Reimagining the Good Life with Amy Julia Becker

What is privilege? What is it not? How does privilege cause harm? In this bonus episode, Amy Julia describes her working definition of privilege, the ways that privilege leads to unjust social divisions and disparities, and how we can participate in healing from the harm of privilegeSHOW NOTES:“Privilege is a set of unearned social advantages that lead to unjust social divisions and disparities.”“Privilege is not a guarantee of an easy life and it’s not an accusation of an easy life.”“As unearned social advantages lead to unjust social divisions, we find ourselves participating in injustice.”“Privilege harms everyone. The ways we are cut off from one another and from the full expression of human diversity is not only unjust but it is also harmful, and I, for one, want to be a part of healing.”“Healing comes from the overflow of the love of God at work in and through God’s people—not just the love of God, but the love of God that is expressed in acts of mercy, of kindness, and of justice.”ON THE PODCAST:Penny’s diagnosisPodcast guests to date: David Bailey, Micha Boyett, Patricia Raybon, Natasha Sistrunk Robinson, Jemar Tisby, Cara Meredith, Subira Gordon, Marlena Graves, Niro Feliciano, Esau McCaulley, Dominique Gilliard, Paul MillerStudies: names on job applications; wage gaps; bias in sportsCollege admissions scandalBlog Post: The Spiritual Problem of Racism Calls for a Spiritual SolutionAudiobook: “Head, Heart, Hands”Thank you to Breaking Ground, the co-host for this podcast.White Picket Fences, Season 3 of Love is Stronger Than Fear, is based on my book White Picket Fences, and today we are taking a break from our typical podcast episodes and guests to talk about the topic of privilege. Check out free RESOURCES—action guide, discussion guides—that are designed to help you respond. Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.We want to hear your thoughts. Send us a text!Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Website Thanks for listening!

How does the pattern of Jesus’ life reshape privilege, wealth, and community? Paul Miller, author of “J-Curve: Dying and Rising with Jesus in Everyday Life,” talks with Amy Julia about the J-curve and how this daily dying and rising with Christ can create communities where the potential divisions of wealth and privilege are reshaped by love.SHOW NOTES:Paul Miller is Executive Director of seeJesus, a global discipleship mission, which he founded in 1999 to help Christians and non-Christians alike “see Jesus.” His books include “J-Curve” and the instant bestseller “A Praying Life.” Follow him on Twitter at @_paulemiller.“The normal Christian life looks like the path of Jesus’ life—from life down into death and then from death up into resurrection and glorification. That pattern of Jesus’ life is the template for whole sections of my life, pieces of my day, my relationships, and it’s a very liberating grid. It has hope in it and gives meaning.”“We don’t understand how critical our dying is to the creation of an inclusive community.”“If I begin to live this J-curve, I become a community-creation machine. Everywhere I go I’m creating community.”“The antidote to all of the problems of the power of money is love.”“One of the aspects of evil is that it bends you to seeing that evil is the final word. And that leads to cynicism. You begin to see evil everywhere, and that in itself is evil because it leads to a cynical spirit where you begin to doubt even the good. That’s a disease of our age—an age of cynicism...Paul clearly looks at life through a resurrection lens and tells us to do so as well. What’s right and true and lovely? Be looking for those things. You’re hunting for the good.”On the Podcast:Is God Anti-racist? articleScripture: Sharing in Christ’s suffering (Philippians 1:29, Philippians 3:10), 2 Corinthians 1, James 2:1-6, John 9, John 4:1-42, John 14, John 11:45-52, I Timothy 6, Colossians 3:1-17, Philippians 1, God of all comfort benediction, Fruit of the Spirit“The Sun Does Shine” by Anthony Ray HintonFrancis of AssisiMartin Luther“Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. TolkienIgnatian Consolation and DesolationPenny’s diagnosisWay MakerPerson of Jesus studyThank you to Breaking Ground, the co-host for this podcast.We want to hear your thoughts. Send us a text!Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Website Thanks for listening!

What would it mean for the criminal justice system to be unjust? And if it is, what should Christians do about it? Dominique Gilliard, author of “Rethinking Incarceration,” talks with Amy Julia about the history of injustice in this system, reimagining justice, punishment, and reconciliation in light of the gospel, and practical ways the church can love people who have been incarcerated.SHOW NOTES:Dominique DuBois Gilliard is the Director of Racial Righteousness and Reconciliation for the Love Mercy Do Justice (LMDJ) initiative of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC). His book “Rethinking Incarceration: Advocating for Justice that Restores” won the 2018 Book of the Year Award for InterVarsity Press.Follow LMDJ on social mediaTwitterFacebookInstagramYouTube“Restorative justice says that for justice to be made manifest, there has to be a tangible pathway toward restoration for not only the person who has suffered from the offense but also the person who has caused the offense.”“Do we really believe the things that we proclaim in our congregational spaces, and, if so, how does that inform how we vote, how we live, how we engage in the world at large?”“Nobody is beyond redemption....the Spirit who has the ability to bring life out of death has the ability to bring restoration out of people who have caused offenses.”“When we understand that privilege is something for us to steward, then that liberates us from feeling immobilized by it. It liberates us from actually denying it. We can affirm privilege is real and that we have a responsibility to steward it in a way that furthers the kingdom and loves our neighbor.”On the Podcast:“The New Jim Crow” by Michelle AlexanderShooting of Kathryn JohnstonEqual Justice InitiativePrison FellowshipSeason 3 of SerialChicago’s Million Dollar BlocksOld Testament gleaning laws“Compassionate Justice” by Christopher MarshallBryan Stevenson and Equal Justice Initiative67% of white evangelicals support the death penaltyInterview with Bryan Stevenson about “Just Mercy”Psalm 139:23-24Resources from Dominique: What We Can Do powerpoint and Follow-Up Resources pdfThank you to Breaking Ground, the co-host for this podcast.White PWe want to hear your thoughts. Send us a text!Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Website Thanks for listening!

The Black church has a gift for American Christianity. Are we all willing to receive it? New Testament scholar Esau McCaulley, author of “Reading While Black,” talks with Amy Julia about Black biblical interpretation, distorted views of the gospel, the importance of identity within a Christian’s story, and the Black church’s commitment to both the theological tenets of Christianity and advocating for justice.SHOW NOTES:Esau McCaulley (PhD, St. Andrews), author of “Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope,” a priest in the Anglican Church in North America, and a contributing writer for The New York Times. He is also the host of The Disrupters podcast. His publications include Sharing in the Son's Inheritance and numerous articles in outlets such as Christianity Today, The Witness, and The Washington Post. Connect with him online:esaumccaulley.comTwitter: @esaumccaulley“There’s a whole story in the Bible of God liberating an entire people who are enslaved. This goes to the front of God’s resume. He says it over and over and over again, 'I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.'”“The very practice of going to the Bible and asking God to meet us there is an exercise of hope.""Look to the Black church in America. It has a long history of advocacy for justice along with remaining in the great tradition of things Christians will always believe."“If our ethnicity is eschatological, if we go into the new creation as black and brown and white people, if we all come into the kingdom as our ethnic selves, then God is glorified in the salvation of each of us and each part of who we are. My blackness is not immaterial to the story of my life. I can’t tell the story of my life and what God has done in my life without talking about what it means to be Black and Christian.”On the Podcast:Articles/Essays in The New York TimesScripture: Genesis 48, Exodus 12:37-38, I Timothy 6:1-2, Genesis 1:26-28, Luke 20:4, Sermon on the Mount, Revelation, John 9“Deacon King Kong” by James McBride“The Cross and the Lynching Tree” by James ConeThe New York Times: The Bloody Fourth Day of ChristmasPenny’s diagnosis of Down syndromeThank you to Breaking Ground, the co-host for this podcast.White Picket Fences, Season 3 of Love is Stronger Than Fear, is based on my book White Picket Fences, and today we are talking about chapter 7. Check out free RESOURCES—action guide, discussion guides—that are designed to help you respond. Learn more about my writing andWe want to hear your thoughts. Send us a text!Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Website Thanks for listening!

In an achievement-oriented culture, how do we risk vulnerability in order to move toward personal and racial healing? Cognitive therapist Niro Feliciano talks with Amy Julia about the complexities of privilege, race and identity, affluence and anxiety, and the hurt and the hope found within communities of faith.SHOW NOTES:Niro Feliciano is a certified cognitive therapist and co-founder of a multi-specialty mental health group in Connecticut where she treats anxiety in adults and adolescents. Connect with Niro: nirofeliciano.com, her All Things Life podcast, @niro_feliciano on Instagram, and Niro Feliciano, The Incidental Therapist on Facebook.“Race is a part of my identity and it is so much a part of my relationships.”“Affluence contributes to...anxiety and depression.”“Identity and value is so linked to accomplishment.”“Starting in the home, we have to validate our families and our kids for who they are and not what they do. We can’t constantly be focused on the achievement.”“I am sure about Jesus. When we say Christianity and the Church has not always been inclusive, my feeling is—Jesus always has been.”“Be compassionate towards yourself. Forgive yourself.”On the Podcast:Podcast episodes with Niro: Super Bowl episode and White Picket Fences episodeNiro’s podcast: All Things Life“The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man” by James Weldon Johnson“Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race” by Beverly Tatum“Caste: The Origins of Discontents” by Isabel WilkersonNiro’s blog post on ridgefieldmom.comThank you to Breaking Ground, the co-host for this podcast.White Picket Fences, Season 3 of Love is Stronger Than Fear, is based on my book “White Picket Fences,” and today we are talking about chapter 7. Check out free RESOURCES—action guide, discussion guides—that are designed to help you respond. Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.We want to hear your thoughts. Send us a text!Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Website Thanks for listening!

Fear often inhabits both wealth and poverty. How does viewing money and self-sacrifice through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus bring freedom and joy? Writer and speaker Marlena Graves, author of The Way Up Is Down: Becoming Yourself by Forgetting Yourself, talks with Amy Julia about wealth, poverty, faith, and the freedom that comes from being filled up with God’s love.SHOW NOTESMarlena Graves received her M.Div. from Northeastern Seminary in Rochester, New York and is pursuing her Ph.D. in American Culture Studies as she researches the influence American culture has on Evangelicals’ view of immigration, race, and poverty. Connect with Marlena: marlenagraves.com; @marlena.graves on Instagram, @marlena.propergraves on Facebook, and @MarlenaGraves on Twitter.“Money can’t buy happiness or joy or peace. We can use money that God has given us for God’s ways, but to think that [money by itself] is going to satisfy—it really doesn’t.”“The way of Jesus is to use whatever God has given us and whatever station of life we are in for God’s Kingdom.”“The only way I can love people, love my neighbor, is if I am in tune and paying attention to God.”“Prayer is putting your gaze upon God.”On the Podcast:Scripture: Amos 5:24; James 5:1-6; Matthew 13; Matthew 19:24; Luke 5:27–32; Luke 19:1-10; Luke 9:51-56; Mark 9:35; Matthew 25Rich MullinsPope FrancisPenny’s diagnosis of Down syndromeThank you to Breaking Ground, the co-host for this podcast.White Picket Fences, Season 3 of Love is Stronger Than Fear, is based on my book White Picket Fences, and today we are talking about chapters 6 and 7. Check out free RESOURCES—action guide, discussion guides—that are designed to help you respond. Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.We want to hear your thoughts. Send us a text!Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Website Thanks for listening!

What is the difference between equality and equity and how does that affect education? Subira Gordan, executive director of ConnCAN, talks with Amy Julia about the lack of equity in education, the effects this has on opportunities for children, the role of antiracism in education, and the questions we can ask to move our communities toward affirming antiracist policies.SHOW NOTES:Subira Gordan is the executive director of ConnCAN, an organization that is “leading a movement to improve education outcomes for Connecticut’s kids...to ensure that all kids in The Constitution State have access to a high-quality education, regardless of their address.” Connect with ConnCAN at @ConnCAN on Facebook and @conncan on Twitter.“Your ZIP code should not determine your future.”“Education is a great equalizer.”“Everyone wants to keep what they have, and they don’t recognize that what they have was made possible by government policies.”“We should be talking about how as a community we can affirm antiracist policies.”On the Podcast:Episode with Patricia RaybonResearch about Connecticut schools provided by ConnCANWhite Picket Fences, Season 3 of Love is Stronger Than Fear, is based on my book White Picket Fences. Check out free RESOURCES—action guide, discussion guides—that are designed to help you respond. Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.We want to hear your thoughts. Send us a text!Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Website Thanks for listening!

How does “color blindness” actually enable blindness to racism and the system of whiteness? Cara Meredith, author of The Color of Life: A Journey Toward Love and Racial Justice, joins Amy Julia to talk about racism in the north, the harm of “color blindness,” the tenants of whiteness, and creating space to process whiteness in a way that’s “not all about me.”Show Notes:Cara Meredith is a writer, speaker, and coach. Connect with her online: carameredith.com, @carameredithwrites on Facebook and Instagram, and @caramac54 on Twitter.“Love helped me see color”“Blindness [to racism] continues to exist.”"The celebration of who we are as humans - it’s not just our personalities but it is also what we look like on the outside and where we’ve come from.”“Whiteness is the construct. Whiteness is all of those things that keep some people in and some people out...Whiteness is the system that we benefit from.”Continuing the Conversation:Read: The Color of Life (100% of proceeds from book sales through Cara’s website will go to The Swan Dreams Project)On the Podcast:James MeredithOregon’s racist historyThe Warmth of Other SunsJemar Tisby and The Color of Compromisethe Samaritan woman in John 4So You Want to Talk About RaceBe the Bridge and Latasha MorrisonAustin Channing Brown and I’m Still HereRobin DiAngelo and her episode on Krista Tippett’s podcastWhite Picket Fences, Season 3 of Love is Stronger Than Fear, is based on my book White Picket Fences. Check out free RESOURCES—action guide, discussion guides—that are designed to help you respond. Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.We want to hear your thoughts. Send us a text!Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Website Thanks for listening!

 Amy Julia is on vacation. Tune back in next week for a new episode and interview. Be sure to check out these interviews from Season 3: White Picket Fences:S3 E1 | Waking Up to Privilege with David BaileyS3 E2 | Living into the Really Real with Micha BoyettS3 E3 | Our Different Stories Divide Us with Patricia RaybonS3 Bonus | Talking with Our Kids about Race, Justice, Love, and PrivilegeS3 E4 | Challenging Comfort, Acknowledging Power, and Using Privilege with Natasha RobinsonS3 E5 | Why I Wrote White Picket FencesS3 E6 | Now Is the Time for Justice with Jemar TisbyWe want to hear your thoughts. Send us a text!Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Website Thanks for listening!

How do we find hope, particularly in white American churches, when our history and identity is intertwined with racism? How does knowing who we were—and who we are—help us move toward justice and who we want to become? I talk with historian Jemar Tisby, New York Times bestselling author of The Color of Compromise, about racism’s past and present reality, his sense of a growing darkness, and also where he sees hope.Show Notes:Jemar Tisby is a Christian, historian, speaker, a New York Times best-selling author, and co-host of the Pass the Mic podcast. Connect with him online: jemartisby.com, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.“We can’t heal what we don’t reveal.”“Not knowing our history or misremembering our history—telling part of the story—is actually an assault on our identity. We don’t get the full picture of who we are, whether as a corporate body as a church or as individuals.”“Our own racial history as a church is about our identity. It’s about how we were, who we are, who we want to become.”“If you want to talk about threats to Christianity, particularly in the United States, we need to talk about Christian nationalism.”Continuing the conversation:Join this book study: The Color of Compromise book study group on FacebookPre-Order Jemar’s new book: How to Fight Racism: Courageous Christianity and the Journey Toward Racial JusticeLearn more: The Witness—a black Christian collective that engages issues of religion, race, justice, and culture from a biblical perspectiveGive: The Witness Foundation—identifying, training, and funding the next generation of Black Christian leadersIN THE PODCAST:Scripture references: 10 Commandments, King David, Ephesians 3, Paul on Mars HillIndividuals, books, and concepts: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham JailJohn LewisJesus and the Disinherited by Howard ThurmanTa-Nehisi CoatesJohn Meacham’s The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better AngelsBree NewsomeCritical Race TheoryWhite Picket Fences, Season 3 of Love is Stronger Than Fear, is based on my book White Picket Fences. Check out free RESOURCES—action guide, discussion guides—that are designed to help you respond. Learn more about my writing and speaking at amyjuliabecker.com.We want to hear your thoughts. Send us a text!Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Website Thanks for listening!