Current Listen - The Bible for Normal People podcast: “Episode 85: Austen Hartke - The Bible & The Lives of Transgender Christians" (Released April 29, 2019)
“Everybody kind of, I think, maybe has to tease out like, 'What is the culture and what is the sort of spiritual origin of different parts of my faith?' Throughout Christian history, we’ve always had to do that. Like, 'What is Greek culture versus what is the spirituality that we see in Paul and the New Testament?'" - Austen Hartke
“Skip all the way ahead to Acts 8, where we get the Ethiopian eunuch. Suddenly we’ve got this person who’s gone to the temple to pray, was almost certainly not allowed into the temple, being both a foreigner and a eunuch, and yet he is welcomed in entirely, in his entirety, into Christian community by Philip, where the eunuch says, ‘Is there anything that can prevent me from being baptized, from becoming part of this Christian community?’ And Philip doesn’t even have to answer. He just baptizes him. The eunuch doesn’t have to change anything about himself in order to be welcomed in.” - Austen Hartke
In this episode of The Bible for Normal People, Pete Enns and Jared Byas spoke with Austen Hartke about being a transgender Christian. Austen Hartke addressed numerous common passages from the Bible and explained how those point to the welcoming of all people into the Christian community. He explicated the term ketonet passim, which is translated as the coat of many colors when applied to Joseph in Genesis 37 and long-sleeved garment worn by the king’s virgin daughters when describing Tamar’s clothing in 2 Samuel 13. He also provided additional beneficial insight into the creation account in Genesis 1, expounded on changes in culture evidenced in the recorded scriptures, and gave advice for welcoming transgender Christians into the church. I am so grateful for Austen Hartke’s perspective and wisdom that was highlighted on this episode of The Bible for Normal People (@thebiblefornormalpeople).
#peteenns #jaredbyas #austenhartke #thebiblefornormalpeople #podcast #podcastrecommendation #podcastrec #thebibleandthelivesoftransgenderchristians #transgenderchristians #faith #evolvingfaith #lovingthebibleagain #loveyourneighbor #empathy #equality #learning #reflection #action #inclusion #community #seekjustice #restorativejustice #lovemercy #walkhumbly #challengethenarrative #broadeningthenarrative
Featured Song - Jan. 8, 2020
Featured Song - Jan. 8, 2020
Bandy describes her song in this way: “For all of whom society deems a ‘Social Caterpillar.’ For the quiet people. The misfits. The awkward introverts. This is for you. This is our anthem.”
Now, I may be a total extrovert, but I love this song. I appreciate the authenticity and vulnerability displayed here. Click on the hyperlinked song title above to listen to and purchase the song “Butterflies” through Bandcamp.
#butterflies #bandy #song #featuredsong #socialcaterpillar #destigmatize #BandysNotebook #seen #loved #music #identity #faith #newartist #introvert #anthem #femalerapper #rapper #original #pioneer #support #community #challengethenarrative #broadeningthenarrative
Additional Rec. - Jan. 9, 2020
#additionalrecommendation #recommendation #bryanstevenson #firinglineshow #pbs #margarethoover #eji #justmercy #nationalmemorialforpeaceandjustice #endmassincerceration #endthedeathpenalty #abolishthedeathpenalty #dismantleallsystemsofoppression #empathy #equality #reflection #action #loveyourneighbor #love #learning #justice #seekjustice #restorativejustice #lovemercy #walkhumbly #lament #repent #repair #tellthetruth #challengethenarrative #broadeningthenarrative
Book Rec. - Jan. 11, 2020
Additional Rec. - Jan. 9, 2020
Additional Rec. - Bryan Stevenson on PBS Firing Line
In this episode of Firing Line, Bryan Stevenson is interviewed by Margaret Hoover. He spoke about his work with the Equal Justice Initiative advocating for prisoners on death row and developing The National Memorial for Peace and Justice dedicated to the victims of lynching. He discussed the history of race in the United States while being a prophetic voice for what the United States can be if we remove all barriers.
“What many people who live in the margins of our society need, what many people who have been disfavored and excluded and condemned need, is they need others to get close enough to recognize that they are more than the worst thing they’ve ever done, to get close enough to understand the nature of the issues that have excluded, marginalized, and disfavored them.”
“I do think that’s one of the challenges in our death penalty today: we tolerate a lot of error. Mr. Hinton was the 156th person exonerated, proved innocent after being sentenced to death. We’re now over 160, which means that for every 9 people we’ve executed in this country, we’ve now identified 1 innocent person on death row. It’s a shocking rate of error. We wouldn’t tolerate that error in most other areas of our life.”
“I think that for the United States Supreme Court to concede to bias and the inevitability of racial discrimination is completely inconsistent with the Court’s obligation to enforce the rule of law.”
“I believe we have an obligation to protect people from others who would try to harm us. We don’t have to execute anybody. We have the ability to confine and to imprison people without execution. For me the question is, ‘Is there a system so free of bias that doesn’t discriminate against the poor, that doesn’t allow politics to influence the way decision-making happens?’ And I can’t see that system. I don’t see that system.”
“I think we’re all grateful we’ve made some small step, but it’s really important to recognize what that law is and what it’s not. First of all, the First Step Act only applies to people in federal prisons. Only 10% of the people in America’s jails and prisons are in federal custody. So this applies to a very small percentage of that 10%. Look I supported it. I think it’s a good thing. But we are deluding ourselves if we think this is some huge step forward with regard to mass incarceration because it just doesn’t deal with the heart of the problem. And the heart of the problem is that we have too many people in jails and prisons who are not a threat to public safety. You know, we’re 5% of the world’s population but 25% of the world’s imprisoned. We have a lot of work to do. We’ve got hundreds of thousands of people we could release tomorrow and the crime rates would not go up, but we won’t because there are still too many people who want to be ‘tough on crime’ who are kind of wedded to that narrative of fear and anger.”
“When we broke down those barriers [in sports], we began to see what a truly integrated sports world could create. And what we’ve seen is magical, it’s spectacular, and I think the same opportunities and the same kind of spectacle of greatness awaits us, but we’ve got to break down all the barriers. And those barriers still exist in business, they still exist in economics, they exist in education, they exist in too many areas of our life. And the great thing that we can become is waiting for us when we actually commit to eliminating those barriers. The same is true for gender. How long did we not allow our most gifted and talented journalists and filmmakers and storytellers and politicians have the platforms that they deserved because we didn’t think that women should be in those spaces? When those barriers have come down, and we still have more to take down, we begin to understand what all of our committed talent and collective power can lead us to achieve. But as long as we put restraint based on color or gender or bias shaped by something else, we’ll never be the great society that we’re meant to be.”
I highly recommend this 27 minute interview, linked above, with Bryan Stevenson. May we be moved to compassion to show up, vote, and engage in ways that love our marginalized, excluded, disfavored, and condemned neighbors.
Book Rec. - Jan. 11, 2020
***Trigger Warning***
"In the face of black political and economic competition created by emancipation and progressive Reconstruction, white backlash worked to re-impose white dominance through violent repression" (EJI, 2017, p.12).
“Far from the small band of extremist outsiders it is now, the Klan drew members from every echelon of white society in the nineteenth century, including planters, lawyers, merchants, and ministers. In York County, South Carolina, nearly the entire white male population joined” (EJI, 2017, p.14).
“Characterized by Southern mob violence intended to reestablish white supremacy and suppress black civil rights through political and social terror, the Reconstruction era was a violent period in which tens of thousands of people were killed in racially- and politically-motivated massacres, murders, and lynchings. White mobs regularly targeted African Americans with deadly violence but rarely aimed lethal attacks at white individuals accused of identical violations of law or custom. By the end of the nineteenth century, Southern lynching had become a tool of racial control that terrorized and targeted African Americans. The ratio of black lynching victims to white lynching victims was 4 to 1 from 1882 to 1889; increased to more than 6 to 1 between 1890 and 1900; and soared to more than 17 to 1 after 1900” (EJI, 2017, p.27).
“More than eight in ten American lynchings between 1889 and 1918 occurred in the South, and more than eight in ten of the nearly 1400 legal executions carried out in this country since 1976 have been in the South. Modern death sentences are disproportionately meted out to African Americans accused of crimes against white victims; efforts to combat racial bias and create federal protection against racial bias in the administration of the death penalty remain thwarted by familiar appeals to the rhetoric of states' rights; and regional data demonstrates that the modern death penalty in America mirrors racial violence of the past. As contemporary proponents of the American death penalty focus on form rather than substance by tinkering with the aesthetics of lethal punishment to improve procedures and methods, capital punishment remains rooted in racial terror - ‘a direct descendant of lynching’” (EJI, 2017, p.64).
I bought the Lynching in America report when I went to the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. Since I live in York County, SC, I selected the second quote above to share. The work of the Equal Justice Initiative reminds us as a nation that our past is intertwined with our present and that we must face the past so we can heal the future. You can purchase the full report for $5 from the Equal Justice Initiative.
#pastread #lynchinginamericareport #bookrecommendation #bookrec #eji #equaljusticeinitiative #bryanstevenson #lynching #terrorism #facethepast #healthefuture #reading #learning #empathy #equality #reflection #action #seekjustice #socialjustice #racialjustice #restorativejustice #lovemercy #walkhumbly #lament #repent #repair #loveyourneighbor #tellthetruth #challengethenarrative #broadeningthenarrative
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