This episode explores how Christian clergy (in the U.S.) can connect racial justice work with challenging US empire more globally. Rev. Mike Kinman and I discuss his work in the uprisings in Ferguson; learning eyewash recipes for teargas from Palestinians; challenging the antisemitism of Christian supercessionism; and standing in interfaith movements for justice for Palestine.

In this hour and 15 minute discussion, Dr. George speaks with Rabbi Zach Fredman about ceasefire, grief, Jewish historical trauma, and the urgency of Palestinian freedom. Questions raised include: To what extent can traditions be changed? Healed of patriarchy and ethnocentricism? And bent toward inclusive justice for everyone? How do we find the streams within our traditions that can challenge dominant models of storytelling, in which our own liberation rests on another's silence and suffering? Rabbi Zach Fredman was previously at the New Shul in NYC for 10 years, and is now the Creative Director of Temenos, a non profit which bridges spiritualty and the arts. As a musician and composer, he is the bandleader of Epichorus. 

In this rich hour of discussion with Dr. George, Lyvonne Briggs will teach spiritual practices that center womanist theology and African cosmology. She teaches with power and wisdom on topics like showing up for both your grief and your pleasure; reparations for Black folks; and men needing healing from patriarchy, too. If you are new to what the rich tradition of womanism is,  Lyvonne will walk you through its legacies and its possibilites in its "4th wave."

Lyvonne Briggs, MDiv, ThM, an Emmy Award winner, is a body- and sex-positive womanist preacher and speaker. She is the host of Sensual Faith Podcast and the author of Sensual Faith: The Art of Coming Home to Your Body (Convergent/Penguin Random House out March '23). She is the co-host of Sanctified, a faith-based, Spotify-exclusive podcast on Jemele Hill’s Unbothered Network. A spiritual life coach and TEDx speaker, she has been featured in Essence, Cosmopolitan, Rolling Stone, and The Washington Post, and Sojourners named her one of "11 Women Shaping the Church.” Briggs is a graduate of The Lawrenceville School, Seton Hall University, Yale Divinity School, and Columbia Theological Seminary. A New York City native, she is currently based in New Orleans, LA and you can follow her across platforms: @LyvonneBriggs