New Podcast - Love Your Neighbor

The podcast Love Your Neighbor is now up and running! The first two episodes are released, so check them out. Here are links to Apple and Spotify, and it’s available on other podcast platforms too.

The first episode lays out the hopes of the podcast, giving listeners a sense of what to expect. Most episodes I’ll be interviewing others, but this first one orients us by showing how healthy Christian politics can begin in our congregations and neighborhoods. The podcast is a continuation of my book The Good News of Church Politics, expanding the conversation to include more voices.

I especially want to highlight the second episode, in which I interview Dr. Lerone Martin of Stanford University. He runs their Martin Luther King, Jr. Institute. Dr. Martin shares how Dr. King’s wisdom can inform local congregational action today.

Dr. Martin first talks about how, if we’re seeking a society that reflects love and justice, the tactics we use in public should be moral and just. There isn’t a shortcut in the public square that uses immoral action for moral gain. Here’s a short clip of what he says:

What we see unfortunately playing out too many times today is just the will to power, to win. And the morality and ethics and values of the Christian faith get lost along the way, supposedly in pursuit of a more Christian society.  But King would advise us that you're not going to get there using that roadmap. Violence is only going to beget more violence. So using violence to try to achieve a quote unquote moral or just end is not going to get you there.

Dr. Martin goes on share how Dr. King’s Letter from Birmingham City Jail provides a roadmap for pastors and congregations engaging public life in their neighborhoods. King encourages us to collect the facts, then negotiate with people who have the power to change the situation; then we go through a process of spiritual self-purification. After these things, we engage in direct action. Central for Dr. King was seeing public engagement as a spiritual practice. Here’s Dr. Lerone Martin again:

Part of what you're doing during direct action is that you are engaging in spiritual practice. You're not being violent; you're not calling people names; you aren't engaging in a kind of will to power. You are trying to show your spiritual practices and put them on display, to say that this is what our faith leads us to do and we are going to embody the kind of peace and morality that we hope to see in the community.  For Christians who are thinking about engaging locally, it's especially important for people who aren't of the faith, for people who only think of Christian activism as being engaged in immoral, duplicitous violent behavior under the guise of the cross. It's really important for nonbelievers to see Christians engaging in such [spiritual practice]; it’s a witness.

So check out the podcast and share it with others who would be interested! Stay tuned for future episodes; we have some fascinating guests coming on the show talking about local congregations working in affordable housing, hunger, and more.

Finally, the work of putting a podcast together takes many hands. I so appreciate everyone who helped make it happen! VTS student Eric Bailey has been invaluable in producing the show and organizing so many details. Eric Schnobrick recorded the intro and outro music with me and did a terrific job mixing the tracks (dig his amped up Wurlitzer organ and upright bass!). VTS has been very supportive of this project, especially the communications team of Nicky Burridge, Kimberly Richardson, and Natthaphon Foithong, including Natthaphon’s excellent cover design of the podcast. Shiori Zinnen helped get the podcast launched and worked out a few kinks. The podcast wouldn’t have come to be without the insights and wisdom John Hwang, whose loss we still grieve. Funding to launch the podcast came from the Conant Fund of the Episcopal Church.

See you next time,

Ross

https://rosskane.com/loveyourneighbor