa @lisasharper or to Freedom Road @freedomroad.us. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to freedomroad.substack.com. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think! www.threads.net/@lisasharper www.threads.net/@freedomroad.us freedomroad.substack.com godandcountrythemovie.com/ godandcountrythemovie.com/filmmakers/

This episode we are joined by the filmmakers of the newly released and riveting documentary, “Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism’s Unholy War on Democracy.” Director Stephen Ujlaki has produced more than 25 feature films, made-for-television movies and documentaries, and served as dean of the Loyola Marymount University School of Film and Television. With 10 years of directing and producing experience in Hollywood, Chris Jones, co-directed the film. “Bad Faith” offers us all an incredible lesson in the roots and fruits of Christian Nationalism in the U.S. The film follows two streams of Evangelicalism: One rooted in the thick faith that fueled the abolitionist, suffrage, civil rights, and environmental justice movements, and the other rooted in the racialized weaponization of thin fundamentalist faith. “Bad Faith” follows these two streams as they vie for the soul of American Democracy. We’d love to hear your thoughts. Thread or Insta Lisa @lisasharper or to Freedom Road @freedomroad.us. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to freedomroad.substack.com. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think! www.threads.net/@lisasharper www.threads.net/@freedomroad.us freedomroad.substack.com www.documentary.org/project/bad_faith_cnwod

This episode we have part of Lisa Sharon Harper's posse on the show! Rev. Dr. Waltrina Middleton, Dr. Claudia Owens Shields and Corey Nathan are all partners with our work on Freedom Road. Waltrina is the executive director of Community Renewal Society and a senior consultant with Freedom Road, specializing in Spiritual Formation. Claudia is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in multi-ethnic psychology, formerly tenured professor at the Chicago School of Psychology. Claudia also serves as a senior consultant with Freedom Road. And, finally, Corey Nathan is the celebrated host of the Talkin' Politics and Religion without Killin' Each Other podcast. He doubles as the engineer and producer of the Freedom Road Podcast. These friends were invited to join Lisa to help us reflect on 2023. We’d love to hear your thoughts. Thread or Insta Lisa @lisasharper or to Freedom Road @freedomroad.us. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to freedomroad.substack.com. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think! www.threads.net/@lisasharper www.threads.net/@freedomroad.us freedomroad.substack.com waltrina.org/ freedomroad.us/who-we-are/dr-claudia-owens-shields-ph-d/ www.politicsandreligion.us/

This episode we are joined by Rabbi Sharon Brous. In 2013 Rabbi Brous was listed as America’s #1 most influential Rabbi. Her 2016 TED Talk “It’s Time to Reclaim Religion” has been viewed 1.5 million times and is utterly inspiring. At 30 years old, Rabbi Brous founded IKAR back in 2004. IKAR is a spiritual community in Los Angeles that has become a magnet for LA’s unaffiliated Jews. Rabbi Brous has joined us on Freedom Road Podcast before when she and T’ruah president, Rabbi Jill Jacobs, helped us to understand Anti-Semitism. Rabbi Brous was invited to join us on Freedom Road because her new book, The Amen Effect: Ancient Wisdom to Mend our Broken Hearts and World, has something to offer as we step into what is projected to be one of the most tumultuous election years in American history. Rabbi Brous is also a personal friend of Lisa's and watching her sermon at IKAR online was heart breaking and helped in terms of connecting with the pain reverberating through the Jewish community after October 7. Rabbi Brous has wrestled with the tensions of Zionism and confronted the slaughter of Palestinian people happening in Gaza and the West Bank with clear-headed honesty. Let's hear her wisdom concerning the future of Israel/Palestine. We’d love to hear your thoughts. Thread or Insta Lisa @lisasharper or to Freedom Road @freedomroad.us. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to freedomroad.substack.com. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think! www.threads.net/@lisasharper www.threads.net/@freedomroad.us freedomroad.substack.com ikar.org/team/rabbi-sharon-brous/ www.ted.com/talks/sharon_brous_it_s_time_to_reclaim_religion?language=az ikar.org/ www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/720048/the-amen-effect-by-sharon-brous/

On this episode we are joined by Dr. Mitri Raheb, Founder and President of Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem. The most widely published Palestinian theologian to date, Dr. Raheb is the author and editor of 50 books including: Decolonizing Palestine: The Land, The People, The Bible; In the Eye of the Storm: Middle Eastern Christians in an Age of Empire and Faith in the Face of Empire: The Bible through Palestinian Eyes—among many, many others. Dr. Raheb was invited to speak with us from Bethlehem, because the world has watched the death toll of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank multiply. We have watched as the government of Israel has committed acts that three separate Palestinian human rights orgs and the United Nations have all called “genocide and incitement to commit genocide.” The world is praying for the return of the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas. We are praying for a ceasefire. And we are praying for the full freedom and flourishing of the Palestinian people to come. In that context, the Christian church stands poised to enter the season of Advent—a time when Christians remember the birth story of the brown, colonized Palestinian Jew from the West Bank, named Jesus. Dr. Mitri Raheb is with us today to bring us a word—from Bethlehem. We’d love to hear your thoughts. Thread or Insta Lisa @lisasharper or to Freedom Road @freedomroad.us. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to freedomroad.substack.com. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think! www.threads.net/@lisasharper www.threads.net/@freedomroad.us freedomroad.substack.com www.mitriraheb.org www.mitriraheb.org/en/pdf-list/publications

This month we are joined by one of the foremost Christian ethicists in the world, Dr. David Gushee, Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University, and Chair of Christian Social Ethics at Vrije Universiteit (“Free University”) Amsterdam, and Senior Research Fellow, International Baptist Theological Study Centre and he is the author of several books, most recently, Defending Democracy from its Christian Enemies. Dr. Gushee was invited to speak with us because, well—we need his wisdom and expertise right now. Not only is the Christian church a consistent foe of democracy in an age when democracy is at risk around the world and here at home—but also to hear his thoughts on the Israel-Hamas conflict. We’d love to hear your thoughts. Thread or Insta Lisa @lisasharper or to Freedom Road @freedomroad.us. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to freedomroad.substack.com. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think! www.threads.net/@lisasharper www.threads.net/@freedomroad.us freedomroad.substack.com www.davidpgushee.com www.davidpgushee.com/book/defending-democracy-from-its-christian-enemies

This month we are joined by Robert P Jones, President and Founder of Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and the New York Times Best Selling author of several books, including: The End of White Christian America and White Too Long. Most recently, you might have heard the hubbub about his latest book,The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future. We invited Robby to speak with us today, because Robert’s work with PRRI, coupled with his outstanding work as an historian and the homework he has done as a southern white man has the power to help understand our current moment and point the way forward toward the Beloved Community. We’d love to hear your thoughts. Thread or Insta Lisa @lisasharper or to Freedom Road @freedomroad.us. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to freedomroad.substack.com. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think! www.threads.net/@lisasharper www.threads.net/@freedomroad.us freedomroad.substack.com/ www.prri.org/staff/robert-p-jones-ph-d www.prri.org www.amazon.com/Hidden-Roots-White-Supremacy-American/dp/166800951X/

This episode we are joined by Britney Whaley, South East Regional Director of the Working Families Party. There’s a lot to unpack, just when we mention the Working Families Party and we will get there. But the reason Britney was invited to join us is because she is a core organizer in the struggle to stop Cop City in Atlanta, GA. We need to understand what is happening in Atlanta and its implications for the world we are building for the next generations. We’d love to hear your thoughts. Thread or Insta Lisa @lisasharper or to Freedom Road @freedomroad.us. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to freedomroad.substack.com. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think! www.threads.net/@lisasharper www.threads.net/@freedomroad.us freedomroad.substack.com/ workingfamilies.org www.copcityvote.com and @copcityvote on social

On this episode we are joined by Tamice Spencer-Helms, author of Faith Unleavened: The Wilderness Between Trayvon Martin and George Floyd and founder of Sub:Culture Incorporated, a nonprofit that provides holistic support and crisis relief for Black College Students. We invited Tamice to speak with us about internalized oppression – the oppression of the self over the self. How to see that its present? How to acknowledge it? And How to break free? We’d love to hear your thoughts. Thread or Insta Lisa @lisasharper or to Freedom Road @freedomroad.us. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to freedomroad.substack.com. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think! www.threads.net/@lisasharper www.threads.net/@freedomroad.us freedomroad.substack.com/ www.faithunleavened.com www.subcultureinc.org

On this episode, we are joined by Dr. Claire Nelson, Futurist, Sustainability Engineer, Social Entrepreneur, Storyteller, the Founding President of the Institute of Caribbean Studies, and the chief ideation leader of the Futures Forum. We invited Dr. Nelson to speak with us because as we consider the question of Repair, it helps us to broaden our view to consider what it will take to grow Black voices in a just society. We’d love to hear your thoughts. Thread or Insta Lisa @lisasharper or to Freedom Road @freedomroad.us. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to freedomroad.substack.com. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think! www.threads.net/@lisasharper www.threads.net/@freedomroad.us freedomroad.substack.com/ icsdc.org/founder___president icsdc.org/home

On this episode, we are joined by Dr. Chanequa Walker-Barnes, theologian, psychologist, and author of Too Heavy a Yoke, Black Women and the Burden of Strength, and her newest work, a 49-day devotional titled, Sacred Self-Care: Daily Practices for Nurturing Our Whole Selves. We invited Dr. Walker-Barnes to speak with us, because folk are tired for multiple reasons. The gig economy has folks working 2-3 jobs while climate change has folks running from forest fires while dodging tornadoes, trying to breath when you take your dog for a walk, and trying to survive record-breaking heat. And people of color, women, the LGBTQIA+ community and Transwomen in particular, are increasingly having to survive legislated attacks against our personhood. We’d love to hear your thoughts. Thread or Insta Lisa @lisasharper or to Freedom Road @freedomroad.us. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to freedomroad.substack.com. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think! ***FLY will be streamable everywhere on September 22, 2023. www.threads.net/@lisasharper www.threads.net/@freedomroad.us freedomroad.substack.com/ www.drchanequa.com www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/22647232 www.goodreads.com/book/show/125156825-sacred-self-care?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_64

On this episode we are joined by Rev. Dr. Michael Nabors, Senior Pastor of the Historic Second Baptist Church of Evanston, IL. Recently, Second Baptist Church has become a leading faith center in America in facilitating Race Talk Solidarity Circles in local communities. Since 2019, Dr. Nabors has been part of the Steering Committee for Evanston Reparations, the first municipal reparations program in the United States, allocating 10 million dollars to Black Evanstonians to repair historical damages due to racism. We invited Rev. Dr. Nabors to speak with us because the bulk of truth-telling and reparations work happening in the U.S. today is taking place on a local level. Dr. Nabors is doing that work. We need to know how his community is doing it, so that we can begin to engage the process in our own communities. We’d love to hear your thoughts. Thread or Insta Lisa @lisasharper or to Freedom Road @freedomroad.us. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to freedomroad.substack.com. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think! www.threads.net/@lisasharper www.threads.net/@freedomroad.us freedomroad.substack.com/ www.secondbaptistevanston.org/pastor www.cityofevanston.org/government/city-council/reparations

On this episode we are joined by Dr. Terence Lester, PhD, author of several books, including his most recent, All God’s Children: How Confronting Buried History Can Build Racial Solidarity. We invited Terence to speak with us because his book, All God’s Children offers practical advice for the next generations of faith communities that understand in order to move forward, they have to look back. We’d love to hear your thoughts. Thread or Insta Lisa @lisasharper or to Freedom Road @freedomroad.us. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to freedomroad.substack.com. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think! www.threads.net/@lisasharper www.threads.net/@freedomroad.us freedomroad.substack.com/ www.mahoganybooks.com/9781514005958

On this episode we are joined by John Blake, award winning journalist at CNN and author of the celebrated book, More Than I Imagined: What A Black Man Discovered About The White Mother He Never Knew. We invited John to speak with us because – HIS STORY. OMG. And the way he tells it. OMG. You must know about it and you must read it. We’d love to hear your thoughts. Thread or Insta Lisa @lisasharper or to Freedom Road @freedomroad.us. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to freedomroad.substack.com. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think! www.threads.net/@lisasharper www.threads.net/@freedomroad.us freedomroad.substack.com/ www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/706045/more-than-i-imagined-by-john-blake/

On this episode we are joined by Andre Henry, author of All the White Friends I Couldn’t Keep, cohost of the Hope and Hard Pills Podcast, local LA-based activist and singer/songwriter/producer. His work has been featured in The Nation, The New Yorker, New York’s Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., and Super Bowl LVI.! Andre was invited to speak with us because he understands joy! And he understands the power of the arts to bring hope and vision and health—and we need some of that. So, in these summer months, amid historic indictments, historic environmental hazards, political targeting of everyone who isn’t a white male... We’d love to hear your thoughts. Tweet to Lisa @LisaSHarper or to Freedom Road @FREEDOMROADUS. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to The Truth Is... and Freedom Road. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think! twitter.com/lisasharper twitter.com/FreedomRoadus lisasharonharper.substack.com/ freedomroad.substack.com/ hope-hard-pills.simplecast.com/ www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/673889/all-the-white-friends-i-couldnt-keep-by-andre-henry/ American Psychological Association Study: Racial discrimination and telomere shortening among African Americans: The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study - psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fhea0000832