Racism is deeply rooted in the USA, and entwined with religion. Katharine Gerbner, author of Christian Slavery: Conversion and Race in the Protestant Atlantic World, helps uproot the attitudes and untwine the prejudices in the hope of finding a clear way forward. Katharine is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Minnesota.

Each week, Spirit In Action brings you stories of people living lives of fruitful service, of peace, community, compassion, creative action and progressive efforts. We will trace the spiritual roots that support and nourish them in their service. Above all, we will seek out Light, Love and Helping Hands, being shared between our many neighbors on this planet, hoping to inspire and encourage you to sink deep roots and produce sacred fruit in your own life.
Spirit In Action is an hour of interviews with those providing leadership in peace, justice and "good works", interspersed with relevant music. The theme music is "The Turning of the World" performed by Sara Thomsen (written by Ruth Pellham).
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Open Arms For Refugees
First Air Date
Leslie Davis is from Milwaukee, WI, where she is a psychologist for the state’s largest free medical clinic, providing services to principally undocumented immigrants. In 2019 Leslie Davis expanded her compassionate outreach by making 4 extended sojourns on the US-Mexican border, starting with the Dilley Detention Center in Texas, attempting to provide much-needed service from both her general energy and compassion, and also from her skills as a clinical psychologist.
A Life Less Throwaway
First Air Date
Tara Button is the founder of BuyMeOnce.com which helps connect people to durable, dependable, well-designed & built products, to live sustainably. Her new book is A Life Less Throwaway: The Lost Art of Buying for Life, and it provides a wealth of info & exercises to help people find the optimal material life for themselves.
Past/current religious/spiritual influences:
Catholic, Sunday Assembly
A Primer in Nonviolent Communication
First Air Date
How we communicate frequently makes all the difference between war/peace, connection/division, and safety/danger, and a very strong tool for effective, compassionate, dialogue is Nonviolent Communication (NVC). Claire Bates has been passionate about learning and teaching NVC since 2013, teaching people how to live well with others.
Wise Energy & Electric Cars
First Air Date
Bob Bruninga is near the end of his work as an aerospace engineer at the US Naval Academy and is passionate about electric cars and solar energy. He built his first electric car way back in 1970, led his neighborhood’s implimentation of alternative energy, and helped Annapolis Friends Meeting in their installation of net zero energy solar panels.
Preventing the Next Genocide
First Air Date
In 2017 David Bucura became overall coordinator for AGLI (African Great Lakes Initiative) of Friends Peace Teams, working on peace and reconciliation in the nations of that region: Rwanda, Burundi, Congo (DRC), Kenya, Uganda, & Tanzania.
Rape Hurts Uganda
First Air Date
Hellen Lunkuse Waiswa Tanyinga is a women's (and human) rights pioneer in Uganda and the founder of the Rape Hurts Foundation. At the age of 11 she was raped while doing the tradtionally female job of hauling water, and she transformed that pain into healing & power for herself, women, and all abused people.
Biodegradable Plastic & Anthropocene Pastoral
First Air Date
There's excitement as science seeks ways back from the brink of climate disaster. Peterson Toscano of Citizens Climate Radio talkes with Dr. Michael L Curry & Dr.
Islam's Water of Life
First Air Date
Hayat Imam is an American-Muslim of Bangladeshi origin. She is a feminist-activist committed to building global social justice movements. Former Executive Director of the Boston Women’s Fund and Board Chair of Grassroots International, she is an active member of Mass Peace Action and Dorchester People for Peace.
Unwanted Children & Traumatized Foreign Boys
First Air Date
Will the issues every stop repeating themselves? Everything is not about the Bible, but a good share of everything is in the Bible, at least if you look with the discerning eyes of Peterson Toscano, a gay man who produces the monthly Citizen's Climate Radio blog, and Liam Hooper, a North Carolinian trans man of Ministries Beyond Welcome.