Weekly Witness Ep.510 A Journey in Faith with Rev. Jody Harrison
Texas Impact's Weekly Witness
This week, Scott was joined by Rev. Jody Harrison, a Baptist minister, member of the Baptist Women in Ministry Board, and a former chaplain and Capitol staffer. Jody is a member of several Texas Impact teams as well as a veteran of numerous political campaigns. Jody joined the pod for a fascinating conversation about her path from policy and campaign staffer to Baptist minister, reflecting on both her faith and policy journey. As a leader in the fight against Christian Nationalism, she discussed her advocacy work in the public education and reproductive health spaces and talked about how...
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Weekly Witness Ep.509 A Life of Faithful Advocacy with Mel Caraway
Texas Impact's Weekly Witness
This week, Scott was joined by Rev. Mel Caraway, a retired United Methodist pastor and long-time Texas Impact Board Member. Mel is a leader in the faith-based climate advocacy space at the denominational level and international level as a long-time COP attendee. Rev. Caraway joined the conversation to talk about his faith journey and how climate advocacy became his area of focus. He also talked about the work listeners could take to engage their community and congregation in effective climate work—a perfect conversation for this Earth Day. We hope you enjoy this episode and...
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Weekly Witness Ep.508 Pluralism and Faithful Dialogues with Almas Muscatwalla
Texas Impact's Weekly Witness
This week, Scott was joined by Almas Muscatwalla, co-founder of Faith Forward Dallas at Thanksgiving Square. Almas provides leadership in a number of North Texas faith spaces and is a leader in encouraging pluralism and interfaith dialogue. Almas talked about her Ismaili Muslim faith tradition and how it encourages a commitment to community. She also discussed challenges facing our communities in our current political climate. She challenged listeners to work to connect with those with whom we disagree, even discussing a recent encounter with a January 6 leader at the Dallas No...
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Weekly Witness Ep.507 Ramadan Reflections with Imaad Khan
Texas Impact's Weekly Witness
This week, Scott was joined by Imaad Khan, a former policy analyst with Texas Impact who made numerous appearances back in the early days of the podcast. Imaad talked about his faith and advocacy journey pre-Texas Impact, including how his faith and family shaped his desire to study and work in the public policy space. He also offered reflections on his work post-Texas Impact and how he views our current challenges here in Texas and throughout the world through his faith lens. This conversation was well-timed, because the three major Abrahamic faith traditions (Christianity, Judaism, and...
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Weekly Witness Ep.506 Faithful Witness in Rural Texas with Rev. Trent Ormsbee-Hale
Texas Impact's Weekly Witness
This week, Scott was joined by Rev. Trent Ormsbee-Hale, pastor of Messiah Lutheran Church in Weatherford, TX. For long-time listeners, that congregation might be familiar, because he served with and then followed Texas Impact’s past Board President, Rev. Franz Schemmel as the pastor upon Franz’s retirement. Scott and Trent reminisced on their shared history. Scott knew Trent and his husband Anthony while they were undergraduate students. At that time, Trent was discerning his journey in ministry, coming out of a Fransiscan background in a journey that led him to now serving as an...
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Weekly Witness Ep.505 “Are You With Us?” with Robert Rivera
Texas Impact's Weekly Witness
This season on Weekly Witness, we are highlighting faith leaders who advocate for justice and equity. Our conversation this week is a great reminder that “faith leader” does not always mean “clergy.” As a lay-person, Robert Rivera has been a leading faith voice in the communities he has served, including in high levels of leadership with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and as the Director of the St. James Family Life Center in Houston. Robert is a leader in connecting our faith institutions with immigrant communities, where he has spent decades organizing. He is also a...
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Ep.504 Organizing in Texas with Rabbi Josh Fixler
Texas Impact's Weekly Witness
This week, Scott welcomes Rabbi Josh Fixler, associate rabbi at Congregation Emanu El in Houston to the conversation. Josh is a friend of the program—so much so, in fact that we had trouble narrowing down the conversation because Rabbi Fixler has a wide-ranging justice portfolio. We landed on Christian Nationalism and civic engagement, because Rabbi Fixler has extensive expertise in those areas, and both have been at the forefront of the policy conversation in Texas over the last few weeks. Christian Nationalism has been a leading factor in harmful public policies in the reproductive health...
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Ep.503 Showing Up with Rev. Mara Bim
Texas Impact's Weekly Witness
This week, Scott was joined by Rev. Mara Bim for a conversation about her faith journey and work in the immigration space. She is familiar to many in the Texas Impact audience as a longtime friend and advocate, and she was recently a featured speaker at the Texas United Women in Faith Legislative Event. Rev. Bim serves as the Justice and Advocacy Fellow at Royal Lane Baptist Church in Dallas and as a writer with . The timing for the conversation was great, because it was the same week as the event in Washington, D.C. Thousands of people faith marched on the U.S. Capitol for a...
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Weekly Witness Ep.502 "Do Your Thing" with Regina Q. Banks
Texas Impact's Weekly Witness
The Texas Impact team started the week with Bee and Rev. Dr. Becca discussing the scientific method and the idea that government officials can’t unilaterally repeal science following an announcement from the administration that they had "repealed a scientific finding." So, it seemed particularly well-timed (shall we call it divine?) that we had already scheduled Regina Banks to join the podcast for this week. For those of you who followed along with , you will remember that Regina Banks is the Director of the Lutheran Office of Public Policy-California. Regina is a leader in the ELCA...
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Ep. 501 Imagine Better with Phil Dieke
Texas Impact's Weekly Witness
Weekly Witness is back with a new look and a new sound, as well as new content. The Texas Impact team recognizes that this is a unique moment in history, and we believe it is especially important for people of faith to lead and engage. So, we want to use the podcast to highlight faith voices who are leading in the areas of justice and advocacy. We want to give them a platform to inform, inspire and motivate us in the long journey that lies ahead as we prepare for elections and the Texas Legislature returning to Austin next January. And, who better to kick off this new season of Weekly Witness...
info_outlineThis week, Scott was joined by Rev. Mara Bim for a conversation about her faith journey and work in the immigration space. She is familiar to many in the Texas Impact audience as a longtime friend and advocate, and she was recently a featured speaker at the Texas United Women in Faith Legislative Event. Rev. Bim serves as the Justice and Advocacy Fellow at Royal Lane Baptist Church in Dallas and as a writer with Baptist News Global.
The timing for the conversation was great, because it was the same week as the Faithful Resistance: A Public Witness for Immigrant Justice event in Washington, D.C. Thousands of people faith marched on the U.S. Capitol for a rally and for legislative visits, after a moving morning of worship with a powerful sermon by United Methodist Bishop Latrelle Easterling. (Event resources to stay engaged are linked at the bottom of this page)
If you want to get involved in Texas, check out Texas Impact’s Action Center, and consider signing up to get involved. If you are particularly interested in immigration advocacy, consider joining the Immigration Action Team.
We hope you like the new format. If so, make sure to subscribe, like and share the content with your networks.
Weekly Witness is hosted by Scott Atnip and engineered and produced by David Vassallo. Our executive producer is Bee Moorhead. Theme music by Kimberly Zielnicki, Hayden Havard and Andres Garcia-Bonilla. The opinions expressed on Weekly Witness are those of Texas Impact and our guests, and they do not necessarily reflect the views of our sponsors. Weekly Witness is a product of Texas Impact. Visit us online at texasimpact.org.