The Jim Wallis Podcast

Jim Wallis is the Inaugural Chair of Faith and Justice at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy and Founding Director of the university’s new Center on Faith and Justice.As part of our work at the Center on Faith and Justice, we are happy to share that The Soul of the Nation podcast will be returning to full production. In our new season Democracy in Peril–launching Wednesday April 20, 2022 – we will examine the efforts playing out at the state, local, and federal levels of our government to thwart the will of the people and chip away at the democratic foundations of the country. This campaign has created a test of moral conscience and faith. You will hear conversations with people who are working tirelessly to support the voting rights of all people; to counter the despotic efforts of aspiring autocrats and the minority of Americans who support them; andto expose and challenge the ideology and false religion of white Christian nationalism that is at the root of this crisis. Faith and Justice are the twin pillars that support and sustain advocacy for marginalized communities and for the moral dimensions of civic spirituality. Through honest debate and careful discernment, we hope to provide you with the tools needed to join us in our efforts to raise our nation to its lofty – but yet unrealized – ideals of Justice, freedom, and liberty for all. We are seeking your support to help spread the message of The Soul of the Nation and invite your communities to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast…..Blessings to you for The Soul of the Nation.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this very special repeat episode of The Soul of the Nation, Roman Catholic sister, author, and social justice advocate, Helen Prejean speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis about the executions of federal death row inmates by the Trump administration. Sister Prejean shares how she became one of the pioneering leaders in the movement to abolish the death penalty. She tells her 30-year journey and how she keeps faith and hope after witnessing countless death penalty executions."The hope is in the people," Sister Prejean says. "I have to say, getting out of that execution chamber that night in the dark I remember thinking very clearly, the American people are good people. They're buying into this only because they don't know what's going on."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this very special episode of The Soul of the Nation, Rev. Jim Wallis revisits his conversation with Most Rev. Michael Curry, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. They discuss our current political and moral crisis, whose antecedents are even longer than the very history of our country itself. Wallis and Curry share King's vision of a beloved community and a multi-racial democracy, while charting the path to redemption and reconciliation in the wake of the violent insurrection at the U. S. Capitol.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this very special episode of The Soul of the Nation, Rev. Jim Wallis revisits his conversation with Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institute of Health, during this critical time of the Delta Variant of the coronavirus.Rev. Wallis and Dr. Collins break down the current state of our country with COVID-19 and how the faith community can help with vaccine distribution and messaging. Dr. Francis Collins shares his journey of religion and science, and how he's found his harmony between the two."It's heartbreaking. Most people I don't think associate themselves with those extremes but they haven't necessarily found a lot of opportunities to discover the harmony. And one of my small goals here since I began writing about this was to try to put out there that this is an unnecessary conflict. In most polls to Americans [asking]do science and faith have anything in common? Can they get along? You'll encounter a lot of skepticism, which is hurting us as individuals, as families, as communities, and as a country."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this special edition of The Soul of the Nation, Rev Jim Wallis revisits his conversation with Heather McGheeAuthor of the New York Times bestselling book, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together, Heather McGhee speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis on the impacts racism has on our economy, changing the narrative, she says, goes hand in hand with comprehensive policy."There's this sense of stinginess, miserliness that nothing about our people are worth investing in unless they're already rich," McGhee says. "And that belief right and a hierarchy of human value is so racialized."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this very special episode of Soul of the Nation, Rev. Jim Wallis talks with ice cream entrepreneur and social justice advocate Ben Cohen (of Ben and Jerry's) about ending the systemic violence committed by police across the United States against communities of color.   Cohen advocates for the end of qualified immunity for police and the demilitarization of police forces across the country. “We, the taxpayers, are paying these police departments to hire consultants that come in--former military--that do these seminars with police called ‘warrior training,’” says Cohen. “And in that training, the police are encouraged to see the people they're policing as the enemy, and they're encouraged to be able to kill.”See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

uthor of Without Oars: Casting Off into a Life of Pilgrimage, Wesley Granberg-Michaelson shares his reflections on recent violence in Israel and Palestine with Rev. Jim Wallis. Granberg-Michaelson offers insight to help open the eyes for people of faith."Do we see the people that are involved at the most grassroots level.? Do we get beyond all the politics and actually see the people?" Granberg-Michaelson further explains, "For Americans, and for U.S. Christians, we have to be honest and say, in this conflict it is the Palestine people who so often we have not seen.”See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Vice President of AACC and author, Michelle Reyes speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis about her new book, Becoming All Things: How Small Changes Lead To Lasting Connections Across Cultures. Reyes discusses the Christian community and the uprise of targeted hate crimes against the AAPI community in America."The Asian community has been targets of systemic racism, from exclusion of immigration of the United States, to lynching, to killing, to stealing our wealth, to being sexualized and fetishized, and so much more." Reyes further explains, not just the 3,800 hate incidents that were reported, but all the other incidents that for which [the] Asian community have never been given permission, where we felt safe to articulate our pain."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Author, Chuck Collins speaks to Rev. Jim Wallis about his latest book, The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions. Collins sheds light on the architecture of wealth inequality and the spiritual consequences of hoarding wealth."Privilege is a disconnection drug, it keeps you apart from people. Wealth and privilege can create a boundary or a wall around your life and the antidote is connection."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hyepin Im, the founder and president of Faith and Community Empowerment, talks with Rev. Jim Wallis her experience as a Korean American woman of faith in the U.S. Hyepin speaks about the long history of hate Asian Americans have endured, and how the pandemic has so gravely effected the Asian American community."When they talk about America, there's no picture of us, on TV, on stage, in the media; it leads to us always feeling like we don't have a say. We don't belong. And that has tremendous trauma," Hyepin says.  "For so long we've been told constantly that we are a foreigner, we don't belong. And so by not belonging then people can do things to us because we don't belong."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Award-winning author and preacher, Diana Butler Bass speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis about her latest book Freeing Jesus. Diana shares how her experience of Jesus has changed over the years and how the Christian that is she is today is much different than she was before.And according to Bass, many people are eager to experience Jesus in a new way. “I often hear people who tell me ‘Oh, I’m no longer a Christian.’ ‘I just can’t be a Christian anymore,’ ‘I just can’t do church any longer, it’s just so hypocritical,’” says Bass. “But they almost always say, as a follow up to that, but I still love Jesus and I still want to follow Jesus.”See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson, senior pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Mount Vernon, N.Y., and author of Witness to Grace: A Testimony of Favor, speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis about how to reject injustice and racial inequity. The greatest legacy of the African American struggle in these 400 years, is the determination of African American people to seek full inclusion in a society that has not been deterred, Richardson says, "not by the strange fruit on the trees, not by dogs biting, not by hose pouring in, not by even the rhetoric of a president of the United States in modern times."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) is a forceful, progressive voice in the United States Congress. Focusing on matters of social and economic justice, international relations, and human rights, Lee speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis on how she finds the strength to speak out even when standing alone."This is not about personal responsibilities for the enslavement of Africans, this is about our system of government," Lee says. "The United States of America had a legal system that enslaved Africans, which through the ages, through the generations manifested in so many ways that are so deadly. And we will never get to the healing phase of this democracy until we tell the truth."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jim Wallis, in conversation with William Matthews and Allison Trowbridge, explores the themes of Chapter Ten, “Salt and Light” from his new book Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together, Heather McGhee speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis on the impacts racism has on our economy, changing the narrative, she says, goes hand in hand with comprehensive policy."There's this sense of stinginess, miserliness that nothing about our people are worth investing in unless they're already rich," McGhee says. "And that belief right and a hierarchy of human value is so racialized."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jim Wallis, in conversation with William Matthews and Allison Trowbridge, explores the themes of Chapter Nine, “The Discipleship Question” from his new book Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jim Wallis, in conversation with William Matthews and Allison Trowbridge, explores the themes of Chapter Eight, “The Peacemaker Question” from his new book Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dr. Leana Wen is an emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University. Wen speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis about the current state of the pandemic in the United States and its public health implications. She shares what she is hopeful for and her major concerns with trust and vaccine distribution."Building trust is not going to happen over night," Wen says."We also, as the medical community, need to show that we are trustworthy. There are communities that have real historical reasons for distrusting the medical and scientific community."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jim Wallis, in conversation with William Matthews and Allison Trowbridge, explores the themes of Chapter Seven, “The Caesar Question” from his new book Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rev. Jim Wallis and the director of the National Institute of Health, Dr. Francis Collins break down the current state of our country with COVID-19 and how the faith community can help with vaccine distribution and messaging. Dr. Francis Collins shares his journey of religion and science, and how he's found his harmony between the two."It's heartbreaking. Most people I don't think associate themselves with those extremes but they haven't necessarily found a lot of opportunities to discover the harmony and one of my small goals here since I began writing about this was to try to put out there that this is an unnecessary conflict. In most polls to Americans, do science and faith have anything in common? Can they get along? You'll encounter a lot of skepticism, which is hurting us as individuals, as families, as communities, and as a country."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jim Wallis, in conversation with William Matthews and Allison Trowbridge, explores the themes of Chapter Six, “The Fear Question” from his new book Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jim Wallis, in conversation with William Matthews and Allison Trowbridge, explores the themes of Chapter Five, “The Power Question” from his new book Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jim Wallis, in conversation with William Matthews and Allison Trowbridge, explores the themes of Chapter Four, “The Truth Question” from his new book Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

im Wallis, in conversation with William Matthews and Allison Trowbridge, explores the themes of Chapter Three, “The Image Question” from his new book Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In honor of the life and legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Jim Wallis and Most Rev. Michael Curry, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, discuss our current political and moral crisis, whose antecedents are even longer than the very history of our country itself. Wallis and Curry share King's vision of a beloved community and a multi-racial democracy, while charting the path to redemption and reconciliation in the wake of the violent insurrection at the U. S. Capitol.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jim Wallis, in conversation with William Matthews and Allison Trowbridge, explores the themes of Chapter Two, “The Neighbor Question” from his new book Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus. book.sojo.netSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jim Wallis, in conversation with William Matthews and Allison Trowbridge, explores the themes of Chapter One, “What About Jesus?” from his new book Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Roman Catholic sister, author, and social justice advocate, Helen Prejean speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis about the recent and upcoming executions of federal death row inmates by the Trump administration. Sister Prejean shares how she became one of the pioneering leaders in the movement to abolish the death penalty. She tells her 30-year journey and how she keeps faith and hope after witnessing countless death penalty executions."The hope is in the people," Sister Prejean says. "I have to say, getting out of that execution chamber that night in the dark I remember thinking very clearly, the American people are good people. They're buying into this only because they don't know what's going on."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Reclaiming Jesus Now with Jim Wallis is a ten-episode podcast series on the themes of Jim Wallis’ new book, Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus. Wallis is joined by two voices from a rising generation of activists, William Matthews and Allison Trowbridge, who seek to reconcile their own spiritual journeys with the spiritual and political crises we face today.Jim Wallis’ new book, and the conversations in this podcast, are organized around eight urgent and provocative questions Jesus Christ asked or provoked while pursuing his call: The Neighbor QuestionThe Image QuestionThe Truth QuestionThe Power QuestionThe Fear QuestionThe Caesar QuestionThe Peacemaker QuestionThe Discipleship Question These questions confront all of us with an invitation and a choice. How will you respond?book.sojo.netSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rev. Jim Wallis speaks with Rev. Wes Granberg-Michaelson about his latest book, Without Oars: Casting Off Into a Life of Pilgrimage. Rev. Wes Granberg-Michaelson shares ways people of faith can embrace the journey through the unknown and the uncomfortable as a way of life. "We are so prone to planning and control, to wanting outcomes. But there are times when we have to step out without knowing and having any assurance of what the outcome will be and opening the space where we can ask the questions that we most need to ask. One of the questions I love and share is: Why are you who you are, where you are?" See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rev. Jim Wallis speaks with Rev. Brenda Salter McNeil about her latest book, Becoming Brave. McNeil shares how to find the courage to pursue racial justice now and her leadership in the church during the Black Lives Matter movement."This conversation is not a national conversation we're having, it's a global conversation," McNeil says. "And the whole world is watching and waiting to see if the church is going to come or not. And my prayer is that our answer is going to be a resounding, 'yes we're here. We cannot not come.'"See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rev. Jim Wallis speaks with president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition and co-lead pastor of The Gathering Place, Rev. Gabriel Salguero about the Latinx vote. Gabriel discusses where the evangelical Hispanic vote is going in this election and the mindset behind the Latino/Latina voter."I think that one of the things that I want to underscore is that faith is essential to Hispanic voters. It's not an addendum, it's not a footnote." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Politics in Washington, D.C., is often antithetical to the teachings of Jesus. Rev. Jim Wallis and Rev. Rob Schenk, the president of the Dietrich Bonhoffer Institute, discuss the spiritual cost of placing access to power above the gospel.Schenk recalled, "I was present sitting at a table when it happened in Cleveland, during the Republican National Convention. I was at the table and a colleague, a very well-known evangelical leader who had run for president himself, turned to me and said, 'Look, we'll plug our noses. We'll cast our vote for Donald Trump. And then we'll go and puke if we have to.' And that was the deal. It was a corruption of the soul. It would give us access and ability to manipulate the levers of power, but it would exact a huge price from us."  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rev. Jim Wallis speaks with the founder and director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University, John Carr. Rev. Jim Wallis and John Carr discuss human life and dignity, as well as Pope Francis's recent public statement supporting of same-sex civil unions. "When I was growing up, the test was whether you agreed with the pope, not whether the pope agreed with you," Carr says. "And I think we've got some people in our community who basically are looking for the pope to embrace their ideological agenda or their political preferences, and they're going to be disappointed no matter what party or ideology they champion."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this special SOTN episode, Rev. Jim Wallis joins Peter Eisner and Jonathan Winer, hosts of District Productive's Unconventional Threat, to discuss Lawyers and Collars, an initiative that seeks to ensure that everyone--including our most vulnerable citizens--is able to safely and effectively exercise their right to vote."Faith leaders have to put their moral authority on the line, and join with those who are willing to stand with them to protect the image of God in all of our citizens."To hear more episodes from the Unconventional Threat podcast click here: https://apple.co/3lE3AhzAnd follow the podcast on Twitter at @UncoThreatSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rev. Barbara Williams-Skinner, co-founder of Skinner Leadership Institute and Co-Convener of the National African American Clergy Network discusses with Rev. Jim Wallis ways to get involved and take action politically and spiritually for the upcoming election. Rev. Barbara Williams-Skinner shares how to protect your vote and ultimately the image of God."The Country is only as strong as it treats the most vulnerable citizens, right now we are a weaker country because we are robbing not just black and brown people but elderly people."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Paul Rieckhoff, Founder of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis about the current morale of the Armed Forces and how to support those who have served and those who are currently serving our country through policy advocacy and in our day-to-day interactions."I think that especially the younger generation, people think leadership is about having a million followers on Instagram or a corner office or a big paycheck or about power and it's really not. "See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rev. Jim Wallis speaks with Presiding Bishop Michael Curry of the Episcopal Church about God making a way for healing and love from the painful divisions of the coronavirus and white supremacy in our country."We need our leaders to be motivated by an unselfish sacrificial way of love that truly seeks the good and well-being of the American society," Curry says, "but not just the American society, but the global community."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this bonus episode, Rev. Jim Wallis speaks about how racism is the religious issue in this election. Rev. Wallis calls for unity and a need for healing as a nation as we continue to reel from the twin pandemics of the coronavirus and racial injustice. He states that racism must be a deal breaker for white Christians in this election. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis about voting rights ahead of one of the most important presidential elections in modern history.Clyburn says, "This is probably the most consequential election for African Americans and for civil rights and civil liberties since maybe the election of 1868. All elections are important, but all of them are not as consequential as others. ... It's often said that Thomas Jefferson wrote that 'The price of Liberty is eternal vigilance.' We have to remain vigilant. And I can think of no time in our history that that's more apropos than this time."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Activist and civil rights organizer Bree Newsome Bass speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis about the importance of removing symbols of hate and the need for racial reckoning."One of the things that is significant about the pandemic era, it has really shown how interconnected we are. Just the way that the pandemic spreads, the way that the lack of access to PPE in one community causes it to spread to other communities, shows that there really is no such thing as individuality. Past a certain extent, it's an entirely interconnected society. A pandemic has no inherent biases. It is just a virus that is in search of lungs. It impacts communities based on who has access to resources. And it's as simple as that."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dr. Nicole Baker Fulgham, founder and president of the Expectations Project and author of Educating All God's Children, speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis about what Christians can do to help improve public schools for kids in crisis, particularly amid COVID-19.  Baker Fulgham says, "Because the education disparities in our country are hundreds of years in the making and they are systemic, they follow closely along the lines of class and of course, race. There's a role for people of faith to be advocates on this issue. [We] are probably best known for our work on things like church school or synagogue, school mosque, school partnerships, you know, tutoring and backpack supplies, all of which are wonderful things. But because the problems are institutional and systemic, we can't tutor or backpack supply drive our way out of the fact that millions of kids are going to schools that are severely underfunded. Or that in many States, millions of families don't have access to high quality preschool."So let's tackle the policy and the systems change. We're going to get there faster. It's going to be a much deeper change. And that's what we believe people of faith are called to do with every system and definitely the public education systems." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Robert P. Jones, CEO and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute and the author of White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity, speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis about how white American Christianity and white supremacy collaborate throughout our nation's history. Jones says, "[Racism is] very, very deep in [white Christian] theology and it's going to take more than a couple of potlucks with the African American church down the street. It's going to take a serious reconsideration of evangelical theology top to bottom. I liken it to something like a bone marrow transplant. It's so deep that you basically have to kill the immune system and bring someone close to death in order to finally bring them to health. I think that's the situation we're in after hundreds of years of this being built into the very DNA of white Christian identity in this country."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dr. Eddie Glaude, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and chair of African American Studies at Princeton University and former president of the American Academy of Religion, speaks with Rev. Jim Wallis about the need for a profound change in America that he calls the "The Third Founding."Glaude says, "The third founding tries to disrupt this idea [of] who white Americans take themselves to be."We have to begin to build a society that will reflect the value of every individual, no matter their color, their zip code, who they love. So it's going to require policies that will ensure that the dignity of every human being is recognized by the state and by the community that undergirds the state. So it has everything to do with universal health care, has everything to do with the living wage. It has everything to do with a vibrant, robust public education system. It has something to do with a robust conception of the public good fortified by a public infrastructure of care."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How did white people justify racism for so long in this country? Heather McGhee, the co-chair of Color of Change, the country’s largest online racial justice organization, talks with Rev. Jim Wallis about the legacy of racism in the United States and the lies that allow America’s original sin to be perpetuated to this day. “The whitewashing and posthumous glorification of our society's agitators allows for contemporary people to pretend that they back in that time would have had a clear moral stance,” says McGhee. “And that, I think, is a temptation that allows people in the contemporary moment to justify their own ambiguity or hostility towards the agitators of today. So often in conversations with white people about Jim Crow and about slavery, they act as if, of course they would have been one of the good guys back then.... What is lost is how much the justifications for the status quo always evolve and change.”“There were reasons that good, upstanding, moral white people gave themselves and their children for why segregation made sense,” continues McGhee. “It was about crime. It was about poverty. It was about God's will. It was about the natural order of things. And when you focus on what the possible justifications could have been, as opposed to just saying, ‘old people in the past were evil,’ then you might start to recognize some of those same justifications for the status quo today.”See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rev. Jeffrey L. Brown serves as associate pastor of the historic Twelfth Baptist church in Boston, one of the oldest African American churches in the nation. Rev Brown is also one of the architects of the Boston Miracle, a proven successful methodology that is being replicated across the country and around the world to reduce gang violence.Rev. Brown spoke with Rev. Jim Wallis about his work to save young black lives. "If you have people straining to live under the weight of a system that seeks to constantly dehumanize, then it doesn't matter how much training the police will get," said Rev. Brown. "You will always have a city who will look at communities of color as less than the other parts of the city."Brown continues, "I committed myself to this work because Black lives matter. And I really believe it's biblical. Look at the Luke 15 parables. You had a sheep and one of them is lost. The shepherd went after the one, then the 99 could cry, 'Well, what about us? Don't we matter?' But they're not the one that's in danger. And so that life mattered and in that respect, we're living in an age where people are starting to understand if a Black life doesn't matter, then my life doesn't matter. If a Black life matters, then all of our lives matter."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Right Reverend Robert Wright, the 10th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, speaks with Rev. Wallis about the original sin of racism and how we need to find empathy through proximity."George Floyd, a man was publicly asphyxiated, violently asphyxiated for the entire world to see, not unlike the public asphyxiation that happened on Calvary. We see this and we've got to speak up. If the Bible says anything, it says that God and neighbor both are irreducible. That God and neighbor [are] synonymous. It's in some ways, not a black thing. And it's certainly not a white thing. It's a neighbor thing."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Civil rights advocate Cecilia Muñoz was an eyewitness to history as she helped shape the Obama administration's immigration reform policies, including the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program for the people many now refer to as "Dreamers."Muñoz tells Rev. Jim Wallis, "We have large numbers, 10 or 11 million undocumented people, [who] Congress has rendered deportable, but we're going to make choices about who we choose to remove. And, DACA recipients are an expression of the folks who should be the lowest priority ... We now know that legions of [Dreamers] are teachers and students and lawyers, and 29,000 of them are medical personnel on the front lines of this pandemic."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Third generation historian John Whittington Franklin discusses the history of African Americans with Rev. Jim Wallis. They discuss how Black history is integral to a larger American historical narrative. Franklin says, "As Americans, we all need to know each other's history, as well as our own. That's the only way we will be complete."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sikh American civil rights activist and lawyer Valarie Kaur talks with Rev. Jim Wallis about The Revolutionary Love Project.Kaur finds examples of revolutionary love across many faith traditions: "When we think about Jesus has called to love our neighbor as ourself; or Abraham's decision to open his tent to all; or Buddha to have compassion for all; or Mohammad's to take in the orphan; or Mirabai in the Hindu tradition to love without limit; when we love without limit, then it is revolutionary... then it becomes a force for interior and political and social and cultural and spiritual change."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.