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Half a Gospel Is No Gospel at All: Liberation for the poor, resisted by the powerful

Why do churches resist justice? In this episode, Kristen digs into the roots of resistance in our faith communities, beginning with James Cone and the birth of Black Liberation Theology. Cone’s bold claim that the gospel must be interpreted from the perspective of the oppressed still unsettles churches today.

Through the voices of Howard Thurman, Gustavo Gutiérrez, Walter Brueggemann, Albert Raboteau, Susan Rakoczy, and Mae Elise Cannon, Kristen explores the themes of resistance that keep churches clinging to power, privilege, and control instead of embracing the costly call of discipleship.

You’ll hear about:

• James Cone and the radical center of Black Liberation Theology
• Thurman’s vision of Jesus with “the disinherited”
• Gutiérrez and the preferential option for the poor
• Brueggemann’s prophetic imagination against “royal consciousness”
• Raboteau’s witness of the invisible church in slavery
• Rakoczy’s call to a liberationist and feminist gospel
• Cannon’s challenge to evangelical compartmentalization of prayer, Scripture, and justice

Kristen also connects these threads to the resistance we see in today’s church, nationalism, patriarchy, and theologies that justify ignoring suffering, even starving children in Gaza. Against all these distortions, Scripture reminds us that God’s voice has always spoken clearest from the margins: through prophets, through Jesus, through the cross itself.

Reflection Invitation:
Where have you seen resistance in your own community? What theology shaped that resistance? And whose voices were missing in your discipleship? This week, sit with one voice you’ve never been taught in church, maybe Thurman, maybe Rakoczy, maybe Gutiérrez, and notice what resistance it stirs in you, and what new imagination it opens.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• God of the Oppressed by James Cone
• Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman
• A Theology of Liberation by Gustavo Gutiérrez
• The Prophetic Imagination by Walter Brueggemann
• Slave Religion and A Fire in the Bones by Albert Raboteau
• In Her Name by Susan Rakoczy
• Just Spirituality and Beyond Hashtag Activism by Mae Elise Cannon

Because costly faith always starts with listening to the voices we’ve been told to ignore.

If you find hope and challenge here, help grow this community by liking, sharing, and leaving a review so more people can join us in pursuing justice and Jesus together.

RESOURCES:

www.kristenannette.com

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