We are stepping away from our regular series on the book of Acts to bring you the audio from our latest live event, White Work: A Conversation About the Antiracism Journeys of White People. This 90-minute live webinar was recorded on Friday, April 23rd in partnership between the Antioch Podcast and Calvin University, the Christian Reformed Church of North America, and the Grand Rapids chapter of the YWCA. This particular virtual event was the regional 2021 STAND AGAINST RACISM event for the greater Grand Rapids area. STAND AGAINST RACISM events are hosted by the YWCA every year around this time, and it was an honor for the Antioch Podcast Team, and our guests (who have each appeared on the podcast before) to be included in this year’s virtual event.
We are in the middle of a series where we talk about the values that we have as a podcast team – values which then make it possible for us to have the kinds of conversations we have here every week. This week, we talk about how our team builds community that values diversity – foundational work which allows us to then go on to have deep and meaningful dialogues about antiracism. And, we happen to be recording it in the middle of the afternoon after a team retreat, in the dining room of my home.
We are starting a new series on the Antioch Podcast where we talk about the values that we have as a podcast team which make it possible for us to have the kinds of conversations we have here every week. This week, we are kicking off the series with a discussion of how the values of authenticity and vulnerability are qualities that we try to emulate in our podcast conversations, qualities which we think make it possible to have deep and meaningful dialogues about antiracism that go beyond the regular talking points, allowing us to lower our defenses to allow us to talk about our feelings, questions and even insecurities that we have when we deal with issues of race and injustice.
Listeners to the podcast know that we are a group of Christian antiracism educators and friends who gather around the mics every week to have a conversation about Biblical antiracism. Usually when we get together, we block off two hours so that we have an hour to talk together – and sometime during that period we hit record and make the podcast … but listeners don’t get to hear the first half of our time when we just sit around and talk. However, we thought today that you might enjoy hearing us chat a little, so we decided between series that we would start with our opening question and without picking a topic, just jump right in and see what happened after we hit record. You are about to hear.
April is National Stress Awareness month and because of this, I invited two of my therapist colleagues, Araceli Warners and Jennifer Coria in today to talk about managing stress, as well as how to heal from the specific stresses caused by racial trauma. This is a great conversation full of thoughtful points and stories, so you might want to get out some paper to take some notes!
We are wrapping up our series “Why I Am Still a Christian” today with this final episode. We’ve had a journey as a team asking ourselves, and then a wonderful collection of guests, about why they are still Christians – especially given the climate of today’s churches. We wanted to gather as a team to reflect together about how these conversations about belief and belonging have impacted us, and what we were thinking now that the series has wrapped up.
Rhonda Roorda is an award-winning author, consultant, and thought leader on transracial adoption. Rhonda was adopted out of the New York foster care system at the age of two and into a white American family with Dutch heritage. She was raised with her two non-adopted siblings in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Rhonda has dedicated her life’s work to advocating for children and families and collaborating with individuals, groups and organizations to create nuanced and authentic mirrors for Transracial adoptees and adoptive families.
Rhonda is the author of several books on transracial adoption.
Her work is highly regarded in academia, among adoption agencies, foundations and parent groups, in corporations, in Hollywood, and in households throughout the United States and abroad.
Rhonda is the recipient of many awards, most recently at the Adopt America Network Gala in Toledo, Ohio, Rhonda was bestowed the 2022 Richard K. Ransom Award for her significant contributions to Children and Families and for her work with the NBC TV Show This Is Us.
She stopped by the Antioch Podcast today to talk with us about her story of faith and spiritual formation as a transracial adoptee.
Victoria Gibbs is one of the co-founders, trainers, and lead coaches of CORE: Communities Organizing for Racial Equity in Grand Rapids, Michigan where, among her other duties, she participates in facilitating 2 ½ day Understanding Racism Workshops. Victoria’s area of specialty is helping individuals, groups and organizations understand the impact racism has had on them individually and collectively. She came on the Antioch Podcast today to talk about one of the things she is most passionate about: a thing she refers to as the analysis of racism – specifically internalized racial oppression – sharing her story of how she came to understand the impact racism has had on herself as she shares with us why she is still a Christian in today’s episode.
Cindy Lee, author of Our Unforming: De-Westernizing Spiritual Formation is a spiritual director, professor at Fuller Theological Seminary and urban explorer. Cindy lived in Beijing and Taipei for six years and currently resides in Los Angeles. She writes about spirituality and spiritual formation, asking important questions about Christianity. In Our Unforming, she asks about what aspects of spiritual formation we have received from Western Culture that are not intrinsically Christian, and what would happen if we approached our faith from a different cultural orientation.
Rev. Kealani Nunes Willbanks is a third-generation pastor serving a Methodist church in Washington DC. She is a Philopena-American Woman – a self-described “brown clergy woman” – with a story about why she is still a Christian. Her story orbits this theme covering topics of justice, church leadership, and parenting told with humility, bravery and vulnerability.
We are in the middle of our series “Why I Am Still a Christian”. In this series we have been asking people to share their stories of why they are still Christians given that aspects – or even large parts of their identities – may fall outside the experiences of most mainstream, white, American Christians. As cohosts we’ve all taken a turn telling our own stories, and we’ve been listening to the stories of our series guests so far… but we decided to take this episode to pause and gather around the mics to talk – just amongst ourselves – about how wewere being impacted by these stories – and reflect on how we were being changedand challenged by what we have heard so far.
Rhonda Roorda is an award-winning author, consultant, and thought leader on transracial adoption. Rhonda was adopted out of the New York foster care system at the age of two and into a white American family with Dutch heritage. She was raised with her two non-adopted siblings in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Rhonda has dedicated her life’s work to advocating for children and families and collaborating with individuals, groups and organizations to create nuanced and authentic mirrors for Transracial adoptees and adoptive families.
Rhonda is the author of several books on transracial adoption.
Her work is highly regarded in academia, among adoption agencies, foundations and parent groups, in corporations, in Hollywood, and in households throughout the United States and abroad.
Rhonda is the recipient of many awards, most recently at the Adopt America Network Gala in Toledo, Ohio, Rhonda was bestowed the 2022 Richard K. Ransom Award for her significant contributions to Children and Families and for her work with the NBC TV Show This Is Us.
She stopped by the Antioch Podcast today to talk with us about her story of faith and spiritual formation as a transracial adoptee.
Ryan Struyk is many things. A pastor’s kid, a member of the Christian Reformed Church of North America, and a nationally-recognized journalist and news producer living in Washington DC covering American Politics. He also has an impressive collection of framed original front-page newspapers covering major news events of the 20th Century that fill his home … so fitting for a journalist, don’t you think? And, he is a gay Christian man. Ryan shares his story with us of why he is still a Christian as a member of the LGBTQ community. This is a particularly-relevant conversation given the fact that this past summer, the governing body of his church denomination, the Synod of Christian Reformed Church of North America, declared that same sex marriage was a sin and made a number of other decisions to bring pressure against churches and church leaders who believe or practice otherwise.
This week co-host Jane Bruin shares her story about why she is still a Christian as an immigrant child from a Christian minority in Pakistan who immigrated to the United States. She shares her story of how her journey from Pakistan gave her experiences as a minority person in Senegal, Nigeria, and several locations within the United States. These experiences shaped her heart for others inside and outside the Christian faith to this day.
This week Reggie and Michelle talk about why they both have stayed Christians as African American people. Christianity was used to justify slavery and white Christians have contributed to the oppression of African Americans up until the present day. However, the Black Church has been a place of sanctuary, strength and strategizing for the Black community through its entire existence. Reggie and Michelle talk about this provocative topic through stories of their lives in today’s episode.
This week, we have invited Mark Charles to the Antioch Podcast as part of our series “Why I Am Still A Christian” to talk about why he is still a Christian as a Native American person who is an expert on the impact of Christian theology on the Indigenous people of the Americas. Mark is a journalist and co-author of Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery along with Soong Chan-Rah. He was an independent candidate for President of the United States in 2020 and a public theologian speaking on topics pertaining to Native American issues, racial justice and other social issues. His theological insights and ideas push Christians to reconsider things they are comfortable with to take a second look at what scripture really says. It is because of these thoughts that Mark is a regular guest on the Antioch Podcast – sharing his ongoing theological questions with us. This is the reason that we invite him back again and again as he processes with us the questions that give him pause.
We have been in a series called, “Why I am a Christian” or more specifically, “Why as a _________ “fill in the blank identity” am I still a Christian.” It is a question a lot of people get asked, because Christians have done some harm historically, and recently in the world. We don’t have a great reputation in some circles.
So this week it is Eric’s turn to share why he as a white person is still a Christian. As he says in the podcast, “To be honest, I don’t have to think about my identity as a white person a lot, and it took me a bit to reflect on it.” But reflect he did, taking time to talk about whiteness, the desire to distance himself from discomfort in conversations about race, and how both faith and church hurt have impacted his antiracism journey.
Bing Goei is a prominent Asian American business leader, politician, and faith leader within the Christian Reformed Church, in the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan where the Antioch Podcast is produced. Bing shares his story of immigrating to the United States, and how his faith has been a foundational part of his identity driving his career to not just make his own way, but also to start diversity initiatives in civic, business and faith spaces alike. Some would say that strictly statistically-speaking, it would be unlikely for Bing to be a Christian, having been born in a majority-Muslim country. After a lengthy immigration journey, he faced difficulties and prejudices – many times even from other Christians – as the “first” or “only” person of color in most spaces he occupied throughout his life. But he found his voice and kept his faith, and has had a profound, decades-long impact on the Kent County and the Grand Rapids community in several areas as a faithful servant of God.
In this vulnerable and powerful episode we hear Susie’s heart and her passion to love everyone, no matter who they are. Susie opens up at a deep level about her journey of faith as a Latina woman who was raised Catholic and for many years felt alienated from the church. It is remarkable that Susie has kept the faith. She challenges us all to examine the shaping of our faith, to embody love, to be the church, and to remove the harmful effects of White Male centered religious authority. This is an episode that you will definitely want to hear.
In this week’s episode, the women of the Antioch Podcast enjoy reconnecting after their Christmas break and also kick off a new series called “Why as a _____ (fill in the blank) Am I Still a Christain?”. They talk about the inspiration for the series growing out of the team’s last strategic planning retreat. At that retreat and in this episode the co-hosts talk about why it is important for the podcast to be authentically Christian AND a welcoming space for all. They introduce the series with their personal stories of how their Christian faith has shaped them and influenced their anti-racism journey.
We are a diverse group of Christian antiracism educators and friends who gather every week to share stories of our lives, which some of the time has to do directly with our experiences as antiracism educators. We also are whole people – people who enjoy telling stories. So this week, we thought we would gather to share some goodhearted storytelling about our memories of Christmas – some sentimental, some silly, and some … well, you will see.
The World Cup is perhaps the most-watched sporting event around the globe. And like most sporting events, the World Cup is not without its controversies. Our team of Christian antiracism educators and friends took some time to talk about the World Cup in Qatar, and how we are thinking about some of these controversies through the lens of Christianity.
We’ve spent the past couple of episodes talking about antiracism journeys. This week we invited John Williams back to the Antioch Podcast to share his story with us about what brought him as a young man from the east coast of the United States clear across the country to the west coast – a literal cross-country journey – in pursuit of antiracism. John shares with us what inspired him three decades ago, and what still keeps him going today, pursuing antiracism as a way of living out his faith.
CREDITS:
Dr. Perkins: The Quiet Revolution
Brenda Salter McNeil – Becoming Brave
Dr. Chanequa Walker-Barnes – I Bring the Voices of my People
Last episode we started talking about our antiracism journeys and it got us thinking … sometimes being on an actual journey, like a trip, a vacation, or just traveling somewhere outside our familiar surrounding has impacted our antiracism journey. Seeing life in a new place, comparing our lived experience with the experience we have in a place less familiar, or imagining what it would have been like to have grown up in another culture, in another body, or in another time – these kinds of questions can move our thinking forward in ways nothing else can.
So our multiracial team of antiracism educators and friends sat down and to talk about how moments during our trips and travels have impacted our antiracism journeys over the years.
The Antioch Podcast is a team of Christian antiracism educators who are friends that sit down together each week to have a conversation about Biblical antiracism. It has been a while, however, since we have chatted together about how each of us got started on this journey, so we thought we would take today’s episode to do just that. So four of our regular co-hosts joined friend of the podcast John Williams to talk about what got us started on our antiracism journey … and what we’ve been learning since those starting points.
