Freedom Road Podcast

Much like the issue of slavery in the early 19th century, the issue of LGBTQ inclusion is splitting denominations across the United States. On opposite sides of the fault-line are those calling for inclusion and those engaging processes and crafting policies that exclude LGBTQ+ people from various levels of membership and leadership. Churches usually avoid this conversation, because the stakes are so high and the outcomes so painful. This month Freedom Road Podcast, Activist Theology Podcast and Red Letter Christians leverage the power of story to engage this fraught conversation together. Join Lisa Sharon Harper, Dr. Robyn Henderson-Espinoza and Shane Claiborne as they wade through the troubled waters of this sensitive, necessary and timely conversation; charting a way to the other side with raw honesty and grace.

Join host, Lisa Sharon Harper, in conversation with the women of the Pantsuit Politics Podcast, Beth Silvers and Sarah Stewart Holland. On this collaborative extended episode, released on both platforms, listen in as Lisa, Beth and Sarah talk COVID-19, sci-fi movies, canaries in mines and wrestle over one hard question: What will alliance with women of color require of White women in 2020? Be prepared to hear all of the things that need to be said. The times we are living in require it. 

The issue of abortion has the level of power it does in our nation because we never talk about it. So, we’re going to talk about it. Listen in as host, Lisa Sharon Harper, is joined by Rev. Susan Chorley (Exhale), Rev. Shekinah Hamlin (Christian Church Disciples of Christ) and Andrea Lucado (evangelical journalist) to talk about Abortion and Reproductive Justice. This is a #mustlisten conversation.

Listen in on this powerful conversation between Lisa Sharon Harper (host) and Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III (Lead Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ). The two dive deep on the power of pilgrimage and legacy. As the son of a Civil Rights hero, Moss shares how pilgrimage helped him understand his father better and himself as a man of African descent in the US. 

Join host, Lisa Sharon Harper, and guest Belinda Bauman as they go off-script and dig deep in this vulnerable and raw conversation about the relationship between power and solidarity. #silenceisnotspiritual #solidaritysunday

Advent is about God's embodied solidarity with humanity. In December 2015 Dr. Larycia Hawkins, political science prof at Wheaton College in Illinois placed a hijab on her head, took a picture and posted a message on Facebook in solidarity with Muslim women who were being targeted and forced to take off their hijabs in public spaces within democracies around the world. Standing in embodied solidarity with Muslim women as her Advent practice, Dr. Hawkins lost her job and became the target of white patriarchal evangelicalism. Join host, Lisa Sharon Harper, as she examines the intersectional oppressions of race, gender and religion with Dr. Hawkins and the Emmy Award Winning filmmaker who documented Hawkins's story, Linda Midgett, director of "Same God." Want to see #SameGodFilm? Please tag @PBS in your region and @Netflix and ask them to carry #SameGodFilm! And don't forget to use the hashtag #embodiedsolidarity. 

This month on Freedom Road Podcast join host, Lisa Sharon Harper, and special guest State Representative Ruth Anna Buffalo--the first Native American woman Democrat elected to North Dakota's State Assembly. In honor of Native American History Month, the two recount stories from their recent pilgrimage through the stories of Buffalo's people, the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation on the Fort Berthold Reservation. They consider the stories the land tells about historic and current violence and resilience in Native America.

2019 marked the 400th year since Africans first stepped foot on North American shores. Antony and Isabela (their given slave names) were brought from Angola aboard a Portuguese slave ship bound for Mexico. The White Lion, an English warship, pirated the Portuguese ship and stole its human cargo. The first “20 and odd” Africans brought to this land in chains stepped off the White Lion in the year of our Lord 1619.  Antony and Isabela were among them. They were traded for food by residents of Jamestown. Bought by Captain Tucker, they  eventually found each other and fell in love. They bore the very first African-American in 1624–William Tucker.  This month join host, Lisa Sharon Harper, and her guests Vincent Tucker (Direct descent of Antony and Isabela) and Angelique Walker-Smith (Pan-African and Orthodox Church Engagement, Bread for the World). Learn about life for the first African Americans and consider the path toward America’s healing over the next 400 years. 

In this second episode of the Freedom Road Podcast two-part series on Immigration, Exploitation and Labor in the U.S. join host, Lisa Sharon Harper, and company as they travel from The Alamo to the Borderlands; shining light on America's labor system--a system perpetually dependent on the no-cost and low-cost labor of black and brown immigrant labor.

Over the next two episodes pilgrimage with us on Freedom Road Podcast as we stand on the land where whips cracked backs to bleed more work from black and brown bodies. Stand with us in a literal valley of dry bones—a mass grave filled with the bodies of men and boys swept up in the post-antebellum terror of peonage. Sit with us as we speak with a descendant of America’s Bracero program and faith leaders pushing back against the exploitation of asylum seekers in America’s detention system today.Host, Lisa Sharon Harper, and Sandy Ovalle (Immigration Campaign Manager at Sojourners) are on pilgrimage from the Whitney Plantation in Louisiana to a mass grave in Sugar Land outside Houston, Texas to the Alamo in San Antonio to the borderlands of McAllen, Texas where they cross the border into Mexico. This episode features guests:  Ashley Rogers, Executive Director of Whitney PlantationDr. Ibrahima Seck, Director of Research of Whitney PlantationReginald Moore, Founder of the Sugar Land Convict Leasing and Labor

Join host, Lisa Sharon Harper, and Timothy McMahan King (author of Addiction Nation, slated for release June 11) for a profound conversation about King's battle with addiction and what it taught him about the soul of America. This is a #mustlisten, #musttakenotes, then #mustshare episode. 

Throughout the 19th century nearly every protestant denomination in the U.S. split over disagreements on the institution of slavery. Not since then have we witnessed such tectonic fissures in the body of Christ. In the 21st century, the issue is LGBTQ inclusion. Nearly every denomination in the U.S. has or is experiencing the tension. In this moment of profound division many churches are tempted to obscure their views and policies in an effort to hold divided parties together. The creators of Church Clarity believe clarity is just--and can lead to healing. Join host Lisa Sharon Harper and the creators of the Church Clarity initiative, George Mekhail and Sarah Ngu, for an honest, raw conversation full of ah-has. 

Momma Ruby Sales is back. As the nation commemorates the life and death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and the invaluable contributions of the Civil Rights Movement, listen in and grab your pen and paper to take notes as Ruby Sales (SNCC activist and celebrated theologian) shares the pearls of wisdom she gleaned from the Southern Freedom Movement.

This month on Freedom Road, Lisa Sharon Harper, celebrates Women’s History Month with four women of the Ruby Woo Pilgrimage! Listen in as Meighan Stone (Council on Foreign Relations, Indivisible and former president of The Malala Fund), Andrea Ackerman and Melissa O’Keefe (Christ City Church DC) and Barbara Noe Kennedy (Travel Writer) reflect on the wisdom they gleaned from our nation’s foremothers‘ intersectional struggle for equality. This isn’t just history. This is straight up wisdom for right now. 

Peek behind the scenes of our #BlacknessandHistory episode with Ruby Sales (SNCC, SpiritHouse Project) with this bonus mini-episode! Listen in as Auntie Ruby and, host, Lisa Sharon Harper, rap the session. Their taped conversation was so electric that it kept going after the mics were turned off--only they weren't turned off! Sound engineer, David Dault, who also joins the conversation, captured lightening in a bottle.

Have you ever had one of those moments when it feels like everyone that experienced it just lived for a split second in another realm? We have. While recording this episode. This conversation on #BlacknessandHistory between host, Lisa Sharon Harper, and Civil Rights Movement veteran, Ruby Nell Sales (SNCC organizer, celebrated theologian and founder of The SpiritHouse Project), hits new levels of deep within the first few minutes—and they keep drilling down. More than an interview, this is a transcendent exchange—between an elder and a generation. Listen in as Sales and Harper go in on: Southern Black excellence, intersectional identities, respectability politics, the white imagination of blackness, internalized white patriarchy, beloved community, reparations and humility. Do not miss this. For your convenience and because it is that important, we’ve transcribed this episode to help you follow along and take notes. We’ve also provided links to certain terms and names to help you milk this

Join host, Lisa Sharon Harper, in this mind-blowing conversation with East Harlem pastor and author Jose Humphreys, indigenous scholar Dr. Randy Woodley, South African activist Rene' August and white Evangelical consultant Alexei Laushkin. Run and get pen and paper and #takenotes as these four Freedom Road Consultants consider the nature of justice, what justice will require of the church and share their #JusticeAgenda2019!

Host Lisa Sharon Harper welcomes guests Waltrina Middleton, Amena Brown, and Catherine Sherman to discuss how art and justice can work together

What responsibility does the church (particularly the Evangelical church) bare for the state of US public life? In this episode Lisa Sharon Harper sits down for a timely reunion with her coauthors of the book, Forgive Us: Confessions of a Compromised Faith. Join Lisa as she explores the possibility of national healing through the lament and repentance of the church with guests Soong-Chan Rah, Mae Cannon, Troy Jackson.

Join us as Lisa Sharon Harper digs deep into the Pain of Patriarchy with Susan Sharkey (visual artist, #metoo⁠ ⁠/church abuse survivor) and Emily Joy (poet and co-creator of #Churchtoo).