We talked with pastor and author David Swanson about the work he and his church have done in Chicago to respond to the presence of ICE in their neighborhoods: bearing witness to violence and terror, calling for repentance, and seeking to nonviolently resist physical attacks on Christians and clergy, the lawlessness of federal agents, MAGA's politics of death, and the overt racism of our president's mass deportation agenda.

David Swanson is the founding pastor of New Community Covenant Church and the founder and CEO of New Community Outreach, a non-profit organization dedicated to healing community trauma through restorative practices. He has written Rediscipling the White Church: From Cheap Diversity to True Solidarity and Plundered: The Tangled Roots of Racial and Environmental Injustice. David lives with his family on the South Side of Chicago. He keeps track of what he’s reading here and on most Tuesday mornings you’ll find him wandering around Jackson Park looking for birds.

Connect with Gravity Commons:

• Leave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.
• Join the Gravity Community to interact with other listeners, and get our list of curated links each week to all things edifying and interesting.

We talked with Dr. Yolanda Pierce about what we do with our wounds - our own, others', and a nation's? In her book The Wounds Are the Witness, Pierce weaves together her own memories, vignettes from Black life, and scenes from scripture, especially the passion of Christ to create an indelible meditation on Black faith, suffering, hope, and the healing possibilities of justice.

Yolanda Pierce is a professor and Dean of Vanderbilt University Divinity School. She is a scholar of African American religious history, womanist theology, and religion and literature, as well as a public theologian, columnist, and activist. She is the author of the books Hell Without Fires, In My Grandmother's House, and The Wounds Are the Witness.You can connect with Yolanda on her website: yolandapierce.com.

Connect with Gravity Commons:

• Leave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.
• Join the Gravity Community to interact with other listeners, and get our list of curated links each week to all things edifying and interesting.

Christy and Ben talk about all things Epiphany: how it fits in the liturgical calendar, what it means, and a few ways you can celebrate: chalking your door, making a king cake, and turning your Christmas tree into a cross.

Show notes & links:

• Door chalking liturgy
• King Cake recipe
• Photo of Christmas tree cross

Connect with Gravity Commons:

• Leave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.
• Join the Gravity Community to interact with other listeners, and get our list of curated links each week to all things edifying and interesting.