Loft Gathering: Learning to Love Ourselves, Regardless
The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Release Date: 01/22/2024
Israel, Palestine, & College Encampments Part 2
The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
The protests to the war in Gaza taking place on college campuses around the world remind us that students are often the conscious of our society. In part 2 of our episode discussing the war in Gaza, we focus on what is happening in Westwood California, where our church and the Univeristy of California, Los Angeles is located.
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Israel, Palestine, & College Encampments Part 1
The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
The suffering and violence that is taking place in Gaza is unconscionable. According to the United Nations, at least 34,560 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and 77,765 injured; nearly all of the 600,000 children now sheltering in the southern border city of Rafah are injured, sick, or malnourished. In part 1 of our episode discussing the war, we examine Rev. Dr. Carter’s suggestion that non-violent resistance that includes divestment is the appropriate progressive Christian response.
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Loft Gathering: Inner Peace & The Spiritual Practice of Saying No
The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Saying “yes” rather than “no” to an invitation is much easier. A part of the pleasure of saying yes is knowing that someone wants you and wants to be in relationship with you in some way. To be sure, the spiritual practice of saying no is difficult. And yet, given the busyness of contemporary life, a “holy no” may be precisely what we need. Jesus encourages his followers to “stop worrying about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself.” What if the path towards inner peace is more about removing, rather than adding, things to our lives and spiritual practices?
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Violence Will Not Save Us
The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Television, film, Hollywood, and popular culture tell us that vigilante heroism is necessary to save us from ourselves. But is this true? In this episode, we discuss the myth of redemptive violence and our personal struggles with the effectiveness of nonviolent resistance.
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Loft Gathering: Waging Peace: Israel, Palestine, and the Roots of War
The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
The roots of war and conflict are apparent in how we are socialized to live our daily lives. American political and economic policies and our social imagination of the “other” entice us into a zero-sum game where mutual flourishing feels impossible. This way of thinking is inconsistent with the spiritual path of Jesus and his disciples. Instead, we are invited to wage peace within ourselves and between each other because peace and justice are inextricably linked.
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Loft Gathering: Childhood Lessons on Love & Peace
The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
In her book All About Love, bell hooks writes that we ought to “view our homes as our original school of love.” Love is essential for cultivating peace, so how might we intentionally teach it in our homes? How might we reimagine our church community as a school of love? What would it look like to teach young people how to cultivate the will and the courage to love, how to extend themselves to nurture their own or another’s spiritual growth? To help us answer these questions, we will be joined by , whose most recent book, , is a children’s book whose story offers some...
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Loft Gathering: Peace with the Earth
The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Though our culture tends to teach and practice an approach to the natural world that seeks to control, tame, and extract resources, Jesus’ teaching suggests a different way: he asks us to “consider the lilies,” and learn from the birds. The Gospel beckons us toward a mutuality with the earth, honoring the integrity of creation.
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Loft Gathering: Peace & The Myth of Redemptive Violence
The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
There is something inside all of us that longs for security, stability, and peace. However, human history reveals that we tend to try to meet this longing through coercion and force. This tendency has led us to view violence as a tool for peace rather than an obstacle that prevents peace. The spiritual path of Jesus reveals to us a pathway to peace beyond the myth that violence has the power to redeem or save us. Even after his own death, Jesus still whispers peace—and not once, but over and over again, speaking directly to the fears and insecurities that arise when choosing peace over...
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Tell Me The Truth, Not Just What I Want To Hear
The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
What role might friendships play in our spiritual growth and formation? In this episode, we explore how mature friendships can help us see the truth of who we are - even, and especially, when the truth hurts.
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Loft Gathering: Falling Upward
The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Among all of Jesus’ disciples, Peter’s spiritual pilgrimage is a good example of what it means to fall upward. Just before Jesus ascension into heaven, he finds Peter at the shoreline, casting his nets yet again. He turns to Peter and asks three times, “Do you love me?” as if each answer washes away Peter’s earlier three denials. To be sure, no matter how far we wander off our path during our spiritual pilgrimage, no matter if our faith is strong or weak, what we can give is our love. Conversation Question – Are you able to name one or two people who have been a true mirror for...
info_outlineThe foundational spiritual practice within Christianity is our commitment to love God, our neighbor, and ourselves, “all the law and the prophets rest on these commands,” according to Jesus. But truly loving ourselves is often easier said than done. Radical self-love asks us to let go of our doubts about our worthiness for love and embrace the Divine command to see the image of God in ourselves and others.
Conversation Question: Recall a time when someone chose not to try to understand your experience of a situation. What psychological and/or social impact did this experience have on you?