Claim OwnershipThe Word Is Resistance
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From January 2017 to December 2023, “The Word Is Resistance” was a weekly podcast from SURJ-Faith by white anti-racist Christians based on the Christian lectionary, offering an anti-racist Word for other white Christians -- though all are welcome to check it out. We are pleased to keep this incredible resource alive here as an ongoing resource to help us all get free.
What do our sacred texts have to teach us about living, surviving, even thriving, in the context of empire, tyranny, violence, repression - the times in which we are living today? What do they have to teach us, as white Christians, about our role in resistance, in showing up, in liberation? They teach us this:
Our traditions were made for these times. They come from these times. So we have resources in our texts, our practices, to help us right now. We can reclaim our stories and re-tell them to nourish our resistance against white supremacy and our work for collective liberation.
What do our sacred texts have to teach us about living, surviving, even thriving, in the context of empire, tyranny, violence, repression - the times in which we are living today? What do they have to teach us, as white Christians, about our role in resistance, in showing up, in liberation? They teach us this:
Our traditions were made for these times. They come from these times. So we have resources in our texts, our practices, to help us right now. We can reclaim our stories and re-tell them to nourish our resistance against white supremacy and our work for collective liberation.
321 Episodes
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In this Easter episode, join Rev. Liz Kearny, Rev. Anne Dunlap, and Rev. Brigitta Vieyra as they witness Mary Magdalene's grief, and find life-giving currents of intimacy, waiting, agency, and claiming in the movement of this story.
Transcript available here: https://bit.ly/TWARepisodes
On this Good Friday, our hearts ache with Jesus and his community as they endure his arrest, interrogation and torture, and execution. Join Rev. Anne Dunlap, Dr. Sharon Fennema, and Rev. Liz Kearny as they keep tearful vigil through the Gospel of John's telling of this grievous story.
Transcript available here: https://bit.ly/TWARepisodes
This week, Jesus-the-organizer and his comrades enact a protest parade in opposition to Rome’s military procession happening on the other side of town, all during the feast of the Passover, when the Jewish people remember God’s liberating acts that brought them out of slavery in Egypt. Join Rev. Liz Kearny, Rev. Anne Dunlap, and Rev. Brigitta Vieyra as they join the crowd in this embodied act of liberation.
Transcript available here: https://bit.ly/TWARepisodes
This week we encounter yet another passage from John (11:1-45) where water and bodies play a central role, this time the water of tears and the dead body of Lazarus and the grieving bodies of Mary, Martha, Jesus, and the community gathered around them. Join Rev. Anne Dunlap, Rev. Liz Kearny, and Dr. Sharon Fennema as they consider the ways that resurrection and grief are inseparable and how God loves us, our real physical bodies, like water.
Transcripts available here: https://bit.ly/TWARepisodes
The 9th chapter of the Gospel of John is full of questions. What kinds of questions continue harm? What kinds of questions will get us free? Join Rev. Liz Kearny, Dr. Sharon Fennema, and Rev. Anne Dunlap as they wrestle with these questions, and wonder together how this story of a blind man receiving his sight can help us build a world where Every. Body. is met with care and dignity. In honor and heartbreak for the life of Nurul Amin Shah Alam.
Transcript available here: https://bit.ly/TWARepisodes
In this week's text, Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, and they are both transformed in the course of their rather intimate conversation. Join Dr. Sharon Fennema, Rev. Anne Dunlap, and Rev. Liz Kearny as they navigate the many layers of lineages of Jacob's well and the waters of life.
Transcript available here: bit.ly/TWARepisodes
This week we get to eavesdrop on the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus about what a life moving toward kindom-making looks like. We’re reminded that logos, usually translated as “word,” actually means something more like “conversation,” so here we recognize Jesus/the Conversation-made-flesh doing what Jesus does best - engaging beloveds in deepening their understanding and widening their love. Join Rev. Liz Kearny, Rev. Anne Dunlap, and Dr. Sharon Fennema in this episode that covers everything from word nerdery to camp to oceans of love.
Transcript available here: bit.ly/TWARepisodes
We're back! Join us for this special series for Lent 2026, on the gospel texts for Year A. In this episode, Rev. Liz Kearny, Rev. Anne Dunlap, and Dr. Sharon Fennema meet Jesus at the end of his 40 day wilderness journey, famished, not long after he has been baptized by John in the Jordan River, and go deep talking about the Son of God, the "diabolos," and temptations that tear us apart.
Transcript available here: https://bit.ly/TWARepisodes
This live recording of Dr. Vincent Harding’s song for the freedom movement is of a multi-racial “movement choir practice” in Denver, CO in December 2014, being led by Minister Daryl J. Walker. We are deeply grateful to the Freeney-Harding family for letting us use the song for this podcast.
This song has been the theme song of our podcast since the beginning. Enjoy it now in its entirety.
Lyrics:
1 - We are building up a new world (3x)
Builders must be strong.
2 - Courage, sisters, don't get weary,
courage, brothers, don't get weary.
Courage, people, don't get weary,
though the way be long.
3 - Rise, shine, give God glory (3x)
Children of the light!
As "The Word Is Resistance" comes to completion, enjoy this final episode from Rev. Anne Dunlap, which includes brief reflections on the Magnificat and highlights offerings from 2 of our long-time listeners. Much gratitude for your presence with us over these 7 years!
Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/
As "The Word Is Resistance" podcast comes to completion, we are wrapping up with 4 special "Parting Gift" episodes. For this episode, enjoy a group conversation with Liz Kearny, Jean Jeffress, and Brigitta Vieyra, hosted by Anne Dunlap, as they reflect on how the podcast has changed them and what parting gifts they hope listeners take with them as we all go home by another way.
Transcript available here: surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir
As "The Word Is Resistance" podcast comes to completion, we are wrapping up with 4 special "Parting Gift" episodes. For this episode, enjoy a group conversation with M Jade Kaiser and Sharon Fennema, hosted by Anne Dunlap, as they reflect on their how the podcast has changed them and what parting gifts they hope listeners take with them as we all go home by another way.
Transcript available here: surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir
As "The Word Is Resistance" podcast comes to completion, we are wrapping up with 4 special "Parting Gift" episodes. For this episode, enjoy a group conversation with OG contributors Rev. Anne Dunlap, Nichola Torbett, and Rev. Margaret Ernst, as they reflect on their how the podcast has changed them and what parting gifts they hope listeners take with them as we all go home by another way.
Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/
Paul is writing to his dear ones in Thessalonica about how to keep up their resistance under Roman occupation. Spoiler alert: This work involves 1) debunking the lie empire tells them (us) about “peace and security” while 2) depending on the beloveds around them (us) to fight off the numbing spell of this lie so we can keep resisting together. Tune in for this episode with Rev. Liz Kearny to explore the connections between the themes of this text, the toxic theology of Christian Zionism fueling so much of the violence of this moment, and our role as white Christians in taking action to stop the genocide unfolding in Gaza.
Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/
In this episode, Rev. M Jade Kaiser wonders what it means to spiritually prepare individually and collectively for both times of disaster and openings of freedom. What wise or foolish actions or non-actions are we taking in the present that will serve us come what may - tomorrow, next year, or generations to come?
Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/
Join Rev. Anne Dunlap and Rev. Liz Kearny for a conversation about facing, embracing, wrestling with, and healing our lineages as white folx who seek to build up a new world. As we observe All Saints Day, where are the places of trauma in the stories of our own ancestors? What did they give up to assimilate into whiteness? Where did they show us how to resist oppression? With grounding in the lectionary's psalms for this day (1 and 90), how might we follow the path to the water that will impact the generations coming after us?
Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/
In a world that wants to force us into either/or thinking, wants to push us to choose - with us or against us - Dr. Sharon Fennema explores Jesus' invitation to discern our callings beyond the binaries. Join in lamenting all that we have given over to Caesar, and in imagining what it would look like to give ourselves and our world over to Love.
Transcript available here: surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/
Rev. Liz Kearny was in Italy this month on a family trip and recorded these reflections from her hotel room in Rome after touring the Colosseum. After witnessing these remains of Rome’s death machinery, Rev. Liz wanted to share some #WrestlingWithRomans bonus content as she connects what she saw at the Colosseum with what we’ve been learning together in this series on Paul’s anti-empire missive to Gentile Christians.
Transcript available here: https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/
Paul doesn't shy away from practical matters in his letter to the Romans and this week's episode takes a look at his admonitions against letting differences divide us. Dr. Sharon Fennema explores contemporary and historical examples of the ways solidarity is a threat to empire and asks what these have to show us about resisting "divide and conquer" tactics and building the kind of community we are called to create as kindom-makers and Jesus-followers.
Transcript available here: surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/
For our 300th episode, join Rev. Jean Jeffress as they wrestle with Romans 13:8-14. Paul is beginning to finalize his argument to the Roman Jesus-followers. He needs them to understand that what the love of Christ Jesus offers is belonging. And he really, really wants God's people to act like it.
https://surj.org/our-work/surj-faith/twir/
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