Freedom Loves Company

President Biden announced that the war in Afghanistan is over and is bringing home the troops. This announcement comes just prior to the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 False Flag that provided the pretext for the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001.  Author and journalist, Lucy Morgan Edwards, was in Afghanistan both before and after 9/11. She speaks with me about her time in Afghanistan, her book, and how she sees the US invasion  now. We also talk about the current globalist takeover under the guise of a healthcare crisis.   Dr. Lucy Morgan Edwards is a former political advisor to the EU ambassador in Kabul with responsibilities for civil military affairs, narcotics and security sector reform.  She worked for the UN in Kandahar at the height of the Taliban regime. She is the author of the 2011 book,  The Afghan Solution: The Inside Story of Abdul Haq, the CIA, and How Western Hubris Lost Afghanistan. 

In this episode I explore the "great reset" from a spiritual perspective. I wrote this radio rumination on Sunday, July 11th, 2021 and let it loose on Revolution.Radio. Also hear "I Am A Spiritual Being Having A Material Experience," and "The Road to Karbala." 

The topic on our minds is the Great Reset. What is it and how do the lockdowns, “the woke” movement, cancel culture, Big Tech and Big Media censorship, and the BLM/Antifa riots play into this Great Reset? Dr. Michael Rectenwald has a number of interesting ideas connecting all of these things and more. Here is part of his bio from his website, www.michaelrectenwald.com. “Dr. Michael Rectenwald is the author of eleven books, including Thought Criminal (Dec. 2020); Beyond Woke (May 2020); Google Archipelago: The Digital Gulag and the Simulation of Freedom (Sept. 2019); Springtime for Snowflakes: “Social Justice” and Its Postmodern Parentage(an academic’s memoir, 2018). Michael was a Professor of Liberal Studies and Global Liberal Studies at NYU from 2008 to 2019. He also taught at Duke University, North Carolina Central University, Carnegie Mellon University, and Case Western Reserve University.  He is the notorious @antipcnyuprof (now @TheAntiPCProf), Michael has appeared as a guest on numerous major network political talk shows.”  This show originally was broadcast live on July 11th, 2021.  Listen to the live show Sundays from 8-10 pm Eastern on Revolution.Radio, Studio B. 

In this radio essay that I created for Independence Day 2021, I define freedom and discuss the Declaration of Independence in light of the present day tyranny that is orders of magnitude beyond the tyranny of 1776. Most are too asleep to know. We have been endowed with Liberty. Live it.

On July 9th the World Economic Forum and the rest of the elite club will simulate a cyber attack that creates chaos and mayhem through the United States. Is this a rehearsal for a future event or cover for a live exercise? According to my guest Cat McGuire: Cyber Polygon 2021 is a live exercise simulation to repel a supply chain attack on a large corporation by some “rogue state.” Among the world’s banking cognoscenti, the believed, if not hoped for, end-result would be to crash the global financial system. Some speculate that such a crash, disguised as a simulation, is an actual elite goal so that if/when the simulation goes live, the crash (false flag or otherwise) would allow the installation of a digital social-credit system, a key foundational component for the elite’s new world order.

In the second hour of my June 27th show, I shared part 2 of Software Program or Soul, plus an address to the Muslims for Peace Interfaith Iftar, and a sermon based on the Gnostic Text, Secret Revelation of John, called Resist the Initiation. All from May 2020. I shared some current thoughts about the strange journey we have undertaken as a species. 

In this episode I share a couple of sermons from early in 2020, my Easter sermon, Anastasis, and Software Program or Soul. Plus current reflections on our emerging engineered dystopia. 

For Father’s Day, I wrote a new radio essay about the condition our condition is in. I tell my story since the beginning of this attack on the human race. I also include my Palm Sunday sermon from way back on April 5th, 2020, "Stand On Your Feet," a short story, "The Screens," and a poem, "Say Goodbye."

Henry Hildebrandt is Pastor of the Church of God in Aylmer, Ontario, Canada. He has been fined over $200,000 for holding church services even as the Canadian government has allowed many thousands more to gather for other events. The police locked up his church building. Pastor Hildebrandt continues to hold services on the lawn and has stated that no one in his church has died of Covid or has even been sick during the entire time these emergency regulations have been in place. His church is growing and he tells his story.

In this episode of Freedom Loves Company, (Revolution.Radio, Studio B, Sundays 8-10 pm Eastern) I share more of my radio essays and sermons from when the attack on humanity began. These essays include:  March 22, 2020 Night Is Coming  March 29, 2020 Day of Resurrection  April 4, 2020 It is Palm Sunday and Your in Lockdown!  April 10, 2020 The Long Good Friday 

Dr. Sadaf Gilani of Ottawa, Canada has carefully researched COVID-19 and the "virus" that supposedly caused it since the beginning of the lockdowns. In this conversation we cover the field regarding the virus, the testing, the lockdowns, the bioweapon question, and the injections. What are we facing? Follow Dr. Gilani on Facebook. 

On my new LIVE show, Freedom Loves Company (Revolution.radio Studio B, 8-10 pm Eastern, Sundays), I tell my Covid story through sharing essays I had written when the government lockdowns, restrictions, impositions, and hysteria had just begun. How has my mind changed since those early weeks? This is a great audio podcast to hear and share to recount how this PSYOP began with comment on what I think today. Essays include... A Sermon for Conspiracy Theorists (March 15, 2020) Covid the Movie: The Sequel to 9/11 (March 28, 2020) Free Speech (April 7, 2020) Covid-19 is Fake: Warriors Needed (April 3, 2020) Not Even A Whimper (May 11, 2020)

Mark Taliano published the second edition of Voices From Syria with co-author Syrian journalist, Basma Qaddour. Mark is an educator and an activist. He writes:  "We are all being swept across a stormy frothing sea, rudderless, despairing. Not one of us is alone. When we find a common language of truth and peace, we will find salvation. The cancerous hands controlling our fates, our thoughts, our minds, keeping us apart, will be no more. Then we will be free." Indeed. Mark talks with me about Syria and he minces no words in describing the evil unleashed on the Syrian people by the United States, Israel, and their allies through their terrorist proxies, Al Qaeda, Daesh and other mercenaries. We discuss the recent election in Syria and its meaning.  We also discuss the scamdemic and the dictatorship we are under with the excuse of a virus from his perspective in Ontario, Canada. Mark researches and writes for Global Research with Michel Chossudovsky.  Find articles and videos at his website, MarkTaliano.net. 

Tessa Lena is a musician, artist, philosopher, and writer. She lives in New York and writes about Big Tech and its attack on humanity. Her website is TessaLena.com  Tessa Lena lived in the Soviet Union and compares life then with life in the US now. With the authoritarian lockdowns, dismantling of rights and freedoms, massive censorship, mis- and dis-information from our institutions, and dystopian craziness since early 2020, is the US in any sense, the land of the free?  This interview was originally broadcast on Revolution.radio on May 30, 2021.

Dr. Kevin Barrett spoke with me on my new show, Freedom Loves Company (Sunday 8-10 pm Eastern, Revolution Radio, Studio B), about the evidence that COVID 19 was originally at least, a bioweapon released on China and Iran by US Deep State operatives. He also connects the "response" through masking, lockdowns, vaccines, and so forth as part of the same trauma. As 9/11 traumatized Americans into muzzled obedience, so COVID has had the same effect. This interview was originally broadcast on Revolution.radio on May 30, 2021. 

Ronnie Cummins and Dr. Joseph Mercola are co-authors of The Truth About COVID-19: Exposing The Great Reset, Lockdowns, Vaccine Passports, and the New Nomral--Why We Must Unite in a Global Movement for Health and Freedom. The Forward is by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It was released in early May 2021 and already has sold 100,000 copies. (Amazon) In this interview, I speak with Ronnie Cummins about the origins of the virus, the responses by our  government including lockdowns, lies, and censorship and what we need to do to take back control. Ronnie Cummins is founder and director of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), a nonprofit, US-based network of more than two million consumers dedicated to safeguarding organic standards and promoting a healthy, just, and regenerative system of food, farming, and commerce. Cummins also serves on the steering committee of Regeneration International and OCA’s Mexican affiliate Via Organica. He is the author of Grassroots Rising: A Call to Action on Climate, Farming, Food, and the Green New Deal (Chelsea Green Publishing, February 2020) and his latest book which he co-authored with Dr. Joseph Mercola, The Truth About COVID-19: Exposing the Great Reset, Lockdowns, Vaccine Passports, and the New Normal (also from Chelsea Green Publishing).

Gilad Atzmon returns to discuss what he sees as a civil war brewing in the United States over dividing lines that are based on identitarian politics. In this educational and informative interview, he elaborates on a recent post of his, It's Not About Trump or Biden, and he  discusses the history of identitarian politics and why the U.S. is so polarized today. He is the author of The Wandering Who: The Study of Jewish Identity Politics and Being In Time: A Post-Political Manifesto.  In May 2018 he was on my program that commemorated the 70th anniversary of the Nakba "The Catastrophe" and Palestinian resistance. 

I haven't made a podcast in months as my personal life has been upended. But I have moved to a new state, left organized ministry, and am watching the world go to hell. What have you been doing? Thank Allah for Dr. Kevin Barrett. He reached out to me and asked me to be on his radio show, Truth Jihad, and he invited me to co-host False Flag Weekly News. He encouraged me to get my radio show up and running. We recorded this conversation and this will be a start to a new era, inshallah. In this episode recorded on October 30th, we discuss the plandemic, censorship, spirituality, the election, and more. Kevin Barrett is the real deal and I am honored to face the apocalypse (or whatever this is) with him. 

In this sermon, Rev. John Shuck calls on the church (ekklesia) to assemble as a physical gathering of people to seek truth, lay on hands, and heal. Text and video at www.johnshuck.com.  

In this sermon, Rev. John Shuck explores the necessity of discernment in regards to what is happening to us now and the importance of seeking protection for your soul in these chaotic times. Text at www.johnshuck.com

Dr. Chuck Baldwin is pastor of Liberty Fellowship Church in Kalispell, Montana. He has extensive biography that you can find on the church’s website www.libertyfellowshipmt.com.  I started following Pastor Baldwin on Facebook when another Facebook friend told me that Pastor Baldwin talked about things like the 9/11 deception and other crimes against humanity. The church’s bookstore has Christopher Bollyn’s book, The War on Terror: The Plot to Rule the Middle East for sale. Pastor Baldwin has spoken out about the perpetual "war on terror" and the damage it has inflicted in the Middle East and in America.  Then when this COVID thing started, I saw a presentation by Dr. Annie Bukacek that she gave at Liberty Fellowship challenging the way COVID 19 has been exaggerated on death certificates. I interviewed her about that on Progressive Spirit. Then I saw another presentation also at the church by Ronald Kukal, USS Liberty survivor. So I had Ron Kukal on my program. Ron Kukal is one of the co-authors of the 2017 book, Remember the Liberty! Almost Sunk by Treason on the High Seas. That book is also available at the Liberty Fellowship Church website www.libertyfellowshipmt.com In this interview I speak with Dr. Chuck Baldwin about this COVID Operation, PSYOP, Movie, whatever we’ll call it. It is not about a virus, in my opinion. It is about something else. We will hear Dr. Chuck Baldwin’s insights about the lockdown.

Photo credit: Ron Kukal (left) with Admiral Merlin Staring former Navy Judge Advocate General at Ron Kukal's home in Sheridan, WY in 2006. “ON JUNE 8, 1967, while patrolling in international waters in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, USS Liberty (AGTR-5) was savagely attacked without warning or justification by air and naval forces of the state of Israel.  Of a crew of 294 officers and men (including three civilians), the ship suffered thirty four (34) killed in action and one hundred seventy three (173) wounded in action.” From the USS Liberty Veterans Association Website.  John Shuck speaks with a survivor of that attack, Ron Kukal, about what happened on that day, the coverup that ensued, and the truth that is coming out about this attack 53 years later. Ron Kukal is a co-author with other USS Liberty survivors, Phillip Tourney and Ernest A. Gallo, and with primary author, Philip Nelson, of the 2017 book, Remember the Liberty! Almost Sunk By Treason on the High Seas. The book is available at Liberty Fellowship Church and the USS Liberty Veterans Association as well as Amazon. From the back cover: “Exposing one of the most explosive and hidden secrets in U.S. history for the first time, Remember the Liberty! Almost Sunk by Treason on the High Seas explores how a sitting U.S. president collaborated with Israeli leaders in the fomentation of a war between them and their Arab neighbors. It was a war that would ensure a victory for Israel, and include the acquisition of additional land. This book will finally identify the real cause of the vicious attack on a U.S. Naval ship. After the botched plan was executed, the ship refused to sink even after being hit by a torpedo, leading the attack to be cancelled and a massive cover-up invoked, including severe threats for the crewmembers to “keep their lips sealed.” That cover-up is barely still in place, and completely exposed. Written largely by the survivors themselves, the truth is finally being told with the real story revealed.”

Sermon for Sunday, May 10, 2020. The use of isolation through quarantines of healthy people, social distancing, and mask-wearing are part of an initiation process to permanently separate us from one another, thus preparing us for a different kind of existence led by those who are conducting this ritual. The imposition of masks upon the human population has nothing to do with health. Even as this is what we are told this is all about. These masks, as I see it, are tools of a satanic ritual transformation. We are being initiated to die to all of our previous relationships.  www.johnshuck.com 

This is a sermon for May 3, 2020. I discuss the banning of truthtellers from the megaplatforms and what this means regarding this COVID operation. In particular, i talk about what it means to be a spiritual person in a time in which humanity is being transitioned into becoming robots. 

Dr. Annie Bukacek of Kalispell, Montana speaks with me about COVID19 death certificates. How do doctors decide whether or not to attribute a death to COVID19 and are the COVID19 deaths being exaggerated? We also discuss what care is not happening during this lockdown and we talk about whether or not the lockdown is good for our health as individuals and as a nation. Find her presenation on Youtube, Montana Physician, Dr. Annie Bukacek discusses how COVID 19 Death Certifiates are being Manipulated. Find Annie Bukacek on Facebook and find her website Doctors Unmask COVID 19.

A sermon for Easter Sunday.  For those of you who have known me from before, you know, I have not spoken like this in my sermons or writings. It is because I underestimated the reality and the power of evil. I also underestimated the reality and power of goodness and truth.  No more. www.johnshuck.com 

Today is Good Friday. It is Friday, April 10, 2020. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem has closed its doors. This is the first time it has done so since the Black Death in 1349. In my opinion, The Coronavirus or COVID 19 is not the Black Death. Those who have manipulated this operation are the Black Death. COVID 19 is the perfect mechanism to get everything you want, assuming you are Satan or a servant of Satan. Here is an imaginary conversation with myself about what I might do if I were an evil billionaire servant of Satan.

Churches are shut down. This is unprecedented. What would Jesus do on Palm Sunday? 

Here is a radio essay that challenges the accepted view of this "virus" and invites us to entertain other possibilities. A truism falsely attributed to Aristotle, but nonetheless clever goes like this: "The mark of an educated mind is to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." Topics covered include viewpoints of independent scientists and citizen journalists exposing holes in the offical narrative. Transcript at www.johnshuck.com 

This is a sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, March 29, 2020. This is the third Sunday that churches have been shut down by the state. Text at www.johnshuck.com  Image:  Ezekiel in the Valley of the Dry Bones Source:     http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55841Artist:      Elkan, Benno, 1877-1960

I am trying out some radio essays. Ten to fifteen minute essays about topics on my mind. These are my thoughts about COVID. DISCLAIMER: Be warned. These are viewpoints that you will NOT hear on television. Transcript at www.johnshuck.com 

Dr. Foad Izadi is Assistant Professor of American studies, American foreign policy and Public Diplomacy at University of Tehran. In this program, we discuss the Coronavirus situation in Iran, the effect of the US sanctions on Iran’s ability to respond to the pandemic, the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani, the nuclear weapons treaty, and the effect of the demonization of Iran by the US media. The interview was recorded Tuesday, March 24th, 2020.  Dr. Foad Izadi is a member of the World BEYOND War Board of Directors. He is a faculty member at the Department of American Studies, Faculty of World Studies, University of Tehran, where he teaches M.A. and Ph.D. courses in American studies. Izadi received his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University. He earned a B.S. in Economics and an M.A. in Mass Communication from University of Houston.

Sermon for Sunday, March 22, 2020, the Fourth Sunday of Lent.  "We have one but one task. We are here to bear witness to what is real. Your courageous bearing of witness can help awaken others. This is how God will defeat evil by awakening us all to Truth. Regardless of what others think. Regardless of what others do. Regardless of the powers of darkness. Seek what is real for yourself. Bear witness to what is real. Do not be afraid. Center yourself. Remember who you are. You are love. You are strength. You are a child of God." https://www.johnshuck.com 

My first sermon since leaving my last church position. I will, inshAllah, write a record a sermon every Sunday. This is for March 15, 2020, the first Sunday, churches around the country closed due to coronovirus. You can listen here as well as read the text at my website, www.johnshuck.com 

One of the most fun things that happened at KBOO was an impromptu live show with Paul Roland when due to a communication mix-up the scheduled host didn't show. We took over and opened it up to phone calls. We talked about the world-wide protests, the military-industrial complex, and much, much more. Enjoy. 

In March 2018 I had a live interview scheduled with Dr. Kevin Barrett on my monthly show, "The Beloved Community" on KBOO. Through a smear campaign led by Rose City Antifa complete with name-calling, character assassination, and a deluge of tweets and phone calls, the station staff and management were pressured to stop the interview and actually ban Kevin Barrett from being on the air. (Staff and management claim they were not pressured.) I appealed the decision but my appeal was never addressed. Dr. Barrett never had an opportunity to defend himself. Volunteers or the membership never had an opportunity to review this process.  On December 13th, 2019 I broadcast a pre-recorded show that included audio from the last sermon I gave to my church, an interview with Dr. David Ray Griffin and a speech Dr. Kevin Barrett delivered at a KBOO-sponsored event at Portland State in February 2018 about US-Saudi relations. Staff, in response to phone calls, stopped the broadcast in the midst of Dr. Barrett's speech and played Christmas music! In protest to this personal disrespect and censorship, I decided to take a sabbatical from my volunteer duties and support of KBOO and move my show to a platform that respects the spirit of the First Amendment. You can read my story here. Over Christmas, Dr. Barrett interviewed me for his radio show, Truth Jihad, and gave me permission and encouragement to rebroadcast that interview on my program. 

In this special pre-recorded edition of The Beloved Community, you will hear John Shuck's final sermon to his church plus reflections on truth, truth-telling, and the importance of creating space and protecting truth-tellers, particularly those who expose the empire's war machine. You will also hear an interview with Dr. David Ray Griffin about his book, "Bush and Cheney: How They Ruined America and the World" plus an address by Dr. Kevin Barrett that was given at the KBOO sponsored event, "The US/Saudi Coalition: Bringing Peace or War?" that was held at Portland State in February 2018.  

Last Sermon at Southminster.  Audio includes a wonderful tribute by my colleague and friend, Rev. Don Ludwig. And a beautiful blessing from the children. The choir sang “A New Day” perfect for “Christ the King” or “Reign of Divine Values” Sunday. November 24, 2019 Order of Worship 2019 November 24

John Shuck speaks with Chris Hedges about his book, "America the Farewell Tour" Chris Hedges wants us to face the reality that our society is unraveling. He speaks with John Shuck about his latest book. In his latest book, America: The Farewell Tour, Chris Hedges shows how the effects of America's decline and decay affects its citizenry. As America sinks further into poverty and despotism, and as corporations and the military-industrial-media complex pirate the remaining assets of a nation that has lost its industry save weapons manufacturing, human beings suffer from gambling addiction, hatred, and violence in the streets. Hedges announces a spiritual call to resist.Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years for The New York Times where he served as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief for the paper. He previously worked overseas for The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor, and NPR. He writes a weekly column for the online magazine Truthdig out of Los Angeles and is host of the Emmy Award­–winning RT America show On Contact. Hedges, who holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard University, is the author of the bestsellers American Fascists, Days of Destruction­, Days of Revolt, and was a National Book Critics Circle finalist for War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. He has taught at Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University, and the University of Toronto. He currently teaches college credit courses in the New Jersey prison system.

Per Fagereng's novel explores America and Portland after Peak Oil   John Shuck speaks with radio host and author, Per Fagereng, about his novel, Jack Moloney's Century. The novel covers the 100 year life of Jack Moloney (1980-2080) as he moves from Ireland to Portland with many stops along the way through the world's transition from abundant energy to Peak Oil and beyond. Per hosts the radio show, "Fight the Empire" on KBOO. Per says of himself:"I’m old enough to remember the Brooklyn Dodgers. Worked at a gold mine in Alaska and a Norwegian freighter. Hanging out at a San Francisco tavern got me started in a newspaper career. I’ve been involved with KBOO since around 1980." From the back cover of Jack Moloney's Century: WHAT HAPPENED TO AMERICA? When young Jack Moloney jumped ship in New York in the year 2000 the United States was the world's great power. When Jack died 80 years later the United States was in pieces, and his long life came to an end in a place called Cascadia. Jack Moloney grew up in Derry, in British-occupied Ireland. One night he helped some friends lob a mortar round into an army camp, and the IRA got him out of town. From Ireland to a job on a cruise ship, to New York, Chicago, the Great Plains and Oregon -- Jack lived through a dangerous time in history. Gone were cheap oil, banks and mighty war machines. Now wars were fought by roving bands of armed people on foot. Old nations broke apart and new ones were born in rebellion. Nature itself fought back at human folly. As always, life depended on good land and water, and people to do the work.

A novel about a false flag terrorist plot to lead the US to war. Sound familiar?  John Shuck speaks with Philip Kraske about his fifth novel, 11/9 and the Terrorist Who Loved Bonsai Trees.  "Trudy Schelling arrives at her company in Jersey City, New Jersey, to start her first day of work at Hallerbee Net Research. The date is November 9. Barely through the door, she is grabbed by a man in military garb - one of several in the brownstone townhouse - but fends him off and manages to escape. Twenty minutes later, six terrorists, fleeing their botched job of planting a miniature atomic bomb in the Empire State Building, screech to a halt in front of the same townhouse, three police cars on their tail. The terrorists run inside, and a hostage standoff ensues, the dozen hostages ostensibly being Hallerbee employees. Pursued through the streets of Manhattan, Trudy knows that the attack is a false-flag operation. In a matter of hours, she is portrayed in the media as the seventh terrorist of the group, and the entire country is baying for her blood. Her only hope is Paul Klippen, a State Department official whose lonely task is to expose the lies about her and stop war between the United States and Iran." David Ray Griffin says of the novel: "Most of us who continue to do research on 9/11 focus primarily on the question of what really happened that day. There will eventually be a definitive answer to that question that can be summarized in a few pages. But what is the meaning of 9/11, what are its implications? Philip Kraske's superb thriller, 11/9 and the Terrorist Who Loved Bonsai Trees, as the title implies, holds up a mirror to 9/11, providing a way of understanding this horrendous event. The hilarious book-ending riff of Trudy's comedian boyfriend sums up both the stupidity and the irony of it all.  -- David Ray Griffin, Author of 9/11 Unmasked" Bio: Philip Kraske was born in Detroit, lived his formative years in Ohio and Minnesota, and stayed in America long enough to get in the basic rituals of high school and college. He graduated from the U of Minnesota/Twin Cities with a B.A. in International Relations. He settled permanently in Madrid in the 80s.   --  Plus 9/11 news for September 2019.

Having spent years observing and researching, Taliano explains in detail which western politicians support terror, how humanitarianism is feigned to cover crimes, and why mainstream media is corrupt to the core.  On The Beloved Community, John Shuck speaks with Mark Taliano, author of Voices from Syria.  Three years ago, Mark Taliano travelled to Syria in attempt to hear from Syrians what is really happening in their country. Mark writes: "Between 15 and 23 September 2016, I travelled to war-torn Syria because I sensed years ago that the official narratives being fed to North Americans across TV screens, in newsprint and on the internet were false. The invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya were all based on lies; likewise for Ukraine. All of the post-9/11 wars were sold to Western audiences through a sophisticated network of interlocking governing agencies that disseminate propaganda to both domestic and foreign audiences. But the dirty war on Syria is different. The degree of war propaganda levelled at Syria and contaminating humanity at this moment is likely unprecedented. I had studied and written about Syria for years, so I was not entirely surprised by what I saw. What I felt was a different story. Syria is an ancient land with a proud and forward-looking people. To this ancient and holy land we sent mercenaries, hatred, bloodshed and destruction. We sent strange notions of national exceptionalism and wave upon wave of lies. As a visitor I felt shame, but Syrians welcomed me as one of them. These are their stories; these are their voices." We will spend the hour with Mark, hearing from his perspective, a perspective quite at odds with the official US government narrative.  Joining Mark is Rev. Andrew Ashdown, an Anglican priest who has travelled all over Syria. 

Ned Rosch of National Jewish Voice for Peace has written a chapter for a new book, Reclaiming Judaism from Zionism: Stories of Personal Transformation and Mustafa Akhwand is founder and Executive Director for Shia Rights Watch. Portland resident, Ned Rosch has written a chapter for the book, Reclaiming Judaism from Zionism: Stories of Personal Transformation that was released in May 2019. A part of his chapter, “Palestine and My Journey of Self-Discovery” was published in Yes Magazine. The book’s promotion reads:  “Today Jews face a choice. We can be loyal to the ethical imperatives at the heart of Judaism — love the stranger, pursue justice, and repair the world. Or we can give our unconditional support to the state of Israel. It is a choice between Judaism as a religion and the nationalist ideology of Zionism, which is usurping that religion.”  Ned Rosch will be sharing his story at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Beaverton, Sunday, August 4th at 9 am. In the second half of the show, host John Shuck speaks with Mustafa Akhwand, the founder and Executive Director of Shia Rights Watch (SRW), which focuses on the humanitarian rights of Shia Muslims. With a network of over 600 people, Shia Rights Watch plays a critical role in improving the quality of life for all minority populations around the world. Various human rights and peace-keeping organizations have recognized Mr. Akhwand’s human rights advocacy including Freemuslim (Center for De-Radicalization & Extremism Prevention), Amnesty International, Human Rights Education Association, United States Institute of Peace, Adam Center for Defending Rights and Beliefs, and Center for Strategic Studies in Iraq.  Here is a link to the Camp Speicher Massacre referenced by Mustafa Akhwand during the broadcast.

Film-Maker Massimo Mazzucco Analyzes the Moon Landings in his Film "American Moon" As the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 approaches, the nagging question remains: Did it really happen? Were the images seen by hundreds of millions on live television actually from the moon or from a NASA simulator? Italian film-maker, Massimo Mazzucco, in one of the most comprehensive films yet about the moon landings, explores all sides of the controversy.  His 2017 film, American Moon looks at the best evidence both for and against the moon landings. Plus the film analyzes for the first time ever the Apollo pictures in detail with commentary from some of the top photographers in the world.  You decide. Was the Apollo Project "the biggest achievement in the history of mankind, or the biggest fakery of all times?" The film is available on Amazon or to rent or buy on Vimeo.  Watch the trailer here.  Host John Shuck speaks live with Massimo Mazzucco about his film and takes your calls. In addition to American Moon, Massimo Mazzucco has produced the following films (from Wikipedia): The New American Century: a view of America's historical, philosophical, economical and political background. The Other Dallas - 2008: A documentary on the RFK assassination, also broadcast by Italian TV, that claims the man convicted for the crime -- one Sirhan Bishara Sirhan -- could not have physically killed the US senator. The Lords of the World - 2009: The UFO history and the military persistent interference, both American and Russian, in what seems to be a much larger issue than one would normally believe. Cancer: The Forbidden Cures - 2010: All the successful cures against cancer discovered in the last 100 years, and claims that they were suppressed. The True History of Marijuana - 2011: The True History of Marijuana' digs deep to expose a world-wide conspiracy, led by the petrochemical industry, that has outlawed one of the most useful plants known to mankind. September 11 - The New Pearl Harbor - 2013: A 5-hour documentary that claims to rebut of the commonly accepted account of 911 and shows the resulting analysis by The National Institute of Standards and Technology, (NIST), to be deeply and fundamentally flawed.

Eve Ensler writes her own apology from her father and Roman Montero uncovers the manifesto of a radical Jesus In the first half-hour, Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues speaks with John Shuck about her latest book (to be released May 14th), The Apology.  Like millions of women, Eve Ensler has been waiting much of her lifetime for an apology. Sexually and physically abused by her father, Eve has struggled her whole life from this betrayal, longing for an honest reckoning from a man who is long dead. After years of work as an anti-violence activist, she decided she would wait no longer; an apology could be imagined, by her, for her, to her. The Apology, written by Eve from her father’s point of view in the words she longed to hear, attempts to transform the abuse she suffered with unflinching truthfulness, compassion, and an expansive vision for the future. In the second half-hour, Roman Montero (Jesus Was a Communist) discusses his latest book, Jesus’s Manifesto: The Sermon on the Plain.  “Many have attempted to dampen the ethical teachings of Jesus by trying to relativize them, or by trying to make them compatible with the wider culture and the dominant ideologies; however, when understood in its historical context, the Sermon’s message was not only incompatible with the wider culture and the dominant ideologies, but it stood in opposition to them.”  The Beloved Community airs live on KBOO/Portland every second Friday from 9-10 am. 

John Shuck speaks with University of Pittsburgh Law Professor, Daniel Kovalik about the war drums beating against Iran. We discuss his myth-dispelling book about Iran, The Plot to Attack Iran: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Iran.  He is also the author of The Plot to Scapegoat Russia: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Russia, and The Plot to Control the World: How the U.S. Spent Billions to Change the Outcome of Elections Around the World.  "The world has a lot of questions about the current state of affairs between the United States and Iran… *How has the US undermined democracy in Iran?*Is Iran really trying to develop nuclear weapons?*How has US waged a terror campaign against Iran for years?*How is it that the US and Israel, rather than Iran, are destabilizing the Middle East?*How has Iran helped the US in the war on terror? "Using recently declassified documents and memos, as well as first-hand experience of the country, critically-acclaimed author Dan Kovalik will change the way you think about Iran, and especially what you think of US interference there. Learn how the United States vilifies its enemies, and accuses them of unspeakable horror to mask its own terrible crimes. Not only does the illuminating and important The Plot to Attack Iran delve into the current incendiary situation, but it also predicts what could happen next, and what needs to be done before it is too late." Bio: Daniel Kovalik is Senior Associate General Counsel of the United Steelworkers, AFL-CIO (USW). He has worked for the USW since graduating from Columbia Law School in 1993. While with the USW, he has served as lead counsel on cutting-edge labor law litigation, including the landmark NLRB cases of Lamons Gasket and Specialty Health Care. He has also worked on Alien Tort Claims Act cases against The Coca-Cola Company, Drummond and Occidental Petroleum – cases arising out of egregious human rights abuses in Colombia. The Christian Science Monitor, referring to his work defending Colombian unionists under threat of assassination, recently described Mr. Kovalik as “one of the most prominent defenders of Colombian workers in the United States.” Mr. Kovalik received the David W. Mills Mentoring Fellowship from Stanford University School of Law and was the recipient of the Project Censored Award for his article exposing the unprecedented killing of trade unionists in Colombia. He has written extensively on the issue of international human rights and U.S. foreign policy for the Huffington Post and Counterpunch and has lectured throughout the world on these subjects. The Beloved Community is broadcast LIVE on the second Friday from 9-10 am PACIFIC on KBOO/Portland, 90.7.

Hugh Turley Returns to Discuss the Death of One of the 20th Century's Most Prolific and Respected Spiritual Writers  (This episode would have aired Friday March 8th, 2019 but it was International Women's Day and all programming that day was hosted by women. The alternative air date for the March 8th show is Monday, March 18th, at 11:00 am Pacific. The Beloved Community will return to its regular time, every second Friday at 9 am on Friday April 12th at 9 a.m.) During the first few minutes I offer an update on the cancellation of my interview with Kevin Barrett by management and my appeal to that decision, still in progress after a year. Hugh Turley returns to the Beloved Community to discuss his work uncovering the mystery of Thomas Merton's death, December 10th, 1968 in Bangkok, Thailand. Thomas Merton was an intellectual, a prolific writer, and spiritual leader in the anti-war movement of the 60s. While biographers have all accepted the official story in some incarnation or another, that he was accidentally killed by a fan, Turley and co-author David Martin, in their book, The Martrydom of Thomas Merton, show that this official story cannot possibly be true.  Now that this book has been released and official organizations connected with Merton are aware of this work, what is surprising is how so many of those who admire Merton care so little about honestly exploring the truth surrounding his death.   On a special time, Monday, March 18th at 11 am Pacific, John Shuck speaks live with Hugh Turley about the facts around the death of Thomas Merton and the struggles Turley and Martin have had in communicating their findings to the public.  From the cover: Seldom can one predict that a book will have an effect on history, but this is such a work. Merton's many biographers and the American press now say unanimously that he died from accidental electrocution. From a careful examination of the official record, including crime scene photographs that the authors have found that the investigating police in Thailand never saw, and from reading the letters of witnesses, they have discovered that the accidental electrocution conclusion is totally false. The widely repeated story that Merton had taken a shower and was therefore wet when he touched a lethal faulty fan was made up several years after the event and is completely contradicted by the evidence.  Hugh Turley and David Martin identify four individuals as the primary promoters of the false accidental electrocution narrative. Another person, they show, should have been treated as a murder suspect. The most likely suspect in plotting Merton's murder, a man who was a much stronger force for peace than most people realize, they identify as the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States government.  Thomas Merton was the most important Roman Catholic spiritual and anti-warfare-state writer of the 20th century. To date, he has been the subject of 28 biographies and numerous other books. Remarkably, up to now no one has looked critically at the mysterious circumstances surrounding his sudden death in Thailand. From its publication date in the 50th anniversary of his death, into the foreseeable future, this carefully researched work will be the definitive, authoritative book on how Thomas Merton died.

This program aired LIVE on February 8, 2018 on KBOO/Portland. This is from a press release dated November 26th, 2018 from The Lawyers' Committee for 9/11 Inquiry: The Lawyers’ Committee for 9/11 Inquiry, a nonprofit public interest organization, announces its receipt of a letter from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in response to the Lawyers’ Committee’s April 10, 2018 Petition and July 30, 2018 Amended Petition demanding that the U.S. Attorney present to a Special Grand Jury extensive evidence of yet-to-be-prosecuted federal crimes relating to the destruction of three World Trade Center Towers on 9/11 (WTC1, WTC2 and WTC7).  The U.S. Attorney, in his November 7, 2018 letter to the Lawyers’ Committee, stated: “We have received and reviewed The Lawyers’ Committee for 9/11 Inquiry, Inc.’s submissions of April 10 and July 30, 2018. We will comply with the provisions of 18 U.S.C. § 3332 as they relate to your submissions.” What does this mean? Will the crimes of 9/11 finally be prosecuted?  David Meiswinkle and Barbara Honegger of The Lawyers' Committee for 9/11 Inquiry, and Richard Gage AIA, of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth speak with John Shuck about this development. -- Bios: David R. Meiswinkle, Esq. is a criminal defense attorney, retired police officer of 23 years, and former U.S. Army veteran. David founded the New Brunswick Taxpayers and Tenants Association and the New Brunswick Reporter, a community newspaper. His activism and articles outlining municipal corruption brought federal authorities into New Brunswick New Jersey which led to major criminal investigations,and arrests, indictments and convictions of prominent local politicians. He is the president of The Lawyers' Committee for 9/11 Inquiry. Barbara Honegger, M.S. has served as White House Policy Analyst and Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, Director of the Attorney General’s Law Review at the Dept. of Justice, and for more than a decade was the Senior Military Affairs Journalist at the Naval Postgraduate School, the premiere science, technology and national security affairs graduate research university of the Department of Defense. Barbara is an officer and board member of The Lawyers' Committee for 9/11 Inquiry. Richard Gage, AIA became interested in researching the destruction of the WTC high-rises after hearing the startling conclusions of a reluctant 9/11 researcher, David Ray Griffin, on the radio in 2006, which launched his own unyielding quest for the truth about 9/11. AE911Truth now numbers more than 3,000 architects and engineers demanding a new investigation into the destruction of all three World Trade Center high-rise buildings on 9/11.

This is the final episode of Progressive Spirit. I say my goodbyes after seven years of weekly programs that always have been available for free to the public.  In this final episode, I speak with professor emeritus Fred Provenza of Utah State University. We talk about nutrition, our bodies, the falsness of factory farming and the nutrition industry, and the importance of love on this unique journey to Earth. Pretty much what Progressive Spirit has always been about… Thanks for listening! BIO: Fred Provenza is originally from Colorado where he worked on a ranch near Salida while earning a B.S. Degree in Wildlife Biology from Colorado State University. Upon receiving a B.S. degree in 1973 he became ranch manager. In total, he and his wife Sue spent 7 years working on the ranch.He and Sue left the ranch in Colorado in 1975 so he could work as a research assistant and technician at Utah State University, where he earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Range Science. He was a faculty member in the Department of Range Science from 1982 to 2009. He is currently Professor Emeritus in the Department of Wildland Resources at Utah State University. For the past 30 years, his group has produced ground-breaking research that laid the foundations for what is now known as behavior-based management of landscapes. That work inspired researchers in disciplines as diverse as chemical ecology, ruminant nutrition, human nutrition and biopsychology, animal welfare, landscape restoration ecology, wildlife damage management, pasture and rangeland science and management, and rural sociology and eco-development. Along with colleagues and graduate students, he has been author or co-author of 250 publications in peer-reviewed journals and books, and he has been an invited speaker at over 325 international meetings. Their efforts led to the formation in 2001 of an international network of scientists and land managers from five continents. That consortium, known as BEHAVE (Behavioral Education for Human, Animal, Vegetation and Ecosystem Management http://www.behave.net), is committed to integrating behavioral principles and processes with local knowledge to enhance ecological, economic and social values of rural and urban communities and landscapes.They seek to inspire and enable people to understand behavior, ours and other creatures, to fashion environmentally friendly solutions that reconcile differences of opinion about how to manage landscapes. In this process, everyone involved is a student attempting to better understand behavior at all levels from genes to landscapes and to use understanding of behavior to help people learn to appreciate that our differences are our collective strength in sustaining communities and landscapes that integrate diverse ecological, economic and social values and services.   

Notre Dame history professor discusses the secular effects of the Reformation. Martin Luther may very well turn over in his grave if he was able to see what happened to what he started 500 years ago. The Reformation. Studying its effects is not just for religious people. According to Notre Dame Professor of European History, Brad Gregory, the very way we conceive of private and public spheres today was an ironic result of the effects of the Reformation Era and its wars.   Professor Brad Gregory has won numerous awards for his books. He is the author of Salvation at stake: Christian Martyrdom in Early Modern Europeand The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society. In 2017 for the 500thanniversary of the Reformation he published Rebel in the Ranks: Martin Luther, the Reformation, and the Conflicts that Continue to Shape Our World.

Dr. Aisha Jumaan with the Facts about the Genocide of Yemen. Plus a conversation with His Eminence the 7th Kyabje Yongzin Ling Rinpoche. The US Senate voted this week 56-41 to end US support of the war on Yemen. According to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders: “The Saudi intervention in Yemen has created the worst humanitarian disaster in the world, with millions of people facing imminent starvation. The time is long overdue for the United States to stop following the lead of Saudi Arabia, a brutal regime that recently murdered a dissident journalist and has no respect for human rights. Further, and importantly, the Senate must reassert its constitutional authority and end our support of this unauthorized and unconstitutional war.” Dr. Aisha Jumaan returns to the Beloved Community to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Yemen and the latest political developments. Dr. Jumaan is the founder and president of the Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation.  (http://www.yemenfoundation.com) , a nonprofit charity organization that aims to provide relief to the people of Yemen and support peace building efforts.Professionally, Aisha has been working as an independent consultant in health related projects since April 2013.  She manages and coordinates Health funded projects in Yemen, including the Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP). Prior to this Aisha was a consultant for CDC FETP program supporting FETP programs in the Middle East. In 2011 she helped establish the Yemen program (amid social and political unrest) in collaboration with CDC, WHO and the Ministry of Public Health and Population.Between 2008 and 2010, Aisha was the Director of the HPV vaccine project at PATH working in India, Peru, Vietnam and Uganda. She has served as a Senior Epidemiologist for over 10 years in several divisions at CDC, including Cancer, Immunizations, Nutrition and Environmental Health.  She has been the primary investigator on several research projects and provided epidemiological and statistical technical expertise. As an Assistant Professor at both Emory University School of Public Health in the Epidemiology Department and at Sana’s University in Yemen under the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Aisha developed and taught intermediate epidemiology to graduate students as well as epidemiology and biostatistics to medical students. While in Yemen, Aisha served as a National Program Officer for the United Nations Population Fund and as a Health Program Officer for the United Nations Development Fund, supervising several major programs in collaboration with local government institutions. She developed and implemented training programs for US Peace Corps Primary Health Care Volunteers in Yemen, and has evaluated training programs for Primary Healthcare Workers for the Dutch Volunteer Organization SNV. Aisha holds a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina, an MPH in Epidemiology from Emory University, and a BA in Biology from Mills College. Plus John Shuck speaks with His Eminence the 7th Kyabje Yongzin Ling Rinpoche who visited the West Coastthis summer.He was born in India on November 18, 1985. He was taken to the Tibetan Childrens Village in Dharamsala, after his mother died, and stayed there until His Holiness the Dalai Lama recognized him as the reincarnation of his Senior Tutor, the 6th Kyabje Yongzin Ling Rinpoche, who passed away in 1983. During this interview, he spoke with John Shuck about leadership, suffering, kindness, and happiness.

As of Tuesday, December 11th, the Senate is poised to vote on ending US support of the war on Yemen. According to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders:"Tomorrow, I will move to proceed to S.J. Res. 54, the resolution I have offered with Senators Lee and Murphy to end U.S. involvement in the disastrous Saudi-led war in Yemen. I am optimistic that a bipartisan coalition of senators will vote to make clear that the United States will no longer support Saudi Arabia in its incredibly destructive war. The Saudi intervention in Yemen has created the worst humanitarian disaster in the world, with millions of people facing imminent starvation. The time is long overdue for the United States to stop following the lead of Saudi Arabia, a brutal regime that recently murdered a dissident journalist and has no respect for human rights. Further, and importantly, the Senate must reassert its constitutional authority and end our support of this unauthorized and unconstitutional war." Dr. Aisha Jumaan returns to the Beloved Community to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Yemen and the latest political developments.  Dr. Jumaan is the founder and president of the Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation.  (http://www.yemenfoundation.com) , a nonprofit charity organization that aims to provide relief to the people of Yemen and support peace building efforts. Professionally, Aisha has been working as an independent consultant in health related projects since April 2013.  She manages and coordinates Health funded projects in Yemen, including the Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP). Prior to this Aisha was a consultant for CDC FETP program supporting FETP programs in the Middle East. In 2011 she helped establish the Yemen program (amid social and political unrest) in collaboration with CDC, WHO and the Ministry of Public Health and Population. Between 2008 and 2010, Aisha was the Director of the HPV vaccine project at PATH working in India, Peru, Vietnam and Uganda.  She has served as a Senior Epidemiologist for over 10 years in several divisions at CDC, including Cancer, Immunizations, Nutrition and Environmental Health.  She has been the primary investigator on several research projects and provided epidemiological and statistical technical expertise. As an Assistant Professor at both Emory University School of Public Health in the Epidemiology Department and at Sana’s University in Yemen under the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Aisha developed and taught intermediate epidemiology to graduate students as well as epidemiology and biostatistics to medical students. While in Yemen, Aisha served as a National Program Officer for the United Nations Population Fund and as a Health Program Officer for the United Nations Development Fund, supervising several major programs in collaboration with local government institutions. She developed and implemented training programs for US Peace Corps Primary Health Care Volunteers in Yemen, and has evaluated training programs for Primary Healthcare Workers for the Dutch Volunteer Organization SNV. Aisha holds a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina, an MPH in Epidemiology from Emory University, and a BA in Biology from Mills College.

Rev. Connie Tuttle tells her story of being a queer prophet. Connie Lee Tuttle is the pastor of Circle of Grace, a small, progressive, ecumenical, feminist, Christian house church in Atlanta, Georgia. She graduated from Columbia Theological Seminary on a path to ordination within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) She was refused ordination because she is a lesbian. (The denomination has since changed its policies).  In her book, A Gracious Heresy: The Queer Calling of An Unlikely Prophet, she recounts her story, calling herself “slumgullion”, army brat, and third culture kid. She brings it altogether in a story of grace, stumbling, and seeking what is true and good, often outside the box.   She writes at ConnieTuttle.com   

Heart failure, accident, or murder? John Shuck interviews Hugh Turley about the mysterious death of Thomas Merton. December 10th 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of his death. Is it now time for the truth? Investigative Reporter, Hugh Turley, makes the case that the conclusion that Thomas Merton died by accident cannot possibly be true. Hugh Turley and David Martin are co-authors of the 2018 book, The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton, An Investigation. John Shuck speaks live with Hugh Turley on Beloved Community about the death of Thomas Merton, who was an anti-war author and spiritual leader. He died mysteriously on December 10th, 1968 in Thailand. “Merton was in apparent good health and at the height of his productive powers when he died suddenly and mysteriously while attending a monastic conference, on December 10th, 1968, near Bangkok, Thailand. He was 53 years old. Up to now, no one has examined the circumstances of his death systematically, critically, and what is most important honestly. That is our purpose here.” p. 2. Hugh Turley, as a volunteer columnist for the Hyattsville Life and Times was winner of the National Newspaper Association award for best serious column, small circulation, non-daily division. Book’s website – The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton.  

Bernie Taylor, naturalist, author and Portland resident discusses this myth and how it shapes religion and science.  The myth of the hero is as contemporary as Hollywood films and as ancient as 40,000 year-old cave paintings. Bernie Taylor, naturalist and author discusses this myth and how it shapes religion and science. Bernie Taylor is a naturalist, thought leader and author whose research explores the mythological connections and biological knowledge among prehistoric, indigenous and ancient peoples. His works in these areas include Biological Time (2004) and Before Orion: Finding the Face of the Hero (2017).  Before Orion is premised on Joseph’s Campbell’s hero's journey monomyth that is at the core of stories worldwide among indigenous peoples, the ancients, and our modern society. Before Orion explores a deeper root for this monomyth by looking at how hunter-gatherers viewed themselves within the natural and spiritual worlds through Paleolithic cave art from 40,000 years ago. Taylor proposes that select cave paintings are fundamental pieces in the human journey to self-realization, the foundation of written language, and a record of biological knowledge that irrevocably impacted some of the artistic styles, religious practices, and stories that are still with us. Taylor addresses a profound archaeological elephant in the room by opening up an uncharted place in our history, which points to the cultural ancestors of mankind. His work will change the idea of who you think you are.

Historian of Religion, Stephen Patterson, reconstructs one of the earliest Christian Creeds that Emphasized Radical Egalitarianism. One of the earliest creeds of the Jesus Movement may be embedded in one of the letters of Paul. It is an unusual creed in that it says nothing about the nature of God or salvation, but rather what it means to be human. Historian of religion, Stephen J. Patterson, returns to Progressive Spirit to talk about this creed and his book, The Forgotten Creed: Christianity’s Original Struggle Against Bigotry, Slavery, and Sexism. It was utilized and altered by Paul in Galatians 3:26-28, but Stephen Patterson reconstructs the original creed to be the following: For you are all children of God in the Spirit.There is no Jew or Greek, there is no slave or free,there is no male and female,For you are all one in the Spirit. Dr. Patterson argues that this ancient creed is timely for today as it challenges ethnic, class, and gender divisions. Stephen J. Patterson is the George H. Atkinson Professor of Religious and Ethical Studies at Willamette University. A historian of religion, Patterson specializes in the origins of Christianity, especially the hidden histories founding books that were not included in the Bible. He has authored and co-authored nine books and more than a hundred essays, articles, and reviews, including most recently, The Gospel of Thomas and Christian Origins (2013) and The Lost Way: How Two Forgotten Gospels are Rewriting the Story of Christian Origins (2014).

John Shuck speaks with Hanan Al-Zubaidy and Catherine Shakdam about his recent trip to Iraq for Arbaeen Having just returned from Iraq for Arbaeen in which over 15 million people from all over the world converged on the Holy City of Karbala, John Shuck discusses his experience and the significance of the world’s largest event with Iraqi refugee and Portland resident, Hanan Al-Zubaidy, and geo-political analyst from the U.K., Catherine Shakdam. Hanan Al-Zubaidy was instrumental in bringing the Ramadan Tent Project to the United States. Catherine Shakdam recently wrote a couple of articles about Arbaeen entitled, “Millions of Muslims, Over 60 Nations Gather to Reject Terror in Iraq” and “The Great March to Arbaeen.” Arbaeen is the largest peaceful gathering on Earth and yet hardly anyone in the United States even knows about it. While in Iraq, John Shuck and photographer, Josh Townsley, were interviewed by Shabir TV, The Iraqi Media Network (starts 1:07),  and the Imam Hussein Shrine. — Bios: Hanan Al-Zubaidy is an Iraqi refugee who moved to the United States with her family in the early 90’s. Settling in Portland Oregon, Hanan is a recent graduate of Portland State University where she earned her masters in Educational Leadership and Policy. Focusing her work on marginalized populations, Hanan is currently volunteering with Larch Correctional Facility and sits on the board Human Rights Council of Washington County. — Catherine Shakdam is a geopolitical analyst and commentator for the Middle East with a special focus on Yemen and the Gulf countries, Catherine Shakdam has been published across several prominent media outlets including: The Huffington Post, Sputnik, Citizen Truth, Press TV, The New Eastern Outlook, RT, MintPress, Ayatollah Khameini’s website, Open Democracy, the Foreign Policy Journal,  The Duran, The American Herald Tribune, Katehon, and many more. Catherine has been instrumental in breaking media silence over Yemen’s war, and the tragedy which has befallen the impoverished nation.  In 2015 she authored: Arabia’s Rising – Under The Banner Of The First Imam. In 2016 she authored A Tale Of Grand Resistance – Yemen, the Wahhabi, and the House of Saud and From Mecca to Karbala – Walking with the Holy household of the Prophet  

Why do the powers that be try to convince us that there is a “clash of cultures” or a conflict between Islam and the West or between Islam and Christianity?   To answer that, Dr. John Andrew Morrow discusses his book, The Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the World.  We learn that Christianity and Islam co-existed peacefully with full protections for Christians for 1400 years. These covenants  “uniformly state that Muslims are not to attack peaceful Christian communities, rob them, stop churches from being repaired, tear down churches to build mosques, prevent their Christian wives from going to church and taking spiritual direction from Christian priests and elders, etc. On the contrary, the Prophet commands Muslims to actively protect these communities ‘until the End of the World’.” In this informative conversation we learn about the rise of European Colonialism and its handmaiden, Islamic Fundamentalism (now funded and supported by the U.S., the Saudis, and Israel) and the role of these modern powers in smearing Islam and framing Muslims as “terrorists” for geopolitical interests.  Dr. Morrow invites us to wake up and learn our history. Find his writings on his website, John Andrew Morrow, and learn more about these historic covenants at Covenants of the Prophet. Dr. John Andrew Morrow was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1971. Raised in a multilingual family, he lived in Montreal for ten years and in the Greater Toronto Area for another twenty. The product of a Catholic education, he completed his elementary school in French, his high school in English, and his university studies in English, French, and Spanish. He embraced Islam at the age of 16 after which he adopted the name Ilyas ‘Abd al-‘Alim Islam. After completing his Honors BA, MA, and PhD at the University of Toronto, where he acquired expertise in Hispanic, Native, and Islamic Studies, he pursued post-graduate studies in Arabic in Morocco and the United States. Besides his Western education, Dr. Morrow has completed the full cycle of traditional Islamic seminary studies both independently and at the hands of a series of Sunni, Shi’i, and Sufi scholars. Not only is he a senior scholar, academic, and professor, he is also a respected ‘alim holding the titles of ustadh, duktur, hakim, and shaykh.  Dr. Morrow has spent over a decade and a half in the United States working at various universities including Park University, Northern State University, Eastern New Mexico University, the University of Virginia, and Ivy Tech where he was unanimously appointed to the rank of Full Professor. One of his most noteworthy and memorable experiences involved working as a professor of advanced Spanish, Islamic culture, and world literature for the Institute for Shipboard Education’s Semester at Sea Program. Aside from his academic duties, Dr. John Andrew Morrow is the Director of the Covenants Foundation, an organization dedicated to disseminating traditional, civilizational, Islam; promoting Islamic unity; protecting persecuted Christians; and improving relations between Muslims and members of other faiths. He regularly travels the world to promote peace and justice. Dr. John Andrew Morrow is a Native North American and a proud member of the Metis Nation.

On February 3rd, 2018, Roots of Conflict and KBOO/Portland, co-sponsored a presentation at Portland State University called US-Saudi Coalition: Bringing Peace or War? In this episode you will hear from Yemeni activist, Aisha Jumaan and Mohammad al-Nimr, son of executed Sheik Nimr. They speak boldly and clearly about the Saudi war crimes against Yemen that are assisted by the United States and the United Kingdom. Dr. Aisha Jumaan is a public-health specialist working as a consultant on heath-related projects in Yemen. She offered a statistically detailed presentation of the human catastrophe going on in Yemen, as a result of the Saudi imposed war on that ancient country. More than fourteen million people require immediate humanitarian assistance and seven million are at risk of famine. Dr. Jumaan is the President of Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation. Mohammad Al-Nimr, the son of Shia cleric, Shikh Nimr al-Nimr, who was executed by the Saudis for speaking out against Saudi human rights abuses, also spoke about the history of the formation of Saudi Arabia, its control by the royal family and Wahhabism and US complicity in the House of Sauds wars of aggression. Special thanks to David Rogers for recording the event and giving Progressive Spirit permission to edit it for radio broadcast.

On April 28th 2018, The Husayniah Islamic Society of Seattle sponsored an interfaith educational event called Husayn Day.  The event was a reflection upon Husayn, the martyred grandson of the Prophet Mohammad. Rather than bow to his oppressors, he, along with 72 family members were killed in Karbala, Iraq in 680 CE. He is considered a martyr for justice, truth, love, and resistance. He is a leading figure in Shia Islam and his death is mourned each year by between 15 and 20 million pilgrims who visit his shrine during the forty-day period of mourning from Ashura to Arbaeen. In the these two episodes, you will hear speeches from the presenters on Husayn and the yearly pilgrimage to his shrine. The presenters include, Dr. John Morrow, Sister Nicole Correri, Sheikh Fadhel Al-Salani, Sheik Ahmed Bahriny, Mohammad Baig, and me, John Shuck.  The west is ignorant about Islam and, in particular, Shia Islam and the person of Hussain. Twenty million people visit his shrine each year. This the largest annual gathering of human beings on planet Earth. Yet, Western media ignores it.   In this episode you will hear more about Husayn, and how he is for those who are devoted to him, a door to truth and justice, and how his sacrifice revealed the true Islam, the Islam of love. In this episode you will hear from… Sheikh Fadhel Al-Sahlani.  Shiekh Al-Sahlani is the current leader of the Al-Khoei Foundation in New York. Sheik Ahmed Bahriny. Sheik Ahmed Bahriny is the resident imam and religious director of the Islamic Education Center in Potomoc, Maryland.  Maulana Mohammad Baig. Maulana Baig leads the Alwalayah Community in Montclair, California. You will also hear a speech I gave at the event.

Sheikh Mohammed Al-Hilli discusses Arbaeen: The Walk, the first book in English about the annual pilgrimage to the shrine of Imam Husayn 15 - 20 million people participate in the annual pilgrimage to Karbala, Iraq to visit the shrine of 7th century martyr, Imam Husayn. Yet few in the West know about it. Sheikh Mohammed Al-Hilli has written the first book about Arbaeen in English. It is called Arbaeen: The Walk. It is a guide for participants and a helpful reference for English speakers to learn about the phenomenon of Arbaeen.Sheikh Mohammed Al-Hilli (Facebook, Twitter) is an Islamic scholar and speaker who has visited and presented lectures in many parts of the world. He has an MA in Islamic Studies at Middlesex University in the UK. For over ten years, Sheikh Al-Hilli studied Hawza (Islamic Seminary Education) in London and Najaf. He is a teacher for Hawza studies for the Islamic College in London. He is currently head of the Islamic Education Department at Noor Trust in the UK, conducting Quranic commentary programs, marriage workshops as well as youth activities.  Sheikh Al-Hilli has taken part in the Najaf to Karbala Arbaeen walk annually since 2012 with the Spiritual Journeys Ziyarah group. 

Imam Muhsen Al-Dhalimy of the Islamic Center of Portland Explains the Significance of the 7th Century Martyr, Husayn, and the Popularity of Arbaeen Biblical scholar, Dr. Susan "Elli" Elliott, discusses her book, Family Empires, Roman and Christian, Volume 1.  Imam Muhsen Al-Dhalimy is the spiritual leader of the Islamic Center of Portlandon the corner of Denney and Hall in Beaverton. The Islamic Center of Portland is the only Shia Mosque in the Portland Metro.  Imam Al-Dhalimy was born in Iraq and made the pilgrimage to Karbala to mourn Imam Husayn and visit his shrine when doing so was illegal. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, now between 10 and 20 million people visit the shrine of the grandson of the Prophet every year, making Arbaeen the largest peaceful gathering of human beings on Earth. I, inshallah, will be going on this pilgrimage courtesy of the Husaynia Society of Seattle. Imam Al-Dhalimy will talk about how the walk has changed and what it means for Shia Muslims and Iraq. Also, during the first part of the hour, I speak with Susan “Elli” Elliot who will be hosting a Jesus Seminar on the Road in Beaverton on October 19-20.  She is the author of Family Empires: The Roman Family Empire and Early Christian Responses.  In this book, “Dr. Elliott examines the Roman household form as it was changing during the Augustan era. Augustus relied on his version of that family form to establish his one-man rule of the empire. Dr. Elliott lays out several forms of resistance to the Roman empire and the family model on which it was built.” This program aired on my monthly show, Beloved Community, Friday, October 12th from 9-10 a.m.

Scholars and religious leaders explore the impact of Husayn and the devotion of the 15-20 million pilgrims who visit his shrine each year. Part 1 of 2. This is a rebroadcast of an episode that originally aired in May 2018. I will be attending the pilgrimage to Arbaeen from Najaf to Karbala, Iraq, at the end of October, with a Maulana Mohammad Baig, courtesy of the Husayniah Islamic Society of Seattle. On April 28th 2018, The Husayniah Islamic Society of Seattle and Global Initiatives co-sponsored an interfaith educational event called Husayn Day.  The event was a reflection upon Husayn, the martyred grandson of the Prophet Mohammad. Rather than bow to his oppressors, he, along with 72 family members were killed in Karbala, Iraq in 680 CE. He is considered a martyr for justice, truth, love, and resistance. He is a leading figure in Shia Islam and his death is mourned each year by between 15 and 20 million pilgrims who visit his shrine during the forty-day period of mourning from Ashura to Arbaeen. In the next two episodes, you will hear speeches from the presenters on Husayn and the yearly pilgrimage to his shrine. The presenters include, Dr. John Morrow, Sister Nicole Correri, Sheikh Fadhel Al-Salani, Sheik Ahmed Bahriny, Maulana Mohammad Baig, and me, John Shuck.  The West is largely ignorant about Islam and, in particular, Shia Islam and the person of Hussain. Twenty million people visit his shrine each other. This the largest annual gathering of human beings on planet Earth. Yet, Western media ignores it. According to an article in the Huffington Post by Sayed Mahdi al-Modarresi, “World's Biggest Pilgrimage Now Underway, And Why You've Never Heard of it!”  Why you have never heard of it probably has to do with the fact that the press is concerned more with negative, gory, and sensationalized tabloids, than with positive, inspiring narratives, particularly when it comes to Islam. You will hear about it on Progressive Spirit. In this first episode you will hear from Dr. John Morrow, full professor, author, senior research scholar, public speaker and activist. He is author of a number of numerous articles and books including The Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the World. Dr. Morrow provided a stirring poetic spiritual biography of Husayn. You will also hear from Sister Nicole Correri. She is the preeminent female Shia speaker in North America. She will begin a Ph. D. program at Boston University in the Fall.  Sr. Correri told the importance of Zainab, Husayn’s sister, and described her experience attending Arbaeen. Video of the entire conference.  

Moral Philosopher and Environmental-Thought Leader, Kathleen Dean Moore, tells the hard, urgent truth about the state of Earth and calls out for moral courage. Dr. Kathleen Dean Moore spoke at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Beaverton, Oregon, September 30th, 2018. Hear her address, Bearing Witness (starts at 4:30). In this interview, she talked with John Shuck about her 2016 book, Great Tide Rising: Calling on Clarity and Moral Courage to Confront Climate Change. She discusses grandchildren, criminals in high places, religious hypocrisy, despair, hope, and moral integrity. Time is short. We have a mission. What is life for?Kathleen Dean Moore is a writer, moral philosopher, and environmental thought-leader, devoted to an unrelenting defense of the future against those who would pillage and wreck the planet. As a writer, Kathleen is best known for award-winning books of essays that celebrate and explore the meaning of the wet, wild world of rivers, islands, and tidal shores – Riverwalking, Holdfast, Pine Island Paradox, and Wild Comfort. But her growing alarm at the devastation of the natural world led her to focus her writing on the moral urgency of action against climate change and habitat destruction. Quitting her university position, Kathleen began to write in defense of the lovely, reeling world.  A moral philosopher, Kathleen holds a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado. For many years, she taught critical thinking and environmental ethics as Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Oregon State University. She has published philosophical books on forgiveness (Pardons: Justice, Mercy, and the Public Interest), Apache philosophy (How It Is: the Native American Philosophy of Viola Cordova), Rachel Carson (Rachel Carson: Legacy and Challenge), and critical thinking (Reasoning and Writing). While at OSU, she co-founded and for many years directed the Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word, where she now serves as Senior Fellow. Two years ago, Moore left the University in order to write and speak full-time about the moral urgency of action to stop fossil fuels and the consequent global warming. She has addressed audiences ranging from 350.org activists to Nobel Conference scholars to Disneyworld executives and students all over the country — Alaska to Texas, New York to California — calling people to clarity and moral courage as they confront the forces that would wreck the world. Her new project, “A Call to Life: Variations on a Theme of Extinction,” is a collaboration with classical pianist Rachelle McCabe. Kathleen is embedded in a family of environmentalists and biologists. Her parents were science educators who led nature walks in the beech-maple forests in Ohio. Her husband, Frank, a neurobiologist, is an expert on amphibian behavior. Her daughter, Erin, is an architecture professor at the University of Oregon, specializing in green construction. Her son, Jonathan, is a professor of coastal studies at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. Kathleen and her husband live in Corvallis, Oregon, and in the summers, in a cabin where two creeks and a bear trail meet a tidal cove in Alaska’s maritime wilderness.

“The role of the media is the primary reason why good people become silent — or worse — about 9/11.” -- Frances Shure This is the fourth of my four-part series on the 9/11 Consensus Panel, whose work was released in book form on September 11th, 2018. [Note: Amazon, as of September 25th, now reports the book as "Temporarily out of stock" even as the publisher says Amazon has many copies. Amazon has made purchasing this book difficult to say the least. See Edward Curtin and Ken Hanly]. The book can be ordered from the publisher, Interlink Books at 9/11 Unmasked: An International Review Panel Investigation. The co-authors are David Ray Griffin and Elizabeth Woodworth. Reviewers of this book include Edward Curtin, Piers Robinson, Philip Roddis, and Paul Craig Roberts, who writes: Anyone who is still brainwashed by the official 9/11 story can immediately free themselves from their deception by reading this book. There is no longer any doubt that 9/11 was an inside orchestrated event for the purpose of unleashing two decades, with more to come, of American aggression in the Middle East. In the first part of this series I explained why I was spending four episodes on one book. The reason is that this book could be the most dangerous book in America. If what this book presents is true, that the official account of September 11th 2001 is false, then we are in trouble. If any one of the 51 points of evidencepresented in this book is solid, then the American people have been played for fools. The truth of the matter is that anyone who reads this book and considers the evidence presented likely willbecome skeptical of the official narrative. Unless, of course, the evidence is too scary to consider in the first place. That is the topic of this fourth and final episode. According to psychotherapist, Frances Shure, the media are the problem. She has written a series of articles for Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, entitled "Why Do Good People Become Silent"Or Worse"About 9/11?"Her latest installment in this series is called, "The Role of the Media: Whatever Happened to Investigative Journalists?" She says the media define for us what are acceptable topics for conversation. "If the media totally ignores an event, such as the evidence that 9/11 was a false-flag operation, then we don't take it seriously and are afraid to discuss it." Frances Shure co-founded Colorado 9/11 Truthin 2004 and is a member of the 9/11 Consensus Panelas well as the Medical Professionals for 9/11 Truth. She was included with a number of other social scientists in the film 9/11: Explosive Evidence: Experts Speak Out  that was produced by Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth. She also appeared extensively in "The Demolition of Truth: Psychologists Examine 9/11." She was on Progressive Spirit in August 2017. Other episodes in this series include: 1) 9/11 Unmasked: A Conversation with Elizabeth Woodworth and Graeme McQueen 2) 9/11 Unmasked, Part 2: A Conversation with Dwain Deets about Able Danger 3) 9/11 Unmasked, Part 3: David Chandler and the Day of Magical Physics 4) 9/11 Unmasked, Part 4: Fran Shure and the Problem of the Media

In Part 3 of my four-part series on the work of the 9/11 Consensus Panel, I speak with David Chandler about the physics behind the collapse of the three World Trade Center Towers on September 11th, 2001. Why do the buildings look like they came down in controlled demolition by carefully placed explosives? "Because," says David, "That is what happened." He says, "I tell people, you can see what happened with your own eyes, by doing the physics, I am just proving that you're not crazy."The 9/11 Consensus Panel has just published its six-year investigation of best evidence consensus regarding the events surrounding the crimes that took place on September 11th, 2001. Their book released on September 11th, 2018 is called 9/11 Unmasked: An International Review Panel Investigation. Even the distribution of the book has not been without intrigue. While the book was printed and sent to Amazon for distribution by September 11th, the Amazon website (as of September 17th) still says the item is not in stock.  I pre-ordered my copy on August 14th and it arrived September 17th. The publisher says Amazon does have the books. 9/11 Unmasked may be ordered from the publisher, Interlink Books. Edward Curtin, who wrote a review of the book, also wrote a piece about this unusual action by Amazon, Amazon Censorship of 9/11 Unmasked.  Curtin writes:"Readers should demand that Amazon immediately change their website and accept orders to be shipped today. Whether they are responsible for this game of chaotic discouragement or the intelligence services, who are fully capable of hacking into Amazon, as Edward Snowden has pointed out, I do not know. But something very odd is happening and Amazon should correct it." Here also is a review from University of Sheffield Professor, Piers Robinson.David Chandler has a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Harvey Mudd College, a Master of Arts in education, and a Master of Science in mathematics from California Polytechnic University. He recently retired from teaching physics, mathematics, and astronomy at the high school and college levels since 1972, and has now moved to Denver. Since about 2007 he has been active as a researcher with what he calls the "science wing" of the 9/11 Truth Movement. He is currently the Coordinator of Scientists for 9/11 Truth, and worked for several years with Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth. David became involved with the study of the building collapses of the World Trade Center when he realized he could use frame tracking software, which he used in his physics teaching, to measure the various velocities and accelerations associated with the 9/11 building collapses. He is best known for his measurements demonstrating the freefall of WTC 7, proving that NIST’s (National Institute for Science and Technology) claims were false. In its final report NIST changed its analysis of the motion of WTC 7, admitting freefall, but continued to deny its clear implications. David has authored and co-authored a number of scientific papers including "Destruction of the World Trade Center North Tower and Fundamental Physics." He has also created a large number of videos analyzing various aspects of the World Trade Center Collapses and presented them to the public on YouTube. He maintains a web site in collaboration with several other researchers, featuring their collected works, at 911SpeakOut.org.   Part 1: 9/11 Unmasked with Elizabeth Woodworth and Graeme McQueenPart 2: 9/11 Unmasked with Dwain Deets  

Local 9/11 Activist, David Fura, discusses the work of the Oregon 9/11 Truth Action Project David Fura likes street fairs. It gives him an opportunity to talk with people about what happened on September 11th, 2001 and why what happened matters 17 years later. David is the founder of the Oregon 9/11 Truth Action Project, part of the larger 9/11 Truth Action Project or 9/11 TAP. Here is 9/11 TAP’s mission and goal: 9/11 TAP’s mission is to build and mobilize a global grassroots movement to create a groundswell of civic support that achieves transparency and accountability for the crimes of 9/11, justice for its victims, an end to unwarranted wars, and restoration of our civil liberties. The goal of this new movement is to achieve an independent, comprehensive Congressional investigation, by mobilizing and coordinating the efforts of volunteers across the U.S. and abroad, through local Truth Action Groups coordinated at the state, regional, national and international levels. Dave says it is great for mental health to be in the streets educating people about the crimes of 9/11. The Beloved Community is heard live on KBOO/Portland on the second Friday of each month at 9 a.m.

Former NASA engineer explains evidence that an intelligence operation, Able Danger, knew Mohammad Atta was in the US yet was forbidden to share this information with the FBI  This is the second of a four-part series on 9/11, specifically, the work of the 9/11 Consensus Panel, an international 23 person panel of 9/11 researchers. The panel was spearheaded by Dr. David Ray Griffin and Elizabeth Woodworth. They have published a book on their work entitled, 9/11 Unmasked: An International Review Panel Investigation. (Read a review). This is from the book’s cover: 9/11 Unmasked is the result of a six-year investigation by an international review panel, which has provided 51 points illustrating the problematic status of all the major claims in the official account of the 9/11 attacks, some of which are obviously false. Most dramatically, the official account of the destruction of the Twin Towers and World Trade Center 7 could not possibly be true, unless the laws of physics were suspended that day. But other claims made by the official account including the claims that the 9/11 planes were taken over by al-Qaeda hijackers, that one of those hijackers flew his plane into the Pentagon, and that passengers on the planes telephoned people on the ground are also demonstrably false. The book reports only points about which the panel reached consensus by using the best-evidence consensus model employed in medical research. The panel is composed of experts about 9/11 from many disciplines, including physics, chemistry, structural engineering, aeronautical engineering, and jurisprudence. Last week Elizabeth Woodworth and Dr. Graeme MacQueen were my guests to discuss the purpose, goal, and work of the panel as well as address a few of the 51 points including foreknowledgeof world trade center 7’s collapse, eyewitness testimony of explosionsprior to the collapse of the world trade center towers, military drillsthat had been moved to September 11th, and evidence for steelrecovered from world trade center 7’s collapse. This week, I speak with consensus panel member Dwain Deets. Our conversation will focus on the alleged hijackers, including an analysis of whether or not phone callscould have been made from any of the planes, the strange story of Mohammad Atta (or were there two Mohammad Attas?), and, in particular, Able Danger, an 80 person intelligence network that identified an al-Qaeda cell in the Bronx, led by “Mohamed Atta” back in January 2000. You will also hear a portion of an interview I had with David Ray Griffinin which he discusses the work of the panel and evidence showing that Dick Cheney lied about his whereaboutson 9/11. Dwain Deets is the Former Director for Research Engineering and Aerospace Projects at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, where his work earned him the NASA Exceptional Service Award and inclusion in “Who’s Who in Science and Engineering." Deets served as a Director on the Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth Board from 2008 to 2009. He spoke on 9/11-Truth subjects on several occasions. The titles of these presentations include The Puzzling WTC7 Destruction; United 93: A Tale of Two Planes?; 9/11 Consensus Panel; and The Pentagon 757. Part 1: 9/11 Unmasked: A Conversation with Elizabeth Woodworth and Graeme MacQueen about the 9/11 Consensus Panel

This is the first of a four-part series on the new book released by the 9/11 Consensus Panel, 9/11 Unmasked: An International Review Panel Investigation. "9/11 Unmasked is the result of a six-year investigation by an international review panel, which has provided 51 points illustrating the problematic status of all the major claims in the official account of the 9/11 attacks, some of which are obviously false. Most dramatically, the official account of the destruction of the Twin Towers and World Trade Center 7 could not possibly be true, unless the laws of physics were suspended that day. But other claims made by the official account including the claims that the 9/11 planes were taken over by al-Qaeda hijackers, that one of those hijackers flew his plane into the Pentagon, and that passengers on the planes telephoned people on the ground are also demonstrably false.  The book reports only points about which the panel reached consensus by using the best-evidence consensus model employed in medical research. The panel is composed of experts about 9/11 from many disciplines, including physics, chemistry, structural engineering, aeronautical engineering, and jurisprudence."   Panelists in the four-part series include Dwain Deets, Frances Shure, David Chandler, Graeme MacQueen, and Elizabeth Woodworth. In this first episode, Elizabeth Woodworth and Graeme MacQueen discuss the purpose, goal, and methodology of the 9/11 Consensus Panel,  evidence of foreknowledge regarding the collapse of WTC 7,  evidence of witness testimony of explosions in the World Trade Center Towers 1 and 2,  evidence regarding steel recovered from WTC 7,  photographic evidence regarding hijackers,  and evidence of military drills on 9/11.  Elizabeth Woodworth is a researcher and writer on both 9/11 and climate change science and activism. She co-founded the 9/11 Consensus Panel in 2011 with Dr. David Ray Griffin, with whom she has co-authored two books, Unprecedented Climate Mobilization, and 9/11 Unmasked: An International Review Panel Investigation. Elizabeth was head librarian for the British Columbia Ministry of Health from 1978-2002.  She also co-wrote with Peter Carter, Unprecedented Crime: Climate Science Denial and Game-Changers for Survival. Dr. Carter was on Progressive Spirit in June 2018.   Dr. Graeme MacQueen received his Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from Harvard University and became founding Director of the Centre for Peace Studies at McMaster University in Canada. Since his retirement he has carried out research on the War on Terror. In addition to his work on the 9/11 Consensus Panel he has been a co-editor of the Journal of 9/11 Studies and an organizer of the 2011 Toronto Hearings on 9/11. Dr. MacQueen was on Progressive Spirit in 2017.  

In his latest book, America: The Farewell Tour, Chris Hedges shows how the effects of America's decline and decay affects its citizenry. As America sinks further into poverty and despotism, and as corporations and the military-industrial-media complex pirate the remaining assets of a nation that has lost its industry save weapons manufacturing, human beings suffer from gambling addiction, hatred, and violence in the streets. Hedges announces a spiritual call to resist.Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years for The New York Times where he served as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief for the paper. He previously worked overseas for The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor, and NPR. He writes a weekly column for the online magazine Truthdig out of Los Angeles and is host of the Emmy Award­–winning RT America show On Contact. Hedges, who holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard University, is the author of the bestsellers American Fascists, Days of Destruction­, Days of Revolt, and was a National Book Critics Circle finalist for War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. He has taught at Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University, and the University of Toronto. He currently teaches college credit courses in the New Jersey prison system.

In his latest book, America: The Farewell Tour, Chris Hedges shows how the effects of America’s decline and decay affects its citizenry. As America sinks further into poverty and despotism, and as corporations and the military-industrial-media complex pirate the remaining assets of a nation that has lost its industry save weapons manufacturing, human beings suffer from gambling addiction, hatred, and violence in the streets. Hedges announces a spiritual call to resist. Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years for The New York Times where he served as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief for the paper. He previously worked overseas for The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor, and NPR. He writes a weekly column for the online magazine Truthdig out of Los Angeles and is host of the Emmy Award­–winning RT America show On Contact. Hedges, who holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard University, is the author of the bestsellers American Fascists, Days of Destruction­, Days of Revolt, and was a National Book Critics Circle finalist for War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. He has taught at Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University, and the University of Toronto. He currently teaches college credit courses in the New Jersey prison system.

His Eminence the 7th Kyabje Yongzin Ling Rinpoche is on a teaching visit through the West Coast, August 15th through September 19th (See Schedule). He will be in Portland, September 7th through the 10th at the following venues: Gala for Tibet: An Evening with HE Kyabje Yonzin Ling Rinpoche Fundraiser for Sunday Tibetan School Friday, September 7th | 6 - 10 PM NWTCA Lemelson Auditorium Limited seating.  Public Talk: Kindness & Compassion Target Audience: Youth Saturday, September 8th | 10:30 AM - 12 Noon Maitripa College Free but pre-registration required.  Spirituality and Humanity: An Interfaith Conversation on Creating Harmonious Community and Healthy Leadership Saturday, September 8th | 2 - 4 PM University of Portland Free and open to all.  Dolkar Tsewang: White Tara Long Life Empowerment Sunday, September 9th | 9:30 AM - 12 Noon NWTCA Lemelson Auditorium Lojong: 8 Verses of Mind Training Sunday, September 9th | 2 - 4 PM NWTCA Lemelson Auditorium Suggested Donation for Empowerment and Teaching on Sunday, Sept. 9th is $25. Tickets will be sold at the gate. He was born in India on November 18, 1985. He was taken to the Tibetan Children’s Village in Dharamsala, after his mother died, and stayed there until His Holiness the Dalai Lama recognized him as the reincarnation of his Senior Tutor, the 6th Kyabje Yongzin Ling Rinpoche, who passed away in 1983. During this interview, he spoke with John Shuck about leadership, suffering, kindness, and happiness.

Parker J. Palmer, Founder and Senior Partner Emeritus of the Center for Courage & Renewal, is a world-renowned writer, speaker and activist who focuses on issues in education, community, leadership, spirituality and social change. He has reached millions worldwide through his nine books, including Let Your Life Speak, The Courage to Teach, A Hidden Wholeness, and Healing the Heart of Democracy. He is collaborating with singer/songwriter, Carrie Newcomer, in a project called The Growing Edge.  His tenth book is On The Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity, and Getting Old.

Matthew Fox. Silenced by the Vatican for his views, left the Catholic priesthood in the early 1980s. Matthew Fox is a theologian and activist who has written over 30 books. He has introduced millions of people to Creation Spirituality. In 2016 he published A Way to God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey. According to Fox, Merton was assassinated by the CIA. We will talk more about that as well as have a candid conversation about ecology, human rights, capitalism, and resistance. In November 2016 I released an interview with activist, Matthew Fox. This is a rebroadcast of that episode.

Former U.S. Congresswoman (1992-2002, 2004-2006) from Georgia and 2008 Presidential candidate for the Green Party, Dr. Cynthia McKinney, speaks with John Shuck on the Beloved Community. Topics include her entry into politics, racism, the various factions of the Deep State, 9/11, COINTELPRO, media propaganda, Hollywood, the Israel lobby, and the wars. It is an educational hour about what it takes to awaken and “unrig” ourselves from the rigged system of partisan politics and to become activists for truth and goodness. Follow Cynthia McKinney on Twitter.

What is moral?  How has morality changed and how does that effect how we make decisions and evaluate the decisions of others in politics, business, and sex?   In Behaving Badly:  The New Morality in Politics, Sex and Business. Eden Collinsworth embarks on a personal journey to discover morality in a new globalized culture. Eden Collinsworth is a former media executive and business consultant.  She was formerly of Arbor House Publishing Company founder of the LA based monthly magazine Buzzbefore becoming a vice president at Hearst Corporation. She wrote a best-selling book in China for Chinese businesspeople on Western deportment and she launched Collinsworth & Associates, a Bejing based consulting firm which specialized in intercultural communication. This is an encore presentation of an episode that originally aired in April 2017.

Victoria Price, author of Vincent Price: A Daughter's Biography, discusses with John Shuck her latest book, The Way of Being Lost: A Road Trip to My Truest Self. Despite doing “all the right things” to successfully rebuild her life and her finances after a period of deep personal and professional turmoil where she lost almost everything, Victoria Price still felt something profoundly missing from her life. Victoria Price’s inspirational memoir is a heartfelt, candid account of rediscovering her joy and purpose after years of struggle, confusion and hopelessness. Michael P. Daley writes about crime and cultural history. His latest book is Bobby Bluejacket: The Tribe, The Joint, The Tulsa Underworld, the extraordinary true story of a man who went from career thief to prison journalist to Eastern Shawnee activist. Daley's previous books include Enjoy The Experience: Homemade Records 1958–1992, which was featured in BBC, NPR, Vice, Book Forum, Rolling Stone, and was called the greatest music book of the year by Los Angeles Magazine. He was founder/Editor of Parallax News, a digital news service for the 2016 U.S. Election. Michael was also a founding member of Boo-Hooray and Sinecure Books. He has worked on productions for Rizzoli, Four Corners, Zero Books, Brookings, and Warner Brothers.

In this episode I take us back to 2012 for a re-broadcast of interviews with Sarah Sentilles and Eugenie Scott.  In the first part of today’s show, you will hear an interview that first aired in January 2012 with Sarah Sentilles. Sarah Sentilles broke up with the Creator of the Universe just as she was about to be ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church.  She tells all in her book, Breaking Up With God: A Love Story.  In this interview Dr. Sentilles shares her theological journey and demonstrates why if the church is going to have any relevancy to educated and inquiring minds, it is going to need to challenge its patriarchy and its outdated images of God. Eugenie Scott, was  executive director of the National Center for Science Education from 1986 to 2014.  In 2012 she was my guest to discuss the history of the evolution/creationism controversy, and promote the teaching of science. 

In this episode I take us back to 2012 for a re-broadcast of interviews with Michael Zimmerman and Barbara Kingsolver. In the first part of today’s show, you will hear an interview that first aired in February 2012 with Michael Zimmerman, the founder of the Clergy Letter Project and Evolution Weekend.   Over 13 thousand Christian, Jewish, and Unitarian Universalist clergy have signed a letter in support of teaching evolution in public schools.   On the Sunday closest to Darwin’s Birthday faith communities all over the United States celebrate Evolution Weekend by honoring science and religion.  Author Barbara Kingsolver lives in southwest Virginia.  She is the author of 14 books including the The  Poisonwood Bible, The Lacuna, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.  She visited with me at the WEHC studio at Emory and Henry College to discuss her latest novel, Flight Behavior, a novel set in Southern Appalachia.   In part it is about denial and the beliefs that get assigned to us.  

Heart failure, accident, or murder? John Shuck interviews Hugh Turley about the mysterious death of Thomas Merton Investigative Reporter, Hugh Turley, makes the case that the conclusion that Thomas Merton died by accident cannot possibly be true. Hugh Turley and David Martin are co-authors of the 2018 book, The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton, An Investigation.  John Shuck speaks live with Hugh Turley on Beloved Community about the death of Thomas Merton, who was an anti-war author and spiritual leader. He died mysteriously on December 10th, 1968 in Thailand.   "Merton was in apparent good health and at the height of his productive powers when he died suddenly and mysteriously while attending a monastic conference, on December 10th, 1968, near Bangkok, Thailand. He was 53 years old. Up to now, no one has examined the circumstances of his death systematically, critically, and what is most important honestly. That is our purpose here." p. 2. Hugh Turley, as a volunteer columnist for the Hyattsville Life and Times was winner of the National Newspaper Association award for best serious column, small circulation, non-daily division. The Book's website: The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton.

From the Progressive Spirit Archives, here are two interviews from 2012 and 2013.Cultural Anthropologist, Carol Delaney discusses her book, Abraham on Trial: The Social Legacy of Biblical Myth. Dr. Delaney explores the roots of patriarchy by asking the question, what gave Abraham the right to sacrifice Isaac?  What is the legacy of this myth on the way we regard children today? Brene Brown is the author of Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead. Dr. Brene Brown has done research on topics no one wants to discuss, shame and vulnerability. Yet it is through these human experiences that we find the courage to “dare greatly” and become “wholehearted.” In this candid conversation she weaves her own experience with her research and thus inspires us all to live courageous lives.

Why do the powers that be try to convince us that there is a “clash of cultures” or a conflict between Islam and the West or between Islam and Christianity?   To answer that, Dr. John Andrew Morrow discusses his book, The Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the World.  We learn that Christianity and Islam co-existed peacefully with full protections for Christians for 1400 years. These covenants  “uniformly state that Muslims are not to attack peaceful Christian communities, rob them, stop churches from being repaired, tear down churches to build mosques, prevent their Christian wives from going to church and taking spiritual direction from Christian priests and elders, etc. On the contrary, the Prophet commands Muslims to actively protect these communities ‘until the End of the World’.” In this informative conversation we learn about the rise of European Colonialism and its handmaiden, Islamic Fundamentalism (now funded and supported by the U.S., the Saudis, and Israel) and the role of these modern powers in smearing Islam and framing Muslims as “terrorists” for geopolitical interests.  Dr. Morrow invites us to wake up and learn our history. Find his writings on his website, John Andrew Morrow, and learn more about these historic covenants at Covenants of the Prophet. Dr. John Andrew Morrow was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1971. Raised in a multilingual family, he lived in Montreal for ten years and in the Greater Toronto Area for another twenty. The product of a Catholic education, he completed his elementary school in French, his high school in English, and his university studies in English, French, and Spanish. He embraced Islam at the age of 16 after which he adopted the name Ilyas ‘Abd al-‘Alim Islam. After completing his Honors BA, MA, and PhD at the University of Toronto, where he acquired expertise in Hispanic, Native, and Islamic Studies, he pursued post-graduate studies in Arabic in Morocco and the United States. Besides his Western education, Dr. Morrow has completed the full cycle of traditional Islamic seminary studies both independently and at the hands of a series of Sunni, Shi’i, and Sufi scholars. Not only is he a senior scholar, academic, and professor, he is also a respected ‘alim holding the titles of ustadh, duktur, hakim, and shaykh.  Dr. Morrow has spent over a decade and a half in the United States working at various universities including Park University, Northern State University, Eastern New Mexico University, the University of Virginia, and Ivy Tech where he was unanimously appointed to the rank of Full Professor. One of his most noteworthy and memorable experiences involved working as a professor of advanced Spanish, Islamic culture, and world literature for the Institute for Shipboard Education’s Semester at Sea Program. Aside from his academic duties, Dr. John Andrew Morrow is the Director of the Covenants Foundation, an organization dedicated to disseminating traditional, civilizational, Islam; promoting Islamic unity; protecting persecuted Christians; and improving relations between Muslims and members of other faiths. He regularly travels the world to promote peace and justice. Dr. John Andrew Morrow is a Native North American and a proud member of the Metis Nation.

Isaac Butler and Dan Kois take us backstage and behind the scenes of the iconic play, "Angels In America" in their book, The World Only Spins Forward: The Ascent of Angels In America. The book is an oral history, telling the story of the play and its influence from the voices of over 250 actors, actresses, and others who have given Angels In Americaits wings over the past 25 years. According to Isaac Butler, the political and social views of the play are still as relevant in the Trump era as they were in the Reagan era. Angels In Americais currently running on Broadway through July 15th. Isaac Butler is a writer and theater director, most recently of "Real Enemies", which premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Dr. Peter Carter is founder of the Climate Emergency Institute. He has served as an expert reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change’s fifth climate change assessment in 2014. He has also presented on the implications of global climate change on food security for the world's most vulnerable regions and populations at science and policy conferences in Canada, the United States, Europe, Asia and South America. He along with Elizabeth Woodworth, who has written extensively on climate science and activism, have co-written Unprecedented Crime: Climate Science Denial and Game Changers for Survival. They make the case that fossil fuel companies and the banks that fund them have committed and are committing crimes against humanity. They can be stopped.

Anthony Flaccavento was my first guest ever on this program when it was called Religion For Life. I had him on again last year when we discussed his book, Building a Healthy Economy from the Bottom Up: Harnessing Real-World Experience for Transformative Change. He has been a farmer, entrepreneur and consultant for over 30 years. He is on the leading edge of building sustainable economies and communities and he hopes to bring this vision of Rural Progressive Politics to Washington. He is running for congress in Virginia’s Ninth District which encompasses Southwest Virginia. Linda Kohanov is the author of the bestseller, The Tao of Equus. She teaches and speaks internationally. She established Eponaquest Worldwide to explore the healing potential of working with horses and offer programs on everything from emotional and social intelligence, leadership, stress reduction, and parenting to consensus building and mindfulness. We talk about her latest book, The Five Roles of a Master Herder: A Revolutionary Model for Socially Intelligent Leadership. Anthony Flaccavento begins at 2:57.Linda Kohanov begins at 29:16.

Professor Paul Ortiz is Associate Professor of History at the University of Floridaand is Director of the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program.  Professor Ortiz has published and taught in the fields of African American history, Latino Studies, the African Diaspora, Social Movement Theory, U.S. History, U.S. South, labor, and documentary studies. He currently works with students in these and related fields. He has written several books including Emancipation Betrayed: The Hidden History of Black Organizing and White Violence in Florida from Reconstruction to the Bloody Election of 1920 received the 1990 Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Book Prize. His latest book and our topic of discussion today is An African American and Latinx History of the United States.  From Beacon Press: “Incisive and timely, this bottom-up history, told from the interconnected vantage points of Latinx and African Americans, reveals the radically different ways that people of the diaspora have addressed issues still plaguing the United States today, and it offers a way forward in the continued struggle for universal civil rights.” 

It is not unusual to have a Nobel Prize winner write a book. But what about those who lose the Nobel Prize? Not too many write that book. Dr. Brian Keating did. He is an astrophysicist who teaches at the University of California at San Diego.  He almost won the Nobel Prize, but not quite. Professor Brian Keating is an astrophysicist with UC San Diego’s Department of Physics. He and his team develop instrumentation to study the early universe at radio, microwave and infrared wavelengths. He is the author of over 100 scientific publications and holds two U.S. Patents. He received an NSF CAREER award in 2006 and a 2007 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers at the White House from President Bush for a telescope he invented and deployed at the U.S. South Pole Research Station called “BICEP". Professor Keating became a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2016. He co-leads the Simons Array and Simons Observatory Cosmic Microwave Background experiments in the Atacama Desert of Chile, and is the author of Losing the Nobel Prize: A Story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science's Highest Honor.

On April 28th2018, The Husayniah Islamic Society of Seattle sponsored an interfaith educational event called Husayn Day.  The event was a reflection upon Husayn, the martyred grandson of the Prophet Mohammad. Rather than bow to his oppressors, he, along with 72 family members were killed in Karbala, Iraq in 680 CE. He is considered a martyr for justice, truth, love, and resistance. He is a leading figure in Shia Islam and his death is mourned each year by between 15 and 20 million pilgrims who visit his shrine during the forty-day period of mourning from Ashura to Arbaeen. In the these two episodes, you will hear speeches from the presenters on Husayn and the yearly pilgrimage to his shrine. The presenters include, Dr. John Morrow, Sister Nicole Correri, Sheikh Fadhel Al-Salani, Sheik Ahmed Bahriny, Mohammad Baig, and me, John Shuck.  The west is ignorant about Islam and, in particular, Shia Islam and the person of Hussain. Twenty million people visit his shrine each other. This the largest annual gathering of human beings on planet Earth. Yet, Western media ignores it.    In this episode you will hear more about Husayn, and how he is for those who are devoted to him, a door to truth and justice, and how his sacrifice revealed the true Islam, the Islam of love. In this episode you will hear from… Sheikh Fadhel Al-Sahlani.  Shiekh Al-Sahlani is the current leader of the Al-Khoei Foundationin New York. Sheik Ahmed Bahriny. Sheik Ahmed Bahriny is the resident imam and religious director of the Islamic Education Centerin Potomoc, Maryland.  Mohammad Baig. Mohammad Baig leads the Alwalayah Communityin Montclair, California. John Shuck. Minister at Southminster Presbyterian Church, Beaverton, Oregon.  

May 15th marks the 70th anniversary of Israel's statehood. Palestinians refer to this as the Nakba, the Catastrophe, when more than 700,000 Palestinians left their homes from fear or were forcibly removed by Israelis who took their homes. On this 70th anniversary of the occupation, the people of Gaza have been staging a non-violent demonstration, The Great March of Returnthat culminates Tuesday the 15th. According to the Middle Eastern Monitor, "The demonstrations of the Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege started on 30 March 2018. Since then Israeli forces have killed 53 demonstrators and wounded more than 8,500 others." On this special edition of the Beloved Community, John Shuck's guests will speak about the ongoing Nakba for the people of Palestine and Gaza from their unique perspectives. Waddah Sofan was shot and paralyzed by Israeli soldiers during the First Intifada in 1989. Waddah lives in Portland and considers himself "part of Palestinian/American, Muslim, Middle Eastern, people of color and disabled communities." Gilad Atzmon, is a British Jazz artist and author. Gilad was born in Israel in 1963 and trained at the Rubin Academy of Music, Jerusalem (Composition and Jazz). Gilad writes on political matters, social issues,  Jewish identity and culture. He will be in Portland for a jazz concert May 14th and a talk on Truthfulness May 15th. Retired Episcopal priest, Richard Toll, also of Portland, is president of the Board of Trustees of Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA). Rev. Toll received an honorary doctorate from the Church Divinity School of the School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California for his  commitment to justice and peace in the Holy Land.

On April 28th2018, The Husayniah Islamic Society of Seattle and Global Initiatives co-sponsored an interfaith educational event called Husayn Day.  The event was a reflection upon Husayn, the martyred grandson of the Prophet Mohammad. Rather than bow to his oppressors, he, along with 72 family members were killed in Karbala, Iraq in 680 CE. He is considered a martyr for justice, truth, love, and resistance. He is a leading figure in Shia Islam and his death is mourned each year by between 15 and 20 million pilgrims who visit his shrine during the forty-day period of mourning from Ashura to Arbaeen. In the next two episodes, you will hear speeches from the presenters on Husayn and the yearly pilgrimage to his shrine. The presenters include, Dr. John Morrow, Sister Nicole Correri, Sheikh Fadhel Al-Salani, Sheik Ahmed Bahriny, Mohammad Baig, and me, John Shuck.  The West is largely ignorant about Islam and, in particular, Shia Islam and the person of Hussain. Twenty million people visit his shrine each other. This the largest annual gathering of human beings on planet Earth. Yet, Western media ignores it. According to an article in the Huffington Post by Sayed Mahdi al-Modarresi, “World's Biggest Pilgrimage Now Underway, And Why You've Never Heard of it!”  Why you have never heard of it probably has to do with the fact that the press is concerned more with negative, gory, and sensationalized tabloids, than with positive, inspiring narratives, particularly when it comes to Islam. You will hear about it on Progressive Spirit. In this first episode you will hear from Dr. John Morrow, full professor, author, senior research scholar, public speaker and activist. He is author of a number of numerous articles and books including The Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the World. Dr. Morrow provided a stirring poetic spiritual biography of Husayn. You will also hear from Sister Nicole Correri. She is the preeminent female Shia speaker in North America. She will begin a Ph. D. program at Boston University in the Fall.  Sr. Correri told the importance of Zainab, Husayn’s sister, and described her experience attending Arbaeen.  Watch the video of the entire conference. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVcjsmI8oy8&feature=youtu.be&a=

“On May 14th or May 15th the people of Gaza are going to make their big last effort to break out of prison. And it will be a huge mobilization to try to break down that prison fence, that ghetto fence, that concentration camp fence. And we here have to give our all to make sure to do our best to ascertain and to assure that they succeed.” — Dr. Norman Finkelstein Dr. Norman Finkelstein speaks with John Shuck about his book, Gaza: An Inquest Into Its Martyrdom. His book was not a “labor of love.” It is in part a coroner’s report. It is a story, backed with detail and research from one of the world’s leading voices on the Israel-Palestine conflict. It is the story of what happened to Gaza. Gaza, the martyred.  But the story is not without hope. The hope, according to Finkelstein, is non-violent resistance, what Israel dreads most. 

  Rev. Dr. Angela Yarber discusses the revolutionary work of the Holy Women Icons Project. As an intersectionally ecofeminist organization, the Holy Women Icons Project seeks to empower marginalized women and to be an accomplice in the work for justice for ethnic and racial minorities, women, LGBTQs, people with differing abilities, immigrants and refugees, the poor, animals, the earth, and all living at the margins of society. This is the fifth and final episode in my series Revisioning Christianity. The series began with the icon of anastasis and it ends with icons of holy women throughout history, religion, and mythology.Rev. Dr. Angela Yarber is the Founder and Executive Director of the Holy Women Icons Project. The Holy Women Icons Project seeks to empower marginalized women by telling the stories of revolutionary holy women through art, writing, and special events. Noticing a lack of women in iconography, she gave traditional iconography a folk-feminist twist by painting images of revolutionary holy women from history, mythology, and scripture. The Holy Women Icons Project also includes special events, retreats, workshops, lectures, sermons, and worship series related to these revolutionary holy women. And in 2017, HWIP began creating a retreat center on Hawaii Island to house these special events, artwork, and writings.  Dr. Yarber speaks with John Shuck about her own journey toward simplicity, a renewed vocation, and her vision for queering the church by making the church fully inclusive and empowering for all people. She discusses her move to Hawaii with her wife and child, turning Holy Women Icons Project into a non-profit, her work in building self-esteem among adolescent girls, traversing grief, and honoring the stories of queer women of color through the Holy Women Icons Project. You can see and hear more of their story on the television show, Tiny House Nation. Rev. Dr. Yarber holds a Ph.D. in Art and Religion and is author of seven books that address the intersections among gender/sexuality, religion/spirituality, and the arts. An ordained, queer clergywoman, she served local churches for fourteen years, and she has taught graduate and undergraduate students since 2006. Her books include Microaggressions in Ministry, Holy Women Icons, Holy Women Icons Contemplative Coloring Book, The Gendered Pulpit, Dance in Scripture, Tearing Open the Heavens, & Embodying the Feminine in the Dances of the World's Religions. Other guests in the series, Revisioning Christianity include: John Dominic Crossan, Resurrecting Easter: How the West Lost and the East kept the Original Easter Vision, Bart Ehrman:  The Triumph of Christianity: How A Forbidden Religion Swept the World, David Skrbina: The Jesus Hoax: How St. Paul’s Cabal Fooled the World for Two Thousand Years, andBishop John Shelby Spong: Unbelievable: How Neither Ancient Creeds nor the Reformation Can Produce a Living Faith Today.All of those interviews are available on podcast at Progressive Spirit. 

Bishop John Shelby Spong has been on the leading edge of progressive Christianity. Over the decades he has shared his own honest journey with faith, doubt, and social activism as an Episcopal priest, bishop, and author. Some of his many books include: Living in Sin? A Bishop Rethinks Human Sexuality, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture, and Why Christianity Must Change or Die: A Bishop Speaks to Believers in Exile. He is the author of the newly released, Unbelievable: Why Neither Ancient Creeds Nor the Reformation Can Produce a Living Faith Today. This conversation with Bishop Spong is the fourth of five interviews in my series, Revisioning Christianity. Already we heard from John Dominic Crossan, Resurrecting Easter: How the West Lost and the East kept the Original Easter Vision, Bart Ehrman, author of The Triumph of Christianity: How A Forbidden Religion Swept the World, and David Skrbina: The Jesus Hoax: How St. Paul’s Cabal Fooled the World for Two Thousand Years. Next week, I speak with Angela Yarber about the Holy Women Icons Project. All of those interviews are available on podcast at Progressive Spirit.

The rising threat to free speech, Muslim-Christian dialogue, and LGBTQ+ advocacy. John Shuck’s guests include Jeremy Rothe-Kushel. Nicole Correri, and Brett Webb-Mitchel. **I will also be speaking with Lyn Neeley about the action Saturday in Portland Against U.S. Wars at Home and Abroad.** Saturday, April 14, 1 PM, Rally: Waterfront Park, Battleship Memorial (Naito pkwy, Oak & Pine). March to Saturday Market. Jeremy Rothe-Kushel talks about being arrested in a library for simply exercising his free speech rights. Charges against him eventually were dropped. The librarian who defended him also was arrested, injured, and ultimately, acquitted.  We will discuss free speech and public spaces. Nicole Correri is the pre-eminent Shia speaker in North America. She will be talking about the legacy of Imam Husayn and her work in Muslim-Christian relations. Brett Webb-Mitchell is an openly gay Presbyterian minister and pastor of Community of the Pilgrims Presbyterian Church in Portland. He has just been named the LBGTQ+ Advocacy Coordinator for the Oregon-Idaho Conference of the United Methodist Church. — Bios: Jeremy Rothe-Kushel has a background in politics – from local to international, officeholder to activist – with experience in community organizing, mediajamming, documentary journalism and consensus-building in deep politics, economics and ecologics. Jeremy aims to coalesce a partisan-transcendent and permaculturally-informed #FullSpectrumPopulist #IntegralPolitics from the #RadicalMiddle with a #WeThePeoplePlatform and #CoalitionCabinet. He is working on a documentary project titled “September Eleventh Uncoverage” based on a decade of his investigative research, activism and experience of covering and uncovering the 9/11 cover-up. Rothe-Kushel has put public figures across the political spectrum “on the record” about vital issues that are often controversial and always emancipatory. Some of his journalistic encounters include Michael Hayden, John Yoo, Joe Biden, Eric Holder, Mike Pompeo, Kris Kobach, Ron Paul, Alex Jones, Jay Rockefeller, Ted Turner, Jill Stein and Amy Goodman. Jeremy has a working background in permaculture design and implementation, and future-roots music production, performance and education.  While at Williams College completing his B.A. in Religion, he founded and over the next decade taught an original approach to musical education called “HipHop Empowerment”, with students of diverse ages and backgrounds from the Bronx to Boston, Southern Vermont to South Los Angeles. Although he believes that well mineralized and microbialized, high-carbon humus might help solve most humanity’s problems, Jeremy currently sees that the “invisible domain” of politics, culture, multimedia, law, deliberative deep democracy and cooperative startup economics contains key elements to assemble and strategic means necessary to that ‘soilutionary’ end. You can hear Jeremy on No Lies Radio and on the Pacifica Radio Network: False Flag Weekly News and Antedote. — Nicole Correri, the preeminent female Shia speaker in North America, considers herself a student of Islam and a follower of the Ahl al-Bayt (as). Before graduating with Honors in M. Ed. in Counseling from George Mason University, she received her B.A. in Psychology, Minor in Early Childhood Education from George Washington University, graduating Summa Cum Laude. She is a member of numerous academic honor societies, including Phi Beta Kappa. Nicole is a powerful public speaker who motivates her audience to embody Islam in practical, relevant, and meaningful ways.  With her solid academic background and passion for the religion, she brings a unique perspective to her audience with the goals of inspiration, education, and transformation.  Her work stems out of the gap she felt and observed for the English speaking Muslims in the West to make sense of religion in their context and  lived realities.  She is interested in an intellectual and inspirational approach to faith and articulates a practical theology with a sensibility for social, gender, and ethical justice.  Nicole is also committed to inter and intra-faith work, cultivating our shared humanity and bringing people together for the common good.  She continues to study Arabic with the Fawakih Institute since 2012 and as of Spring 2016 will be finishing up her Master’s degree in Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary and has been accepted into the Ph.D. program in the Religion Department at Boston University. — Brett Webb-Mitchell , LGBTQ+ Advocacy Coordinator for the Oregon-Idaho Conference of the United Methodist Church He was an assistant professor of Christian nurture at United Methodist founded Duke Divinity School and now serves as an ordained pastor serving Community of Pilgrims Presbyterian Church in Portland. In addition to this, he’s written several books on the topics of human sexuality, Christian growth and what it means to be a gay parent. Book titles include: “Practicing Pilgrimage: Beyond Accessibility” and “Follow Me: Christian Growth on the Pilgrim’s Way.” Webb-Mitchell and his partner, Dan, have been together for 22 years, have two adult children and one grandchild on the way.

Dr. David Skrbina makes the case that Christianity started as a hoax by Paul: "Jesus of Nazareth is one of the most famous men in history.  There are good reasons to believe that he walked the earth some two thousand years ago, and was eventually crucified. But what about Jesus Christ, son of God?  What if he never existed?  What if the divine, virgin-born, resurrected Jesus Christ was a myth, a lie—even a hoax?  That would have huge implications for modern-day Christianity; it would mean that there is a gigantic falsehood at the core of the religion of some two billion people.In this book, Dr. David Skrbina presents a profound and stunning theory:  that St. Paul and a band of friends constructed a ‘Jesus hoax.’  They took a kernel of truth based on Jesus, the man, and turned him into the divine savior of humanity.  They did so as a way to strike back at the hated Roman Empire, and to undermine its strength among the common people."That is from the back cover of The Jesus Hoax: How St. Paul's Cabal Fooled the World for Two Thousand Years by Dr. David Skrbina. https://www.davidskrbina.com/jesus-hoax   This is the third part of series on Revisioning Christianity. Different scholars bring different views to help us understand the history of Christianity and its future. How did Christianity become empire’s religion? Is it believable today? Was it ever believable? Does it yet have a message to inspire peace and justice? Or is it the result of a malicious hoax and a bad idea?  John Shuck’s five guests include 1) Bart Ehrman, author of the newly released, The Triumph of Christianity: How A Forbidden Religion Swept the World,2) John Dominic Crossan, who with his wife, Sarah Sexton Crossan have just released Resurrecting Easter: How the West Lost and the East Kept the Original Easter Vision. 3) John Shelby Spong, author of the newly released, Unbelievable: Why Neither Ancient Creeds Nor the Reformation Can Produce a Living Faith Today, 4) Angela Yarber, creator of the Holy Women Icons Project, and this week,5) David Skrbina, author of the newly released, The Jesus Hoax: How St. Paul’s Cabal Fooled the World for Two Thousand Years, Dr. David Skrbina is a senior lecturer in philosophy at the University of Michigan, Dearborn, where he's taught since 2003.  His areas of expertise are philosophy of mind, philosophy of technology, and history of religion. Professor Skrbina's books include Panpsychism in the West, The Metaphysics of Technology and Mind that Abides.   Professor Skrbina corresponded extensively with Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, and in 2010 published Technological Slavery. This was the first book written by Ted Kaczynski.  It contains the only corrected version of his manifesto, five previously unpublished essays, and about 100 pages of letters to Dr. Skrbina. Dr. Skrbina is a pioneer in eco-philosophy encompassing ethics, metaphysics, and cosmology and is Deputy Director of the Eco-Philosophy Center. He ran for Lieutenant Governor for the state of Michigan in 2006 with the Green Party. He has a master’s degree in Mathematics and a Ph. D. In philosophy. 

Bart Ehrman asks how did a religion that began with a small group of illiterate day laborers become the dominant religion of the Roman Empire in just three centuries? What was gained and what was lost when the Roman Empire became the Christian Roman Empire? This is the second part of series on Revisioning Christianity. Different scholars bring different views to help us understand the history of Christianity and its future. How did Christianity become empire’s religion? Was Christianity a hoax? Is it believable today? Does it yet have a message to inspire peace and justice?  John Shuck's five guests include 1) John Dominic Crossan, who with his wife, Sarah Sexton Crossan have just released Resurrecting Easter: How the West Lost and the East Kept the Original Easter Vision. 2) John Shelby Spong, author of the newly released, Unbelievable: Why Neither Ancient Creeds Nor the Reformation Can Produce a Living Faith Today, 3) David Skrbina, author of the newly released, The Jesus Hoax: How St. Paul’s Cabal Fooled the World for Two Thousand Years, 4) Angela Yarber, creator of the Holy Women Icons Project, and this week, 5) Bart Ehrman, author of the newly released, The Triumph of Christianity: How A Forbidden Religion Swept the World,   Bart Ehrman is a leading authority on the New Testament and the history of early Christianity. He is the author of more than 30 books and is Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He has been on my program three times previously. Previously we discussed his books, Did Jesus Exist? Jesus Before the Gospels, and How Jesus Became God. Today we explore the question, “How did Christianity triumph?” His book is The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World.

John Shuck begins a five-part series on Revisioning Christianity. How did Christianity triumph? Was it a hoax? Is it unbelievable? Does it yet have a message to inspire peace and justice?  My five guests include Bart Ehrman, author of the newly released, The Triumph of Christianity: How A Forbidden Religion Swept the World, John Shelby Spong, author of the newly released, Unbelievable: Why Neither Ancient Creeds Nor the Reformation Can Produce a Living Faith Today, David Skrbina, author of the newly released, The Jesus Hoax: How St. Paul's Cabal Fooled the World for Two Thousand Years, Angela Yarber, creator of the Holy Women Icons Project, and starting us off, John Dominic Crossan, who with his wife, Sarah Sexton Crossan have just released Resurrecting Easter: How the West Lost and the East Kept the Original Easter Vision. Professor John Dominic Crossan is regarded as the foremost historical Jesus scholar of our time. He is the author of 30 or so books including his hugely influential, The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant. This is the third time Professor Crossan has been on Progressive Spirit. Previously on this show we discussed his books, The Power of Parable: How Fiction by Jesus became fiction about Jesus, and How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian: Struggling with Divine Violence from Genesis Through Revelation. In this episode, we discuss how the vision of Easter as depicted in the Eastern iconography of Anastasis "rising up" symbolizes non-violent resistance to empire.Re

Johann Hari suffered from depression since he was a child and took anti-depressants as a teenager because he was told that depression is the result of a chemical imbalance in the brain. He went on a quest to see if this is really the case. In his book,  Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression—and the Unexpected Solutions, he discusses that journey. He interviewed many social scientists who are uncovering evidence that depression and anxiety are largely caused by key problems with the way we live today not brain chemistry. Johann Hari is a New York Times best-selling author. His book, Chasing the Scream: the First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, has been translated into 15 languages and is currently being adapted into a major Hollywood film, and into a non-fiction documentary series. He is one of the most-viewed TED talkers of all time: his talk, ‘Everything You Think You Know About Addiction is Wrong’, has (along with the animation based on it) been viewed more than 20 million times. He has written over the past seven years for some of the world’s leading newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, the Spectator, Le Monde Diplomatique, the Melbourne Age, and Politico. He has also appeared on leading TV shows, including HBO’s Realtime With Bill Maher. He was twice named ‘National Newspaper Journalist of the Year’ by Amnesty International. He has also been named ‘Cultural Commentator of the Year’ and ‘Environmental Commentator of the Year’ at the Comment Awards.

In 1957, Melba Patillo Beals, was one of nine African-American high school students chosen to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. She became a journalist, professor, author, and at the age of 52 adopted twin sons. In her book, I Will Not Fear: My Story of a Lifetime of Building Faith Under Fire, she tells her life story and how the faith she received from her grandmother grew and became her source of strength and inspiration. In the interview, she takes us back to LIttle Rock in 1957. She recounts the hostility of the white mob, the overt and violent racism she encountered, and the 'angels' who helped her along the way. 

On February 3rd, 2018, Roots of Conflict and KBOO/Portland, co-sponsored a presentation at Portland State University called US-Saudi Coalition: Bringing Peace or War?  In this episode you will hear from Yemeni activist, Aisha Jumaan and Mohammad al-Nimr, son of executed Sheik Nimr. They speak boldly and clearly about the Saudi war crimes against Yemen that are assisted by the United States and the United Kingdom. Dr. Aisha Jumaanis a public-health specialist working as a consultant on heath-related projects in Yemen. She offered a statistically detailed presentation of the human catastrophe going on in Yemen, as a result of the Saudi imposed war on that ancient country. More than fourteen million people require immediate humanitarian assistance and seven million are at risk of famine. Dr. Jumaan is the President of Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation.Mohammad Al-Nimr, the son of Shia cleric, Shikh Nimr al-Nimr, who was executed by the Saudis for speaking out against Saudi human rights abuses, also spoke about the history of the formation of Saudi Arabia, its control by the royal family and Wahhabism and US complicity in the House of Sauds wars of aggression. Special thanks to David Rogers for recording the event and giving Progressive Spirit permission to edit it for radio broadcast.

Ira Israel is a licensed professional clinical counselor and a licensed marriage and family therapist. He has graduate degrees in philosophy, religious studies, and psychology. He has a private practice in Santa Monica, California as well as on-line coaching. He leads workshops at the Esalen Institute and throughout the United States. He has 28 years of experience working in various capacities with award-winning filmmakers, musicians, artists, and writers. His website is www.iraisrael.com. We discuss his book, How to Survive Your Childhood Now that You’re An Adult: A Path to Authenticity and Awakening and an article, “How The Internet Engendered The Fall of Consumer-Based Capitalism and the Rebirth of Democracy: A Brief History of the Future,”  He writes:  “My mission is to inspire you to be your best self and live an extraordinary and satisfying life full of supportive relationships, intimacy, love, creative expression, authentic communications, a thriving career, mental and emotional wellness, and a healthy balance of work and pleasure.”

Dr. Samuel Harrington, MD, is the author of At Peace: Choosing a Good Death After a Long Life. In this important book, which James Fallows of The Atlantic calls “deeply humane,”  he argues the case for taking a clear-eyed yet compassionate view towards the end of life. Most people say they would like to die quietly at home. But overly aggressive medical advice, coupled with an unrealistic sense of invincibility, results in the majority of elderly patients misguidedly dying in institutions while undergoing painful procedures, instead of having a better and more peaceful death they desired.  Dr. Harrington is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Wisconsin Medical School. Professionally, he concentrated his practice at Sibley Memorial Hospital also served on the board of a nonprofit hospice in Washington, D.C. He also listened to his parents when they were facing end of life decisions and helped them enter this period of their lives peacefully, while being able to live at home. It was these two experiences together that prompted his desire to write this book. AT PEACE outlines specific active and passive steps that older patients and their health care proxies can take to insure loved ones pass their last days comfortably at home and/or in hospice, when further aggressive care is inappropriate.

  Many of us have grown up watching The Ten Commandments on television. Each year we would watch Charlton Heston kill an Egyptian, rescue Midianite damsels, confront the Pharaoh with amazing miracles and the lead the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt and through the Red Sea. Is the whole thing fiction? Did the exodus even happen? Premier biblical scholar, Richard Elliot Friedman makes the case for the exodus as an event in history. He is the author of The Exodus: How It Happened and Why It Matters.   Plus I speak with the creator of the radio show, Keeping Kurrent, Wayne Potter and Pam Brown.  They share their observations of Israel/Palestine from a traveler’s perspective. Friedman :02-42Potter/Brown :42-54

Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth (AE911truth) now has nearly three thousand professional engineers and architects calling for a new investigation into the destruction of the three World Trade Center towers on 9/11. Founder of AE911Truth, Richard Gage, AIA talks about the history of the movement, the basic facts, and the big question: will Americans ever be able to accept truths that upset their image of the world? Mr. Gage is betting they can and that Building Seven will be the eye-opener. This is the sixth in my series on 9/11. Links to the others in the series are below: 1) Fran Shure: "Why Good People Become Silent (Or Worse) About 9/11" 2) David Ray Griffin: "How Bush and Cheney Ruined America and the World" 3) Niels Harrit: "The Science Behind the Collapse of the Three World Trade Center Towers on 9/11" 4) Graeme MacQueen | "9/11: The Pentagon’s B Movie" 5) David Chandler: "The Mystery and Physics of World Trade Center Building Seven"   Richard Gage, AIA, is a San Francisco Bay Area architect of 28 years, a member of the American Institute of Architects, and the founder and CEO of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth (AE911Truth), a 501(c)(3) educational charity.  Since AE911Truth was launched in 2006, more than 2,850 architects and engineers with verified academic degrees and in most cases professional licenses have signed its petition calling for a new investigation into the destruction of World Trade Center Towers 1, 2, and 7, citing overwhelming evidence that they were in fact destroyed by controlled demolition. The organization also represents more than 21,500 other petition signers in the US and abroad.  During his architectural career, Gage has worked on most types of building construction, including numerous fire-proofed, steel-framed buildings. His most recent project before he became the full-time CEO of AE911Truth was managing the construction documents for a $400M mixed-use urban project with 1.2 million square feet of retail and 320,000 square feet of mid-rise office space and parking structure — consisting of about 1,200 tons of steel framing.  Gage began his quest for the truth about the collapse of the WTC high-rises after hearing on the radio the startling conclusions of reluctant 9/11 researcher David Ray Griffin. Since founding Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, Gage has delivered his live multimedia presentation 9/11: Blueprint for Truth more than 550 times in 44 foreign countries and 110 American cities to audiences ranging from four to 4,000. He has appeared in more than 600 radio and television spots.

John Shuck speaks with Glenn Montogomery. He is the executive director of  Vision Action Network.  The mission of Vision Action Network is "to engage stakeholders across sectors to collaboratively address critical issues in Washington County.” Some of those issues  include income inequality, cultural diversity, and housing and houselessness. We will also discuss initiatives such as Washington County Thrives that "is focused on a comprehensive, long-term investment strategy in proven programs that support people on their path to self-sufficiency."  This was originally broadcast live on KBOO/Portland on February 9, 2018. John hosts the Beloved Community on KBOO every second Friday from 9-10 am. 

Andreas Weber is a Berlin-based philosopher, biologist, and writer. He holds degrees in marine biology and cultural studies. He proposes the development of a “poetic ecology” which intimately attaches our species to every being and underpins the entire range of human experience. He argues that feelings and emotions, far from being superfluous to the study of organisms, are the very foundation of life. His books in English include: Enlivenment: Towards a Fundamental Shift in the Concepts of Nature, Culture and Politics (2013); The Biology of Wonder: Aliveness, Feeling, and the Metamorphosis of Science (2016); and Biopoetics: Towards an Existential Ecology (2016). Weber regularly contributes to major newspapers and magazines, such as National Geographic and has won a number of awards for his writing. His latest book and our subject today is Matter and Desire: An Erotic Ecology.  

The election of Donald Trump came as a shock to many. But others saw it as the culmination of a decades-long effort to uproot and destabilize America’s democratic government. My guests come from two different generations but with a similar viewpoint and quest to empower Americans to leave despair behind and embrace the new democracy movement.    Frances Moore Lappe’s 18 books include the three million copy Diet for a Small Planet, described by the Smithsonian as “one of the most influential political tracts of the times.”  Adam Eichen is a writer, researcher, and political organizer working to build a democracy that empowers all voices in society. Adam is a Democracy Fellow at Small Planet Institute and on the board of directors of Democracy Matters. They are co-authors of Daring Democracy: Igniting Power, Meaning and Connection for the America We Want.

This is the podcast version of a live broadcast that aired January 12th on KBOO/Portland.  John Shuck spoke with Catherine Shakdam, Scott Bennett, and Aisha Jumaan.  They will be three of the headliners at a conference taking place at Portland State University on February 3rd, entitled, "U.S. - Saudi Coalition: Bringing Peace or War?" The conference is hosted by Roots of Conflict.  Joining John in the studio was Hanan Alzubaidy and Manijeh Mehrnoosh, who are hosting the conference.-- Catherine Shakdam has been instrumental in breaking media silence over Yemen’s war.  She is the author of Arabia’s Rising – Under The Banner Of The First Imam, A Tale Of Grand Resistance – Yemen, the Wahhabi, and the House of Saud, and From Mecca to Karbala – Walking with the Holy household of the Prophet. Scott Bennett is a former US Psychological Operations-Counterterrorism Analyst. He is a whistleblower and the author of Shell Game: A Military Whistleblowing Report to Congress.  Aisha Jumaan is a public-health specialist working as a consultant on heath-related projects in Yemen. Jumaan worked at PATH directing their HPV vaccine project from 2008-2010; at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 1995-2008; and as a CDC consultant from 2010-2012.

White born-again or evangelical Christians and white Catholics strongly supported Donald Trump for president. To what extent does this vote represent Christian values? What would happen if Jesus were in the White House? What would be our priorities as a nation if the values of the historical Jesus guided our budget and our actions and ethics? Ursuline College Professor, Gina Messina, asks these questions and talks with host John Shuck about her book, Jesus in the White House: Make Humanity Great Again. Gina Messina is Associate Professor of Religion and Gender Studies at Ursuline College and Co-founder of Feminism and Religion. Gina is the author or editor of five books including Rape Culture and Spiritual Violence, co-editor (with Rosemary Radford Ruether) of Feminism and Religion in the 21st Century, and Co-editor Faithfully Feminist: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Feminists on Why We Stay.

California has legalized recreational use of marijuana. The law went into effect January 1st, 2018. Meanwhile, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recently stated that he is rescinding the Cole Memo which had protected states from federal interference regarding cannabis laws. Dr. Richard Miller talks with me about the history of marijuana suppression and the suppression of other psychedelic medicines and the harm this oppression has caused. His latest book is Psychedelic Medicine: The Healing Powers of LSD, MDMA, Psilocybin, and Ayahuasca.Dr. Richard Miller has been a clinical psychologist for more than 50 years. He is host of the syndicated talk radio show, Mind, Body, Health & Politics.  He has been on the faculty at the University of Michigan and Stanford University. He was an advisor on the President’s commission on mental health, a founding board member of the Gestalt Institute of San Francisco, and a member of the national board of directors for the Marijuana Policy Project.Also, web developer, Timothy Michel, explains the FCC's decision to throttle Net Neutrality, how this will change the way we use the net, and what action Congress can take before February 15th to reverse this decision. Interview with Miller starts at 10:05. 

Brad Warner is a Soto Zen priest. He also plays bass for the punk band, Zero Defex. And he plays a zen priest named Brad in the important film, Zombie Bounty Hunter, M.D. He also has a curious interest in the 13th century Japanese Zen Master, Dogen. He is in the process of translating Dogen’s work for a modern audience.  In the course of the hour, we are going to explore a lot of stuff including Brad Warner's two books based on Dogen’s work. They are Don’t Be A Jerk and Other Practical Advice from Dogen, Japan’s Greatest Zen Master and It Came from Beyond Zen! More Practical Advice from Dogen, Japan’s Greatest Zen Master.  Brad’s website is hardcorezen.infoBrad Warner is a Zen priest, filmmaker, blogger, and Japanese monster-movie marketer. He’s the author of Hardcore Zen; Sit Down & Shut Up; Sex, Sin & Zen; and most recently, There Is No God and He Is Always with You. The Huffington Post recently named him one of the top Buddhists to follow on Twitter and his writing appears in media ranging from Tricycle and Shambhala Sun to Suicidegirls.

Stephen Gray is the author of Cannabis and Spirituality:  An Explorer’s Guide to an Ancient Plant Spirit Ally.  On October 1st, 2015, Oregon joined Washington and Colorado as the third state to legalize recreational use of cannabis.     Now that it is easy as going to one of the many cannabis shops in the state and choosing from a wide selection of strains, many who perhaps haven’t used cannabis since college or are curious and using it for the first time  may have many questions about the plant.   Many misconceptions about cannabis abound.   It is much maligned and misunderstood.  Today we will address questions such as: What are its effects?  What is a good dosage?  Why do some people have negative experiences with it (such as paranoia or anxiety)?  Is it addictive?   Is it good for society to legalize cannabis?    We are also going to talk about the spirituality of cannabis.   How can cannabis be an ally in spiritual practice?   I also speak with Michael Eric Dyson, author of Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America about police brutality, racism and the killing of teenager Quanice Hayes by Portland police.  Here is a letter I had published in the Oregonian and the Portland Tribune about the murder of Quanice Hayes and the failure of the grand jury to indict the officer, Andrew Hearst of the Portland Police Department. Also, a piece about it on my blog. 

During one year, 1967, it seemed possible that the world could be transformed by peace, love, and meditation. The assassinations, violence, and polarization of 1968 hadn’t happened, and the hippies were exploring spirituality and social justice.   Danny Goldberg takes us back to 1967, to the music, the acid, Jefferson Airplane, Allen Ginsburg, Black Power, and Muhammad Ali.  He is the author of How the Left Lost Teen Spirit and Bumping into Geniuses: MY Life Inside the Rock and Roll Business. Danny Goldberg is president of Gold Village entertainment and author of the book we will discuss today: In Search of the Lost Chord: 1967 and the Hippie Idea. 

Jann Aldredge-Clanton didn't start out as a reformer. When she was a pre-teen, she almost starved herself to death trying to fit into the culture's feminine mold. In high school she felt inadequate because she never won a beauty crown, even though she graduated at the top of her class. Slowly, she began waking up to her own voice, and became one of the first women ever to be ordained as a Baptist minister in the South. She is the author of several books including hymnbooks in which she writes hymns in honor of the divine feminine. Her books include: Intercultural Ministry: Hope for a Changing World, Earth Transformed with Music! Inclusive Songs for Worship, Inclusive Hymns for Liberating Christians, and Inclusive Hymns for Liberation, Peace, and Justice.  Brent Landau of the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Landau and his colleague, Geoffrey Smith have made a discovery of an ancient apocryphal text in which Jesus shares secret revelations to his brother James.  Dr. Landau speaks to me about the significance of this discovery. Brent Landau is a lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies. He received his Th.D and M.Div from Harvard University and his chief research is on ancient Christian apocryphal writings.     Brent Landau 3:00 - 14:08 Jann Aldredge-Clanton 14:08-54:00

Les Jamieson was live with John Shuck on Friday morning December 8th on KBOO’s The Beloved Community to discuss Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that is set to expire on Dec. 31st, 2017. This is the language which allows for warrantless spying on all Americans by the NSA. According to Mr. Jamieson, a vote could be taken before recess on December 15th on bills to extend Section 702 and make warrantless spying legal and permanent. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden has proposed legislation to reform 702 and add safeguards to protect civil liberties. Wyden’s Bill is called The USA Rights Act. In this episode Les Jamieson discussed NSA, Edward Snowden, spying, whistleblower William Binney (who is featured in Oliver Stone’s “A Good American”), and the software he created, “Thin Thread” would have done the work of foreign surveillance while protecting the privacy of Americans. It was discontinued three weeks before 9/11. Les Jamieson is the founder of www.hr14.org

  Jorge Cham and Daniel Whiteson have co-authored We Have No Idea: A Guide to The Unknown Universe. Jorge Cham is the creator of PHD Comics and Daniel Whiteson is a particle physicist at the University of California Irvine. In this book they explain everything we DON'T know about the Universe, from Cosmic Rays and Dark Matter to time travel and the Big Bang. Filled with their popular infographics, cartoons, and clear and entertaining explanations, this book is perfect for anyone who's curious about science and all the big questions we still haven't answered.  Plus, a new segment, Progressive Short, a five minute news report on issues that matter. This week, Les Jamieson talks with John Shuck about Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that is set to expire on Dec. 31st, 2017. This is the language which allows for warrantless spying on all Americans by the NSA. According to Mr. Jamieson, there is legislation before congress to extend Section 702 and make warrantless spying legal and permanent. More information about the call to action to end this extention is found at his website, HR14.org.  Les Jamieson 3:41 - 9:37 Cham and Whiteson 9:37-53:00   

Ian Morgan Cron is a bestselling author, Enneagram teacher, nationally recognized speaker, psychotherapist, and Episcopal priest. His books include the novel Chasing Francis and spiritual memoir Jesus, My Father, the CIA, and Me. Ian draws on an array of disciplines—from psychology to the arts, Christian spirituality to theology—to help people enter more deeply into conversation with God and the mystery of their own lives.  Suzanne Stabile is an internationally recognized Enneagram Master. Suzanne has conducted over 500 Enneagram workshops over the past 25 years. She has spoken to College audiences  and churches and she teaches regularly in the Baylor Health Care System, in Dallas, Texas.Ian Cron and Suzanne Stabile are co-authors of The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery. Originally from Omaha, Nebraska, Chris studied at Asbury University in Kentucky before moving to India where he was mentored by Mother Teresa for three years. While living in India, he helped launch South Asia's first pediatric AIDS care home--creating a safe haven for children impacted by the global pandemic. It was in the slums of Cambodia that Chris was introduced to the Enneagram. Since then, he has trained under Enneagram masters such as Father Richard Rohr, Russ Hudson, marion Gilbert and Helen Palmer. He teaches the Enneagram in workshops and retreats around the world and is an International Enneagram Association Accredited Professional.  In 2012 Chris and his spouse, Phileena, launched Gravity, a Center for Contemplative Activism. He speaks with John Shuck about his book, The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path to Spiritual Growth. Ian Cron and Suzanne Stabile 2:48 - 16:58Christopher Heueretz             16:58 - 53 

Professor of Philosophy at Columbia, Phillip Kitcher, talks with host John Shuck about how if human beings hope to survive the looming climate catastrophes, we will need to talk it out, one to one, in families, neighborhoods, and social gatherings. The power of grassroots democracy is the theme in the latest book he co-wrote with MIT philosopher Evelyn Fox-Keller, The Seasons Alter: How to Save the Planet in Six Acts.Matt Alford along with Tom Secker have exposed new evidence that the national security state led by the Pentagon and the CIA have forced script changes on over 800 Hollywood movies and over a thousand network television shows to cover-up crimes and to manipulate US citizens. The authors show that Hollywood and Washington are part of a system that is hard-wired to encourage American global supremacy and frequently the use of state violence. They document it all in their new book, National Security Cinema: The Shocking New Evidence of Government Control in Hollywood.

The Broken Country is a book-length essay on cultural trauma and the inter-generational legacies of war. In 2012, a young Vietnamese man named Kiet Thanh Ly walked into a downtown Salt Lake City megastore, purchased a knife, and began stabbing white male passersby in the parking lot, purportedly in revenge for the war in Vietnam: a war that, due to Ly's age, he never immediately experienced.The Broken Country explores how Ly's case, and the case of other recent immigrant and refugee perpetrators of violent crimes, may be at the heart of a larger discussion of war's trauma, historical memory, cultural assimilation, and identity: issues that refugees and veterans alike must face when repatriating after war. Through investigative reporting, cultural criticism, oral history and personal reflection, The Broken Country considers the sheer number of people psychologically wounded by violence.Paisley Rekdal is the author of a book of essays, "The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee,"and four books of poetry: "A Crash of Rhinos," "Six Girls Without Pants," "The Invention of the Kaleidoscope" and "Animal Eye." She has won numerous prizes for her poetry. She teaches at the University of Utah, where she is also the creator and editor of the community web project"Mapping Salt Lake City."In May 2017, she was named Utah's Poet Laureate. Her latest book released in September 2017 is, The Broken Country: On Trauma, Crime, and the Continuing Legacy of Vietnam.

This is the fifth episode in my series on 9/11. These are interviews with those who are speaking out about the 9/11 false flag and cover up. These are scientists and scholars who are showing us that the science supports what we see with our own eyes, that the three World Trade Center Towers collapsed due to controlled demolition.  I have spoken with psychotherapist, Frances Shure, who is writing a series of articles entitled,"Why Do Good People Become Silent or Worse About 9/11?" We talked about the psychological blocks that keep us from information that shakes our world view.I have also spoken with David Ray Griffin about his book, Bush and Cheney: How They Ruined America and the World. He details the lies that we all know were told by the Bush administration in leading the US to a global war on terror and all that has resulted including the shredding of the constitution, killer drones, torture, and the toppling of governments. Griffin shows that this destruction is based on lies and miracles and asserts that until we face the truth of 9/11, we will be powerless to address the destruction the US continues to unleash on the world.Dr. Niels Harrit was also in my 9/11 series to discuss the chemistry and physics of the collapse of the three world trade center skyscrapers. He is retired Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen and first author of Active Thermitic Material Observed in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe published in the Open Chemical Physics Journal in 2009. We discussed the thermite, thermate, and nanothermite discovered in the dust of the world trade center towers, his evaluation of the reports released by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the work of the 9/11 Consensus Panel.Graeme MacQueen is author of the The 2001 Anthrax Deception: The Case for a Domestic Conspiracy. In this book, he provides evidence that the anthrax attacks and the 9/11 attacks, both of which scared the American people into war, were carried out by the same people – people highly placed in the U.S. government. We will discuss that book as well as two articles he published this year, “9/11: The Pentagon’s B-Movie” and “The ‘Inside Job’ Hypothesis of the 9/11 Attacks: JFK, 9/11 and the American Left.”Today, I speak with David Chandler, the high school physics teacher who made NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, revise their report on the destruction of World Trade Center Building seven, a 47 story building that collapsed in the late afternoon of September 11th, 2001. David Chandler showed that building seven fell at free fall, that is the acceleration of gravity. David Chandler lives in Portland and he spoke with John Shuck in the KBOO studios. His website is www.911speakout.org. Here are the previous interviews: 1) Why Good People Become Silent (Or Worse) About 9/11 2) How Bush and Cheney Ruined America and the World 3) The Science Behind the Collapse of the Three World Trade Center Towers on 9/11 4) Graeme MacQueen | 9/11: The Pentagon’s B Movie   

Leslea Mair is the president and CEO of Zoot Pictures out of Winnipeg, Manitoba. She talks about her latest film,  Losing Our Religion, a feature length documentary about preachers who are not believers, and what atheists do when they miss church. Allowed access to the 600 members of The Clergy Project – a safe haven for preachers from all faiths who no longer believe – the documentary follows ex-members and clergy who are still undercover. The film will be screened in the Portland Metro on November 30th.  David Chandler is the high school physics teacher who made NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, revise their report on the destruction of World Trade Center Building Seven, a 47 story building that collapsed in the late afternoon of September 11th, 2001. David Chandler showed that building seven fell at free fall, that is at the acceleration of gravity. David Chandler lives in Portland and he spoke with John Shuck about what that means, (ie. controlled demolition). His website is www.911speakout.org.  Celene Lillie and Art Dewey, are members of the Westar Institute, a critical thinktank for religious issues, particularly early Christianity. Dr. Lillie is the Director of the Tanho Center in Boulder, Colorado, and the author of The Rape of Eve: The Transformation of Roman Ideology in Three Early Christian Retellings of Genesis.  Arthur Dewey is professor of religion at Xavier University and the author of Inventing the Passion: How the Death of Jesus was Remembered.  They will be speaking about The Political Jesus.  Leslea Mair.  3:00 David Chandler. 17:43 Arthur Dewey and Celene Lillie. 48:00

  My two guests on this episode will help us love more and remember more. Love and memory. Scott Stabile is the author of Big Love: The Power of Living with A Wide Open Heart." His inspirational posts and videos have attracted a huge and devoted social media following, including over 350K Facebook fans and counting. A regular contributor to the Huffington Post, he lives in Michigan and conducts personal empowerment workshops around the world. In the second half of the show I will speak with Dr. Andrew Budson. He along with Maureen OConnor have co-written Seven Steps to Managing Your Memory: Whats Normal, Whats Not and What to Do About It?  Dr. Budson is Professor of Neurology at Boston University School of Medicine. His special interests are Memory, Alzheimers disease, and Dementia. 3:16 - 29:00 Scott Stabile29:40 - 53:00 Andrew Budson

What if we brought mindfulness to schools and Buddhism to economics?   Clair Brown teaches at Cal Berkely and is the author of Buddhist Economics: An Enlightened Approach to the Dismal Science.  Caverly Morgan is the founder of Peace in Schools, the first for credit high school mindfulness course in the nation.   What if? We just might make a more compassionate world. :00-26:00 Caverly Morgan Interview26:30-53:00 Clair Brown Interview **This episode was originally broadcast in May 2017**

***Celene Lillie and Arthur Dewey will be at Southminster Presbyterian Church for a Jesus Seminar on the Road, November 10-11, 2017.*** The Nag Hammadi library discovered in 1945 has provided a number of alternative Christian texts.   They were not included in the Bible. They have been dismissed by many orthodox Christians as Gnostic or even heresy.  Yet new scholarship is discovering the complexity of these texts and the value they have for many today. Dr. Celene Lillie discusses three of these texts in her book, The Rape of Eve:  The Transformation of Roman ideology in Three Early Christian Retellings of Genesis. In each of these texts, “On the Origin of the World,” “The Reality of the Rulers,” and “The Secret Revelation of John,” Eve is portrayed as having been humiliated by the cosmic powers but experiences restoration.  She sees these Nag Hammadi stories as affirmation of women’s value and wisdom and as myths of resistance to Roman imperial power and to Rome’s culture of rape and domination. Celene Lillie (Ph.D., Union Theological Seminary) is the Director of the recently established Tanho Center and on the pastoral and adult education staff at First United Methodist Church in Boulder, Colorado. She has collaborated on and coordinated many different research projects, most recently as Director of Translations for A New New Testament edited by Hal Taussig (2013). She is the author of The Rape of Eve: The Transformation of Roman Ideology in Three Early Christian Retellings of Genesis (2017) and the co-author of The Thunder: Perfect Mind: A New Translation (2010). Her research interests include gender, violence, and trauma in early Jesus/Christian literatures ranging from the New Testament to Nag Hammadi. **This is an encore presentation of an episode originally released in June 2017**

Oregon’s military heritage goes back thousands of years, including native people’s warrior traditions. Most of the cultures in this region were relatively peaceful, even welcoming visiting strangers, such as the Lewis and Clark overland Army expedition in 1805–1806. Then, overwhelming numbers of fur trappers, merchants, settlers, and miners began taking over traditional native grounds. Oregon military historians Warren W. Aney and Alisha Hamel draw their service with the Oregon Army National Guard, including years spent as organizational historians. Images come from the collections of the Brigadier General James B. Thayer Oregon Military Museum, the Oregon Historical Society, county historical societies, other regional and national collections, and the authors’ personal collections. Host John Shuck discusses their "Images of America" series book, Oregon Military. Also, what happens when you or an aging parent finds it more and more difficult to maintain a home? Is the only choice moving to a retirement home or placing a burden on family members or others to do the things around the home that cannot be done any longer? Lyn Trainer, Bonnie Barksdale, and Kathy Fradkin are actively involved in the village movement, a movement that is sweeping the country and is now firmly established as Villages Northwest in the Portland Metro. This village movement that started in Boston enables people to age in their homes. 2:20 - 29:34 Oregon Military 29:36 - 56:00 Villages Northwest

This week my guests discuss big problems regarding food. How can we work toward healthy food and enough food for everyone? Maryn McKenna is a journalist who writes about science, food, and disease. Like Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA. But that's not the end of it. We’ve been pumping antibiotics into chicken for a good long time. They have come home to roost. We can’t make antibiotics faster than evolution. Ms. McKenna and I talk Big Chicken: The Incredible Story of How Antibiotics Created Modern Agriculture and Changed the Way the World Eats. I also speak with Andrew Fisher of Portland. He is an activist in the anti-hunger field. For twenty-five years he has worked building coalitions to fight for better food and nutrition laws. He is blowing the whistle. Hunger is big business. Andrew is the author of Big Hunger: The Unholy Alliance Between Corporate America and Anti-Hunger Groups. Finally, I speak with John Teton, author of the International Food Security Treaty (www.treaty.org). This treaty is an international enforceable law requiring all nations to guarantee food to everyone in their borders and not use hunger as a weapon. That would end the wars.

What can mathematics tell us about God? According to todays guest, physicist and mathematician, H Chris Ransford, mathematics can tell us quite a bit about the classic attributes of an infinite God who is all-knowing, all-seeing, and all-powerful. The logic and beauty of mathematics offers an exciting path to exploring the nature of reality and of elevating the conversation between atheists, theists, and the rest of us about religion, science, and Godhood. H. Chris Ransford earned advanced degrees in Physics and Engineering in France and Germany. He lectured at the University of Melbourne and was a Research Fellow at Monash University, Australia. In 2015, he published The Far Horizons of Time. In this episode, host John Shuck and Chris Ransford discuss his latest book, God and the Mathematics of Infinity: What Irreducible Mathematics says About Godhood.

John R. Gregg is an historian, a writer, researcher, educator, and traveler. He has had a lifelong fascination for the beliefs and practices of peoples worldwide. He has taught World Civilization, Anthropology, American History, and Native American History and Culture, at the University of Florida, University of North Florida, and other universities. He has lived, worked and travelled extensively in Asia, and North and South America , studying religious and cultural practices throughout the world. He is the author of Sex, the Illustrated History: Through Time, Religion and Culture, Volume 1.   This is from his website: “Sex, The Illustrated History, Volume I, begins a daring exploration of human sexuality from the ancient to the modern world. Revealed are sexual practices and beliefs previously omitted or obscured from all historical telling. In a scathing condemnation of religion and its control of sex, John Gregg explores complex relationships between spirituality and sexuality. The supremacy of the mother goddess throughout most of human existence, and her relatively recent fall, is detailed in both word and image. These pages share graphic erotic art works and explicit literary excerpts, painstakingly culled from the hidden treasure trove of cultures throughout history. Sex, The Illustrated History, traces sexual attitudes from the transcendent to the bizarre throughout the worlds’ cultures. The often explicit illustrations are linked by historical and anthropological content, inviting the reader to experience sexuality through varied and often shocking cultural lenses. Over 300 images have been gathered by the author, in his travels and studies of world cultures. An encyclopedic tour of the sexuality of humankind!”

This is my fourth episode in my series on 9/11. Most will dismiss this as a conspiracy theory as the CIA and its obedient media have instructed us. But some will open their minds and face the evidence. Opening minds is what we do on Progressive Spirit. Already in this series, I have spoken with psychotherapist, Frances Shure, who is writing a series of articles entitled, “Why Do Good People Become Silent or Worse About 9/11.” We talked about the psychological blocks that keep us from information that shakes our world view.  I have also spoken with David Ray Griffin, sometimes called the grandfather of the 9/11 truth movement, about his latest book, Bush and Cheney: How They Ruined America and the World. Published in the August 2017, this is professor Griffin’s twelfth and likely last book on 9/11. He details the lies that we all know were told by the Bush administration in leading the US to a global war on terror and all that has resulted including the shredding of the constitution, killer drones, torture, and the toppling of governments. Griffin shows that this destruction is based on lies and miracles and asserts that until we face the truth of 9/11, we will be powerless to address the destruction the US continues to unleash on the world.   Dr. Niels Harrit was also in my 9/11 series to discuss the chemistry and physics of the collapse of the three world trade center skyscrapers.  He is retired Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen and first author of “Active Thermitic Material Observed in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe” published in the Open Chemical Physics Journal in 2009. We discussed the thermite, thermate, and nanothermite discovered in the dust of the world trade center towers, his evaluation of the reports released by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the work of the 9/11 Consensus Panel. An interview forthcoming is with Dr. Leroy Hulsey, Chair of University of Alaska Fairbanks Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, who in early September 2017 released a draft report of the science behind the collapse of World Trade Center Tower 7. In this episode I speak with Graeme MacQueen, author of the The 2001 Anthrax Deception: The Case for a Domestic Conspiracy. In this book, he provides evidence that the anthrax attacks and the 9/11 attacks, both of which scared the American people into war, were carried out by the same people – people highly placed in the U.S. government. We will discuss that book as well as two articles he published this year, “9/11: The Pentagon’s B-Movie” and “The ‘Inside Job’ Hypothesis of the 9/11 Attacks: JFK, 9/11 and the American Left.” Dr. Graeme MacQueen is the former Director of the Centre for Peace Studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He was an organizer of the Toronto Hearings on 9/11, is a member of the Consensus 9/11 Panel, and is a former co-editor of the Journal of 9/11 Studies.

Since 1973, Justine Willis Toms has been exploring personal, social, and spiritual transformation through her work as an electronic journalist, editor, and writer. She is the co-founder, managing producer, and host of New Dimensions Radio/Media. She has also produced many award-winning radio series, including Deep Ecology for the 21st Century, and Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature. She is coauthor of True Work: Doing What You Love and Loving What You Do, and author of Small Pleasures: Finding Grace in a Chaotic World. Justine, along with Michael Toms, was selected for induction to the 2011 Broadcasters Hall of Fame. In June 2004, she was one of 30 people in the world invited to participate in the Synthesis Dialogues with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. She talks with me about the 44 year broadcast adventure of New Dimensions and what she has discovered along the way.

My guests on this episode of the Beloved Community are passionate, engaging, lovers of life and justice. They are both artists. They present their art to transform the world. Makana hails from the isle of O‘ahu, Makana is an internationally acclaimed slack-key guitarist, singer, composer, philosopher, activist, and one of Hawaii’s cultural ambassadors to the world. He is recognized as one of the top guitarists in the United States by Guitar Player magazine. He is going to be at the Alberta Rose on October 3rd.  I also speak with John Slaughter.  He is a poet, a Black Lives Matter activist, a basketball coach and a dad to three smart and happy daughters. He is the host of Poetic Justice. John Slaughter :00 - 25:30 Makana 25:31-56:00

It is now 16 years after the events of September 11th, 2001 that have changed the world. I am in the midst of a series of interviews with 9/11 skeptics and scholars.  These are sober scientists who refuse to be bullied and who present their case with analysis of the evidence. I have spoken already with psychotherapist, Frances Shure, who is writing a series of articles entitled, “Why Do Good People Become Silent or Worse About 9/11.” I have also spoken with David Ray Griffin, sometimes called the grandfather of the 9/11 truth movement, about his latest book, Bush and Cheney: How They Ruined America and the World. Interviews forthcoming are with Graeme MacQueen who exposed the 2001 anthrax hoax in his book, The 2001 Anthrax Deception: The Case for a Domestic Conspiracy. Dr MacQueen is a retired professor in the Religious Studies Department at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He is a member of the 9/11 Consensus Panel along with Frances Shure and David Ray Griffin.   Also, I will speak with Dr. Leroy Hulsey, Chair of University of Alaska Fairbanks Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, who this week released a draft report of the science behind the collapse of World Trade Center Tower 7.   In this episode, I speak with Dr. Niels Harrit, Associate Professor of Chemistry at the Nano-Science Center, University of Copenhagen; first author of “Active Thermitic Material Observed in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe” published in the Open Chemical Physics Journal in 2009. We discuss the thermite, thermate, and nanothermite discovered in the dust of the world trade center towers, his evaluation of the reports released by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the work of the 9/11 Consensus Panel. Niels Harrit, PhD., was born in 1945. Since 1971, he has been associate professor at University of Copenhagen. He retired from the position in 2009 and is now emeritus. Thus, he has been a researcher and teacher in the Department of Chemistry for more than forty years and has published more than 60 peer-reviewed papers in the best scientific journals. The latest publications are about time-resolved X-ray spectroscopy of ultra-fast photochemical processes and multidimensional fluorescence spectroscopy. Since 2007 he has been actively involved in the global movement for 911-truth, demanding an independent investigation of the terror attacks on September 11th, 2001. He was the leading author of a scientific paper, published in April, 2009, describing the findings of active thermitic material in the dust from the collapses of the three (!) skyscrapers of World Trade Center. He is member of the 911-consensus panel (http://www.consensus911.org/). Over the years, Dr. Harrit has given more than 330 presentations on the collapses of the World Trade Center skyscrapers in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Holland, France, Switzerland, Spain, United Kingdom, Canada, USA, China, Australia, Russia and Iceland.

Did Jesus fulfill prophecy? The gospels certainly wanted early Christians to think that. That argument is made today in many evangelical circles. But does it hold water? Religious scholar, Robert J. Miller, says that it is time for Christians to retire the argument from prophecy. He shows how the gospel writers manipulated prophecies by taking them out of context, changing them, inventing them, and even creating fictional narratives about Jesus based on them to show that Jesus fulfilled prophecy.  Miller shows that the New Testament writers “helped” Jesus fulfill prophecy in order to “prove” that Christians replaced Jews as God’s people. According to Miller, the argument from prophecy is circular, not convincing, and unnecessary. It also has left a long legacy of antisemitism. Robert J. Miller is Rosenberger Professor of Religious Studies and Christian Thought at Juniata College in Pennsylvania. He is the author of The Jesus Seminar and Its Critics and Born Divine: The Births of Jesus and Other Sons of God. He is also editor of The Complete Gospels (Fourth Edition). His latest book that we will discuss today is called Helping Jesus Fulfill Prophecy. 

Philosopher, David Ray Griffin, just published his 12th book on 9/11 Skepticism, Bush and Cheney: How They Ruined America and the World. In this book he writes about the effects of 9/11 (toppling of governments--Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and now Syria--, the shredding of the constitution, murder by drone, increased militarism and surveillance, Islamophobia, and the neocon threat to human survival, to name a few). Griffin calls on journalists and the public to stop hiding behind fear of being called a 'conspiracy theorist' and look at the evidence instead of promoting the miraculous fantasy of the official 9/11 story. He says only truth can save us from disaster.  Biologist, Mike Shanahan, has devoted his career to fig trees. In his book, "Gods, Wasps, and Stranglers: The Secret History and Redemptive Future of Fig Trees," he writes about the amazing fig and its 80 million year history as a keystone species. Figs have a central role in human culture and mythology and they sustain life all over Earth. We discuss the power of fig trees and the threats they face and in turn, humanity faces if we don't take notice and change. We talk figs from both a scientific point of view and a spiritual point of view.David Ray Griffin interview 2:00 to 31:29Mike Shanahan interview 31:30-54:00

Danielle Dulsky is an artist, teacher, and writer. A longtime activist for wild woman spirituality and the divine feminines return, she leads womens circles, Witchcraft workshops, energy healing trainings, and basic and advanced yoga teacher trainings.Her website is www.danielledulsky.com.She is on tour sharing her book, Woman Most Wild: Three Keys to Liberating the Witch Within.

Frances Shure is a Licensed Professional Counselor who is now retired from her private practice and from her position as adjunct instructor at Naropa University at Boulder, Colorado.In her 20 years as a psychotherapist, she focused on "depth psychology," which involves both the psychodynamic and transpersonal aspects of psychological healing.Frances Shure co-founded Colorado 9/11 Truth in 2004 and is a member of the 9/11 Consensus Panel as well as the Medical Professionals for 9/11 Truth. She was included with a number of other social scientists in the film 9/11: Explosive Evidence"Experts Speak Out that was produced by Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth. She is writing a series of articles for AE911Truth "Why Do Good People Become Silent"Or Worse"About 9/11?" These articles examine the psychological resistance to information that contradicts the official account of 9/11 or to any strongly held belief.In this episode, we discuss the origin of the term "conspiracy theorist,' why people of color view 9/11 differently than white people, a nationalist faith, the power of belief over fact, the barriers that privilege places in terms of accepting what we know to be true, and how the fear of isolation keeps people silent. Most importantly, we discuss psychological and spiritual growth and how that is only possible when we face our fears. Finally, we discuss ways to talk about this taboo topic with others. 

North American culture is in transition in many ways, and religion is one of those areas that is in transition, especially away from organized religion to other avenues. As such these various avenues are resources for resistance to oppression and for positive activism in our world.  Both of today's guests live in the Portland Metro and represent the transition that is taking place. Karen Garst says that "Organized religion is a cultural barrier to full equality for men and women." She is the author of Women Beyond Belief: Discovering Life Without Religion.  Her website is The Faithless Feminist.  Rabbi Brian calls himself "a modern-day rabbi with John Lennon’s inclusivity and a Blues Brothers mission." He lives in Portland and does most of his work on-line at Religion Outside the Box.  --- Karen L. Garst has a Bachelors degree and a Masters degree in French. She obtained her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She moved to Oregon in 1980 to serve as field representative of the Oregon Federation of Teachers. In 1988 she was selected to serve as the executive director of the Oregon Community College Association and in 1996 as the executive director of the Oregon State Bar. She retired from that position in 2008. She is married and lives in Oregon. -- Born and raised on the small island of Manhattan, Rabbi Brian grew up exceedingly rational. He thought he was going to be a math major and then an architect. Asking many ‘why’s led him to rabbinical school where he continued to struggle with the answers he received. In 2000, he left mainstream, organized, denominational religion to pursue religion-outside-the-box ( ROTB.org). In 2007 he took up working full-time as a mathematics (and life lesson) instructor where he recovered his minister’s heart. In 2015 Rabbi Brian followed his calling to nourish spiritual-religious hunger full time – no matter people’s theology, religious background, or lack of either. He lives in Portand, Oregon with his family. Karen Garst: 1:44 Rabbi Brian: 29:30

  During one year, 1967, it seemed possible that the world could be transformed by peace, love, and meditation. The assassinations, violence, and polarization of 1968 hadn’t happened, and the hippies were exploring spirituality and social justice.   Danny Goldberg takes us back to 1967, to the music, the acid, Jefferson Airplane, Allen Ginsburg, Black Power, and Muhammad Ali.  He is the author of How the Left Lost Teen Spirit and Bumping into Geniuses: MY Life Inside the Rock and Roll Business. Danny Goldberg is president of Gold Village entertainment and author of the book we will discuss today: In Search of the Lost Chord: 1967 and the Hippie Idea.   

Sean Kerrigan, author of "Bureaucratic Insanity: The American Bureaucrat’s Descent into Madness," says that civilization is about the concentration of power. We are at a point now in which bureaucracy has stripped our lives of meaning. We will talk about bureaucracy, collapse, and finding ways to resist. I also speak with Daina Ramey Berry, associate professor of history and African and African Diaspora Studies, at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of "The Price for Their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved, from Womb to Grave, in the Building Of A Nation." The overarching theme this week is the commodification of human beings and how we can reclaim and assert our humanity and the humanity of others.

Were the early Christians communists? Roman Montero makes the case that they were and backs it up with his book "All Things In Common: The Economic Practices of the Early Christians." Roman A. Montero spends a lot of time studying early Chrstianity, Koine Greek, early Christian texts, and the historical context of second temple Judaism

The Walking Dead. The Night of the Living Dead. Sean of the Dead. Z Nation. We can't seem to get enough of the zombies. So what is that about?   Greg Garrett is Professor of English at Baylor University, where he teaches classes in fiction and screenwriting, literature, film and popular culture, and theology. The author or coauthor of twenty books on fiction, nonfiction, and memoir, Garrett (according to the BBC) is one of Americas leading voices on religion and culture.   Professor Garrett says that we love killing zombies for a number of reasons. When societies face looming catastrophes and fears, zombies rise. His book is "Living with the Living Dead: The Wisdom of the Zombie Apocalypse."

This is an encore podcast of my conversation with Matthew Fox that I previously released in November 2016. Matthew Fox. Silenced by the Vatican for his views, left the Catholic priesthood in the early 1980s. Matthew Fox is a theologian and activist who has written over 30 books. He has introduced millions of people to Creation Spirituality. His latest book, published in 2016 is called "A Way to God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey." According to Fox, Merton was assassinated by the CIA. We will talk more about that as well as have a candid conversation about ecology, human rights, capitalism, and resistance.

Politicians like to misquote Jesus to slash programs for the poor. Republican congressman, Roger Marshall of Kansas misused a quote from Jesus to support his program to reduce healthcare benefits for the poor. This is from the article on Stat from March 3rd, 2017: “Just like Jesus said, ‘The poor will always be with us,’” he said. “There is a group of people that just don’t want health care and aren’t going to take care of themselves.” Did Jesus really say, “The poor will always be with us?” What is the exact quote? What is the context? What did Jesus really mean? How do we respond to politicians who use the Bible and Jesus to cut aid to those most in need? Liz Theoharis is fighting back. She is the founder and co-director of the Kairos Center for religions, Rights, and Social Justice and coordinator of the Poverty Initiative at Union Theological Seminary, New York City. An ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), Theoharis has spent the last two decades organizing among the poor in the United States and worldwide. She is the author of “Always with us? What Jesus Really Said About the Poor.”

The good citizen defends his castle.   Punks, thieves, thugs, and rapists don’t stand a chance against a 44 Magnum in the hands of the good guy who stands his ground.   That is the myth.  The reality is that America’s love affair with guns and lethal self-defense has not made America safer, just more violent and more afraid.    Harvard Professor Caroline Light explores the development of the American right to self-defense and reveals how the original “duty to retreat” from threat was transformed into a selective right to kill. In her book, Stand Your Ground:  A History of America’s Love Affair with Lethal Self-Defense, Professor Light traces white America’s attachment to racialized, lethal self-defense by unearthing its complex legal and social histories—from the original “castle laws” of the 1600s, which gave white men the right to protect their homes, to the brutal lynching of “criminal” Black bodies during the Jim Crow era and the radicalization of the NRA as it transitioned from a sporting organization to one of our country’s most powerful lobbying forces.  Unlike the mythology of Dirty Harry and redemptive violence, America’s stand your ground culture and laws that accompany it do not protect the vulnerable against Mr. Stranger Danger.  Just the opposite.   Professor Light exposes a history hidden in plain sight, showing how violent self-defense has been legalized for the most privileged and used as a weapon against the most vulnerable.

Drew Bekius was a true believer.  He prayed the “sinner’s prayer” when he was three and was immersed in evangelical Christianity, starting an award-winning ministry in his high school.  He became a minister and a leader and he was skilled at the job.     But a few years ago, the edifice began to crack.   He realized he no longer could believe the things he needed to believe in order to be a minister.   Now he no longer holds belief in God or Jesus or the church.  He is now a humanist coach and is the president of The Clergy Project.  The Clergy Project is online community for former and active religious professionals who no longer hold supernatural beliefs.    In many ways Drew is still a minister at heart.  He is a caring, thoughtful person who wants to help people overcome stereotypes and to understand each other even when they might not agree.   In particular, he wants atheists and Christians to talk to each other.   We discuss his journey and his new mission that he outlines in his book, The Rise and Fall of Faith: A God-to-Godless Story for Christians and Atheists.  

The Nag Hammadi library discovered in 1945 has provided a number of alternative Christian texts.   They were not included in the Bible. Dr. Celene Lillie discusses three of these texts in her book, The Rape of Eve:  The Transformation of Roman ideology in Three Early Christian Retellings of Genesis. In each of these texts, “On the Origin of the World,” “The Reality of the Rulers,” and “The Secret Revelation of John,” Eve is portrayed as having been humiliated by the cosmic powers but experiences restoration.    They have been dismissed by many orthodox Christians as Gnostic or even heresy.     New scholarship has discovered that these texts are quite complex, even playful, as they provide alternative myths to the founding myths of Rome.  She sees these Nag Hammadi stories are myths of resistance to Roman imperial power and to Rome’s culture of rape and domination.      Dr. Lillie is the director of the Tanho Center in Longmont, Colorado.  The Tanho Center is dedicated to the exploration of the many discoveries of texts from the earliest Christ movements. The Tanhoe Center incorporates recently discovered texts into contemporary practices.  Dr. Lillie was the Director of Translations for A New New Testament:  A Bible for the 21st Century Combining Traditional and Newly Discovered Texts and the coauthor of The Thunder: Perfect Mind:  A New Translation and Introduction.

Justin Dillon is a former musician turned filmmaker and social entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of Made in A Free World, a platform that brings together consumers, organizations, and businesses to dismantle the 150 billion dollar business of human trafficking. His latest book is titled A Selfish Plan to Change the World: Finding Big Purpose in Big Problems. His message to all of us, Find Your Riot.

  The United States with five percent of the world’s population  incarcerates 25% of the world’s prisoners.   Mass incarceration in the United States is well-known.   Today’s guest points out something not as well known.   Overcrowded and underfunded prisons now outsource educational and mental health services to religious groups.   These religious organizations are overwhelmingly run by nondenominational protestant Christians who see prisoners as captive audiences for their message.   Is there a problem here? Tanya Erzen is the author of God in  Captivity:  The Rise of Faith-Based Prison Ministries in the Age of Mass Incarceration.   Laura Everett is a United Church of Christ minister in Boston who for the last eight years has made the bicycle her main vehicle of transportation in all four seasons.   She has found that riding her bike has connected her with her city, expanded her community, activated her on issues of transit justice, and increased her spiritual growth.  She is happier because she rides her bike.     As May is National Bike Month, it is timely to talk with Laura about her book, Holy Spokes: The Search for Urban Spirituality on Two Wheels.Tanya Erzen Interview 00:00-27:18Laura Everett Interview 27:48-53:00   

Contemporary American Society is saturated with fear, fear that is out of proportion to the actual threats we face. That is how Michael Kinnamon, a widely respected leader and scholar in the ecumenical movement begins his book, The Witness of Religion In An Age of Fear. Why are we so afraid? Of what are we afraid? How can we respond with courage? I also speak with one of the 100 most spiritually influential people alive today, according to Mind, Body, Spirit magazine. Steve Taylor is a spiritual psychologist, author, and lecturer. We tend to think that spiritual enlightenment or awakening is for the professionals, those who devote their lives to meditation or simplicity or study. Steve Taylor says awakening is accessible to all. He is the author of The Leap: The Psychology of Spiritual Awakening. Michael Kinnamon Interview, 2:00 - 28:07Steve Taylor Interview, 28:37-53

What if we brought mindfulness to schools and Buddhism to economics? Clair Brown teaches at Cal Berkely and is the author of Buddhist Economics: An Enlightened Approach to the Dismal Science. Caverly Morgan is the founder of "Peace in Schools," the first for credit high school mindfulness course in the nation. What if we brought mindfulness to schools and Buddhism to economics? We just might make a more compassionate world. :00-26:00  Caverly Morgan Interview 26:30-53:00  Clair Brown Interview

When we hear the word theology, we may think we are going to engage in esoteric reflections about divinity and the afterlife.  But theology at its best is not about God or gods, but about life and its meaning and the myths that drive us.   Arthur Dewey is professor of theology at Xavier University in Cincinnati.  He is a scholar of the historical Jesus and a Fellow of Westar Institute, popularly known as the Jesus Seminar.   He says that “ “Theology is resonant. At its best, it lends rhythm and rhyme to the raw energy of life. It improvises on this world without trying to escape to a heaven somewhere else” We are going to talk about his book, Wisdom Notes: Theological Riffs on Life and Living.  The Ramadan Tent Project is a creation of students in London.   It is an open iftar, a breaking of the fast, in which the public is invited.   The first ever Ramadan Tent Project in the United States was held last year in Beaverton, Oregon.  The students who brought it to Portland will do it again this year.   We will hear about this event and we will hear about the heart of Islam from two bright and compassionate university students, Sadaf Assadi and Hanan Alzubaidy. :02 - 34:45 Arthur Dewey 34:45 - 54. Sadaf Assadi and Hanan Al-Zubaidy

What is moral?  How has morality changed and how does that effect how we make decisions and evaluate the decisions of others in politics, business, and sex?   In Behaving Badly:  The New Morality in Politics, Sex and Business. Eden Collinsworth embarks on a personal journey to discover morality in a new globalized culture. Eden Collinsworth is a former media executive and business consultant.  She was formerly of Arbor House Publishing Company founder of the LA based monthly magazine Buzz before becoming a vice president at Hearst Corporation. She wrote a best-selling book in China for Chinese businesspeople on Western deportment and she launched Collinsworth & Associates, a Bejing based consulting firm which specialized in intercultural communication.

Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth was one of the leaders of the civil rights movement along with Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy.  But he was in many ways unsung.  Middle Georgia State University Professor Andrew Manis talks about the legacy of Fred Shuttlesworth.   In 1999, he wrote A Fire You Can’t Put Out: The Civil Rights Life of Birmingham’s Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth.  This book is in the process of being made into a film. I also speak with Dr. Michael Eric Dyson.    He is a Georgetown University sociology professor, a New York Times contributing opinion writer, and a contributing editor of The New Republic, and of ESPN's The Undefeated website.  In January he released Tears We Cannot Stop:  A Sermon to White America. Powerful spokespersons for truth about race past and present.  Fire and tears.

Mary Astor’s biggest role was Brigid O’Shaughnessy.  Brigid was the love interest of Sam Spade played by Humphrey Bogart in the film, the Maltese Falcon. But Mary Astor is most famous for what happened off screen and was recorded in her diary.   Caricaturist Edward Sorel brings her story to life in the book he wrote and illustrated, Mary Astor’s Purple Diary:  The Great American Sex Scandal of 1936. I also speak with a young minister, who at the age of 37 was diagnosed with a form of cancer usually reserved fo men in their 60s and 70s.  Jason Micheli tells his story in his book, Cancer is Funny:  Keeping Faith In Stage Serious Chemo.

  Stephen Gray is the author of Cannabis and Spirituality: An Explorer’s Guide to an Ancient Plant Spirit Ally. On October 1st, 2015, Oregon joined Washington and Colorado as the third state to legalize recreational use of cannabis. Now that it is easy as going to one of the many cannabis shops in the state and choosing from a wide selection of strains, many who perhaps haven’t used cannabis since college or are curious and using it for the first time may have many questions about the plant. Many misconceptions about cannabis abound. It is much maligned and misunderstood. Today we will address questions such as: What are its effects? What is a good dosage? Why do some people have negative experiences with it (such as paranoia or anxiety)? Is it addictive? Is it good for society to legalize cannabis? We are also going to talk about the spirituality of cannabis. How can cannabis be an ally in spiritual practice? In the second part of the show, I speak with Michael Eric Dyson, author of Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America about police brutality and racism and the killing of teenager Quanice Hayes by Portland police. 

On February 9th 2017 in Northeast Portland, a 17 year old child, Quanice Derrick Hayes was shot three times, twice in the chest and once through the head at point blank range. He was shot and killed by Portland Police Officer Andrew Hearst. The family of Quanice Hayes is calling on Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler who also serves as police commissioner to instruct the district attorney to seek an indictment for Officer Hearst. The mother of Quanice Hayes, Venus Hayes, and the lead organizer of “Don’t Shoot Portland”, Teressa Raiford, speak with me about their struggle for accountability, transparency, and justice.

The theme of this episode is transitions and transformations. Here are two people who see changes on the ground and are helping direct them toward a more flourishing outcome. My first guest ever on this program, when it was called Religion For Life, is Anthony Flaccavento. He returns to discuss his book, "Building A Healthy Economy From the Bottom Up: Harnessing Real-World Experience for Transformative Change." In 1995 he founded Appalachian Sustainable Development and is now the president of SCALE Inc., a private consulting business that supports ecologically healthy economics. In this book he provides examples of locally-based economies that are thriving all over the country. At the same time, he says that we are losing the battle at the policy levels both locally and nationally. His book is a call to action for entrepreneurs, scholars, policymakers, community activists and all citizens to re-think economy and act for a way of justice and commonsense from the bottom-up. Deshna Ubeda is the director of Progressive Christianity Dot Org. She is directing The Embrace Festival, May, 4, 5, and 6 in Portland. Similar to Burning Man, Beloved, and Wild Goose, the Embrace Festival will feature presentations, art, music, dance, community and food for the purpose of building sacred community and inspiring social transformation. Here is its vision: "In May 2017, people from all over the world will gather in Portland, Oregon to share knowledge and wisdom, learn from each other, celebrate, be inspired, and find the tools needed to create and enliven local movements within our communities. Together we will explore sacred oneness, Christ Consciousness, Buddha Nature, eco-spirituality, social justice and the way of universal and personal transformation that honors the Divine in all."

Progressive Spirit is now one hour! (Technically 54 minutes to accommodate top of the hour news). Ask your local public radio station to carry Progressive Spirit! I am thrilled to have my conversation with Gretta Vosper be the first show in the now expanded Progressive Spirit! Gretta Vosper is an atheist minister in the United Church of Canada. She is the author of 'With or Without God: Why The Way We Live is More Important Than What We Believe'' and 'Amen: What Prayer Can Mean In A World Beyond Belief.' She is the leader of an exciting community in Toronto, West Hill United Church, that has been under fire from its larger institution for moving beyond the language of the church. Gretta discusses the work of this community and her own struggles with the larger institution. Because of her theological views she was reviewed and declared to be "unsuitable" for ministry. Is there a larger story, though? Gretta also talks about how the liberal United Church in order to grow has accepted into its clergy pentecostals and fundamentalists without examining their theology. The result, according to Gretta, is a church that is losing its progressive principles in order to increase its numbers. In this interview she discusses her review process with the denomination, what she means by "atheist", the doublespeak of clergy who use the word "God" but do not mean it the way it is commonly understood, and the need for communities who want the ethical and spiritual vitality of a community without the archaic language of theism.

Dr. Brett Webb-Mitchell is a pilgrim, speaker, writer, teacher, ordained Presbyterian pastor, parent, partner, and pet lover. In 1999 he came out as a gay man and it was a pilgrimage that enabled him to be honest with himself. Currently, Brett is a pastor serving St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Portland, Oregon, having been on the faculty of Duke University and North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina. He is the author of ten books and three on pilgrimage. His latest is Practicing Pilgrimage: On Being and Becoming God’s Pilgrim People. Brett directs the School of the Pilgrim taking people on pilgrimage around the world and in their backyards. We discuss pilgrimage as spiritual awakening, liberation, and protest.

Deshna Ubeda is the director of Progressive Christianity Dot Org. She is directing The Embrace Festival, May, 4, 5, and 6 in Portland. Similar to Burning Man, Beloved, and Wild Goose, the Embrace Festival will feature presentations, art, music, dance, community and food for the purpose of building sacred community and inspiring social transformation. Here is its vision: In May 2017, people from all over the world will gather in Portland, Oregon to share knowledge and wisdom, learn from each other, celebrate, be inspired, and find the tools needed to create and enliven local movements within our communities. Together we will explore sacred oneness, Christ Consciousness, Buddha Nature, eco-spirituality, social justice and the way of universal and personal transformation that honors the Divine in all. One of the presenters at the Embrace Festival is Gretta Vosper, an atheist minister in the United Church of Canada. She is the leader of an exciting community in Toronto that has been under fire from its larger institution for moving beyond the language of the church. Gretta discusses the work of this community and her own struggles with the larger institution. Brett Webb-Mitchell brings sacred community and transformation outdoors and revisits the ancient practice of pilgrimage. He is the author of ten books and in his latest, Practicing Pilgrimage, he provides a trail map as to how pilgrimage can be a path for liberation and social justice.

Carter Warden is a former conservative pastor of 25 years, now openly atheist. Using the pseudonym “Adam Mann”, he was a founder of The Clergy Project, an on-line support group for clergy who no longer believe the doctrines of the churches they serve. “Adam” was one of the original five interviewees in the 2010 Dennett-LaScola article, “Preachers who are not Believers.” While still in ministry, he was interviewed undercover by ABC World News Tonight and the Canadian Broadcasting Company. Last fall he "came out" publicly as an atheist at the Freedom From Religion Foundation's annual gathering. A press release was picked up by the Johnson City Press and Carter was outed to his church, friends, and extended family. In this interview, he talks about that experience, the challenge facing clergy who no longer believe yet who make a living for their families by serving their churches, and the liberation when people are able to be honest with themselves and others about what they really believe. Hear previous interviews on Progressive Spirit with individuals connected to the Clergy Project including Linda LaScola, Daniel Dennett, Dan Barker, Gretta Vosper, Ryan Bell, David Hayward, Pat Green, John Loftus, Bart Campolo, and Jerry DeWitt.

Tony Campolo has been a fixture in the evangelical Christian scene for decades. For the past 30 years his son, Bart has followed in his footsteps. Their brand of Christianity is evangelical (personal salvation through Jesus) but with an emphasis on social justice and care for least of these. Just over two years ago, Bart decided to tell his parents that he no longer could believe in God. Out of this painful and liberating revelation is their story, the film, Far From the Tree, and the book, Why I Left: Why I Stayed: Conversations on Christianity Between an Evangelical Father and His Humanist Son. Bart is still in ministry. It isn’t Christianity, however. He is the University of Southern California’s first Humanist Chaplain. He speaks with me about what happens in many families when religion divides. Many families stop talking. The Campolos keep the conversation going.

(This is the 52 minute podcast version for Beloved Community) In this episode we discuss a condition that is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of millions of people. It is a condition that is completely preventable. Hunger. Why are so many people in the world…why is anyone in the world malnourished? What can we do about it? The answer according to today’s guest is simple. We can end hunger by the force of law. John Teton is the director of the International Food Security Treaty. The International Food Security Treaty or IFST aims to establish enforceable international law guaranteeing the right to be free from hunger, and to oblige countries to establish their own related national laws. John Teton lives in Lake Oswego, Oregon. He is a writer. He has written three science fiction novels. The novels are Upsurge, Appearing Live at the Final Test, and Elevation: The Cave Logs of New Hale, Tibet. John’s work with the International Food Security Treaty is not science fiction. Instead, it is a shift to recognize in our consciences that hunger is a crime like slavery. It is a crime that like slavery can be ended by force of law. John has written two articles about the International Food Security Treaty. In 2010 he published in the Yale Journal of International Affairs, an article entitled “The Armless Hand: The Call for Anti-Hunger Law and the International Food Security Treaty.” This was followed in 2016 by an article in the Harvard International Review, “On the Origin of a Hunger-Free Species By Means of Enforceable Natural Law.” John Teton is a graduate from Harvard and studied film-making at NYU. He released a short film in 2016 about the IFST called Thunderhead Clearing.

(This is the 27 minute podcast version for Progressive Spirit.) In this episode we discuss a condition that is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of millions of people. It is a condition that is completely preventable. Hunger. Why are so many people in the world…why is anyone in the world malnourished? What can we do about it? The answer according to today’s guest is simple. We can end hunger by the force of law. John Teton is the director of the International Food Security Treaty. The International Food Security Treaty or IFST aims to establish enforceable international law guaranteeing the right to be free from hunger, and to oblige countries to establish their own related national laws. John Teton lives in Lake Oswego, Oregon. He is a writer. He has written three science fiction novels. The novels are Upsurge, Appearing Live at the Final Test, and Elevation: The Cave Logs of New Hale, Tibet. John’s work with the International Food Security Treaty is not science fiction. Instead, it is a shift to recognize in our consciences that hunger is a crime like slavery. It is a crime that like slavery can be ended by force of law. John has written two articles about the International Food Security Treaty. In 2010 he published in the Yale Journal of International Affairs, an article entitled “The Armless Hand: The Call for Anti-Hunger Law and the International Food Security Treaty.” This was followed in 2016 by an article in the Harvard International Review, “On the Origin of a Hunger-Free Species By Means of Enforceable Natural Law.” John Teton is a graduate from Harvard and studied film-making at NYU. He released a short film in 2016 about the IFST called Thunderhead Clearing.

This is the funniest book about the fear of hell I have read. Actress and comedian, Maggie Rowe, producer and performer of Comedy Central’s stage show sitnspin writes about her three month experience in an evangelical psychiatric institution. Diagnosed with a form of OCD known as scrupulosity she couldn’t shake the fear that she might not avoid hell. Maggie is not alone with this fear. She took her heaven and hell religion more seriously than many. Her book is Sin Bravely: A Memoir of Spiritual Disobedience. Because she writes with honesty and deadpan humor she has found a way to reframe her own experience of spiritual abuse and offer a path to others as well. She has written for “Arrested Development” and “Flaked” for Netflix. She co-wrote the screenplay for and directed the New Age religious mockumentary “Bright Day” and is the creator of the theatrical satires “Hollywood Hellhouse” and “Hollywood Purity Ball.” This is the third of my three-part series on Holy, Healing, Spiritually Disobedient, Creative, and Awakened Women, women authors changing religion for the better.

Carol Howard Merritt is an author, speaker, and minister who grew up in a white evangelical church and with an unpredictable and sometimes violent father. These experiences shaped her view of a punitive, judgmental God. She writes from personal experience and as professional minister about spiritual wounds inflicted by the church and how people can heal from them in her latest book. In Healing Spiritual Wounds: Reconnecting with a Loving God After Experiencing a Hurtful Church, she discusses her experience and that of others who have been spiritually abused by authoritarianism, patriarchy, and negative self-image propagated by a fundamentalist religion. She devotes each chapter to specific wounds with exercises as to how healing can happen. She has written several books on the church with a special focus on the needs of younger generations. She was previously on Progressive Spirit when we discussed Reframing Hope: Vital Ministry in a New Generation. Carol hosts God Complex Radio and is a regular contributor to the Christian Century, the Huffington Post and she blogs at Tribal Church. Carol and I are both Presbyterian Church (USA) ministers and it is a pleasure to introduce her compassionate and honest work to my listeners. This is the second in my series of interviews with holy, healing, spiritually disobedient, creative, and awakened women.

Not many congregations have two out lesbians as a clergy team. They do that kind of thing in North Carolina. Rev. Dr. Angela Yarber is a trailblazer. She is author of several books that address the intersections among religion, the arts, gender and sexuality. She holds a Ph.D. in Art and Religion from the Graduate Theological Union. Dr. Yarber has been a clergywoman and professional artist since 1999. Her books include: Microagressions in Ministry: Confronting the Hidden Violence of Everyday Church, The Gendered Pulpit: Sex, Body, and Desire in Preaching and Worship, Tearing Open the Heavens, Dance in Scripture, How Biblical Dancers Can Revolutionize Scripture, Holy Women Icons, Holy Women Icons Contemplative Coloring Book, and Embodying the Feminine in the Dances of the World’s Religions. We spend most of our time talking about The Holy Women Icons Project. According to her website, this project… seeks to empower women by telling the stories of revolutionary holy women through art, writing, and special events. Holy Women Icons art gives traditional iconography a folk-feminist twist. Books focus on the intersections among gender/sexuality, religion/spirituality, and the arts. You will enjoy this conversation with this creative and thoughtful justice seeker. This is part one of a three-part series on holy, healing, spiritually disobedient, creative, and awakened women.

A Panel Discussion on Dismantling Racism On Tuesday, January 17th two Portland activists, Jo Ann Hardesty and Ibrahim Mubarak, spoke to five Beaverton congregations about racism. The presentation was entitled, “The Dream Under Siege: A Community Forum On Racism.” It was held at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Beaverton. Five Beaverton congregations: Murray Hills Christian Church, Christ United Methodist Church, Cedar Hills United Church of Christ, Spirit of Grace, and Southminster Presbyterian hosted this event as an opportunity for suburban residents to interact with leading activists in Portland to talk about critical issues facing the Portland metro in regards to diversity, race, privilege, housing, policing, gentrification and economic justice. The Honorable JoAnn Hardesty is president of the Portland chapter of the NAACP. She is a community organizer and activist who advocates for those on the downside of power. She campaigns for police accountability and racial and economic justice. She hosts Voices from the Edge Thursday mornings at 8 on KBOO. Ibrahim Mubarak is an advocate for the rights of unhoused people, and has been involved in the houseless community, in Portland, Oregon for over 15 years. Ibrahim is a co-founder of Dignity Village (2000), Right to Survive (2009), and Right 2 Dream Too (2011). This is the audio of that presentation (edited for time). The event received newspaper coverage from the Beaverton Valley Times. - See more at: http://kboo.fm/media/55408-dream-under-siege#sthash.4IQ63yNy.dpuf

Dr. Catherine Meeks is a retired professor of socio-cultural studies at Wesleyan College. She is the editor of the newly released book, Living Into God’s Dream: Dismantling Racism in America. From the publisher: "This book is a report from the front, combining personal stories and theoretical and theological reflection with examples of the work of dismantling racism and methods for creating the much-needed “safe space” for dialogue on race to occur. Its aim is to demonstrate the ways in which a new conversation on race can be forged." Her book contains chapters from eight different contributors including herself. Some white, some people of color, some men, some women. The first chapter is written by Luther E. Smith, Jr. Dr. Smith is professor emeritus of Church and Community at the Candler School of Theology of Emory University. He writes: “Racism also persists because a large segment of the population benefits from it. This explains why and how individuals perpetuate the system of racism, even without their conscious awareness of the implications of their actions. The existence of racism relies upon it having the personal commitment of some and the inaction of many.” Celebrate the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and dismantle racism.

Sister Maura Clarke, a Catholic nun and three other women were assassinated by the El Salvadoran government in December 1980. This was a government supported by the United States. What did Sister Maura do that resulted in her violent death? Under the context of Vatican II, liberation theology, and oppressive dictatorships, we hear a story of radical faith. Investigative journalist, Eileen Markey, whose work has appeared in New York Times, New York Magazine, Wall Street Journal, National Catholic Reporter, America, Commonweal, and Killing the Buddha. wrote Sister Maura's biography, in A Radical Faith: The Assassination of Sister Maura. This is from America Magazine: 'No one remembered Maura thirty years later because she was the most pious or the most correct. People didn't hang her picture on their plaster wall or name their daughter after her or wipe away tears even as they smiled at the mention of her name because she was the most severe, the best at self- flagellation, the most familiar with the desert. They caressed her memory because she visited with love. When Maura talked to you, you felt beloved, person after person told me. She walked into cardboard slum shacks in Nicaragua and terrified villages in El Salvador and addressed individuals with a disarming, open kindness. It turns out that's what the story is about. Not death and torture – on a cross or at the hands of a military junta – but warm, flowering, life-giving love.'

53 years ago, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., delivered his famous speech, “I Have A Dream.” What has happened to the dream of a Beloved Community? Host John Shuck speaks with three activists who have a proven track record on social change about King’s dream and how it has been hijacked. Dr. Catherine Meeks is a retired professor of socio-cultural studies at Wesleyan College. She is the editor of the newly released book, Living Into God’s Dream: Dismantling Racism in America. She serves the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta as the chari of the Beloved Community: Commission for Dismantling Racism. The Honorable JoAnn Hardesty is president of the Portland chapter of the NAACP. She is a community organizer and activist who advocates for those on the downside of power. She campaigns for police accountability and racial and economic justice. She hosts a weekly radio program, Voices from the Edge. Teressa Raiford is the lead organizer of “Don’t Shoot Portland” A social justice movement in support of #BlackLivesMatter as a response to police brutality and the criminalization of Black American Youth. She works as a community advocate and is currently educating neighborhoods to provide safety strategies for marginalized communities. The focus is strengthening relationships to fight discrimination and organized hate. In addition to this special Martin Luther King birthday episode on The Beloved Community, Five Beaverton congregations, Murray Hills Christian Church, Christ United Methodist Church, Cedar Hills United Church of Christ, Spirit of Grace, and Southminster Presbyterian Church are hosting a panel discussion on racism, entitled The Dream Under Siege, Tuesday January 17th at 7 p.m. at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Beaverton. Facebook. JoAnn Hardesty and Teressa Raiford will join Ibrahim Mubarak of Right to Survive as they lead a panel discussion on racism. Organizers of the event wanted to create an opportunity for suburban residents to interact with leading activists in Portland to talk about critical issues facing the Portland metro in regards to diversity, race, privilege, housing, policing, gentrification and economic justice.

Known as the superego or the judge, our inner critic is the voice in our heads that is hypercritical of everything we do and of who we are. The inner critic shames us and debilitates us. How do we become free of the inner critic? The answer is mindfulness, awareness, compassion, and practice. Mark Coleman, a meditation teacher and therapist, has written a book to help us become free of our inner critic, "Make Peace With Your Mind: How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Free You from Your Inner Critic." One of the tools is to be lighthearted, to mock the critic. You will enjoy this conversation and find skills and methods to go easier on yourself and to treat yourself (and others) with compassion as opposed to judgment.

Host John Shuck of KBOO in Portland, Oregon speaks with Penpa Tsering, the new Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the Office of Tibet, based in Washington DC. He was elected to this post in May. Previously he was a member of the Tibetan Parliament in exile where he served as speaker since 2011. In this exclusive interview they discuss Tibet’s history, geography and spirituality. What does it mean to be a country-in-exile? How does a people who value spirituality above all else express their need to an atheistic, materialistic colonial power? They discuss China’s demographic aggression, its exploitation of Tibet’s natural resources and environmental abuses of Tibet’s land and rivers, and the urgency before the United States to pressure China to solve peacefully the Tibet crisis. They also discuss how 13 centuries of Buddhism has shaped the people of Tibet and may be the spiritual resource that can be a beacon in a dark time of destruction for our shared Earth home.

The Kamasutra brings to mind (and to Google searches) erotic and exotic sexual positions. OK, it is that. But it is much more. It is about the art of living. Wendy Doniger, Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago, is a leading scholar in Hinduism and mythology. She has written over forty books including Hindu Myths: A Sourcebook, Translated from the Sanskrit, The Laws of Manu, and a new translation of the Kamasutra. Her latest is Redeeming the Kamasutra. We discuss this fascinating text and the controversy it ignites still today.

Robert Jensen is a professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas. He returns to Progressive Spirit to discuss his book, 'Plain Radical: Living, Loving, and Learning to Leave the Planet Gracefully.' He calls this book a “polemical memoir” in that it is a story of his mentor and friend, Jim Koplin, and their twenty-five year relationship. Thus it is a memoir. But it is polemical and political in that this relationship shaped Robert’s life and his radical views toward life. Ultimately, this book is an invitation to be human as industrial civilization collapses and takes the eco-system with it. How do we navigate this coming chaos summoning the best of what makes us human as opposed to the worst? How do we leave the planet gracefully? This is an interview and a book you will want to share with other awakened individuals who both grieve and hope. Jensen’s eleven general audience books include, 'The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism, and White Privilege,' 'We Are All Apocalyptic Now: On the Responsibilities of Teaching, Preaching, Reporting, Writing, and Speaking Out,' and the forthcoming, 'The End of Patriarchy: Radical Feminism for Men.'

John Shuck, speaks with Penpa Tsering, U.S. Representative of the Dalai Lama, about Tibet's history, China's demographic aggression and exploitation of Tibet's natural resources, China's human rights abuses of the Tibetan people and how time is running out for Tibetan autonomy.

His guru told him to do it. So he listened. Thus the quest began for a hippie with a medical degree to become a key player in helping to eradicate smallpox, the deadliest disease in history. Larry Brilliant tells his story in Sometimes Brilliant: The Impossible Adventure of a Spiritual Seeker and Visionary Physician Who Helped Conquer the Worst disease in History. After sitting at the feet of Martin Luther King at the University of Michigan in 1963, Larry Brilliant was swept up into the civil rights movement, marching and protesting across America and Europe. As a radical young doctor he followed the hippie trail from London over the Khyber Pass with his wife Girija, Wavy Gravy and the Hog Farm commune to India. There, he found himself in a Himalayan ashram wondering whether he had stumbled into a cult. Instead, one of India’s greatest spiritual teachers, Neem Karoli Baba, opened Larry’s heart and told him his destiny was to work for the World Health Organization to help eradicate killer smallpox. He would never have believed he would become a key player in eliminating a 10,000-year-old disease that killed more than half a billion people in the 20th century alone. This month on the Beloved Community host John Shuck engages one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people and winner of the TEDPrize, Larry Brilliant, in an in depth discussion about spirituality and activism. It is a testimony to life, its excruciating hardships, trust, hope, and fulfillment.

Sue Monk Kidd has written several novels including The Secret Life of Bees, The Mermaid Chair, and The Invention of Wings. Before the novels was the story of Sue Monk Kidd’s own journey, the Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman’s Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine. The 20th anniversary edition of the Dance of the Dissident Daughter has just been released. She discusses how that book shaped her novels, the quest for the Sacred Feminine, her relationship with organized religion, the effect Dance of the Dissident Daughter has had on her readers over the past 20 years, “holy misogyny,” and the grief and corresponding responsive action regarding the election.

When many think of Tarot cards they think of a gypsy in a tent telling some rube that there is a stranger, tall, dark and handsome in her future. But Tarot is much more than fortune-telling and hocus pocus. It is a fun way to discover the "deep self." My guest, Kim Krans, author and writer from Portland, has created a beautiful Tarot card deck and accompanying guidebook, The Wild Unknown: Tarot Card and Guidebook. She finds her own path with the artistry and presents a deck that is visually arresting. I speak with Kim about Tarot and her story in creating The Wild Unknown.

This week I speak with someone who models activism, intellect and spirituality, Matthew Fox. Silenced by the Vatican for his views, he left the Catholic priesthood in the early 1980s. Matthew Fox is a theologian and activist who has written over 30 books. He has introduced millions of people to Creation Spirituality. His latest book, published in 2016 is called A Way to God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey. According to Fox, Merton was assassinated by the CIA. We will talk more about that as well as have a candid conversation about ecology, human rights, capitalism, and resistance.

Kenneth Briggs is a journalist and commentator who worked for many years as religion writer for Newsday and religion editor for the New York Times. He is the author of The Invisible Best Seller: Searching for the Bible in America.   He has traveled the country talking to people about the Bible. Even as it is still a bestseller, few people know what is in it.   What is the future of the Bible when it is stripped away of its supernaturalism and it no longer provides the overarching narrative for humanity?   Join us for a candid conversation about the Bible in America.

The Beloved Community is show for activists: uniting mind, heart, and action. This month I speak with someone who models activism, intellect and spirituality, Matthew Fox. Silenced by the Vatican for his views, he left the Catholic priesthood in the early 1980s. Matthew Fox is a theologian and activist who has written over 30 books. He has introduced millions of people to Creation Spirituality. His latest book, published in 2016 is called A Way to God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey. According to Fox, Merton was assassinated by the CIA. We will talk more about that as well as have a candid conversation about ecology, human rights, capitalism, and resistance.

Author Douglas Steere wrote: “To ‘listen’ another’s soul into a condition of disclosure and discovery may be almost the greatest service that any human being ever performs for another.”   Listening is a lost art that is much in demand.   Jim Petersen, counselor and retired pastor, calls listening “an act of love.”  He has written a book about listening, Why Don’t We Listen Better?  Communicating and Connecting in Relationships.  This is the second edition of a book that provides wisdom and 30 listening techniques to handle interactions and difficult relationships.  The one thing each of us can do immediately to build the Beloved Community is to learn to listen.    Jim is the pastor emeritus of Southminster Presbyterian Church in Beaverton, Oregon.

President Barack Obama is concluding his second term and history will get the last word on his presidency.  From his critics Obama is everything from a Muslim, a dictator, a socialist, and simply “the worst.”  Today’s guest wants to get in some words of defense for President Obama. Mark Hannah is a veteran of the Kerry-Edwards and Obama for America presidential campaigns. As a public affairs and media analyst, Mark blogs for PBS and the Huffington Post and appears frequently on cable news programs such as Fox News.  He is adjunct faculty member of New York University, The New School and Queens College. We talk about his latest book, The Best Worst President: What the Right Gets Wrong About Barack Obama.

Lisa Sharon Harper is the Chief Church Engagement Officer with Sojourners. Lisa has been leading trainings and helping mobilize clergy and community leaders around shared values for the common good, with a focus on racial justice. Prior to joining Sojourners, Lisa was the founding executive director of New York Faith & Justice — an organization at the hub of a new ecumenical movement to end poverty in New York City. She has written five books including Left, Right and Christ: Evangelical Faith in Politics and Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican.. or Democrat. Her latest book is called The Very Good Gospel: How Everything Wrong Can Be Made Right.

David Galston is a university chaplain, adjunct professor of philosophy at Brock University in St. Catherine’s, Ontario, Academic Director at Westar Institute, and speaker at the Quest Learning Centre. David was on Progressive Spirit about three years ago. We discussed his book Embracing the Human Jesus: A Wisdom Path for Contemporary Christianity. Today we are discussing his newly released book, God’s Human Future: The Struggle to Define Theology Today.  Check out his piece on Christian Atheism. We are thrilled to welcome David along with Joseph Bessler to Southminster Presbyterian Church in Beaverton (Portland), Oregon, November 4th and 5th for a Jesus Seminar on the Road. The topic will be The Future of Religion.

Amy Livingstone is the proprietor of Sacred Art Studio in Portland. Amy explores the intersection of theology, ancestral ways of knowing, environmentalism, and spiritual ecology. Her work is informed by her love for the earth and engagement with many forms of creative expression that include painting, sculpture, installation, and ceremony. We discuss the role of spirituality and sacred art in activism for the earth.

This is the election episode.   I speak with Laurence Leamer author of The President’s Butler, a fictional account of a billionaire who decides to run for president. Afraid of Trump becoming president?  Well, don’t be too thrilled about the alternative.  Professor Mark Lewis Taylor of Princeton Seminary has written a couple of articles for Counterpunch in which he lays out the case for defeating both Trump and Clintonian  Neo-Liberalism. It's about money. Corporations are spending over 16 million in Oregon to defeat measure 97.  I speak with Oregon PTA Legislative Director Otto Schellabout what Measure 97 will and will not do.

Becky Garrison returns to Progressive Spirit to talk about alternative spiritual communities. Secular church but not "church." Not religious but a place to connect, find meaning, do worthwhile things. We'll hear about The Portland Round--the visual arts, slam poetry, and music come together for intimacy and collaboration, Sex Positive Portland -- "members plan and host events centered around understanding and exploring all aspects of human sexuality, relationship styles, kink, gender and orientation," Prismhousepdx -- "a community connected through cannabis," Sacred Circle Dance Community -- “no previous experienced required, just a desire to dance,” Gary Austin Workshops -- "free the actor to make better choices by committing to the unknown, getting out of her head, and being in the present moment." Set List Show -- "Stand-Up Without A Net" and the Orchard Kitchen in Whidby Island near Seattle that is building community through food and sustainability. Becky is a religion writer and her credits include work for The Washington Post's On Faith column, The Guardian, Believe Out Loud, Killing the Buddha, American Atheist Magazine, Perceptive Travel, The Revealer, The Humanist, Religion Dispatches and the now defunct Wittenberg Door.

Why was Christianity so odd in its time and how did it change the way we think of religion today? Larry Hurtado is Professor Emeritus of New Testament Language, Literature,and Theology in the school of divinity at the University of Edinburgh. His research has focused on the origins and development of what he calls “devotion to Jesus” in earliest Christianity. He is an author of numerous books and an authority on the Gospels (esp. Gospel of Mark), the Apostle Paul, Early Christology, the Jewish Background of the New Testament, and New Testament Textual Criticism. We discuss his latest book is Destroyer of the Gods: Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World.

Tom Krattenmaker is a writer specializing in religion in public life. He is the author of "Onward Christian Athletes" and "The Evangelicals You Don’t Know." Formerly of Portland, he is now communications director at Yale Divinity School. He is not a believer in God or the supernatural. But he digs Jesus. In his latest book, "Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower," he talks about Jesus as a resource for those who don t have religious beliefs.

Carrie Newcomer is a songwriter, recording artist, performer, and educator. She has released 15 albums. She was on Progressive Spirit when it was called Religion For Life a couple of years ago when her album "A Permeable Life" and its companion book, "A Permeable Life: Poems and Essays" was released. She is with me again to talk about her latest album, "The Beautiful Not Yet," and its companion book, "The Beautiful Not Yet: Poems, Essays, and Lyrics."

The Beloved Community is a new 60 minute show that airs every second Friday from 9 to 10 a.m. on 90.7 KBOO/Portland. On the Beloved Community we address the philosophical and spiritual foundations for non-violence, activism, political engagement and peace building. We also hear voices of those who are building the beloved community. The goal is to gain inspiration, solidarity, wisdom, and insight for your own activism. On this episode I speak with Sarah Jaffe about her book, "Necessary Trouble: Americans In Revolt." Truthout called her book “one of the most essential books of the year.” I speak with Jaffe about her description of a new activism that has arisen since the crash of 2008. She writes about the anger and frustration that led to the Tea Party, the Occupy Movement, Occupy Foreclosure, Student Debt Resistance, OURWalmart, Black Lives Matter, and more. She discusses what links these movements together, the people behind them, their strategies, and announces a call for all of us to make some necessary trouble for the sake of our nation and each other. I also speak with singer/songwriter, Carrie Newcomer about her new album "The Beautiful Not Yet" and her companion book, "The Beautiful Not Yet, Poems, Essays, and Lyrics. Carrie Newcomer is a songwriter, recording artist, performer, and educator. She has released 15 albums. She was on Progressive Spirit when it was called Religion For Life a couple of years ago when her album A Permeable Life and its companion book, A Permeable Life: Poems and Essays was released. She is with me again to talk about her latest album, The Beautiful Not Yet, and its companion book, The Beautiful Not Yet: Poems, Essays, and Lyrics.

Chade-Meng Tan (Meng) is a Google pioneer, award-winning engineer, international bestselling author, thought leader and philanthropist. He is Chairman of the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, and Co-chair of One Billion Acts of Peace, which has been nominated seven times for the Nobel Peace Prize. But that isn’t why he is a happy guy. He was happy before he was successful. He has learned the skill of accessing joy on demand! Science can now measure what ancient wisdom discovered through centuries of practice: joy is accessible. We talk about his book, "Joy On Demand: The Art of Discovering the Happiness Within."

The rising population known as “nones” for its members’ lack of religious affiliation is changing American society, politics, and culture. Many nones believe in God and even visit places of worship, but they do not identify with a specific faith or belong to a spiritual community. Corinna Nicolaou is a none, and in her book, "A None’s Story: Searching for Meaning Inside Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam," she describes what it is like for her and thousands of others to live without religion or to be spiritual without committing to a specific faith.

Jenna Yokoyama is a Japanese American. She co-hosts the show Pacific Underground on KBOO in Portland, Oregon. It is heard on the FOURTH Friday of every month at 11:00 a.m. It is also on podcast via Soundcloud and iTunes. According to its website, "There are nearly 225,000 APIs in Oregon. But in one of America’s whitest states, the issues that impact us simply aren’t covered. Imagine: 225,000 stories untold. Pacific Underground is a show by Asians and Pacific Islanders (APIs) taking the mic into our own hands." Jenna covers a lot of ground in this conversation. We discuss religion, racism and the daily indignities APIs face to the social transformation underway with younger generations. She talks about the problem of the European designation “Asian” to refer to nearly half the planet as well as the necessity for APIs to unite as “Asian-Americans” for the purpose of empowerment.

Scott Brown is the Cofounder of the Colorado Center for Restorative Practices. Scott has been a long-time activist working for over 15 years with organizations including Greenpeace, the Idaho Conservation League, and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. He is a leading advocate for consistent nonviolence and bringing the principles and practices of restorative justice to bear on the full range of social issues. He is travelling the country talking about his book, Active Peace: A Mindful Path to a Nonviolent World.

In his 1959 Sermon on Gandhi, Dr. King said: “The aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community, so that when the battle’s over, a new relationship comes into being between the oppressed and the oppressor….The way of violence leads to bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. But, the way of non-violence leads to redemption and the creation of the beloved community.” On “The Beloved Community” we address the philosophical and spiritual foundations for non-violence, activism, political engagement and peace building. We also hear voices of those who are building the beloved community right here in Portland. The goal is to gain inspiration, solidarity, wisdom, and insight for your own activism. On this pilot edition of “The Beloved Community,” host John Shuck speaks with three activists. Each of them brings a unique voice and perspective to bringing Martin Luther King’s vision to fruition. Marianne Williamson, is a New York Times Bestselling author, lecturer, and activist. She will discuss the spiritual foundations of the Beloved Community as we discuss her latest book, Tears to Triumph: The Spiritual Journey from Suffering to Enlightenment. G. Scott Brown, is the Co-founder of the Colorado Center for Restorative Practices. He was formerly an activist for Greenpeace and now brings the principles of non-violence to all of his social justice work. He will be in Portland on August 16 th to discuss his latest book, Active Peace: A Mindful Path to a Non-Violent World. We close the hour speaking with Jenna Yokoyama. Jenna is a co-host of the KBOO program, Pacific Underground that airs every FOURTH Friday of the month at 11:00 a.m. “Pacific Underground is a show by Asians and Pacific Islanders (APIs) taking the mic into our own hands.” She will discuss the Asian-American experience in Portland including why it is problematic to use phrases such as the “Asian-American experience.”

Seven of her twelve books have been New York Times bestsellers. Four have been #1 on that list. You have seen her on Oprah, Larry King Live, Bill Maher, Good Morning America, and Charlie Rose. You can watch her live each Wednesday on livestream through her website Marianne.com. Her spirituality is intimately connected with social justice. We discuss her latest book, Tears to Triumph: The Spiritual Journey from Suffering to Enlightenment. She takes seriously the grief of our world and the grief of individuals and how with love and courage we can transform our suffering into strength.

Five years ago the nation was stunned by the case of the Bergholz beard cutters. The Bergholz Amish Community in southern Ohio found itself outside the law by following its bishop, Sam Mullet, who became increasingly authoritarian. He controlled his community, doling out punishments, sexually abusing the wives of the men he punished, instructing members to forcibly cut beards and hair of other members of the Bergholz community. The FBI became involved when Mullet ordered his followers to cut and shave beards and hair of those he considered his enemies in other Amish communities. We are going to hear the story told from the point of view of Sam Mullet’s grandson, Johnny Mast, who eventually broke away from the community. He is the author along with Shawn Smucker of Breakaway Amish: Growing up with the Bergholz Beard Cutters.

David Ray Griffin will go down in history (assuming the future has a history) as the most important theologian and prophet of the latter part of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is a philosopher/theologian who has written over 25 books on that topic. He wrote another dozen on 9/11 making him the premier scholar on the search for the truth behind 9/11. His latest book speaks with clarity, scholarship, and urgency to the most crucial event in our time, global warming and climate change. I speak with him about his latest book, Unprecedented: Can Civilization Survive the CO2 Crisis?

Veda Gill is the Executive Director of the Presbyterian Education Board in Pakistan (Facebook). She oversees a number of schools that educate over 6,000 students. These schools founded initially by Presbyterian missionaries in the mid 19th century are now far superior to government-run schools and they reach out to the poorest, both Muslim and Christian. She believes that education is the key to peace. She speaks with me about her important work.

Rick Ufford-Chase was the moderator of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly from 2004 to 2006. He worked as a Presbyterian Mission Worker for twenty years on the U.S./Mexico border, supporting migrants and refugees and developing educational programs for people of faith who are interested in the complexities and challenges of the border region. He was formerly the Executive Director of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, and is currently the Co-Director (with his wife, Kitty) of Stony Point Conference Center. He stopped in at the KBOO studio when the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) met in Portland to discuss his latest book, Faithful Resistance: Gospel Visions for the Church in A Time of Empire.

On a Friday night in March 1981 Henry Hays and James Knowles scoured the streets of Mobile, Alabama in their car, hunting for a black man. The young men were members of Klavern 900 of the United Klans of America. They were seeking to retaliate after a largely black jury could not reach a verdict in a trial involving a black man accused of the murder of a white man. The two Klansmen found nineteen-year-old Michael Donald walking home alone. Hays and Knowles abducted him, beat him, cut his throat, and left his body hanging from a tree branch in a racially mixed residential neighborhood. Arrested, charged, and convicted, Hays was sentenced to death—the first time in more than half a century that the state of Alabama sentenced a white man to death for killing a black man. On behalf of Michael’s grieving mother, Morris Dees, the legendary civil rights lawyer and cofounder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, filed a civil suit against the members of the local Klan unit involved and the UKA, the largest Klan organization. Charging them with conspiracy, Dees put the Klan on trial, resulting in a verdict that would level a deadly blow to its organization. My guest, Laurence Leamer, has written about this event, uncovered new information, including the climate of hate created by former Alabama governor, George Wallace that led to this lynching. Laurence Leamer is a New York Times Bestselling author of over a dozen books including the Kennedy Women and The Price of Justice. He is with me via Skype from Washington DC to discuss his latest book The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle that Brought Down the Klan.

Beaverton is one of the most diverse cities in Oregon with one in 5 residents born in a different country and 99 different languages spoken in homes.  Megan Cohen is the Cultural Inclusion Specialist with the Mayor’s office.  She discusses the Cultural Inclusion Program the city has begun to celebrate this diversity and to meet the challenges of these demographic shifts.   This program was broadcast July 7th, 2016 on KBOO’s “News In Depth.”

Here is a special report for Progressive Spirit on the 222nd General Assembly that met July 18-25 in Portland at the Oregon Convention Center. The Assembly meets once every two years. It previously met in Portland in 1967 and before that in 1893. I speak with former moderator, Rick Ufford-Chase, newly elected stated clerk of the PCUSA, J. Herbert Nelson, Palestinian Christian, Nahida Gordon, Jeffrey DeYoe of the Israel-Palestine Mission Network, Ned Rosch of Jewish Voice for Peace, Ray Bagnuolo of That All May Freely Serve, and Michael Zimmerman of the Clergy Letter Project on topics of LGBTQ justice, fossil fuel divestment, Israel-Palestine, evolution, and the church's future.

Dr. Nahida Gordon, a Palestinian-American was nine years old when she and her parents had to leave their home in Jaffa in 1948. Palestinians refer to this event as al Nakba or the Catastrophe. She still has the keys to her childhood home. In her book, "Palestine Is Our Home: Voices of Loss, Courage, and Steadfastness," she brings to the West the voices of Palestinians, their culture, their resistence to Israeli occupation, and their hope to return to their homeland.

Krista Tippett is the host of NPR’s On Being. It is a show that asks, “What does it mean to be human and how do we want to live?” She was trained as a journalist and reported from divided Berlin. She received a Masters of Divinity Degree from Yale in 1994 and turned her attention from politics to the larger questions of life. She visited with me in the KBOO studio to talk about her own spiritual journey and her book, Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living.

Patricia Tull is An ordained Presbyterian minister and professor of Hebrew Bible.  She retired from Louisville Theological Seminary where she is A.B. Rhodes Professor Emerita of Old Testament.  She is the author of Inhabiting Eden: Christians, the Bible, and the Ecological Crisis.   In this book she demonstrates how the Hebrew Scriptures can open our minds to ecology, justice, and value.  She will be speaking at Southminster Presbyterian Church June 19th in conjunction with the 222nd PC(USA) General Assembly the meets that week in Portland.  She blogs at Inhabiting Eden.

“I didn’t squander my youth on responsibility,” quips Steve Theme, author of Asphalt Asylum: The Dark Roads to Light.   It is part hitchhiking journal, part mythic adventure as Steve Theme tells the story of his 7,000 mile hitchhiking quest to run away and find home again.   Steve introduces us to the fascinating people you meet on the road.  More than that, he offers a window into the angst and idealism of a nineteen year-old-male as his 50+ self reflects on what it means to be human, to connect with humans, to struggle with whatever it is we call “God.”

On September 29th, 1962, Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett spoke before a halftime crowd at a University of Mississippi football game. He said he loved Mississippi's heritage. This compelled him to personally block African-American James Meredith from enrolling at Ole Miss. Eventually Meredith was enrolled, violence followed, and 28 clergy, white Methodist clergy, signed a statement, Born of Conviction, opposing the white power structure and its racism. Of the 28 signers, three lost their positions immediately, 18 had left the state in two years. Joseph T. Reiff, chair of the Religion Department at Emory and Henry College, has written about this time, these clergy, and their statement in his book, Born of Conviction: White Methodists and Mississippi's Closed Society.

The Kamasutra brings to mind (and to Google searches) erotic and exotic sexual positions.   OK, it is that.  But it is much more.  It is about the art of living.   Wendy Doniger, Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago, is a leading scholar in Hinduism and mythology.   She has written over forty books including Hindu Myths: A Sourcebook, Translated from the Sanskrit, The Laws of Manu, and a new translation of the Kamasutra.   Her latest is Redeeming the Kamasutra.  We discuss this fascinating text and the controversy it ignites still today.

America's leading atheist, the co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and co-host of Freethought Radio, Dan Barker, talks about his latest book, God the Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction (audiobook)   The roots of the book go to Richard Dawkins' famous description of God in his book The God Delusion. “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” Barker provides scriptural verses for each of the above attributes and then adds more that Dawkins missed.  Barker challenges Christians to pull back the veil of devotion and read what the "good book" really presents as "God."

John Loftus was an evangelical minister.  He has several degrees in Christian apologetics.  He pastored churches and taught at Christian colleges.  Then he left it all.   He has written a dozen books with titles such as Why I Became an Atheist: A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity and The Outsider Test for Faith: How to Know Which Religion Is True.  His latest book is How to Defend the Christian Faith:  Advice from An Atheist.  He cuts through the mischaracterizations, special pleading and outright lies of Christian apologists.  He blogs at Debunking Christianity.

What is the purpose of satire?  It is it effective?  Can it get you in trouble?  Terry Lindvall is the CS Lewis Professor of Communication and Christian Thought at Virginia Wesleyan College.  He writes about humor and in his latest book, God Mocks:  A History of Religious Satire From the Hebrew Prophets to Stephen Colbert, he explores the role of religious satire throughout history.  From Elijah to Alexander Pope to Robert Ingersoll and more, Lindvall introduces us those who tickle our funny bone while calling us out.

Jim Wallis, president and founder of Sojourners, is an evangelical Christian with a social conscience. He speaks and writes about ethics and public policy. His latest book is called America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to A New America. He has been engaging in town meetings around the country to discuss what it means for white people to “die to whiteness” and what we all need to do to make a bridge to a multi-cultural America.  Here is a report about the town meeting in Portland.

A pioneer of the progressive Christian movement, John Shelby Spong, returns for the third time to Progressive Spirit.  We discuss his 25th book, Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy. The retired Episcopal Bishop of Newark demonstrates that the gospel writers were not writing material to be taken literally but liturgically. As Christianity moved away from Judaism it lost its ability to interpret the stories about Jesus.  The Christian faith became a matter of believing things that can't possibly be true.   Fundamentalist Christians, says Spong, are heretics.   He charts a course for spiritual thinkers to embrace faith and the modern world. Find his weekly column at www.johnshelbyspong.com.

What do palm fronds, statues of Ganesh, and eagle feathers all have in common?   They are religious objects that pose a challenge for the environment.  Jay Wexler is a professor at the Boston University School of Law.   He specializes in environmental law and church/state issues.   His latest book is When God Isn't Green:  A World-Wide Journey to Places Where Religious Practice and Environmentalism Collide.   With humor and a hope for raising consciousness and finding balance, he makes the case for continuing the conversation between the needs of religious and environmental communities.

Were the authors of the gospels who told fanciful stories about Jesus making stuff up, or did they have faulty memories, or both?   Bart Ehrman, The James A Gray Professor of Religious Studies at The University of North Carolina tackles the issue of Jesus and memory.  He is one the most renowned and controversial religious scholars in the world.  He studies the historical Jesus and early Christian writings but is not a Christian.  He has written over twenty books and has appeared on this program twice previously.  His latest book is Jesus Before the Gospels:  How the Earliest Christians Remembered, Changed, and Invented Their Stories of The Savior.    Find his blog in which all proceeds go to help the hungry and homeless.

John Caputo is Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion Emeritus at Syracuse University and the David R. Cook Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Villanova University. He is a "radical" theologian.   From his website:  "Caputo treats "sacred" texts as a poetics of the human condition, or as a 'theo-poetics,' a poetics of the event harbored in the name of God."   In this conversation we discuss his book for the popular reader, The Folly of God:  A Theology of the Unconditional.    How to speak of God when God doesn't exist.   Don't miss his exciting spiritual autobiography, Hoping Against Hope:  Confessions of a Post-Modern Pilgrim.

Ned Rosch is a co-founder of the Portland chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace.   He says that advocating for justice for the Palestinians has made him more Jewish than ever.  He talks to me, personally, about his own awakening, liberating and painful, and the rift in the Jewish community as they struggle over the meaning of Israel, and the deep challenge facing Israel of what it will be, a true democracy or an apartheid state.

The program is undergoing a name change.  Religion For Life is now Progressive Spirit. It has the same focus on education, spirituality, and social justice, but with a new name! This week, I continue my series, Islam 101: Meet Your Muslim Neighbor. Manar Allatar is a Ph. D. student at Portland State University in the School of the Environment. She volunteers with youth at her mosque, Masjed As-Saber, and speaks with me about Islam and the empowerment of women, Islam and youth, and addressing Islamophobia.

This is part five of my series, "Islam 101:  Meet Your Muslim Neighbor."  I continue the conversation with Paul Kamolnick.  (See Part One).    Paul Kamolnick is a professor in the department of sociology and anthropology at East Tennessee State University.    He writes monographs for the US Army War College.   His latest monograph will be available for free download in the Spring of 2016. It is entitled The Al-Qa'ida Organization and the Islamic State Organization: History, Doctrine, Modus Operandi, and the US Strategy to Permanently Defeat Terrorism in the Name of Sunni Islam.  In this second part of our conversation, he talks about the specifics of these terrorist organizations and the strategies to defeat them.

This is part four of my series, "Islam 101:  Meet Your Muslim Neighbor."  One of the ways to combat Islamophobia is to be clear about the differences between Muslims and violent psychopaths who use religion as a cover for their terrorism.   Paul Kamolnick is a professor in the department of sociology and anthropology at East Tennessee State University. He specializes in Classical Social Theory, Contemporary Social Theory, Political Islam, Counterterrorism, and the Al Qua'ida and Islamic State Organizations.  He writes monographs for the US Army War College.  He published  Delegitimizing Al-Qaeda: A Jihad-Realist Approach in 2012.  His latest monograph will be available for free download in the Spring of 2016. It is entitled The Al-Qa'ida Organization and the Islamic State Organization: History, Doctrine, Modus Operandi, and the US Strategy to Permanently Defeat Terrorism in the Name of Sunni Islam.  He lays out his case in part one of a two-part conversation.

Harris Zafar (Twitter) is the National Spokesperson and Director of Youth Outreach for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA. He lives in Portland and is a member of the Portland Rizwan Mosque.   He has been on national media talking about Islam, human rights, pluralism, and freedom of religion.  Harris is the author of Demystifying Islam:  Tackling the Tough Questions.   He is my third guest in my series, “Islam 101:  Meet Your Muslim Neighbor.”

In the second in my series, "Islam 101: Meet Your Muslim Neighbor" I speak with Joseph Lumbard.  He is the General Editor of The Study Qur'an:  A New Translation and Commentary.   Dr. Lumbard is a professor at the American University of Sharjah in the Department of Arabic and Translation Studies.  He was born and raised in Washington D.C. and brought up in the Episcopal Church. He converted to Islam when a student at George Washington University.  He has published many articles and books on Islamic philosophy, Sufism, and Quranic Studies. Two of his books include Islam, Fundamentalism, and the Betrayal of Tradition and Submission, Faith and Beauty: The Religion of Islam.   He spoke with me via Skype from from Sharjah In the United Arab Emirates to talk about The Study Qur’an: A New Translation.

With the increase in instances of Islamophobia and certain presidential candidates calling for "a ban on all Muslim travel to the U.S.," it is long past time to get to know our neighbors.  For the next several weeks I am presenting a series, "Meet Your Muslim Neighbor."   Ali Houdroge is one of the founding members of the Islamic Center of Portland at the corner of Denney Road and Hall Boulevard in Beaverton.   Mr. Houdroge was born in Lebanon and attended Portland Community College and Portland State University.  He worked as an electrical engineer with the army corps of engineers for 31 years until his retirement.   He has been managing the affairs of the Islamic Center since its inception in 1993, which serves a diverse Muslim Shia community from Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and India.

They went into the wilderness to discover religion.  What is it all about?  Why are people religious?  The adventure is recounted in Dr. Tom Boyd's, Lusting For Infinity:  A Spiritual Odyssey.   Dr. Boyd is professor emeritus of philosophy and religious studies at the University of Oklahoma.   Reading Lusting For Infinity is like hanging out with your favorite professor and talking about all the great, honest, and real stuff you never have time for in class.   An important book for those with inquisitive minds and searching spirits.   A study guide is available as well.

John Van Hagen is a licensed psychologist with 30 years experience in a variety of clinical, training, and teaching positions.   In his book  Rescuing Religion: How Faith Can Survive Its Encounter With Science, he offers a way to retain a connection to biblical stories even if the characters never existed and the events never happened.  We can go behind the texts to discover the struggles the authors of these texts faced.  We find they connect with our own.

Steve McIntosh is a leader in the integral philosophy movement and is president of the social policy foundation The Institute for Cultural Evolution.   Steve is the author of Evolution's Purpose and Integral Consciousness and he speaks to me about his latest book, The Presence of the Infinite: The Spiritual Experience of Beauty, Truth, and Goodness.  Food for thought for an evolving faith.

Robin Meyers has been the senior pastor of Mayflower Congregational Church in Oklahoma City for over thirty years.  He has a strong voice for social justice and has pulled no punches criticizing forms of Christianity co-opted by the religious right.  His books include Saving Jesus From the Church, The Underground Church, and Why the Christian Right is Wrong.   He returns to Religion For Life to discuss his latest book,  Spiritual Defiance:  Building A Beloved Community of Resistance.  Based on his Beecher Lectures at Yale, Meyers calls preachers to be subversive and defiant for the social gospel.

Following her last book, Christianity After Religion, religious scholar, Diana Butler Bass, returns to Religion For Life to ask, "Where is God?" The answer that many of the "spiritual but not religious" are discovering is that God is in the world of nature and human relationships. Her latest book, Grounded: Finding God in the World, A Spiritual Revolution weaves personal experience and analysis to point to signs of this theological shift.

Rodney Wilson teaches school at a community college in Missouri. He was the first openly-gay K-12 public school teacher in Missouri and founded LGBT History Month (October).  He has a master's degree in religion and history and he turned his master's thesis into a book, Killing God: Christian Fundamentalism and the Rise of Atheism. In it he analyzes the responses of 1,600 people who left religion for atheism. He found four primary factors that contributed to their "deconversion."   You may resonate.

Twenty-five percent of all the people incarcerated in the world are in America's prisons.  60% of those are people of color.   America is a "carceral state."  Taking on "Lockdown America" a triad of "police violence, mass incarceration and the death penalty" Mark Lewis Taylor, the Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Theology and Culture at Princeton Theological Seminary, has written a second edition to The Executed God:  The Way of the Cross in Lockdown America.   Taylor finds in the symbol, "The Executed God" a "power in and of the people" to resist the state theatrics of terror with a counter theatrics to terror in three parts: "cultivating adversarial politics, creating dramatic actions, and catalyzing social movements."

Peter Steinberger is the Robert H. and Blanche Day Ellis Professor of Political Science and Humanities at Reed College in Portland.  His area of expertise is political philosophy.  But he ventured into a book about the concept of God.  It is called The Problem With God:  Why Atheists, True Believers, and Even Agnostics Must All Be Wrong.   We talk about why it is meaningless to talk about God.  There is no such idea.  Curious?

Joseph Baker is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at East Tennessee State University.   His latest book, American Secularism:  Cultural Contours of Nonreligious Belief Systems, co-authored with Buster G. Smith, explores the rise of secularity in the United States.  Why are more and more people identifying as "non-religious" and what are the forces shaping this change?   Religion and secularism from a sociological point of view.

Mary Pflum Peterson is an Emmy Award winning producer for Good Morning America.  She is a driven, highly successful television professional and former reporter for CNN.   Her childhood, however, was complicated.  Her mother suffered an emotional breakdown and took solace in hoarding, filling the house with "treasures."  The bond that held mother and daughter was symbolized by the white dresses that marked important milestones in their lives.  She tells her powerful and important story in White Dresses:  A Memoir of Love and Secrets, Mothers and Daughters.

Eric Elnes is a minister in the United Church of Christ at Countryside Community Church in Omaha, Nebraska  and author of Gifts of the Dark Wood:  Seven Blessings for Soulful Skeptics (and Other Wanderers).  He is also the author of The Phoenix Affirmations:  A New Vision for the Future of Christianity.  He hosts a webcast called Darkwood Brew. He spoke with me about seven gifts we find in the Dark Wood of our lives.

Val Webb is a theologian and scientist from Australia. She is the author of nine books including her latest Testing Tradition and Liberating Theology: Finding Your Own Voice. She returns to Religion For Life to speak with me about the importance of being critical of theological creeds and finding your path.

Jeffrey Robbins is Chair and Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania. He is the author or editor of eight books.  He is a Westar Fellow and a member of the new "God and the Human Future" Seminar. He along with Thomas Sheehan will be at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Beaverton, Oregon, November 6-7 to discuss God, Christianity, and the Human Future. In this candid conversation, Dr. Robbins talks about the "problem of God" and his upcoming book, Radical Theology: A Theological Method for Change.

Martin Winiecki is the coordinator of the Institute for Global Peace Work in Tamera, Portugal.   Terra Nova is a movement, a school, a community, and a vision for a world at peace.  He speaks with me about the community and the book he helped translate from  German by Dr. Dieter Duhm called Terra Nova:  Global Revolution and the Healing of Love.  Martin is on a nationwide tour to promote this vision of holistic "system change – environmental stewardship; establishing new paradigms for love, sexuality, and partnership; inner peace work; and global peace work" and will be in Portland Saturday, October 24th for a presentation.

Jerry Coyne is a professor in the department of ecology and evolution at the University of Chicago.   He specializes in understanding the origin of species.  In addition to numerous scientific papers and his scholarly book in his field, Speciation, he is the author of the popular book, Why Evolution Is True.   His most recent effort to communicate to popular audiences about science is his latest book, Faith Vs. Fact:  Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible.

Peter Watson is an intellectual historian and the author of fifteen books on the history of ideas. His latest book is The Age of Atheists: How We Have Sought to Live Since the Death of God. He traces the history of atheism from Nietzsche to Dawkins. His book is a fascinating tour of poets, artists, philosophers, and others who have sought meaning in the midst of life without God.

Ryan Bell, a former Seventh Day Adventist Pastor, tried an experiment. What would life be like if he spent a year without God? He blogged about his adventure at Year Without God. He talks about that year, what he is doing now, and his new podcast, Life After God. Ryan is the third in my three-part series on pastors who have left the ministry and the church's beliefs behind.

In the second of my three-part series on ex-ministers, I speak with Pat Green. When the ministry ended for Pat due to his commitment to same-gender marriage, he left the church and scrambled to find work.  He ended up driving a taxi in the Chicago area.   That is where his ministry became real.  He blogged about his experience and has just finished a book, Night Moves:  An Ex-Preacher's Journey to Hell in a Taxi.

My conversation with David Hayward of Naked Pastor kicks off a three-part series on ex-preachers, preachers who have left their careers in organized religion.  Pat Green left the ministry and now drives a taxi.  Ryan Bell took a year off from God and stayed there.   David Hayward facilitates an on-line community called The Lasting Supper. He also is a blogger, cartoonist, and author of five books including Without a Vision My People Prosper,  The Liberation of Sophia, The Art of Coming out, Naked Pastor 101 and his latest, Questions are the Answer:  Naked Pastor and the Search for Meaning.

Gretta Vosper, a minister in the United Church of Canada, and pastor of West Hill United Church in Toronto, Ontario, is under fire from her denomination. Like many clergy, myself included, she doesn't believe in a supernatural, interventionist god, or a god called God. She is an atheist. She calls herself that. She has been one for a long time. Now, officials want to review her credentials for ministry which is a first for this denomination.  She returns to Religion For Life to tell her story and report on the support her congregation is giving her.   Full disclosure: my letter of support for her.

One of the most interesting (and entertaining) scholars with two Ph. D.'s, Robert M. Price, talks with me about three books: The Historical Bejeezus: What A Long Strange Quest It Has Been, The Amazing Colossal Apostle: The Search for the Historical Paul, and Preaching Deconstruction: Sermons Employing the Deconstructive Philosophy of Jacques Derrida and The Death of God Theology of Thomas J. J. Altizer. The question is: how critical can you go? Taking critical methods of interpreting scripture and turning over every dogmatic stone, Robert M. Price exposes Jesus and Paul as composite literary characters. If Jesus of the gospels is mythical all the way down and Paul's letters were written by a patchwork of authors, what is one to preach? Why the liberation of deconstruction, of course.

The murder of Trayvon Martin clinched the deal for Kelly Brown Douglas, Episcopal priest, and professor of religion at Goucher College. She decided she had to write a book about America's racism. She had to write about what it means to be a mother of a black male child in America. Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God defines a "kairos" moment for America.   It is the time to name and dismantle the stand your ground culture.

He has been called "the most radical theologian in the world."  Don Cupitt is a philosopher of religion and a former priest in the Church of England.  He has written 50 books.  His latest is Creative Faith:  Religion As A Way of Worldmaking.   He is the founder of the Sea of Faith Network.   His philosophy in short?  "He rejects all ideas of gaining salvation by escaping from this world of ours. "All this is all there is" he says and he now sees true religion in terms of joy in life and an active attempt to add value to the human lifeworld."   It is an honor to have interviewed this great thinker.

The number of people not interested in religious institutions is rising.  They are called the "Nones."  Yet even though they may leave institutional religion behind many are still interested in spirituality and meaning-making.  Margaret Placentra Johnston tells the stories of the nones who are on a quest for spiritual growth.  Her book is Faith Beyond Belief:  Stories of Good People Who Have Left Their Church Behind.

"Fierce" is not a word one would expect to associate with Mister Rogers of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.  But Michael G. Long author of Peaceful Neighbor:  Discovering the Countercultural Mister Rogers writes that Fred Rogers was a "fierce peacemaker" and his show that spanned over 30 years took on issues of war and peace, hunger, civil rights, and more. Dr. Long, professor at Elizabethtown College introduces us to a countercultural Mister Rogers on Religion For Life.

Hemant Mehta is the owner of the largest atheist blog on the web, The Friendly Atheist.   He is the author of I Sold My Soul on eBay, The Young Atheist's Survival Guide, and The Friendly Atheist: Thoughts on the Role of Religion in Politics and Media.  He talks with me about his story and his thoughts on religion in America.  (By the way, you might enjoy an article I wrote for his blog!)

I welcome back Peter Rollins to discuss his new book, The Divine Magician: The Disappearance of Religion and the Discovery of Faith. Religion is a magic trick promising something at the end of the rainbow (eternal life, certainty, etc.) but the trick is that there is nothing there.  The depth of faith is to embrace the world with all of its uncertainty. 

Nicole Garcia is seeking ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  When that happens she will be the first transgender woman of color to be ordained in the ELCA.  She speaks with me about her journey from male to female, her counseling practice, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and the importance of queering the church.   She was featured recently in a Religion News Service article, The journey of one transgender Latina in the church.

Nearly three years ago, Alex McNeill was on Religion For Life to discuss two journeys.  His ordination to the ministry in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and his transition from female to male.   Since then, Alex has become the executive director of More Light Presbyterians.  He is the first openly transgender person to head a mainline Protestant organization.  He talks about the steps he has taken on both journeys as well as next steps for justice for LGBTQ people in the church and society.

A sage once quipped: "Galileo put God out of a home and Darwin put God out of a job." In our modern understanding of the universe that requires no "supernatural shenanigans" to operate, is there "anything in the universe worthy of the name, God?" Nancy Ellen Abrams asks this question and suggests that there may be a way to speak of the reality of God.  She returns to Religion For Life to discuss the concept of emergence and her latest book, A God That Could Be Real: Spirituality, Science and the Future of Our Planet.

Rachel Held Evans is from Dayton, Tennessee, home of the Scopes Monkey Trial.  It is certainly the Bible Belt.  What happens when you grow beyond the beliefs of your church?   Many follow a similar path to New York Times best-selling author, Rachel Held Evans.  With wit and grace Rachel chronicles her journey of faith and doubt, leaving church and finding it again in her latest book, Searching For Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church.

I finish my three-part series on the "good" book with Jennifer Grace Bird.   She teaches at Portland Community College and the University of Portland and has written a fantastic guide to the Bible, Permission Granted:  Take the Bible Into Your Own Hands.  She doesn't flinch from challenging the "bad" texts in the good book.   More than a critique of the Bible, she encourages her readers to read the texts for themselves with a critical eye and not just accept it because it's what "the Bible says."  You can disagree with the Bible.  Permission granted.

In my second in a series of three on the Bible, world-renowned scholar on the historical Jesus, John Dominic Crossan returns to Religion For Life, to address one of the most troubling aspects of the Bible, the violence of God.   How do we read and trust a book whose main character, God, is less ethical than most humans?   His latest book is How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian:  Struggling With Divine Violence from Genesis through Revelation.

David Felten, co-creator of Living the Questions, is also pastor of The Fountains in Fountain Hills, Arizona.  He found himself under attack by fellow clergy who do not approve of his brand of Christianity.  These clergy have used the op ed page of the local paper, newspaper advertisements, and expensive banners to campaign against David and progressive Christianity.   David spoke with me about it as well as the strange times we are in regarding religious faith.

I am doing a three part series on the Bible, what it is and how to read it.   Three excellent scholars and teachers will be our guides, Harvey Cox, John Dominic Crossan, and Jennifer Grace Bird.   Leading off is Harvard University professor, Harvey Cox, author of the famous Secular City in 1965.  He was with me two years ago on Religion For Life to discuss his book, The Future of Faith.  He returns to talk about his latest book How To Read the Bible.

Spend the apocalypse with someone you love.  Carolyn Baker returns to Religion For Life to talk about her book, Love in the Age of Ecological Apocalypse:  Cultivating the Relationships We Need to Thrive.   The Long Descent is not a pretty picture.  As industrial civilization hits its limits, resilience will be the primary characteristic of those who survive and thrive.  Preparing emotionally and building relationships will be just as important if not more important than preparing materially for the future.  Dr. Baker, a former psychotherapist and professor of psychology and history, offers life coaching for people who wish to live more resiliently.  Catch her radio program, The Lifeboat Hour on Progressive Radio Network.

Doug Pagitt is the pastor of Solomon's Porch in Minneapolis and the author of Flipped:  The Provocative Truth That Changes Everything We Know About God.    We talk about many different emergent movements including emergent atheism as well as the progressive evangelical movement.   We also talk about "God" and the problem of transactional" religion.  It is an exciting time of change and creativity and Doug Pagitt is a forerunner.

Lloyd Geering is a Presbyterian minister and scholar from New Zealand.  He has written over a dozen books.   His latest book is a collection of essays that chronicle his intellectual and spiritual journey, Reimagining God:  The Faith Journey of A Modern Heretic.    He was tried for heresy in the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand in 1967 for an article he wrote about Resurrection.    He was accused of disturbing the peace of the church to which he responded:  “I would like to suggest that what my accusers have been pleased to call the peace of the Church is more properly called the sleepiness of the Church and we should be thankful to God that it has been disturbed.”  A documentary was made about him called, The Last Western Heretic.

Wayne Winkler is the General Manager of WETS and the author of Walking Toward the Sunset:  The Melungeons of Appalachia.  His picture is in the December 2014 issue of Psychology Today as part of a chapter in a book on DNA and genealogy.  He speaks with me about the article, "The Past Is Written on Your Face" by Christine Kenneally, and the fascinating Melungeon history.

Donald Wagner (pictured) is the National Program Director of Friends of Sabeel:  North America and Walter Davis is co-chair of the education committee of the Israel-Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and professor emeritus at San Francisco Theological Seminary.  They have co-edited Zionism and the Quest for Justice in the Holy Land that explores the theological foundations of political Zionism.    The study guide that accompanies this book, Zionism Unsettled, is available at the IPMN website.

Amy-Jill Levine is University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University.   She is editor of the Jewish Annotated New Testament and is author of  The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus.  Her latest book is Short Stories By Jesus:  The Enigmatic Parables of A Controversial Rabbi.  She talks with me about the historical Jesus and the stories he told.

Stephen Patterson is George H. Atkinson Professor of Religious and Ethical Studies at Willamette University.  He is Fellow of the Jesus Seminar and is the chair of the steering committee on the Jesus Seminar on Christian Origins.  His latest book, The Lost Way:  How Two Forgotten Gospels Are Rewriting the Story of Christian Origins shows the diversity of early Christianity and paints a portrait of Jesus as a teacher of wisdom as opposed to a martyr dying for the sins of the world. 

Joel Baden is Professor of Hebrew Bible at Yale University and is the author of The Historical David:  The Real Life of An Invented Hero.   David is portrayed in the Hebrew Scriptures as one who had a heart for God.  The Psalms are credited to him.  But the real life guy was ambitious and ruthless.  Dr. Baden reads between the lines to uncover a David far more human and thus more interesting than the idealized character of the Bible.

Peter Enns (Blog, Twitter, Facebook) is Abram S. Clemens Professor of Biblical Studies at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania.  In this latest book, The Bible Tells Me So:  Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It, he takes us on a journey of biblical interpretation as well as a faith journey of wrestling with the Bible and most importantly, God.   He writes that the "Bible just as it is isn't a problem to be fixed.  It's an invitation."  With humor and insight, Professor Enns invites us to open our minds as we open the text.

What is the character of God, violent or non-violent?  Is justice retributive or distributive?   Sea Raven (Twitter) explores these questions and more in her three commentaries on the Revised Common Lectionary, called  Theology From Exile.  Her latest commentary on the year of Mark is just out!  Matthew and Luke were published previously.  Join us for a discussion of the interaction of progressive theology and the Christian liturgy.

Before Tennessee voters are several amendments to the state constitution.   Amendment One will allow the state legislature to make restrictions regarding abortion.   My guest is Ruth Taylor Read.   We talk about politics, reproduction, and religion.

Dr. Heath Rada was elected moderator of the 221st Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly in June of 2014.   He and his wife, Peggy, are traveling across the country and around the world as ambassadors for the church.   They visited with me in the WETS studio to talk about some of the controversial decisions as well as the hope they see regarding the church of the 21st century.

This week my guest is Linda LaScola who along with Daniel Dennett, co-authored Caught in the Pulpit:  Leaving Belief Behind.  This book reports on a study of clergy who are no longer believers.   Are these clergy unusual or are they the canaries in the coal mine signaling the demise of institutional religion?  While that question may not have a clear answer, you will be intrigued by what Daniel Dennett and Linda LaScola discovered.  Linda LaScola was one of the organizers of The Clergy Project and she blogs at Rational Doubt.  *(In the interview she stated there are 800 members of the clergy project but meant to say 600).

Bill McKibben is the founder of 350.org and the author of numerous books regarding our planet in peril, including Eaarth and The End of Nature. He talks to me about his latest book, Oil and Honey: The Education of An Unlikely Activist.  He also speaks candidly about the destructive role and lack of vision of the fossil fuel industry and of the urgency for each of us to become unlikely activists on behalf of life.

Dr. Thomas Hill has taken 30 trips to Iraq as a peace builder.  He is a Clinical Assistant Professor at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs.  He has been on Religion For Life twice before to speak of his work between NYU and the University of Duhok.  He was there this summer and spoke to me about the new threat from the Islamic State and what he hears from his friends in Iraq.

Marcus J. Borg has written over twenty books.   His influence is widely known in the progressive Christian movement.   His latest book, Convictions:  How I Learned What Matters Most, is in part a memoir, but much more.  He articulates a way of living in the world that seeks to embrace what is best and most wise in the Christian tradition.  He returns to Religion For Life to speak with me about progressive Christianity, God, and how one might go about discovering and living what matters most. 

Religion, social justice, and public life is the tagline for Religion For Life.  The nuns on the bus are at the center of that intersection driving for faith, family and fairness.  Sister Simone Campbell of Network, a National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, talks to me about her bus tours to speak on behalf of the 100%.   Her book, A Nun on the Bus:  How All of Us Can Create Hope, Change, and Community is an uplifting and serious call to get off the couch, rediscover our values and reclaim our democracy.

Kiran Singh Sirah is the director of the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tennessee.  He says his family is a mini United Nations as it is a huge mix of religions and ethnicities.  He believes in the power of story to unite and to make for peace.  He speaks with me about the power of stories, his Sikh religious tradition, and the exciting work of the International Storytelling Center.

Here is advice you don't often hear from clergy:  never pray again!  If you have ever wondered about the point (or pointlessness) of prayer, you'll find these friars to be fellow travelers.  My guests, Aric Clark, Doug Hagler, and Nick Larson are Two Friars and A Fool (Twitter, Facebook) and have authored a book, Never Pray Again!  Lift Your Head, Unfold Your Hands, and Get to Work!   They encourage us to turn prayer into action and they speak candidly about their own struggles with the concept of prayer.

We are familiar with the War Pentagon on the Potomac. In Southwest Virginia a building is under construction that could be more powerful, the Peace Pentagon. Laura George, executive director of The Oracle Institute speaks with me about a fascinating new community that is "an advocate for peace and a vanguard for conscious evolution."

Author of Leaving Church and An Altar in the World, Barbara Brown Taylor takes us on a tour of the dark places in her latest lyrical book, Learning to Walk in the Dark.  She explores real and metaphorical darkness and confronts the fear of that darkness.  She urges us to feel around in the dark whether that darkness be grief, doubt, or the unknown and rather than light it up, be present with it.  Join us on a journey in the dark!

Singer/songwriter/poet Carrie Newcomer has a new album A Permeable Life (Facebook).  Accompanying her cd is a book, A Permeable Life: Poems and Essays. She spoke with me on Religion For Life about the cd, songwriting, what she has learned from her dog, spirituality, building community, and keeping hopeful!  You'll love it!

I continue my conversation about the Book of Acts.   This week I speak with Dennis Smith, New Testament Professor at Phillips Theological Seminary, chair of the Acts Seminar and co-editor of Acts and Christian Beginnings:  The Acts Seminar Report.   The Acts Seminar spent ten years analyzing the Book of Acts from an historical perspective.   They made some important conclusions.  Here is a top ten list!   Bottom line:  Acts is a second-century myth of Christian origins.  They are ready to shake up scholarship and they invite critical response.

Is the Book of Acts in the New Testament history or myth?  For the next two weeks I speak with the two co-chairs of the Acts Seminar, Joseph Tyson and Dennis Smith. For ten years the Westar Institute has evaluated the historicity of the Book of Acts. They have produced Acts and Christian Beginnings: The Acts Seminar Report.  They have made some important conclusions. Here is a top ten list. This week I speak with Dr. Tyson of Southern Methodist University about his take on Acts and the Acts Seminar.

Charles "Chuck" Shingledecker cares about religion and about matters of faith.  He cares so much that he is willing to engage in the honest searching tradition of apophatic theology.  The fruit of this search is his book, Freedom to Doubt.   He puts his inquiring mind to work doubting biblical stories and theological doctrines and shows that doubt, not fear, is the beginning of wisdom.

Fed up with the arrogance, intolerance, and absolutism of religion? Rev. Martin Thielen, pastor of the Cookeville United Methodist Church in Cookeville, Tennessee is too.   But he says that is not what religion has to be.  He makes the case for good religion in his latest book, The Answer to Bad Religion is Not No Religion:  A Guide to Good Religion for Seekers, Skeptics, and Believers.  Join us for a candid conversation about religion, good and bad!

Why is the South so religious?   Why is it the Bible Belt?  Do begin to answer that complex question we need to go back to Colonial times before the First Great Awakening.  Dr. Thomas Little is associate professor of history at Emory and Henry College in Emory, Virginia and the author of The Origins of Southern Evangelicalism:  Religious Revivalism in the South Carolina Low Country, 1670-1760.   He spoke with me about the early history of religious revival in the South.

Dr. Blaine Schubert is the Director of the ETSU Museum of Natural History and Gray Fossil Site (Facebook, Twitter) and Assistant Professor in the Department of Geosciences at East Tennessee State University.    We participated in a panel for Darwin Day earlier this year.  I invited him to speak with me on Religion For Life.  We discussed caves, the Cave Paleontology Program at ETSU, the fossil site and natural history museum at Gray, the importance of science education, evolution, Richard Dawkins, and spirituality!

In the second of my four-part series on Israel/Palestine, I speak with Jonathan Kuttab of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center.   He is a human rights attorney and Palestinian Christian.  He spoke to me about the Palestinian experience under Israeli occupation, the BDS movement, and Zionism Unsettled.   This is his keynote address to Friends of Sabeel in April 2013.

Rachel Fish is Associate Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University.   She is an educator and consultant and teaches about Zionism and Israeli history.   In this first of four broadcasts on Israel/Palestine she discusses the work of the Schusterman Center, her Ph. D. thesis on the history of Bi-Nationalism, and the history of Zionism.

In this fourth of my four-part series on Israel/Palestine I speak with Rabbi Brant Rosen of Jewish Voices for Peace.   The actions of Israel against Gaza in 2008 caused in him a change of heart which in turn made him revisit what Israel means to him.  He chronicled this change in his blog Shalom Rav.  This series of blog posts and comments became his book, Wrestling in the Daylight:  A Rabbi's Path to Palestinian Solidarity.  He discusses that book and why as a Jew he needs to stand in solidarity with Palestinians.

This is the third of my four-part series on Israel/Palestine.  I continue my conversation with Rachel Fish, Associate Director of the Schusterman Center for Israeli Studies at Brandeis University.  She speaks about Zionism Unsettled, the BDS movement, and defends the ideal of Israel as a Jewish state.

Sister Paula Gonzales is known as the "Solar Nun" for transforming a huge chicken barn into a solar home.  She is 81 years old and a Sister of Charity in Cincinnati.  She also has a Ph. D. in Biology and has given over 1900 presentations on energy, ecology, and ecospirituality.  She visited the Tri-Cities in April as a guest of Carol Landis and the Green Interfaith Network (Facebook).  I caught up with this remarkable person on Religion For Life to discuss ecospirituality.

Ken Wilson is Senior Pastor of the Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor, Michigan.  He recently published A Letter to My Congregation:  An evangelical pastor's path to embracing people who are gay, lesbian and transgender into the company of Jesus.     He speaks to me on Religion For Life about how he came to see things and people differently.   He speaks candidly about his struggle to be authentic, the cost of change, and why it is worth it.

Jon Camp reached a milestone this Spring.  On March 28th, 2014 on the campus of the University of Georgia, he handed out his one millionth booklet.  For the past ten years he has been seeking to end cruelty to animals one flier at at time.   He finished this Spring's tour at the ETSU campus.  I caught up  with him and we talked about the work of Vegan Outreach, factory farms, and the importance of changing attitudes and practices toward animals.

Just in time for Easter, an historian's look at Jesus and how he was turned into a divine figure by those who believed in him.   Bart Ehrman (Facebook, Twitter) returns to Religion For Life to discuss his new book, How Jesus Became God:  The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee.  This book is a fascinating look at the theological development of the Jewish preacher, Jesus.   We talk about the various ways ancients thought about the divine as well as how Jesus was believed to fit those models and how visions borne of grief turned into proclamations of resurrection.   Join me as I speak with one of the foremost scholars of the historical Jesus!

Chris Stedman (Facebook, Twitter) is the Assistant Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University and the author of Faitheist:  How An Atheist Found Common Ground with The Religious.   He spoke to me on Religion For Life about coming out, his journey through religion, embracing atheism, and what he learned from his grandmother!

Religion needs an upgrade.   Galen Guengerich, senior minister of All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church in New York City has authored a book to help religion on its evolving journey.  God Revised:  How Religion Must Evolve in A Scientific Age engages the question of God.    How to speak of God beyond supernatural theism.

This week I speak with the executive director of the Campaign for Southern Equality (Facebook, Twitter),  Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, and with Joe Hoffman, the senior minister of the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Asheville, North Carolina.   The campaign works for full equality for LGBT people across the South. Jasmine writes for Huffington Post and is the author of a collection of short stories called, Damn Love!

This week we explore what it means to be Amish from the perspective of a woman who left the Amish community as a young woman.  Saloma Miller Furlong is the author of Why I Left the Amish and Bonnet Strings:  An Amish Woman's Ties to Two Worlds.   Through her personal experience of leaving the Amish we touch on the universal experience of being torn between the demands of personal authenticity and communal expectations.

What does changing diapers have to do with the Kingdom of God?  Plenty actually!  Andrew Taylor-Troutman, pastor of New Dublin Presbyterian Church in Dublin, Virginia, is the author of Parables of Parenthood:  Interpreting the Gospels with Family. Andrew returns to Religion For Life to discuss how the parables of Jesus are about real life that includes the wants and needs of a one year old.   When considered with head and heart both parables and parenting may surprise us into the Kingdom of God.

Is there a connection between patriarchal religion and gender inequality?  P.J. (Paula) Fisk speaks with me about her journey from a patriarchal religion and "the plight of the female in a predominant male system of religion."   She is the author of If God Is My Father, Who Is My Mother?  A Spiritual Journey.    Her journey will inspire others to think for themselves and find their truth.

Howard Zehr, Distinguished Professor of Restorative Justice at Eastern Mennonite University is known as the "Grandfather of Restorative Justice."   He is the author of several books including, Changing Lenses:  A New Focus for Crime and Justice (Amazon), and The Little Book of Restorative Justice (Amazon).  He spoke to me about restorative justice and the criminal justice system.

Marcion is considered the "arch-heretic" of Christianity.  He was said by an ancient critic to have "gnawed" scripture.   He was the first to create a canon of scripture consisting of a version of Luke's Gospel and eleven letters of Paul.   Professor Jason BeDuhn of Northern Arizona University has reconstructed this text and in doing so provides insight into the development of early Christianity.   He is the author of The First New Testament: Marcion's Scriptural Canon.

I continue my series on early Christian history.  The New Testament writing, Acts of the Apostles, has functioned as the earliest history of the church.   But at most, it is "idealized history."   Shelly Matthews of Brite Divinity School speaks about the rhetorical strategy of Acts in her new book, The Acts of the Apostles:  Taming the Tongues of Fire (Amazon).  She speaks with me on Religion For Life about how the author of Acts idealized Paul and tamed the egalitarian Jesus movement to make it more palatable to the elite reader.

We speak casually of "the Bible" and of "God" as if those words refer to specific entities that have a common definition.    Stewart Harris, professor of law at Appalachian School of Law and the host of Your Weekly Constitutional (website, podcast, Facebook page, Twitter feed), argues that, particularly in a legal setting, this imprecision can lead to huge problems in regards to religion and public life.   Join us for a fascinating discussion about bible, god, and law.

Robert Jensen is a professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas and the author of We Are All Apocalyptic Now:  On the Responsibilities of Teaching, Preaching, Reporting, Writing, and Speaking Out.    He spoke candidly with me about the meaning of apocalypse (an unveiling) and the need to say what we see in regards to economics, ecology, violence, and our future.

Travis Williams is Assistant Professor of Religion at Tusculum College in Greenville, Tennessee.   He is the author of two academic books on the book of 1 Peter.  He is the featured speaker at the Theologian In Residence series of lectures at Tusculum each Tuesday in February.  More details can be found here.   The title of his series of lectures is “The Situation and Strategy of 1 Peter: Examining the Formative Influence of Persecution on Christian Identity.”  He spoke with me on Religion For Life about 1 Peter and persecution in early Christianity.   The lectures held February 4, 11, 18, and 25 are free to the public and include lunch.   You must register by mailing in the form in the brochure, by calling Eugenia Estes at 423-636-7304, or by email, eestes[at]tusculum[dot]edu.

The movement for acceptance and equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender people over the last 40+ years has been in many respects a church movement.   The sanctuary is the arena and ordination to ministry has been the prize.  RW "Obie" Holman describes the movement and the participants in his newly released book, Queer Clergy:  A History of Gay and Lesbian Ministry in American Protestantism.   He blogs at Spirit of a Liberal.   He spoke with me on Religion For Life about the civil rights movement of our time. 

Rev. Frank Schaefer is no longer a United Methodist Minister.  He lost his credentials because he was found guilty of violating church discipline.  His crime?  He officiated at a wedding.   The wedding was for his son, Tim, and Tim's partner.    He was given a thirty day suspension, a time out to think about it and come back to church officials with his hat in his hand and say he wouldn't do it again.   If he couldn't, he would have to give up his ministry.  This is his career.  His livelihood.  He spoke to me about his situation and the agonizing decision he faced.   His discipleship cost him his career.  It is the going price for standing for love.

James Tabor is Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina Charlotte.  He is the author of The Jesus Dynasty: The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity, and most recently, Paul and Jesus:  How the Apostle Transformed Christianity which has just been released in paperback.   This book is an excellent introduction regarding Christian origins, particularly regarding the difference between the historical Jesus and how Paul transformed him into something completely different, the Cosmic Christ.   Read about Professor Tabor's exciting and controversial work on the TaborBlog.

N. T. Wright is a retired Anglican Bishop and leading New Testament scholar.   He has just published a 1700 page volume on Paul called Paul and The Faithfulness of God.  He spoke to me about this work and about the legacy and influence of Paul.  N. T. Wright is my first guest in my series on Paul, Acts, and Christian origins.   Visit his Facebook page for more information about him and his work. 

Gretta Vosper is a minister in the United Church of Canada.   She identifies herself as “author, minister, atheist.” She is a minister at the West Hill United Church in Toronto.  She has written a number of books including With Or Without God:  Why the Way We Live Is More Important than What We Believe and Amen:  What Prayer Can Mean In A World Beyond Belief.  She spoke with me about her own journey as a minister and an atheist and what church looks like beyond god.

A twist.   Nick Hernandez is the host of Community Matters on KZUM in Lincoln, Nebraska.   He interviewed me live on his show. I recorded it, added some more conversation between us and made a program of it!  We talk about religion, life's strange turns, and positive psychology!

Janet Heimlich is an award journalist and former freelance reporter for NPR.  She is the president of the Child-Friendly Faith Project and the author of Breaking Their Will:  Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment.   She speaks with me about how religion has been used to justify and excuse mistreatment of children.  From medical neglect to corporal punishment to emotional abuse, religion can serve to harm children.   We can make a difference by breaking the silence.

Carolyn Baker was an adjunct professor of history and psychology for 11 years and a psychotherapist in private practice for 17 years.  Her mission is to offer emotional and spiritual tools for those who are becoming aware of the collapse of industrial civilization.   She is the author of Sacred Demise:  Walking The Spiritual Path of Industrial Civilization’s Collapse, Navigating the Coming Chaos:  A Handbook for Inner Transition, and her latest published in November 2013, Collapsing Consciously:  Transforming Truths for Turbulent Times.   She spoke with me on Religion For Life about developing resiliency and a sense of meaning and purpose for these “interesting” times.

Mike and Leah Short are the managers of Artisans’ Village, a Fair Trade retailer that opened in April of 2013 in the King Centre (300 E. Main) in Johnson City.     They spoke to me about their passion for Fair Trade, “a global organization working to secure a better deal for farmers and workers.”

Debbie Blue is a founding minister of House of Mercy in St. Paul, Minnesota.  She describes it as a “pretty great church.”  She is also the author of Consider the Birds:  A Provocative Guide to Birds of the Bible.   She highlights ten birds in the Bible and through them finds a window into scripture, theology, and into conversations about social and ecological issues.    Join us as we “consider the birds” on Religion For Life.

JC Farris describes herself as “a child of Appalachia, having grown up in the hills and valleys of Southwest Virginia and East Tennessee.” She also says she is “one of God’s most irritating children” because she asks a lot of questions!  She is the author of Fundamentalism to Faith: Memoirs of a Recovering Free Will Baptist.  (Amazon)  She speaks candidly about agoraphobia, being gay, God, and a faith that reaches out to others on Religion For Life.

Bishop John Shelby Spong has sold over a million books.  He has been an outspoken advocate for religious literacy and social change in regards to race, gender, and sexuality.   In 2013 he published his latest book , The Fourth Gospel:  Tales of a Jewish Mystic.    Bishop Spong found this gospel “almost repellent” because it has been used to foster an outdated pre-modern view of God, religious exclusivism, literalism, and anti-semitism.  But when it is seen through the eyes of Jewish mysticism, it comes alive in a relevant way for 21st century seekers.

Spiritual leader and Catholic priest, Henri Nouwen, died in 1996.  He left a legacy of honest, insightful writing in his unpublished journals and other writings.  Michael Christensen (Drew University), and Rebecca Laird (Point Loma Nazarene University), have compiled and edited some of Henri’s work in three volumes.   The first was Spiritual Direction:  Wisdom for the Long Walk of Faith.  It was followed by Spiritual Formation:  Following Movements of the Spirit.  In 2013 they published the third of this trilogy, Discernment:  Reading the Signs of Everyday Life.   They spoke with me about this book and Henri’s legacy.

Did you know that religious people distrust atheists as much as rapists?  Kile Jones, a Ph. D. student in religion at Claremont Lincoln University is doing something about prejudice against atheists by promoting “Interview An Atheist At Church Day.”       Kile speaks to me about this project and shares his experience of being an atheist in America.   To get an idea of what this is about, here is an interview in church with Neil Carter who is an atheist in Jackson, Mississippi.  Learn more about “Interview An Atheist at Church Day” and how to get involved at the Facebook site.

One of the most significant discoveries in regards to early Christianity in the 20th century was the collection of texts found at Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945. These codices had been preserved in clay jars since the 4th century. Among them was the Gospel of Thomas.  This gospel is contemporary with other New Testament gospels.  It contains sayings of Jesus, some familiar to those in the canonical gospels, some quite different. The Jesus Seminar regarded Thomas as the fifth gospel. Milton Moreland (Rhodes College) and Ruben Dupertuis (Trinity University) will be at First Presbyterian Church of Elizabethton, Tennessee, October 18-19 to lead workshops on The Fifth Gospel: The Gospel of Thomas and the Wisdom of Jesus.  They spoke with me about this amazing text on Religion For Life!

This week my guest is Larry Easterling of the Spiritual and Pastoral Care Department of Mountain States Health Alliance.  He has written an article that will be published this Fall in the Journal of Pastoral Care and Counseling, entitled “Spiritual Care with Appalachians:  Beyond Stereotypes.”   He is also an organizer of “Prays Well With Others:  The Use of Meditation/Prayer in Various Faith Groups.”   Dr. Easterling describes the seminar and article in this way: The whole purpose of our seminar “The Use of Meditation and/or Prayer in Various Faith Groups” is to learn about how “the other” practices their faith. The article I have included helps us get beyond stereotypes prevalent about Appalachians. And our seminar hopes to do that as well with diverse faith groups. The first session was September 16th.  Remaining sessions will be on the following Mondays:  September 30, October 21, and October 28 at 7 pm at the Votow Auditorium in the Palma Robinson Center across from the Johnson City Medical Center.   For more information visit the Facebook page.

What is the state of religion, including progressive Christianity, in Australia?  To explore that question I spoke with Rex A. E. Hunt, a retired Uniting Church minister, who lives just north of Sydney.   He spoke to me about his work as a progressive minister, author, liturgist, and social ecologist.   He is the chair of the Common Dreams Conference, September 19-22, 2013 and is the co-editor of Why Weren’t We Told?  A Handbook on “progressive” Christianity.  According to the book’s description: Progressive Christianity is not new. It has been around for two hundred years or more. But the anger and disappointment of those who have encountered it only recently is palpable: “Why weren’t we told?” This international collection of cameos and articles on the themes and issues addressed by progressive Christianity is a response to that cry. You can find him on his webpage and on Facebook.

"Gentle Jesus, Meek and Mild" is not Reza Aslan's Jesus.  Professor Aslan has discovered a Jesus who is a revolutionary, a zealot, and who had a mission that was political and practical.   Aslan's book, Zealot:  The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth became a number one bestseller thanks to this attack interview on Fox News that went viral.   In this candid and in depth conversation, Dr. Aslan reveals a Jesus more like Malcom X than Martin Luther King and worth following regardless of one's religion.

The history of the United States could be defined as one of  racism.  Theologians have called racism America's original sin.  Jesus is in the midst of it.  My guest, Dr. Edward J. Blum, co-author of The Color of Christ:  The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America, speaks to me about how the "whitening" of Christ in popular imagery symbolized our combustible divisions.  Dr. Blum will be in East Tennessee on the following dates to discuss race and religion. Thursday, September 19th, 5:30 p.m. University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Friday, September 20th, 7 p.m. Westminster Presbyterian in Knoxville. Saturday, September 21st, 10 a.m.   Mercy Junction, 63 E. Main Street, Chattanooga.

I continue my conversation with Joseph Bessler, author of A Scandalous Jesus:  How Three Historic Quests Changed Theology for the Better.  This week we explore the "renewed quest" led by Robert Funk and the Jesus Seminar.  We explore the reasons for this quest and the forces that drove it.

This week we get behind the question of the historical Jesus and ask what is historic about these quests for the Jesus of history?  What was and is at stake?  Joseph Bessler is a theology professor at Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  He just published A Scandalous Jesus:  How Three Historic Quests Changed Theology for the Better.   He says that historic questions can be the most scandalous as they challenge assumptions governing societies.

Thomas Hill is a Clinical Assistant Professor at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs, where he oversees the peacebuilding concentration within the Master of Science in Global Affairs program. Earlier in 2013 he took several students to the University of Duhok.  Dr. Hill and one of his students, Barbara Augustine spoke to me via skype from Iraq regarding their work and study particularly around issues of the effects of religious conversion on peacebuilding.  Here is the podcast of a previous interview with Professor Hill.

David Felten and Jeff Proctor-Murphy are Methodist ministers who felt a need for resources for people and congregations who want to explore questions that most churches are unwilling to ask.   So they created the DVD series, Living the Questions.   They bring scholars and leaders to talk about matters of faith and scholarship that address real questions we all have.   They recently put some of these programs in book form by coauthoring Living the Questions: The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity.   David spent some time with me on Religion For Life to talk about questions that need asking!

As fellows of the Jesus Seminar search for the historical Jesus behind the Gospel and Creed, so Lesley Hazleton searches for the historical Muhammad behind the Qur'an and Hadith.   In 2013 she released, The First Muslim:  The Story of Muhammad and talked with me about this fascinating person who changed history.  Lesley Hazleton has reported from the Middle East and her work focuses on the the intersection of politics and religion. Previous books include After the Prophet:  The Epic Story of the Sunni-Shia Split in Islam, Jezebel:  The Untold Story of the Bible's Harlot Queen, and Mary: A Flesh and Blood Biography of the Virgin Mother.  She blogs at The Accidental Theologist.

This week's guest is a direct descendant of Roger Williams. Religion writer, Becky Garrison, writes about the radical commitments to freedom of conscience and equality that this 17th century religious pioneer embraced and how his virtues could inspire us.  With wit and insight she takes on contemporary religiosity and how prophetic voices mute themselves at the expense of profit and fame.  It is an important discussion of the cost of speaking truth. Pick up her e-book, Roger Williams' Little Book of Virtues and listen to our conversation on Religion For Life.   She is also the author of Red and Blue God, Black and Blue Church: Eyewitness Accounts of How American Churches are Hijacking Jesus, Bagging the Beatitudes, and Worshipping the Almighty Dollar.

One of the most interesting theologians of our time is Matthew Fox.  He is the author of over 20 books and the founder of the Creation Spirituality movement.   In the 1980s he was silenced by the Vatican (by then Cardinal Ratzinger who became Pope Benedict).   He is the author of The Pope's War:  Why Ratzinger's Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved, the just released, Letters to Pope Francis:  Rebuilding a Church with Justice and Compassion, and coming in September 2013, Occupy Spirituality:  A Radical Vision for A New Generation.   He is with me by phone to talk about the new pope, but more importantly a new spirituality for Earthlings.

Val Webb is a theologian and scientist who beautifully and thoughtfully integrates these two ways of thinking in her work.   She is the author of a number of books including In Defence of Doubt:  An Invitation to Adventure, Like Catching Water in A Net:  Human Attempts to Describe the Divine, and the book we discuss this week on Religion For Life, Stepping Out With the Sacred:  Human Attempts to Engage the Divine.  I caught up with her via skype at her home in Mudgee, New South Wales, and had a fantastic conversation about doubt, the sacred, and Life.

This is the second of an exciting two-part conversation with Sir Lloyd Geering.   He is a radical theologian from New Zealand.   He was tried for heresy in 1967 and his life and theological contributions have been noted in the film, The Last Western Heretic.   He is the author of over 15 books including, Christianity Without God,  Coming Back to Earth: From gods to God to Gaia, and Tomorrow's God: How We Create our Worlds.  He is going strong at 95 and has just published his latest book, From the Big Bang to God.   It is now available from Polebridge Press.   He speaks with me about that book and his theological journey.

This is the first of an exciting two-part conversation with Sir Lloyd Geering.   He is a radical theologian from New Zealand.   He was tried for heresy in 1967 and his life and theological contributions have been noted in the film, The Last Western Heretic.   He is the author of over 15 books including, Christianity Without God,  Coming Back to Earth: From gods to God to Gaia, and Tomorrow's God: How We Create our Worlds.  He is going strong at 95 and has just published his latest book, From the Big Bang to God.   It is now available from Polebridge Press.  He speaks with me about that book and his theological journey.

The fastest growing religious group in the United States is the "nones," those who claim no religious affiliation.  Does this mean people are no longer religious?  Not so says Gary Laderman, professor of religion at Emory University and editor of the on-line magazine, Religion Dispatches.    People may be exiting organized religion but everything from sports to celebrity, music, sex, and violence can be the focus of religious ritual as well.   He speaks with me about baseball, Oprah, "beliebers" (Justin Bieber), war and more.   Dr. Laderman is the author of Sacred Matters: Celebrity Worship, Sexual Ecstasies, the Living Dead, and Other Signs of Religious Life in the United States.  Read some of his articles about religion in our time at Huffington Post.

It is assumed in the popular imagination that early Christians were persecuted for their beliefs.   Thousands of stories of saints who were persecuted because of their religious convictions flood Christian literature.  But were Christians persecuted historically or was this mythology created by Christians?   My guest, Dr. Candida Moss of the University of Notre Dame, speaks about this myth-making in her book:  The Myth of Persecution:  How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom.

This is the second interview with Marcus Borg. In the first conversation, we discussed his latest book, Evolution of the Word: The New Testament in the Order the Books Were Written.    In this discussion he tackles the big issues, God, Jesus, and the Bible from a 21st century perspective.  He is the author of over twenty books including Speaking Christian: Why Christian Words Have Lost Their Meaning and Power--and How They Can Be Restored.

Religion scholars, Linda Schearing (Gonzaga) and Valarie Ziegler (DePauw) take us back to the garden to show how American culture is obsessed with Eden. In their popular and enticing book, Enticed By Eden: How Western Culture Uses, Confuses, (and Sometimes Abuses) Adam and Eve, they introduce us to the world of evangelical manhood and womanhood, the sex toy industry, Christian wife spanking, on-line Christian dating, and more.   Join us for a fascinating (and a little scary) conversation about gender, power, and Adam and Eve.

Robert Cornwall is a Disciples of Christ minister and church historian.  He is the pastor of the Central Woodward Christian Church in Troy, Michigan and he blogs at Ponderings on a Faith Journey.   He is the author of Ultimate Allegiance:  The Subversive Nature of the Lord's Prayer and Faith in the Public Square:  Living Faithfully in 21st Century America. Dr. Cornwall's Faith in the Public Square is a collection of newspaper columns addressing issues of faith and politics.   Join us for this insightful conversation about faith and public life.

Ted Olson is a Professor of Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University.  He has published a collection of poems called Revelations.  This is a magnificent collection of poetry that touches on spirituality, nature, family, and music.  Maurice Manning writes that Revelations "...sweeps broadly, gathering family history, displaced people, the natural world, religion, small towns, solitude, and love into a single tide washing into shore."   Dr. Olson brought his banjo and his poetry.  Join us!