NARRATIVE CONTRIBUTORS
Brian Zahnd
Author, Teacher
Brian is the founder and lead pastor of Word of Life Church, a non-denominational Christian congregation in Saint Joseph, Missouri. Brian and his wife, Peri, founded the church in 1981. Brian is also the author of several books including Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God, Water to Wine, A Farewell To Mars, Unconditional?: The Call of Jesus to Radical Forgiveness and Postcards from Babylon.
“Whatever it means for the world to be saved, God, does
not do it through the worldly means of power involving
politics, weapons, and war…”
Shane Claiborne
Christian Activist
Shane Claiborne is a Christian activist and author who is a leading figure in the New Monasticism movement and one of the founding members of the non-profit organization, The Simple Way, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Claiborne is also a social activist, advocating for nonviolence and service to the poor.
“Even in the face of evil that Jesus endured, he consistently challenged the myth of redemptive violence. He looked into the eyes of those killing him and called on God to forgive them.”
Kristin Kobes Du Mey
Walter Brueggemann
Teacher, Scholar
Walter Brueggemann is one of the world’s great teachers about the prophets who both anchor the Hebrew Bible and have transcended it across history. He translates their imagination from the chaos of ancient times to our own. He somehow also embodies this tradition’s fearless truth-telling together with fierce hope — and how it conveys ideas with disarming language.
“The task is reframing,” he says, “so that we can re-experience the social realities that are right in front of us,
from a different angle.”
Lisa Sharon Harper
Founder, Freedom Road
Ms. Harper is the founder and president of FreedomRoad.us, a consulting group dedicated to shrinking the narrative gap in our nation by convening forums and experiences that bring common understanding, common commitment, and common
action toward a just world.
Most recently, Relevant Magazine recognized her book, The Very Good Gospel as one of
“Six Books that Will Change the Way You See the World” .
John Fea
Author, University Professor
Kristin Kobes Du Mez is a professor of History and Gender Studies at Calvin University. She holds a PhD from the University of Notre Dame and her research focuses on the intersection of gender, religion, and politics. She has written for the Washington Post, Religion News Service, Christianity Today, Christian Century, and Religion & Politics, and has been interviewed on NPR, CTV, the CBC, and by CNN, the New York Times, the Economist, the Christian Post, PBS News Hour, and the AP, among other outlets, and she blogs at Patheos’s Anxious Bench.
Professor of History
John is a professor of History and Chair of the History Department at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. A scholar of early American history and American religious history, he is the author of several books including,
Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump.
“Despite the biblical passages exhorting followers of Christ to “fear not,” it is possible to write an entire history of
American evangelicalism as the story of Christians who
have failed to overcome fear.”
Pete Wehner
Ethics and Public Policy Center
Pete is a veteran of three administrations and is the author of The Death of Politics. He is an American writer and Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative think-tank. He is a veteran of three administrations (Ronald Reagan, George
H. W. Bush, George W. Bush). Wehner is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times and a contributing editor at The Atlantic!
“There’s a very high cost to our politics for celebrating the Trump style, but what is personally painful to me as a person of faith is the cost to the Christian witness.”
Jon Huckins
Co-Founder - The Global Immersion Project
Jon is a pastor and Co-Founding Director of The Global Immersion Project, a peacemaking training organization helping individuals and communities move toward conflict equipped to heal rather than to win. Jon and his team lead people on a 3-day immersion experience on the US/Mexico border.
"Rather than be moved by a commitment to understand and care for the “least and the last” we are being stirred into a frenzy of self-protection that is compromising our collective soul.
It’s sad. But we can be healed."
Daniel Deitrich
Songwriter, Pastor
Daniel is the Pastor of Arts and Worship at South Bend City Church in Indiana. He's the songwriter of the Hymn for the 81%, a song that is a prophetic call to white evangelicals
who voted for President Trump.
"I thought that things like love, kindness, gentleness, and self-control MATTERED. I have been so confused and deeply saddened by the unflinching loyalty to a man who so clearly embodies the opposite of these values."
Scott Hancock
College Professor, Activist
Scott Hancock, currently associate professor of History and Africana Studies at Gettysburg College, came to Gettysburg College in 2001. His scholarly interests focus on the African American experience from the mid-seventeenth century to just before the Civil War. His work considers African Americans’ engagement with the law, and incorporates other disciplinary perspectives such as law & society and geography.