KTF Press

Can you talk to your Christian friends about politics?

"It made people suffer." wants all voters, and especially second or third generation immigrant voters, to know that your vote for president matters this November. Presidents have enormous authority to set an immigration agenda that can really hurt people. "Things got way worse in very practical, specific ways under Trump."

Our latest episode of Shake the Dust: MAGA vs. the Church on Immigration with Robert Chao Romero. Listen now wherever you get podcasts.

If Jesus said, “my kingdom is not of this world”, why do Christian Nationalists preach that the United States is God’s Country? It's because it's not actually Christian at all. The mission, vision, goals and desired outcomes are substantively different and opposition to the shalom that God intended. We pray that followers of Jesus bear witness in a way that leaves the world curious about our Christ and a desire to be more kind.

This week was alot...here are some highlights y'all:

- Conservatives Use Olympics misinformation to push an anti-trans agenda
- Praying for International Politics instead of centering America
- What we can learn from the history of mental health treatment
- Cori Bush loses a primary race after AIPAC spends millions
- And stay grounded with some reflections on James Baldwin’s 100th birthday
https://www.ktfpress.com/p/ousting-cori-bush-olympic-transphobia KTF Press

Ousting Cori Bush, Olympic Transphobia, Holistic Mental Health Plus, some thoughts on Baldwin's 100th Birthday

Are you applying critical thinking to everything? Even what your pastors tell you?

Listen to Shake the Dust episode "How Christians Get into and Out of Conspiracy Theories with Matt Lumpkin" wherever you get podcasts.

How are you coping with the social and political turmoil all around us?

Don't the headlines overwhelm you. We put together a free guide for engaging with the news of American politics and the wars abroad. It provides practical steps toward taking meaningful action in line with your values, utilizing your gifts, and taking seriously your limits as an individual. It will help you build community, structure your thinking about activism, and grow spiritually, while decreasing the anxiety and pressure we all feel when we think about how much work there is to do.

Download "Hope Amidst the Headlines: How to Engage in Times of Crisis" today at ktfpress.us/engage

Together, we can navigate the challenges ahead and work toward a better future.

New podcast! and Sy talk with Mark about:
- How Mark went from fundamentalism to loving his neighbor via political protest
- The cost of leaving a fundamentalist world and speaking out against injustice
- Why the beatitudes should guide our discipleship and voting
- How discipleship is practicing the way of Jesus, not learning doctrine, and more!

Listen now wherever you get podcasts and visit ktfpress.com to subscribe to our free mailing list for newsletters, commentary, and new pods!

We've all been in these situations.

"At the end of the day...sometimes the answer is leave immediately. Get out of there. At other times, God is calling you to stay at least in the short term time. And it's important to be discerning and not just reactive to when is the right situation presenting itself." Pastor joined and Sy Hoekstra in conversation on the latest Shake the Dust podcast.

Listen to the episode "Juneteenth, Christianity, and Critical Race Theory with Pastor Rasool Berry" wherever you get podcasts.

The story of Pentecost is central to seeking Jesus and confronting injustice. God said, "I will pour out my spirit on all people," which includes EVERYONE. So, the next time you hear someone say _______ is not loved or worthy of all God offers, remember the upper room and the words Peter quoted from Joel 2:

"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

- Wealthy White folks in Louisiana form a new, segregated city
- The tension of spending resources on art while the world burns
- Israel’s pattern of attacking humanitarian workers
- Who’s left out in a world built around cars
- a powerful, short documentary

KTF Press newsletter this week is a good one featuring articles, documentaries and podcasts for seek Jesus and oppose injustice. Check it out!

A New Segregated City in Louisiana Plus, the IDF keeps attacking humanitarian workers

If you admit that colonialism wasn't what God wanted, then you have to deal with sin, and White churches don't have a theology of forgiveness or grace powerful enough for that.

Jonathan Walton discusses What is Christian Nationalism? And Why Do White People Love It So Much? In our latest bonus episode of Shake The Dust. Join us on Spotify or at ktfpress.com for this episode and our upcoming season as we seek Jesus and confront injustice.

Our feeds are often marked by so much suffering that it can be difficult to see beauty and life. We find it genuinely the case that if we are apart from God - not grounded in His love, steadfast in His justice, then we can be tempted to think that all hope is lost. But as the flowers bloom, birds begin to sing, and new shoots sprout forth, we are reminded that joy comes in the morning, his mercies are new every day, trouble doesn't last always, and to everything there is a season. God give us all strength to endure and persevere in this difficult stretch. Lord, have mercy.

The anxiety and fear around the potential results of our election season is palpable in nearly every sector of society. This includes the Church, but it doesn't have to. The fall traditionally is when the harvest comes. Followers of Jesus should plant seeds now in our individual lives and in the places where we have influence so that when November comes, we are bearing good fruit, no matter the outcome. Because our Messiah doesn't live in Washington but is Lord over it.

Our free weekly newsletter curates essential media around culture, politics, and faith to help you grow in discipleship and political education. Join our community at ktfpress.com

Trump is peddling a Bible that he's probably never read and most certainly doesn't hold highly. Fortunately, there are many who take faith in Jesus seriously, and laid out clearly that ways that we can resist the idols of America and follow the Jesus of love and justice.

Meet many of those voices through our anthology, Keeping the Faith: Reflections on Politics & Christianity in the Era of Trump & Beyond. Learn more at keepingthefaithbook.com.

On Good Friday, more than 150 people joined us in New York City to advocate for a cease fire. We walked in prayerful solidarity with the people of Gaza. Thank you to everyone who joined our . We long for a ceasefire, all prisoners, hostages, journalists, mothers, fathers, and children to come home. We long for aid to flow to all who need it and for an end to occupation.

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Are you free enough to imagine something new? Diamond Walton says, "We need to be a bit more active, creative, and imaginative" to establish systems where Black people can thrive.

Listen to 's conversation with Tamice Spencer-Helms and Shake the Dust hosts titled "Invest in Black Life" wherever you get podcasts. We discuss how to meet needs without being paternalistic, how to come out from under predominantly White organizations, and much more.

What do you think about the 2024 presidential election, and why is it important to you?

That's the topic our Shake the Dust hosts Sy Hoekstra and Jonathan Walton discussed in our latest bonus episode. Our upcoming fourth season of the podcast will focus on the election. Before we begin that exploration with guests, we wanted to share - how can we sort of contextualize these issues within history and theology from the perspectives of marginalized voices, to give us just kind of a broader understanding of kind of the real consequences and really what's going on this year?

Listen to our bonus episode "What Happens If Trump Wins Again?" wherever you get podcasts or read the full transcript at the link our bio. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

The founder of Critical Race Theory, Derrick Bell, wasn't inspired by Karl Marx; it was Jesus Christ. shares his insights on the methodology of CRT in his essay, The Promise and Perils of Critical Race Theory.

Read our anthology, Keeping the Faith, available at the link in our bio.

"You know how people need to be cared for because they're your community members," said . "You know that if there’s, something bad happened, you know who the person is to call. You know, whether or not that's the guy at the bodega who you know is going to call your grandmother, and your grandmother is going to come there… We have been keeping ourselves safe for a very long time, and I don't think we've been naming that as public safety."

We spoke to lawyer and community leader Keli Young on the Shake the Dust podcast in 2021. In response to overpolicing she poingnantly asked, "What do we do when we don't have the option of throwing someone away?" Listen to the episode titled "Abolition, Public Safety, And Who are the Experts?" wherever you get podcasts.

"To vote for what is best for the immigrant, prisoner, hungry, and sick is to vote with Christ on the throne of our hearts." traces imperialism and white supremacy from America's roots to Pope Nicholas V's Doctrine of Discovery in his essay, "White American Folk Religion Contrasted with Real Christianity."

Get our 2020 anthology, Keeping the Faith: Reflections on Politics & Christianity in the Era of Trump & Beyond, to read his full essay.

"It is not those with political power who are the test of God’s peace, but the most marginalized in a society." works at the intersection of faith, justice, and politics to take our theology back from the ideas and systems that oppress.

Brandi Miller contributed "What American Evangelicalism Has Lost and Needs to Find" to our 2020 anthology. Get the book, Keeping the Faith: Reflections on Politics & Christianity in the Era of Trump & Beyond, to read her full essay.

Lawyer knew instinctively the people who were the experts on how systems fail. It's the people directly impacted. "I take the cues from my leaders. They tell me what they think is important. They tell me where they want us to show up and I coordinate that."

A Black Christian lawyer, community organizer, and Brooklyn native working toward Black liberation, Keli Young joined us on the Shake the Dust podcast in season one. Listen to the episode, "Abolition, Public Safety, and Who are the Experts?" wherever you get podcasts.

In her powerhouse debut, Faith Unleavened, identifies how the idol of whitness keeps Christians captive, and how we can burn the idol down. "The stories we tell, that we enjoy, that aid in our own liberation are often about people daring to believe that God is who they hoped God was."

Faith Unleavened was published by KTF Press. Order the book at the link in our bio or listen to our interview with Tamice on the Shake the Dust podcast.

"My ancestors were not allowed to read or write, but they knew that what they were told about their lives and their worth was false," writes in her book, Faith Unleavened. "It didn’t matter what the master told them the Bible said, they knew intrinsically that it was wrong. White slaveholders spoke in the name of the Bible in an effort to claim its authority and harness its power."

In 'Faith Unleavened: The Wilderness Between Trayvon Martin & George Floyd,' Tamice Spencer-Helms takes us on the painful but liberating journey of extracting the leaven from spirituality, and rediscovering the parts of ourselves that a colonized Christianity seeks to suppress. Her powerhouse debut was published by KTF Press. Check the link in our bio order your copy.

This Black History Month we're reaffirming our commitment to centering and elevating marginalized voices in the Church. All February we'll be featuring Black leaders who have contributed to our Shake the Dust podcast, books, and newsletter. We'll be exploring culture, politics, and faith as we disentangle Jesus’ kingdom from the idols of Western Christianity. Join the discussion this month here and at ktfpress.com.

We dropped a special bonus episode of Shake the Dust yesterday: "How We Stay Grounded While Engaging with Injustice." Jonathan and Sy talk about what keeps them going in the work that KTF does. Check out our episode for their thoughts on:

✨ The spiritual and emotional practices that keep Jonathan grounded
✨ Why Sy only prays when he feels like it, and consumes a lot of fiction
✨ The importance of the image of God and living in shalom with your surroundings to Jonathan
✨ How Privilege and anxiety interact with each other
✨ Why Sy wants to show people another way of living is possible
✨ And Jonathan’s recent newsletter recommendation about a massive, nearly untouched national park and the important environmental and cultural questions surrounding it

Listen or read now: https://www.ktfpress.com/p/bonus-episode-how-we-stay-grounded

Do your 2024 goals balance the delight and the struggle?

If wealth is on your list of goals and resolutions for 2024, are good deeds also on the list? What good deeds do you hope to accomplish this year?