Melissa Florer- Bixler is the pastor of Raleigh Mennonite Church, and a graduate of Duke University and Princeton Theological Seminary. She spent time studying in Israel/Palestine, Kenya, and England. Much of her formation took place in the L'Arche community of Portland, OR. Now she prefers the Eno River and her garden in Raleigh, NC. She is the chair of L'Arche North Carolina and a steering committee member in broad-based organizing in her county. Melissa's writing has appeared in Christian Century, Sojourners, Geez, Anabaptist Witness, The Bias, Faith&Leadership, and Anabaptist Vision. From time to time she publishes academic writing. She and her spouse parent three children.
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Discover our global community on Twitter and Instagram @inversepodcast. Become a Patron of Inverse at https://www.patreon.com/InVerse With thanks to David Andrew (@davidjandrew) for the ongoing use of his music in this podcast.
Paul Harvey (Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, 1992) researches, writes, and teaches in the field of American history from the 16th century to the present. He is the author/editor of thirteen books and numerous articles, and the is Distinguished Professor of History and Presidential Teaching Scholar at the University of Colarado, Colarado Springs. Paul Harvey is the author of Howard Thurman and the Disinherited: A Religious Biography (Eerdmans Press, 2020), as well as Christianity and Race in the American South: A History (University of Chicago Press, 2016), and Bounds of Their Habitation: Religion and Race in American History (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017). Professor Harvey's recent co-authored book The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America, was named a "Top 25 Outstanding Academic Title" by Choice magazine in 2013, an award selected from among the several thousand academic books published in the previous year. Harvey's narrative history survey Through the Storm, Through the Night: A History of African American Christianity (Rowman & Littlefield publishers) was published in 2011, and also received the designation of "Outstanding Academic Title" by Choice Magazine, in 2012. Harvey is also co-editor of the reference work The Columbia Guide to Religion in American History Other publications of note include Redeeming the South: Religious Cultures and Racial Identities Among Southern Baptists, 1865-1925, published in 1997 by the University of North Carolina Press, and in 2005 Freedom's Coming: Religious Cultures and the Shaping of the South from the Civil War through the Civil Rights Era. Paul is also the co-editor (with Philip Goff) of Themes in Religion and American Culture (2004), and The Columbia Documentary History of Religion in North America ...
As you can hear from Drew and Jarrod’s excitement, they *loved* this episode. Dr. Reggie Williams is a legend. His book **“Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus: Harlem Renaissance Theology and an Ethic of Resistance”** is an award winning work reconsidering the shape of Dietrich Bonhoeffer resistance to the Nazi’s through the influence of his experience of the Black Church tradition in America. In short Dr. Reggie Williams makes clear Eric Metaxis full of skubala and you can’t understand Bonhoeffer without situating his witness as a wrestle with the Powers of white supremacy. ...
In this moment we need to hear from Pastor Sandra Van Opstal. Celebrity worship pastors using their social media to shut down people lifting up Amos. Other celebrity worship leaders lead revivals that provide the soundtrack for Trump-style white supremacy that risks more lives during a pandemic that has claimed the lives of 163,000 people in the U.S.A. already. All this to sing over the top of people protesting injustices, sometimes literally in the places people like George Floyd have been murdered, without the family’s permission or the communities consent. When we thought of people to speak into this reality, the incredible work, witness and writing of our friend Pastor Sandra Van Opstal came to mind. Sandra Van Opstal latest book is called “The Next Worship” and captures some of her international leadership to see the church embrace every tribe and tongue as we become a worshiping people pursuing justice. Pastor Sandra is a second-generation Latina and the co-founder and Executive Director of Chasing Justice and Executive Pastor for Grace and Peace Community. Sandra Van Opstal lives on the west-side of Chicago [USA] with her husband and two boys where she works as a liturgist, author, pastor and justice activist at the intersection of poverty, race and global mission. https://chasingjustice.com/about/ Featured on this episode: Pastor Sandra Van Opstal Drew Hart Jarrod McKenna ...
