My guest is Sunita Viswanath. She is a life-long organizer and activist, a founder of a nation-wide activist organization, and a Hindu. In New York City, you’ll always see Sunita in the demonstrations for immigration right’s, Black Lives Matter, & against climate change. And she is also a member of the Strategy Team for the Micah Institute (a multi-faith justice coalition). This year, she received the Micah Spirit award for her work in New York City. Much of her work is among the Hindu...

——————————————————– A month ago, I was in the San Francisco Bay Area for my sort-of-annual visit to the place where I lived for 37 years, to connect with lots of old friends. As usual, I attended the church where I had been a member for a long time before leaving for New York City, First Congregational Church of Oakland.  You may have seen an article about them in the Washington Post. My old congregation is, as we speak, going through the soul searching and preparation to wean themselves...

All Rights for All, Without Boarders Last week, the Trump administration launched what they call a “deterrents” program, on the Mexican board, of separating children from their families as they process hopeful immigrants attempting to enter the United States. The entire world was shocked that this brutality was happening. Hundreds of angry denunciations came from every corner of our culture. On Monday, June 18, 2018, (one week ago today) a large number of theologians and religious...

  It’s still pretty early in the year and all over the country we’re seeing mayors and governors (and even the president) deliver very official “State of” speeches that take a look at the accomplishments of the past year and spell out what the major tasks of the new year will be. Here in New York City, our mayor, Bill De Blasio, delivered his – progressive sounding – speech on February 13. Two days later, New York’s faith community, led by the Micah Institute, delivered it’s own take on the...

Have you ever felt that somehow you personally were responsible for repairing this crazy world we live it. That this world where kids are murdered in their school, where Nazis march around chanting hateful slogans, in this world where millions of refugees are refused help when they flee for their lives and the lives of their families, where armed representatives of the state are free to murder people of color whenever it pops into their mind to do that? What is your/my responsibility in those...

I hope that everyone has listened, at least once, to last week’s program with historian and author, Dr. Nancy MacLean on her very important book, DEMOCRACY IN CHAINS: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America (episode 101). It’s a very scary book about the real world and I think it opens up a view to Christians as to what our “job” is in these dangerous times. Seriously, if you haven’t heard the episode, please go back and listen to it now. Then, I invite you to return...

—————————————————— As you Lovers certainly know, this podcast is focused on the apparent crumbling of what we have called for the last few hundred years, The Church. Congregations are shrinking, the influence of churches is ebbing, and churches are being shut down. The church that I’m a part of is going through that process now. And many of the people who one might have expected to be the next generation of a thriving church are finished with organized religions (the NONES) or the Spiritual...

……. Russ talks with Tripp Fuller, host of Homebrewed Christianity, the podcast that started the whole progressive Christian podcast niche. His show is focused on real theology, and real theologians. What a way to celebrate the 100th episode of Love in a Dangerous Time? …….. Well, Lovers, we did it! This podcast has accomplished a huge milestone. This is the one hundredth episode. It’s amazing! Whooda Thunkit? Of course, it took a little over three years to do it, but we DID it!!! And to...

Interfaith Work in New York, with The Rev. Dr. Chloe Bryer Hey, Lovers – This is Russ and I want to welcome you to Love in a Dangerous Time, where we look at The Church, and the profound changes it’s going through in these Dangerous Times. We’ve got a great program today, but first I want to give you a heads up that the next episode of Love in a Dangerous Time will be number 100. This is a huge milestone for the show, for me personally, and for this really vital conversation that we are all...

…………………………… (Music sections have been re-edited) In the past many years, almost every recording artist has sung Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. It’s an extremely poetic look at the mess the world that resolves at the end into an affirmation of hope in spite of it all: …. And even though it all went wrong I’ll stand before the Lord of Song With nothing on my tongue but “Hallelujah” And that’s just the beginning. There’s Suzanne, So Long Maryanne, Bird On a Wire, Chelsea Hotel, Fa mous...

This show was supposedto be released on October 23, but my computer has been completely out of commission for three days, and here I am, publishing this very important program (and it really is an important one) a week late on October 30. My apologies to all who have been waiting for it. I do believe my tech is in order, and I’ll be back on schedule but….. you know.   TODAY’S EPISODE Speaking of joining God in Saving the World, today’s episode is a perfect example. We have all been...

When a Christian truly feels that God want her to do something in particular, like become a minister, start a homeless shelter, become a tutor, paint a mural on the church playground wall, or read the Bible cover-to-cover, we say that we are “Called.” The idea is that we want to help God recreate the world in the way that God has in mind by doing our part. It’s kind of like the draft, only a lot more wholesome. A serious Christian will be on the lookout for ways to do some kind of work that...

Our guests today are Rick Ufford-Chase, the author of Faithful Resistance: Gospel Visions for the Church in a Time of Empire (interviewed in episode 76 of  Love in a Dangerous Time) and Brian McLaren, most recently the author of The Great Spiritual Migration: How the World’s Largest Religion Is Seeking a Better Way to Be Christian (interviewed in episode 42, which was reprised in episode 72). Russ had a chance to bring them together, after months of scheduling and rescheduling, to talk about...

There’s a lot of church planting going on these days. And many of these plants are flourishing as alternative worshiping communities, made up of people who usually wouldn’t be caught dead in church. Kristen spoke with  the two leaders of this experiment. An unlikely partnership in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood, where development-fueled gentrification is driving out the Latinx residents, artists and other alternative folk who for years have given the neighborhood it’s character. In a time...

For the first time, Lovers, we have been invited onto another podcast. Our good friends, Charles Bretan and Chris Henson (the very Jew and Gentile who walked into that Bar …. Mitzvah) invited Kristin and me onto their podcast to have a rich and exploratory conversation about the biblical question: Is there a difference between your neighbor and the stranger, and how this applies to the huge immigration issues plaguing the world today. We had a great time discussing this serious topic, and we...

In 1985, Rev. Frank Dew planted a small Presbyterian church in Greensboro, NC called “New Creation” that focused on relationships, community, and social justice.  For over 30 years, this diverse group of people has come together to discuss the Scriptures, break bread, and share a meal together, much like the early Christians in Acts. This was one of the earliest manifestations of an “emerging church,” before anybody really knew what the “emerging church” was.  It was genuine, it was...

This episode has no agenda other than to talk through some of the big issues that arose this week with the emergence of organized and armed racists folk in Charlottesville, VA. Neo-Nazis, The Klan, The Alt-Right – lots of racists – lots of anti-semites – lots of anger – lots of weapons. It was a big eye-opener for many of us who look for a world where racism is a thing of thepast. Russ speaks with Nkosi Anderson, a Ph.D. candidate at Union Seminary, who is not only a brilliant scholar, but a...

This week, with the violence and terror that has descended on Charlottesville, VA, we are reminded of the importance of continuing the work of dismantling systemic oppression by effectively engaging systems of power through nonviolent forms of resistance wherever we are – whether we are marching in the streets or having a conversation with a family member, or a co-worker, or a stranger at the grocery store. Our guest today is Dr. Ruth D. Anderson, Director of a program based in Greensboro,...

For the past year or so, we’ve occasionally done an interview series called “Conversion(s)”, in which very active people of faith tell their stories about how they got there. The idea is that there are many moments of conversion in each of our lives, when we have “growth spurts’’ toward understanding and faith coupled with big changes in how we do the work that comes with these new levels of growth. Today’s guest is our new co-host, Kristen Leigh. Russ conducted an interview with Kristen...

How many times have you heard someone try to stand in the way of work to end poverty by saying, “The poor will always be with us”? It’s as if they are saying that God wants a certain percentage of us to be living in poverty. We have heard quite a bit of this in the last few months, over the Trump budget proposal, and the various versions of trump’s healthcare (or maybe we should call it “Wealthcare” proposals. Our guest today is the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis. Dr. Theoharis is the co-director of...

New co-host, Kristen Leigh & Jeff Clark, Wild Goose producer

On Easter Sunday of this year (2017) I arrived at Canticle Farm (www.canticlefarm.org), an urban food growing and spiritual center in Oakland, California. I was a little early for the service and I couldn’t find anybody. I had been told by my friend Daniel Schindleman-Schone, that they would have a meaningful, alternative service. I was visiting the San Francisco Bay Area, my 37-year home, and this sounded good to me. As I was standing on the front porch, knocking on the front door, a man in...

About a year ago, I interviewed Rabbi Steven Blane, mostly about his online Sabbath services every Friday night. Pretty interesting stuff. We mentioned that Steve is also a singer-songwriter, and has some albums out there. In the time since that interview, he’s come out with two new albums. Both fantastic. So this episode features the music of those albums and we talk about the music business, spirituality in music, and the arts scene.             Rabbi Steve’s website:...

Lots of us, both Black and white, who live in the north and the far west, actually believe that the gains of the civil rights movemen t actually did the deal, and that now we live in a country where racism is pretty much under control and that the situation is getting better every year. For about ten years now, New York Theological Seminary (NYTS) has lead a pilgrimage to the American South, to give northerners the experience of being in a racist zone, that’s not – while some important...