Seminary professors, pastors, and faithful activists: all of these leaders are doing theology at the intersection of race and Christian faith. If you are a person of color, maybe you’ll discover some new conversation partners in this list, who center experiences you know deeply.
If you are a white church leader trying to listen to black voices about faith, theology, and leading in ministry because you know it will change how you preach, teach and lead, this list is a starting place. Compensate them for their labor on Patreon. Buy their books. Remember that you are not their primary audience, but it is a privilege to listen in.
For Collared Girls Laura Kigweba James (M.Div., Wesley Theological Seminary) and Tamika Jancewicz (completing her M.Div. with internship, United Lutheran Seminary) are womanist theologians clear about their audience of womyn of color. Now on Season 3, named “Black Womyn Canon,” their conversation offers spiritual community for their primary audience and a glimpse of the depth of their relational theology for those who are not.
Freedom Road Lisa Sharon Harper, former chief church engagement officer of Sojourners, writer, speaker, senior fellow at Auburn Seminary and consultant, hosts this podcast as part of her Freedom Road consultant group’s mission to tell the untold stories and close the Narrative Gap, a phrase Harper coined. She discusses controversial and deeply vulnerable issues that are used to marginalize people from a faith perspective with experts in their fields.
InVerse Dr. Drew G. I. Hart is an assistant professor of theology at Messiah College with a PhD from Lutheran Theological Seminary and a church anti-racism trainer. He co-hosts this podcast with Pastor Jarod McKenna of Cornerstone Church in Perth, Australia, who founded the First Home Project working with people who are housing insecure in Australia. Topics in the 3 seasons range widely, and they bring in guests regularly. Here’s a sample: A Climate Scientist & An Indigenous Biblical Scholar Walk into Romans 8; #BLM & ‘A Hidden Life’ w Brian Zahnd and John Dear; This Muslim Thinks You Got Jesus Wrong (Or COVID-19 & the Problem with Talents with with Akram Azimi). Dr. Hart is the author of a spiritual memoir Trouble I’ve Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism (2016) and Who Will Be a Witness: Igniting Activism for God’s Justice, Love, and Deliverance (2020).
Pass the Mic Pastor Tyler Burns of New Dimensions Christian Center in Pensacola, Florida, and Jemar Tisby, an historian and writer with an M. Div. degree, have co-hosted this podcast for five years. It is the premier podcast of The Witness: A Black Christian Collective and covers a lot of ground. These Evangelical black leaders interpret a wide range of current events for a black Christian audience. Jemar Tisby’s 2019 book The Color of Compromise: The Truth About the American Church’s Complicity in Racism is an entire history course, theological and thoroughly readable. They were recently interviewed by RNS.
Reclaiming My Theology Brandi Miller is a campus minister, former Op-Ed columnist for Huffington Post, and outspoken activist on race and faith on social media. In this first season of a brand new podcast, Miller leads the listener in reclaiming our theology from white supremacy. Her stated plan is to expand each season to address another system of oppression, untangling in conversation with guests, the ideas and structures at the heart of white supremacy, patriarchy and misogyny, capitalism, homophobia, ableism and more.
