Chine McDonald on the Church and Black Lives Matter, and her lockdown music, art, and books

This week’s podcast guest is Chine McDonald, a writer, broadcaster, and Head of Community Fundraising and Public Engagement at Christian Aid. Chine has written the Lift Up Your Hearts article for this week’s Church Times, and talks to Ed Thornton about how books, art, and music — as well as her faith — have sustained her during lockdown. “The Christ that I believe in is a Christ who . . . suffers with us, and part of the incarnation is the fact that God is right there with us in the horribleness, in the gruesomeness of life.” They also discuss the Black Lives Matter movement and the programme that Chine recently presented on BBC Radio 4, No Justice, No Peace: Religion and protest (reviewed in our Radio column this week). Here, they cover the Black experience both within and outside the Church; whether the Bible can be used to combat racism; and the Church’s own history, in the UK and the US, which has been at the forefront of both the civil-rights movement and some of the most racist groups in society. Podcast edited by Serena Long. Get the Church Times delivered for 10 weeks for just £10: www.churchtimes.co.uk/10-weeks