

Red Letter Christians Podcast
Red Letter Christians
A Christian commentary on the way of Jesus in the world today with Red Letter Christian leaders Dr. Tony Campolo and Shane Claiborne. Red Letter Christians gets its name from the Bibles that highlight the words of Jesus in red and we are aspiring to live “as if Jesus meant the stuff he said.” Some episodes of this podcast have been adapted from the radio show “Across the Pond” which airs on Sunday afternoons in the UK on Premier Radio. Others are from events such as Faith Forums, Book Clubs, and Monthly Morning Prayer.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Aug 1, 2024 • 25min
Apartheid-Free Communities | Allison Tanner
The Rev. Dr. Allison J. Tanner is a pastor, educator and organizer working for justice and healing in her community. She is the Stephen McNeil Fellow at AFSC, where she organizes the Apartheid-Free Communities platform. She is also the Pastor of Public Witness at Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church in Oakland, California. [https://afsc.org/profile/allison-tanner]
"The Apartheid-Free network is a coalition of communities who pledge to work together to end Israeli apartheid. This coalition formed in 2022, following the emerging consensus among the international human rights community that Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people amounts to the Crime of Apartheid. Originally created by faith groups in North America, the network currently includes congregations, faith communities, solidarity organizations, non-profits, campus groups, businesses, and more. Centered in North America, we encourage communities throughout the world to join the network.
The Apartheid-Free network asks ourselves and our communities to take a renewed public pledge against all forms of racism, bigotry, and oppression, including against racist discrimination, islamophobia, antisemitism, and xenophobia in our own communities. We seek to educate ourselves and our communities about the devastation of Palestinian lives under military occupation, settler colonialism, and apartheid, and about the connections between settler colonialism, racist oppression, and the cult of security in Palestine/Israel, in North America, and throughout the world.
Inspired by the anti-Apartheid movement that toppled the Apartheid regime in South Africa, we are building a new anti-apartheid movement and encourage faith communities and all communities of conscience to step away from any and all support to Israeli apartheid, occupation, and settler colonialism.
This coalition is convened by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and has a steering committee that consists of organizations and individuals that includes:
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
Alliance of Baptists
Black Christians for Palestine (BC4P)
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT)
Episcopal Peace Fellowship – Palestine Israel Network (EPF PIN)
Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA)
Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (IPMN)
Mennonite Palestine Israel Network (MennoPIN)
Quaker Palestine Israel Network (QPIN)
United Church of Christ (UCC)
United Methodists for Kairos Response (UMKR)
Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East (UUJME)
Help sustain the work of RLC: www.redletterchristians.org/donate/
To check out what RLC is up to, please visit us www.redletterchristians.org
Follow us on Twitter: @RedLetterXians
Instagram: @RedLetterXians
Follow Shane on Instagram: @shane.claiborne
Twitter: @ShaneClaiborne
Intro song by Common Hymnal: https://commonhymnal.com/

Jul 25, 2024 • 51min
Skye Jethani | Former Christianity Today exec and Co-host of the Holy Post Podcast
"An award-winning author, speaker, and co-host of the Holy Post Podcast, Skye has written more than a dozen books and served as an editor and executive at Christianity Today for more than a decade. Raised in a religiously and ethnically diverse family, his curiosity about faith led him to study comparative religion before entering seminary and pastoral ministry. With a unique ability to connect Christian thought and contemporary culture, his voice has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, and The Washington Post, and he’s spoken to audiences throughout the world as diverse as the U.S. Naval Academy, The Chautauqua Institution, and the Lausanne Movement." [https://www.withgoddaily.com/about/]
Help sustain the work of RLC: www.redletterchristians.org/donate/
To check out what RLC is up to, please visit us www.redletterchristians.org
Follow us on Twitter: @RedLetterXians
Instagram: @RedLetterXians
Follow Shane on Instagram: @shane.claiborne
Twitter: @ShaneClaiborne
Intro song by Common Hymnal: https://commonhymnal.com/

Jul 18, 2024 • 51min
“Practices for Embodied Living: Experiencing the Wisdom of Your Body" | author Dr. Hilary L. McBride with host Divya David | Book Club
Dr. Hillary L. McBride joins us in conversation with Divya Rosaline David to discuss her latest book, “Practices for Embodied Living: Experiencing the Wisdom of Your Body.”
Practices for Embodied Living offers an experiential guide-centered on prompts, activities, and opportunities for reflection-to support readers who want to practice embodiment. This approachable, visually stimulating book helps individuals and groups resist cultural myths about ideal bodies, get in touch with the goodness of their bodies, and more fully inhabit themselves.
Topics include disembodiment, stress and trauma, sexuality, body image, pain and illness, oppression, and more. Each topic includes various exercises to help readers restore the mind-body connection.
Author Hillary McBride, PhD, is a Registered Psychologist, researcher, podcastor, and author, but underneath all of that she is a human, who loves asking questions about what it means to be human, how we heal and grow, and what it means to be a body. She publishes written works for community and academic audiences about embodiment, trauma, eating disorders, mental health and spirituality; her bestselling book The Wisdom Of Your Body was released in 2021, Practices for Embodied Living was released in early 2024, and her next book Holy Hurt: understanding and healing from spiritual trauma will be released in spring 2025.
Her award winning CBC podcast Other People’s Problems was mentioned in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times as essential listening, and she is on faculty with the Psychedelic Somatic Institute, and the co-developer of Katalyst Mental Health Ketamine Assisted Therapy program. What makes her feel alive is her daughter’s laugh, her love for her partner and close friends, asking unanswerable questions, and spending time in or near the ocean.
Help sustain the work of RLC: www.redletterchristians.org/donate/
To check out what RLC is up to, please visit us www.redletterchristians.org
Follow us on Twitter: @RedLetterXians
Instagram: @RedLetterXians
Follow Shane on Instagram: @shane.claiborne
Twitter: @ShaneClaiborne
Intro song by Common Hymnal: https://commonhymnal.com/

Jul 11, 2024 • 53min
Morning Prayer w/RAW Tools | Turning weapons into tools of nonviolence and love
Recording from June 2024 Morning Prayer. June's Monthly Morning Prayer with Mike Martin and our friends at RAWtools. We'll be praying and reflecting upon the urgent need for peace, and to turn weapons of all kinds into tools of nonviolence and love.
Help sustain the work of RLC: www.redletterchristians.org/donate/
To check out what RLC is up to, please visit us www.redletterchristians.org
Follow us on Twitter: @RedLetterXians
Instagram: @RedLetterXians
Follow Shane on Instagram: @shane.claiborne
Twitter: @ShaneClaiborne
Intro song by Common Hymnal: https://commonhymnal.com/

Jul 4, 2024 • 26min
Dr. Mimi Haddad | Tell Her Story: Women in Scripture and History
Register here: https://www.cbeinternational.org/event/mimi-haddad-will-lead-a-workshop-at-cbes-denver-conference-tell-her-story-women-in-scripture-and-history/
"Dr. Mimi Haddad serves as president and CEO of CBE International. She has taught as an adjunct associate professor of historical theology at Fuller Theological Seminary, Olivet University and has taught for institutes and organizations worldwide....
Mimi is an award-winning author and has written more than one hundred fifty academic, popular, and blog articles for Ashland Theological Journal; The Campbellsville Review, Catalyst, Christian Ethics Today, Christianity Today, Evangelical Fellowship of India and the Evangelical Fellowship of India Commission on Relief; Her.menuetics; Sojourners; and the William Carey Development Journal, and CBE’s journals, Mutuality and Priscilla Papers." [https://www.cbeinternational.org/person/mimi-haddad/]
Help sustain the work of RLC: www.redletterchristians.org/donate/
To check out what RLC is up to, please visit us www.redletterchristians.org
Follow us on Twitter: @RedLetterXians
Instagram: @RedLetterXians
Follow Shane on Instagram: @shane.claiborne
Twitter: @ShaneClaiborne
Intro song by Common Hymnal: https://commonhymnal.com/

Jul 4, 2024 • 1h 16min
What to the Slave is the 4th of July? | Reading of Frederick Douglass’ 1852 speech
Frederick Douglass’ 1852 speech “WHAT TO THE SLAVE IS THE FOURTH OF JULY”
Originally recorded and published on the RLC Blog on July 3, 2021.
One-hundred and seventy-two years ago tomorrow, abolitionist, writer, and statesman Frederick Douglass gave a speech to the 600 members of the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society entitled “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” On July 3, 2021, Christian leaders from around the country gathered virtually with Red Letter Christians to read this powerful piece together.
Find an excerpt and link to the full transcript below, and watch the reading here

Jun 27, 2024 • 38min
April Ajoy | Star-Spangled Jesus: Leaving Christian Nationalism and Finding A True Faith
Pre-order: https://www.amazon.com/Star-Spangled-Jesus-Leaving-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1546006680
"April Ajoy is a content creator and podcast host who uses humor to shine light on harmful, toxic, and sometimes just weird traits of American Evangelicalism. After growing up an evangelist’s kid entrenched in Christian Nationalism and later working in conservative Christian media, she saw the harm caused firsthand. Still a Christian, she uses her platform to expose the dangers of Christian Nationalism while promoting a more inclusive faith."
Help sustain the work of RLC: www.redletterchristians.org/donate/
To check out what RLC is up to, please visit us www.redletterchristians.org
Follow us on Twitter: @RedLetterXians
Instagram: @RedLetterXians
Follow Shane on Instagram: @shane.claiborne
Twitter: @ShaneClaiborne
Intro song by Common Hymnal: https://commonhymnal.com/

Jun 20, 2024 • 27min
Learning More about Divya David | RLC staff and contributor
You may have seen her hosting some of your favorite RLC Book Clubs and now she's here to share more about her story. One of RLC's very own, we are so excited for you to learn more about the very gifted Divya David!
Help sustain the work of RLC: www.redletterchristians.org/donate/
To check out what RLC is up to, please visit us www.redletterchristians.org
Follow us on Twitter: @RedLetterXians
Instagram: @RedLetterXians
Follow Shane on Instagram: @shane.claiborne
Twitter: @ShaneClaiborne
Intro song by Common Hymnal: https://commonhymnal.com/

Jun 13, 2024 • 38min
Jonathan Brenneman, Mennonite Action and the Art of Organizing
Jonathan Brenneman, a Palestinian Mennonite and one of the authors of Mennonite Church USA’s “Seeking Peace in Israel and Palestine: A Resolution for Mennonite Church USA,” discusses organizing for peace and activism at the Capitol.
Learn more: https://www.mennoniteaction.org/
Help sustain the work of RLC: www.redletterchristians.org/donate/
To check out what RLC is up to, please visit us www.redletterchristians.org
Follow us on Twitter: @RedLetterXians
Instagram: @RedLetterXians
Follow Shane on Instagram: @shane.claiborne
Twitter: @ShaneClaiborne
Intro song by Common Hymnal: https://commonhymnal.com/

11 snips
Jun 6, 2024 • 37min
Our Trespasses: White Churches and the Taking of American Neighborhoods | Guest: author, Greg Jarrell
Author Greg Jarrell discusses the impact of urban renewal on African American neighborhoods. He explores the legacy of key figures in Charlotte's history and addresses issues of racial discrimination and urban changes. The podcast delves into the significance of AME Zion churches in shaping black communities, the devastating effects of urban renewal, and the complexities of gentrification. Jarrell emphasizes the need for reparations, cultural memory preservation, and structural interventions to heal and restore affected neighborhoods.