Activist and author Brian McLaren caps the eighth season of the New Way podcast
by Paul Seebeck | Presbyterian News Service
LOUISVILLE — Season eight of the New Way podcast from 1001 New Worshiping Communities finishes off with a distinguished guest, the Rev. Dr. Brian McLaren, who tells host the Rev. Sara Hayden what strikes him most about his tribe is that there is almost no self-examination about the history of slavery in the United States.
The Rev. Dr. Brian McLaren
“It’s as if that episode in history never happened,” he said. “We’re seeing the fruit of a really terrible period of amnesia where we use the Bible to justify one of the most horrific atrocities in all of human history: chattel slavery.”
McLaren grew up fundamentalist, evangelical and Pentecostal. The former pastor and college English professor is now a thinker and activist who’s written more than a dozen books.
The Rev. Sara Hayden
In the first part of the conversation, McLaren discusses whether the church, in Hayden’s words, “will have the will to follow the way of Jesus bravely into the future in light of the present circumstances in our lives.”
“We talk about being brave and the spiritual practices that sustain bravery,” Hayden said.
McLaren also unpacks his view that Christianity is best understood as story and not a system, and how that understanding could make a difference in our institutions, communities and personal lives.
The first episode of this conversation is set to be released Friday, May 27. Part two of the conversation will be available on June 3.
As they’re released, you can listen to Hayden’s conversations with McLaren here.
Join nearly 10,000 others by subscribing to the New Way podcast via Spotify, GooglePlay, Stitcher or Apple so that you don’t miss an episode.
The New Way podcast is produced by Atlanta-based artist and pastor the Rev. Marthame Sanders, who also hosts the weekly podcast Aijcast, which is part of the 1001 New Worshiping Communities movement.
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