Podcast
The Search for Living Prophets
Hosted by Marc Maxmeister · EN
A series for activists who want to work for change in a spiritually grounded, healing-transformative way. Inspired by sermons from Christian leaders, universalist ministers, mennonites, UMC, and other liberal religious voices.
65episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
#54: A Community Stand – that it might bend through our faithful living
Aug 5, 2019Tap to summarizeThe Rev. Sophia Betancourt talks about her immigrant heritage and the struggle to live in ways – at risk to herself – that help others. What will you give up for our collective salvation? How does a community stand for justice? How does the “moral arc of the universe” bend towards justice? She shares answers to how we can “dangle from that arc,” that our lives might add weight and bend it through faithful living.
Transcribe →#53: The Tolerance Spectrum
Jun 9, 2019Tap to summarizeTolerance is the cornerstone of a pluralistic society. So it should surprise us that many religious leaders from the conservative to the liberal end of the spectrum preach against tolerance. Both sides oppose tolerance — for a “society gone wrong” and tolerance for intolerance. What matters is how our different understandings of who is harmed by tolerance shapes our views. Ultimately, there are ways to know which kind of tolerance we should support. Listen to some viewpoints on tolerance.
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Chasm at the border (#52)
Apr 5, 2019Tap to summarizeIn this episode I share stories of activists walking the border and telling stories of the people who cross into the US. Then I launch into a deeper dive on understanding the politics of the Southern border wall through a spiritual lens: The Gospel of Prosperity is the underpinning of Conservative ideas, and on the Left, Liberation Theology is its core morality.
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#51: Transformation
Oct 31, 2018Tap to summarizeElections don’t unite, they divide. Here are seven reasons why we must prepare ourselves to be transformers – and role models of understanding – in the face of conflict. When elections end, the hard work begins to heal and unite the divided, angry, bewildered peoples of our world. Speakers: Rev Justin Osterman, Rev Rob Hardies, Rev Lavanhar, Rev Deneice Mason, Father Leo Booth, Martin Luther King Jr, Rev Barber Listen
Transcribe →my father’s identity
Oct 10, 2018Tap to summarizeHow much does our identity, and not our values, define our politics? In episode 50, I share my own journey to understand my father – a kind and generous person who vents anger on twitter – through the lens of identity politics. Meg Barnhouse explains the divided camps of “radicals” and “respectables” behind all social change movements, and I wrestle with the choice we must each make between trying to replace or transform those with whom we disagree. Listen
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Jesus for the outcasts
Aug 30, 2018Tap to summarizeWhat did it mean to be a woman in the time of Jesus? A child? a tax collector? A foreigner? Deniece Mason shares three stories about Jesus bringing dignity to outcasts. Their meanings change when read in the original Greek, and when viewed in the context of the times and when looking at what stories they followed in the Gospel of Luke. Listen to Episode 49
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Be proximate to suffering
Aug 20, 2018Tap to summarizeBryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), shares three life lessons from his time as a lawyer just starting to work with death row inmates – many of whom were later found innocent and exonerated. (Listen – sound quality isn’t great)
Transcribe →Empowerment or empirement?
Jul 30, 2018Tap to summarizeThis time: Stories about the false promise of empowerment, and how the attitudes of colonialism, imperialism, and empire continue to affect our efforts at creating a more perfect world. The final mini sermon explains how this can be traced back to the moment the purpose of Christianity was twisted by the Roman Empire that adopted it as the state religion long ago. Episode 47
Transcribe →Listening to gender and identity
Jul 13, 2018Tap to summarizeMeg Barnhouse tells stories about gender and its ambiguities, about raising children that are not pidgeonholed, and helps us become better listeners when others are expressing their true identity. (Episode 46)
Transcribe →Of mustard seeds and children in cages
Jul 6, 2018Tap to summarize Christ Church (Anglican) Cathedral in Indianapolis, IN decided to cage the holy family in chainlink on their front lawn to prove a point about immigrants and refugees, and remind us about the Gospel message. This is the sermon that accompanied that protest.
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