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Special Guest: David LaMotte

Something is off in the gut, and we can feel it. Sitting down live with songwriter and activist David LaMotte, we start with “splengnitzomai,” a Greek word for compassion that describes the bodily jolt of realizing the world is not as it should be. From that first question, we wrestle with a tension many of us carry: suffering is everywhere, injustice is real, and joy still has to be part of our spiritual vocabulary. David makes the case that joy is not denial, it’s endurance, and without it we quietly give up.

We move from the big picture into the painfully concrete as David reflects on visiting an ICE detention center and the deep harm of treating human beings as disposable. Then the conversation turns toward a surprising form of faithful resistance: creative nonviolence. David retells the real-life story behind "White Flour," when activists met a Klan rally with a clown rally, shifting the energy with humor instead of feeding hatred with more hatred. It’s a masterclass in “third way” action that neither runs away nor escalates.

Hope shows up with mud on its boots when we talk Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina. David shares stories of neighbors feeding strangers, sharing Wi‑Fi, clearing roads with chainsaws, and helping without asking who anyone voted for. We also dig into his song Look Away, written after George Floyd’s murder, and the hard but necessary difference between blame and responsibility when facing family history and public memory. If you’re searching for an honest faith-and-justice podcast conversation on compassion, immigration, community resilience, Christian nationalism, and what it means to join a movement instead of waiting for a hero, this one is for you. Subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show.

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