Click on the titles to jump to the recordings of

  1. Jonathan Sacks’s book Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times
  2. Kristin Kobes Du Mez’s book Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation,
  3. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s book The Black Church: This is Our Story, This is our Song
  4. Elaine Pagels’s book Revelations: Vision, Prophecy, & Politics in the Book of Revelation
  5. Craig R. Koester’s Great Courses video lectures titled Apocalypse: Controversies and Meaning in Western History
  6. Peniel Joseph’s book The Third Reconstruction: America’s Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-First Century
  7. The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story, edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones
  8. Dina Gilio-Whitaker’s book As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock
  9. Richard Rothstein’s book The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
  10. Peter Enns’s book The Sin of Certainty: Why God Desires Our Trust More than Our “Correct” Beliefs
  11. Christian Applications Members’ project “Investing in Historically Black Colleges and Universities”, an opinion piece in support of funding HBCUs
  12. Amy-Jill Levine’ book short stories by jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi
The links to recordings of some other, earlier discussions are:

June 26, 2022 - “Why the past 10 years of American life have been uniquely stupid ”, “Is Everything Falling Apart?”, and the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v Wade and of New York’s gun law
July 10, 2022 - Potential books for fall and the TED talk by Yuval Noah Harari called “Bananas in Heaven”
July 17, 2022 - Potential books for fall and the TED talk by Joan C. Williams “We won’t fix American politics until we talk about class”
July 24, 2022 - Potential books for fall, videos by William Lazonick, and the TED talk by Yasmin Abdel-Magied about “What Does My Headscarf Mean to You?” >
July 31, 2022 - The TED talk by Rev. Walter Mwambazi on “ 5 Major Reasons Religion Is the No. 1 Cause of Poverty in Africa” and our discussion of it

The following videos are all about Jonathan Sacks’s book Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times.

Introduction:

The next set of videos are from discussions of the book Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez.

The next set of videos are from discussions of the book The Black Church by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

The next set of videos are from discussions of the book Revelations: Vision, Prophecy, & Politics in the Book of Revelation by Elaine Pagels

The next set of videos are from discussions of the Great Courses video lectures Apocalypse: Controversies and Meaning in Western History by Craig R. Koester.

Lesson Topic
6 God, the Lamb, and the Seven Seals
7 Seven Trumpets, Temple, and Celebration
8 The Dragon and the Problem of Evil
9 The Beasts and Evil in the Political Sphere
10 The Harlot and the Imperial Economy
11 The Battle, the Kingdom, and Last Judgment
12 New Creation and New Jerusalem
23 Rapture, Tribulation, and Armageddon
24 The Modern Apocalyptic Renaissance

The next set of videos are from discussions of the book The Third Reconstruction: America’s Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-First Century

The next set of videos are from discussions of book The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story, edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones

The next set of videos are from discussions of book Dina Gilio-Whitaker’s book As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock

Date Chapter Pages Title Leader
May 26, 2024 Introduction 1-17 The Standing Rock Saga (Click here for video) Mary Jane
June 2, 2024 Chapter 1 15-33 Environmental Justice Theory and Its Limitations
for Indigenous Peoples (Click here for video) 		Al
June 9, 2024 Chapter 2 35-52 Gemocide by Any Other Name (Click here for video) David
June 16, 2024 Chapter 3 53-72 The Complicated Legacy of Western Expansion
and the Industrial Revolution (No video available) 		Jack
June 23, 2024 Chapter 4 73-90 Food Is Medicine, Water Is Life (Click here for video) Gail
June 30, 2024 Chapter 6 111-127 Hearts Not on the Ground (Click here for video) Patsy
July 7, 2024 Chapter 5 91-110 (No So) Strange Bedfellows (Click here for video) Caroline
Sept 8, 2024 Chapter 7 129-145 Sacred Sites and Environmental Justice (Click here for video) David
Sep 15, 2024 Chapter 8 147-162 Ways Forward for Environmental Justice in Indian Country Al

The next set of videos are from discussions of Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America

Date Chapter Page Leader
Sept 29, 2024 Preface & 1. If San Francisco, Then Everywhere? vii and 3 David
Oct 6 2. Public Housing, Black Ghettos - Part 1 I7 Al
Oct 13 2. Public Housing, Black Ghettos - Part 2 I7 Al
Oct 20 3. Racial Zoning 39 Jack
Oct 27 4. "Own Your Own Home" 59 Patsy
Nov 3 5. Private Agreements, Government Enforcement 77 David
Nov 10 6. White Flight 93 Al
Nov 17 7. IRS Support and Compliant Regulators 101 Gail
Nov 24 8. Local Tactics 115 Jack
Dec 1 Thanksgiving weekend recess
Dec 8 9. State-Sanctioned Violence 139 Mary Jane
Dec 15 10. Suppressed Incomes 153 Al
Dec 22 11. Looking Forward, Looking Back 177 Patsy
Dec 29 Christmas & New Years recess
Jan 5, 2025 12. Considering Fixes & Epilogue 195 Caroline

The next set of videos are from discussions of book Peter Enns’s book The Sin of Certainty: Why God Desires Our Trust More than Our “Correct” Beliefs

During winter and spring of 2025, following our discussion of Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law. members of the Christian Application class wrote an opinion piece “Investing in Historically Black Colleges and Universities”, an opinion piece in support of funding HBCUs Here is the history of our discussions. Click on the date and subject to watch a video.

January 12, 2025 - First discussion of writing an opinion piece in support of funding HBCUs
February 2, 2025 - Continued discussion of writing an opinion piece in support of funding HBCUs
February 9, 2025 - Continued discussion of writing an opinion piece in support of funding HBCUs
February 16, 2025 - Continued discussion of writing an opinion piece in support of funding HBCUs
February 23, 2025 - Discussion of essay outline
March 2, 2025 - Discussion of second outline for essay
March 16, 2025 - What are the arguments we need to make?
March 23, 2025 - Continuing discussion of what themes do we need to emphasize
March 30, 2025 - Reading and editing the latest draft
April 6, 2025 - Focussing on the point of each paragraph
April 13, 2025 - Discussing a draft for the Washington Post
April 27, 2025 - Editing the draft for the Washington Post
May 4, 2025 - Reviewing the final draft for the Washington Post
May 11, 2025 - Discussion of topics for our future studies
June 1, 2025 - Discussion of revisions to Op/Ed after rejection by the Washington Post

The next set of videos are from discussions of Amy-Jill Levine’s book short stories by jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi

On 18 May, 2024, we had a special session where Jack told us about 1619: Jamestown and the forging of American Democracy by James Horn. An interesting discussion followed at the end. You can see the recording of our discussions here. David pointed out that Horn gave a lecture on this topic in 2018 and it can be seen on-line at the web site of the Virginia Museum of History & uluture.