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Hot Take: Why Marc Thiessen’s WaPo Prediction is a Dud

Lisa Sharon Harper — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 14:41:55 GMT

The Washington Post recently published an opinion piece by American Enterprise Institute fellow and Bush 43 speechwriter Marc Thiessen. Thiessen says Democrats’ Primary support of DSA candidates is going to backfire on them in the same way extremist candidates like Hershel Walker and Blake Masters bit the GOP in the tuchis in 2022.

While compelling click-bait, Thiessen’s analysis, obviously crafted inside the beltway bubble, is a dud. Here’s why:

Thiessen underestimates the economic pain suffered by the MAGA base.
He doesn’t even mention the social shame felt by Independents who are watching their votes destroy America.
He underestimates the resolve of the Democratic base that sat out the 2024 Election.
He overestimates the current power of cable news bubbles.
He overestimates the current power of identity politics.

In a nutshell: This ain’t 2022.

Let’s dig in. Shall we?

Christena Cleveland "The Black Madonna" | Kitchen Table Conversations with Lisa Sharon Harper

Lisa Sharon Harper — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 01:50:50 GMT

This was one of the most profound and consequential conversations I’ve had in the past year—and that’s saying a lot, because I have a lot of profound conversations at my kitchen table.

Christena Cleveland, Ph.D., is a social psychologist, public theologian, author, and activist. A weaver of Black liberation and the Divine Feminine, Dr. Cleveland embraces the archetype of the Black Madonna. Her fourth full-length book just dropped, and we’re here to talk about it. In the Black Madonna, Christena explores the miraculous, liberating, and zany ways that the Black Madonna has protected, empowered, and nourished people around the globe and throughout history. An award-winning researcher and former professor at Duke University’s Divinity School, Christena lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The implications of The Black Madonna are serious. Listen in as Christena and I dig into:

How Christena stumbled on the Black Madonna archetype. (Thanks, Google!)
The origin of the 40,000-year-old Black Madonna, the original deity of our primordial African ancestors.
How Jesus and Mary went from brown to white/
The subversive power of the Black Madonna for the empowerment of the African diaspera.
The healing power of the Black Madonna in times of Chaos.

This is one of those conversations where you’ll want to grab pen, paper, and take notes. It’s that rich—and that important.

If you received value from this Kitchen Table Conversation, please consider supporting my work by liking, commenting, sharing, and subscribing! “The Truth Is…” is a reader-supported publication. Each small action you take to support the work helps others to find us in their feeds. If you are already a free subscriber, please consider upgrading for only $6/mo (or $60/year). Each subscription helps sustain this critical work, making it possible to bring you Kitchen Table Conversations, essays, notes, and special projects that help process the events of the day through a historically grounded theo-ethical lens.

Earn Graduate Course Credit

Upcoming Virtual Events

10-Week Webinar Series/Course: “How to Decolonize The Gospel”

What was lost when European empires claimed sole authority to interpret a sacred text by Afro-Asian, colonized, serially enslaved people? Join us online this fall in a global learning community as we engage decolonizing practices to rediscover Jesus and the relevance of his message for the world today.

Claim Your Seat Here

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Join me at the Goose!

The Clearing is a national intervention to seed and resource locally rooted networks of mutual care across our country, through one-day retreats. The Clearing aims to equip communities with resources for economic and mental health resilience, as well as the spiritual connection with self and neighbors necessary to withstand the pressures of growing authoritarian rule and its economic impacts.

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Live Introductory Webinar: "How to Decolonize The Gospel"

Lisa Sharon Harper — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 02:53:29 GMT

If you missed this fabulous sneak peek, this is for you! Listen in as and offer this Free Introductory Webinar on “How to Decolonize The Gospel”.

In this sneak peek viewers will:

Get to know the instructors,
Receive an overview of the 10-week series,
Receive an introduction to “decolonization,”
Dive into a brief study of Matthew 1 (the genealogy of Jesus) using a decolonizing hermeneutical process.

Listen in and join us this fall! Register at the link below.

Early Bird Rates Available Till August 1!

The “How to Decolonize The Gospel” 10-week webinar series is valued at $423! But we are offering the whole series for the insanely low price of $149 because we are on a mission to equip the global church with decolonizing hermeneutical practices.

But that’s not enough. We are slashing our insanely low price to $99 for everyone who registers by August 1!

Special Paid Subscriber rate available until 11:59 pm ET tonight (7/14). Message me for Paid Subscriber Special Access Code!

Get Graduate-Level Credit

Graduate Course Credit Available

This 10-week Webinar Series is also available for three (3) graduate course credits at St. Stephen’s University. All participants will have the same access to weekly lectures, conversations, and Bible study sessions. St. Stephen’s University (SSU) students taking the for-credit version of the course will receive a syllabus with required reading and viewing, and will give a final presentation in one additional session.

Please click below for more information on how to take the course, BIB 5725 How to Decolonize the Gospel, for graduate-level credit. Be sure to apply for “Single Course - credit (no program).”

Thank you , , , and many others for tuning in to my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.

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FREE Introductory Webinar Tomorrow: "How to Decolonize The Gospel"

Lisa Sharon Harper — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 21:59:13 GMT

10-Week Webinar Series Overview

What was lost when European empires claimed sole authority to interpret a sacred text by Afro-Asian, colonized, serially enslaved people? Over the course of 10 weeks, this fall, leaders, pastors, students, scholars, and the curious will come together each week on a quest to meet the real Jesus!

The Details

Dates: LIVE Tuesdays, September 8 - November 10, 2026
Time: 12:00 PM ET
All registrants will have access to session recordings. So, you can attend live or go at your own pace.
Your one-time registration grants full access to the 10-week course

FREE Introductory Webinar TOMORROW

Join us LIVE on Zoom at 12 pm ET tomorrow for this free taste of the feast we will serve up this fall!

Meet the Facilitators
Be introduced to our decolonizing hermeneutical process.
Dive into a surprise text
Let us know which passages you’re most interested in diving into
Meet fabulous people on the same journey!

Claim your FREE spot here

Early Bird Rates Available Till August 1!

But that’s not enough. We are slashing our insanely low price to $99 for everyone who registers by August 1!

Special Paid Subscriber Rate Available through tomorrow, July 14! Message me for Paid Subscriber Special Access Code!

Get Graduate-Level Credit!

Graduate Course Credit Available

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Dr. Kelly Edminston "Shame Free Sex Talks" | Kitchen Table Conversations with Lisa Sharon Harper

Lisa Sharon Harper — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 23:15:27 GMT

Based in Stafford, Texas, Dr. , is the pastor of The Vineyard Church, where she serves the “deconstructed, de-churched, and those filled with doubt.” Shame Free Sex-Talks is Kelly’s first book and has received high praise from one of my theological mentors, !

Purity Culture ruined sex for multiple generations of white evangelicals and many people of color who grew up in that tradition. Through fear and patriarchal pledges, white evangelical male leaders scared generations into disintegrated lives. Kelly explains that women, in particular, came out of Purity Culture living as if they had no bodies at all and that their value was measured by the degree to which they could present themselves as sexually uncorrupted to their husbands (who may or may not be virgins—mind you).

Kelly calls for both a spirituality that integrates sex and a sexuality that integrates the spirit. Kelly’s concept of Spiritual Sexuality is the heartbeat of her new, deeply researched book. It immediately reminded me of a poem featured on Beyoncé’s groundbreaking album-film, “Lemonade.” The powerhouse singer-songwriter proclaims God is everywhere and says the moment in sex when one says, “Oh, my God,” is a form of worship.

In this conversation, we discuss the Purity Culture that inspired Kelly’s research, the unique ways patriarchy lands on white, Black, and Brown women’s bodies and their particular paths to healing in this here America—and inside the church.

FREE Introductory Webinar - NEXT TUESDAY

Upcoming Virtual Events

10-Week Webinar Series/Course: “How to Decolonize The Gospel”

Claim your seat here

Earn Graduate Course Credit

Upcoming In-Person Events

Join me at The Goose!

Come to The Clearing - Philly Sept 9

Come to The Clearing - Richmond Oct 7

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A New Day Is Coming...

Lisa Sharon Harper — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 23:31:26 GMT

Darializa Avila Chevalier in the spirit of Nina Simone. Graphic by Lisa Sharon Harper

Darializa Avila Chevalier won her primary race for the 13^th District of New York. Democrats have rejected her and the stream of self-proclaimed Democratic Socialists who have won in and since the New York Primary.

Sixty-five percent of the vote in the 13^th District’s precinct voted for Avila Chevalier, where I used to live on the east side of Broadway at the tip-top of Manhattan, in a neighborhood called Inwood. Inwood is nestled just below the Bronx and above Washington Heights, the Dominican neighborhood that inspired Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony Award-winning musical, In the Heights. Inwood’s east side of Broadway is dominated by Dominican immigrants and diverse young professionals struggling to make the rent in the most expensive city in the nation.

When I moved to Inwood 20 years ago, landlords were sniffing steeper profits and actively neglecting apartments across that precinct. Tenants in rent-controlled apartments were being starved out. My own apartment building fell prey to slumlords in the final year that I lived at the tiptop of the Big Apple. They neglected needed repairs and dragged their feet when rats infested our building. My last straw was the night a rat the size of an oversized cat scurried through my living room, hugging the walls. I couldn’t find it, so I closed and locked the French doors that led to my bedroom. While dozing off, I heard a bump, then another. I opened my eyes and saw that with each bump, my doors were moving. The rat was trying to push its way into my bedroom. I jumped up and pushed back. I mean, actually push back! Bump. Bump. Bump. Each time it was stronger. Then it stopped.

I withheld my rent until the slumlord found the rat hole under the kitchen sink and made all other needed repairs. But that required me to take them to court, which I did. And I won.

This is not an unusual story in New York City, and it is not limited to poor people. My building was a mix of Dominican people who grew up in Inwood for most of their lives and young, upwardly mobile professionals. I was the executive director of a start-up non-profit. My roommates over the years worked at historic churches, the United Nations, or were rising artists in a city bursting with talent. One block further east in the same precinct, families steeped in generational poverty fought rats out of children’s bedrooms with fewer resources.

This is where Florida-born, self-described Afro-Latina of Dominican descent, Darializa Avila Chevalier, won 65% of the vote.

In the neighboring precinct, on the west side of Broadway, where two-income 30-to 40-something professional households with children in private schools pay $1000 more per month for shiny appliances and park views, Avila Chevalier’s vision for a new way of living together in the world captured even more of the vote, clocking 73%.

Yet, somehow, national Democrats have frothed themselves into a cappuccino—all foam—declaring war on the “socialists” infiltrating the party. Avila Chevalier seems to be their primary target.

The Controversy

Fox News revealed five-year-old tweets, written by Avila Chevalier in her 20s, that called for the end of borders, prisons, and the police. The report said at the height of the COVID pandemic, Avila Chevalier advocated for a “$3000 universal basic income, nationalizing utilities, pharmaceutical companies and hospitals, suspending mortgages and rent, seizing private property from landlords, dissolving insurance companies and expanding Medicare to every citizen.” The idea of the Universal Basic Income was popular at the height of the COVID pandemic. USA Today ran a story highlighting multiple cities that had already started enacting the idea, sending residents $1000 checks each month. Andrew Yang made the idea a central part of his policy platform in his 2020 Democratic Primary run. Likewise, the ideas of suspending mortgages and rent and expanding Medicare to all citizens were considered legitimate possible solutions in the context of the Pandemic’s economic freefall.

Political strategist James Carville directed and won Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, in part by focusing on the one thing that mattered most—the economy. “It’s the economy, stupid,” he drilled into the talking points of his campaign workers. And Clinton won. Yet, in the face of our current tariff-tanked economy with the disastrous impact of The Big Beautiful Bill looming like an albatross on the other side of the Midterms, Carville recently told Kayleigh McEnany of Fox News, “I don’t think that the congressional Democrats should seat [Avila Chevalier] as a member of the Democratic Party. … She actually describes herself as a democratic socialist.”

In the same interview, Carville referenced similar pushback from my senator, Sen. John Fetterman, whose unreliable loyalty to basic Democratic values has led many in the Keystone State to question his party affiliation. This is especially true of Fetterman’s reckless use of Pennsylvanians’ taxpayer dollars to support and fund Israel’s genocide in Gaza—a stance counter to the will of the vast majority of Democrats, with only 13% holding a positive view of Israel today, and Independents dropping to only 21%.

Avila Chevalier helped lead the anti-genocide encampment at my alma mater, Columbia University. I spent time with the students, many of whom were Jewish, and I left in awe of the group’s thoughtful and uncompromising enactment of global peacebuilding values, such as reciprocity, truth-telling, mercy, integrity, and justice.

Democratic Socialism vs. Socialism

What does it mean to be a Democratic Socialist? Is it the same as a Socialist? The two terms are often used interchangeably these days, but they are not the same. This vs. That puts it simply for those of us without poly-sci PhDs:

Socialism typically advocates for the complete ownership and control of the means of production by the state, with the aim of creating a classless society. In contrast, democratic socialism seeks to achieve similar goals through a combination of democratic processes and socialist policies. … Ultimately, democratic socialism aims to strike a balance between individual liberties and collective responsibility, promoting social justice and economic equality through democratic means.

The U.S. is already effectively a democratic socialist state. President Lincoln broke the ice when he signed the Homestead Act of 1862. Franklin Delano Roosevelt followed suit with the New Deal, infrastructure investment, and the introduction of federal taxes. Lyndon B. Johnson leveraged the same form of governance to cut poverty in the U.S. in half within 10 years with his 1965 “War on Poverty.” Obamacare falls in this lineage along with Biden-era Infrastructure investment. Through a progressive tax structure, these innovators funded essential national, state, and municipal infrastructure projects, such as roads, bridges, dams, police, fire departments, education, Medicare, Social Security, SNAP, and much more.

A Theo-ethical Lens: The Economic Ethics of The Sabbath, The Sabbatical Year, and The Jubilee

“Budgets are moral documents,” Darializa Avila Chevalier recently quoted one of my mentors, the Rev. Jim Wallis, an evangelical Christian who identified as a socialist in his 20s, at the height of the 1960s revolution.

Scripture agrees: Budgets are, indeed, moral documents. They reveal one’s own priorities, as well as one’s alignment with or opposition to the morality and priorities of the Divine.

In the story of the Hebrew people’s Exodus from Egypt and the proclamation of the Ten Commandments, God establishes divine governance on earth. These laws reveal God’s priorities: who and what God prioritizes.

The fourth of the Ten Commandments mandates Sabbath rest for all. This government-enforced regulation on businesses prohibited work by anyone, including work animals, on the Sabbath. While written as a commandment, it can also be understood that people have the right to rest because God commanded it of everyone. By implication, God placed government-regulated limits on profit and national gross domestic product (GDP) through the Sabbath.

Then comes the Sabbatical Year. This second pillar of God’s economic structure ups the ante. The Sabbatical Year comes every seven years, giving everyone an entire year of rest. It frees the enslaved, and forgives all debt. Imagine if the U.S. passed this legislation. Can you imagine the budget debates? Can you imagine the swarm of corporate lobbyists lobbing threats to Representatives across Congress?

The third pillar of God’s economy ups the ante again. Every 49^th year, everyone rests, all debt is forgiven, all enslaved people are set free, and all land transfers back to the original family that held the deed! If the family lost the land due to debt or trickery over the past 49 years, this is their reset button. In God’s economy, no family could fall into poverty in perpetuity. Likewise, in God’s economy, it would be impossible to build a business to the point of an empire.

I am a Democrat

I have never in my life identified as a socialist. I have identified as a Democrat since 1976, when my mother held my hand, walking me from house to house in our Philadelphia neighborhood, registering neighbors to vote. I asked her, what is the difference between a Democrat and a Republican?

Mommy said, “Democrats take from the rich and give to the poor. Republicans take from the poor and give to the rich. So, we are Democrats.”

As a seven-year-old obsessed with Robin Hood, I understood.

I was still a Democrat at 15 years old when I sat in front of our 1980s RCA floor console television, mesmerized by the opening of Rev. Jesse Jackson’s 1984 Democratic Primary Speech:

Tonight we come together bound by our faith in a mighty God, with genuine respect and love for our country, and inheriting the legacy of a great Party, the Democratic Party, which is the best hope for redirecting our nation on a more humane, just, and peaceful course.

This is not a perfect party. We are not a perfect people. Yet, we are called to a perfect mission. Our mission: to feed the hungry; to clothe the naked; to house the homeless; to teach the illiterate; to provide jobs for the jobless; and to choose the human race over the nuclear race.

I am a Black woman. As such, I am the backbone of the American Democratic Party. I am the party’s most reliable voting bloc. I am under no illusion that the Democratic Party is determined to solve the problems heaped on the shoulders of my community, in successive generations. Yet, I vote for my survival. I know the alternative to Democrats’ passive indifference. It is the determined domination of white male Republicans over all.

With a choice of indifference or domination, Black people have chosen the lesser evil and literally suffered through your fits and starts, your leaps forward, and your compromised retreats into the comfort of numb white noise.

At the Democratic National Convention of 1964, Fanny Lou Hamer spoke on behalf of the Freedom Democratic Party of Mississippi. The Party was attempting to supplant the illegally segregated, all-white Mississippi delegation on the floor of the Convention.

Speaking before the entire assembly, Hamer warned: If the Freedom Democratic Party is not seated, then she would question America. The justice of her cause was clear. If the Democratic convention could not see it and take action in the harsh light of truth, then the story America tells itself about itself is questionable to the bone. Hamer’s Party was not seated. There was a compromise.

On this 250th Anniversary of America’s first founding, the justice of our cause is clear: 700,000 Black women have been sidelined in the U.S. economy since February 2025. Top Black leaders in the Federal government are being pushed out. Medicaid and SNAP benefits will be slashed when the Big Beautiful Bill takes effect, directly following the midterms. Haitian families who were granted asylum are now facing deportation and are terrified for their lives. And the Voting Rights Act is dead. The Black community is in crisis. Black women are in utter crisis. Hear me. The backbone of the Democratic Party is in crisis.

Yet, James Carville and other old-guard Democrats are denigrating DSA candidates who are unwilling to retreat when Republicans say, “Boo!” He distains their unwillingness to compromise. To Carville and to the Party, I ask, where is the virtue in compromise for the slave? What is the benefit when one finds oneself the one divided up and handed over in every deal?

I Question the Democratic Party

I declare to you, Carville, “I question the Democratic Party.” As a Black woman, I have not fought for Democratic candidates so they could win just enough justice to placate our rat-infested communities while protecting white supremacy. No. I want unfettered freedom. And I want it now!

So, don’t come at me with labels. I care about substance. I care about the morality of U.S. foreign policy. I care about the health of our communities. I care about our collective commitment to the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Matthew 25 vision in the 1984 Democratic Primary. Finally, I care about building an America that Black women will never have to question again.

So, I applaud Darializa Avila Chevalier. I applaud Brad Ladner and Clair Valdez. I applaud Janeese Lewis George, the next mayor of DC. I applaud Melat Kiros in Denver. And I applaud , here in Philadelphia—both my mother and I voted for you.

Congratulations to you all! And to all, Happy America 250!

As Nina Simone once prophesied, “A new day is coming.”

If you received value from this essay, please consider supporting my work by liking, commenting, sharing, and subscribing! “The Truth Is…” is a reader-supported publication. Each small action you take to support the work helps others to find us in their feeds. If you are already a free subscriber, please consider upgrading for only $6/mo (or $60/year). Each subscription helps sustain this critical work, making it possible to bring you Kitchen Table Conversations, essays, notes, and special projects that help process the events of the day through a historically grounded theo-ethical lens.

FREE Introductory Webinar - July 14

Upcoming Virtual Events

10-Week Webinar Series/Course: “How to Decolonize The Gospel”

Claim your seat here.

Get Graduate Course Credit - BIB5725

Upcoming In-Person Events

Join me at The Goose!

The Clearing - Philly Sept 9

The Clearing - Richmond Oct 7

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Rev. Erich Kussman "Confronting the Powers at Delaney" | Kitchen Table Conversations with Lisa Sharon Harper

Lisa Sharon Harper — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 21:57:55 GMT

Rev. Erich Kussman went from Prison to Princeton to the Pastorate to Protesting outside of the Delaney detention center in New Jersey. He is the pastor of St. Bartholomew’s Church in Trenton, NJ (just outside of Philadelphia, PA) and a leader of the faith witness at Delaney Detention Center.

We’ve all seen the video clips scroll on IG, TikTok, or Facebook. State police and ICE officers brutalizing protestors, reports of sexual abuse, worms in food, brown water, no medical care, and a hunger strike that was abandoned because nothing changed. Delaney Detention Center in Newark, NJ has become a frontline of the resistance to authoritarianism in the U.S., and Erich Kussman has been organizing the faith community to bear witness.

Erich grew up in an impoverished Black and Brown community, the son of a crack-addicted mother. Like many of his friends, Erich has served time on the inside. He completed a 12-year sentence for something he owned and took accountability for. But that’s not where his story ends. Once released, Erich earned his MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary and moved into the pastorate from there. Now, Erich is both ministering to 41 parishioners who are trapped in Delaney Detention Center and bringing parishioners to stand in solidarity with their spiritual family on the inside.

In this episode, we talk about:

Erich’s experiences of the racialized mass incarceration system as a poor white kid in a poor Black community.
The connection between private prisons across the U.S. and the ICE surge.
The butterfly effect and the Delaney movement.
Paul’s call in Romans to disobey unjust laws, but also not to resist those in authority.
Silence as complicity.
How can everyday people join the movement?

Get Graduate-Level Credit

Upcoming Virtual Events

10-Week Webinar Series/Course: “How to Decolonize The Gospel”

What was lost when European empires claimed sole authority to interpret a sacred text by Afro-Asian, colonized, serially enslaved people? This webinar series seeks to respond thoughtfully and courageously to the following questions:

How do we reclaim the doing of theology as a necessary act of discipleship?
How do we respond to the text in a way that takes us beyond debates, winning, being right, or wrong?
Of what value are Jesus’ actions of love, faith, and righteousness/justice?
What about contextual Theology, Feminist Theology, Black Theology, etc?
Is there such a thing as “pure theology”? Is that the same as white theology or Eurocentric white theology?
What do the Gospels have to say (or not say) to the biggest problems in the world, like hunger, economic inequality, systemic injustice, conflict and war, racism, misogyny, and religious extremism?
How does the gospel of Jesus help us to live more faithfully in these days?

The Details

Dates: LIVE Tuesdays, September 8 - November 10, 2026
Time: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM ET
Your one-time registration grants full access to the 10-week course
The Truth Is... and Freedom Road PAID Substack subscribers get 50% OFF General Admission if you register by July 14! Become a paid subscriber, then message “PAID SUBSCRIBER” for the Promo Code!

Graduate Course Credit Available

This 10-week Webinar Series is also available for three (3) graduate course credits at St. Stephen’s University. All participants will have the same access to weekly lectures, conversations, and Bible study sessions. St. Stephen’s University (SSU) students taking the 3-credit version of the course will receive a syllabus with required reading and viewing, and will give a final presentation in one additional session.

JULY 14. FREE Introductory Webinar: “How to Decolonize The Gospel”

Click in to this FREE Introductory Webinar to get to know your instructors and survey the course material. Invite friends to join you so they can check it out, too. We’re going deep this fall, and there’s room for everyone around this table!

The Details:

Date: Tuesday, July 14
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 PM ET
Where: On Zoom

Reserve Your Zoom Square Here

Upcoming In-Person Events

Thursday-Sunday, September 3-6, 2026. Wild Goose Festival.

What do you get when you get , CeCe Jones Davis, , and me all in the same campground, servin’ it up together, with a bunch of other amazing leaders?

You get something wild! And fun! And essential for the days to come.

Join me on Thursday, 9/3, for a full day of pre-festival Faith-Rooted Organizing Training with Jennifer Butler (founder and executive director, Faith in Democracy) and CeCe Jones Davis (national faith organizer and host of We Mend the World Podcast)! Then, during the festival meet CeCe and I in the podcast booth for a very special Kitchen Table Conversation reflecting on her Zoom meetings with white folks leaving MAGA. Then, on Sunday, listen in as Grace Ji-Sun Kim and I talk about what it’s been like to talk about race under the cloud of DT’s America.

Join us in Harmony, NC!

The Clearing - Philly Sept 9

The Clearing - CCDA Oct 7

Thank you , , , and many others for tuning into my live video with ! Join me for my next live video in the app.

Available for iOS and Android

Thanks for watching Kitchen Table Conversations with Lisa Sharon Harper! This post is public, so feel free to share it.

10-Week Webinar Series / Graduate-Level Course: "How to Decolonize The Gospel"

Lisa Sharon Harper — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 18:01:05 GMT

Hello, Beloved Paid Subscribers!

Rev. René August "How to Decolonize the Gospel" | Kitchen Table Conversations with Lisa Sharon Harper

Lisa Sharon Harper — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 01:37:46 GMT

Reverend René August is a strategist, thought leader, speaker, author, trainer, facilitator, and dear friend. Mentored by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, August lives in Cape Town, South Africa, and serves as a global peacebuilder with TearFund UK. René helped lead The Justice Conference South Africa and currently passes on her wisdom as an Affiliate Faculty member of St. Stephen’s University in Canada. René also leverages her expertise and wisdom as a senior consultant of .

White Christian Nationalism is shaping U.S. Supreme Court rulings, weaponizing immigration policy, making a mockery of U.S. foreign policy, and destroying the dignity of the most vulnerable around the world. In this context, René and I are teaming up again to bring back a course we taught in 2020. This time we will focus on the Gospels, themselves—the words and life of Jesus and the people who wrote the texts.

“How to Decolonize the Gospel” will launch this fall, on September 8th! This 10-week webinar/grad-level course is designed to equip practitioners with decolonizing hermeneutical practices, while also examining decolonizing methods of theological meaning-making.

Join us in this episode as we discuss:

The critical connection between theology and politics
The impact of the lens through which we view the scripture
The central importance of an embodied hermeneutic in decolonial theological practice
Power and the theological process

If you received from this Kitchen Table Conversation, please consider supporting my work by liking, commenting, sharing, and subscribing! “The Truth Is…” is a reader-supported publication. Each small action you take to support the work helps others to find us in their feeds. If you are already a free subscriber, please consider upgrading for only $6/mo (or $60/year). Each subscription helps sustain this critical work, making it possible to bring you Kitchen Table Conversations, essays, notes, and special projects that help process the events of the day through a historically grounded theo-ethical lens.

Webinar Registration Here

Upcoming Virtual Events

10-Week Webinar Series/Course: “How to Decolonize The Gospel”

How do we reclaim the doing of theology as a necessary act of discipleship?
How do we respond to the text in a way that takes us beyond debates, winning, being right, or wrong?
Of what value are Jesus’ actions of love, faith, and righteousness/justice?
What about contextual Theology, Feminist Theology, Black Theology, etc?
Is there such a thing as “pure theology”? Is that the same as white theology or Eurocentric white theology?
What do the Gospels have to say (or not say) to the biggest problems in the world, like hunger, economic inequality, systemic injustice, conflict and war, racism, misogyny, and religious extremism?
How does the gospel of Jesus help us to live more faithfully in these days?

The Details

Dates: LIVE Tuesdays, September 8 - November 10, 2026
Time: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM ET
Your one-time registration grants full access to the 10-week course
and PAID Substack subscribers get 50% OFF General Admission if you register by July 14! I’m going to send the special Promo Code to our Paid Subscribers tomorrow. Subscribe or Upgrade for this incredible deal.

Graduate Course Credit Available

This 10-week Webinar Series is also available for three (3) graduate course credits at St. Stephen’s University. All participants will have the same access to weekly lectures, conversations, and Bible study sessions. St. Stephen's University (SSU) students taking the 3-credit version of the course will receive a syllabus with required reading and viewing, and will give a final presentation in one additional session.

Get Graduate-Level Credit

JULY 14. FREE Introductory Webinar: “How to Decolonize The Gospel”

The Details:

Date: Tuesday, July 14
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 PM ET
Where: On Zoom

Reserve Your Seat Here

Upcoming In-Person Events

Thursday-Sunday, September 3-6, 2026. Wild Goose Festival. Join me on Thursday, 9/3, for a full day of pre-festival Faith-Rooted Organizing Training with Jennifer Butler (founder and executive director, Faith in Democracy) and CeCe Jones Davis (national faith organizer and host of We Mend the World Podcast)! Plus, I will be on the mainstage in conversation with Grace Ji-Sun Kim and will record a live podcast with CeCe Jones Davis on her Zoom meetings with white folks considering leaving MAGA. (Harmony, NC) It’s going to be a super-full, super-fun time. Don’t miss it! Hope to see you there!

Join me at The Goose!

The Clearing is a national effort to seed and resource locally-rooted networks of mutual care across our country, through one-day retreats. The Clearing aims to equip communities with resources for economic and mental health resilience, as well as the spiritual connection with self and neighbors necessary to withstand the pressures of growing authoritarian rule and its economic impacts.

THE CLEARING: PHILADELPHIA: September 9, 2026. 9am-4pm ET.

This retreat is a pre-conference one-day gathering that is part of the Fishing Differently Conference, Sept 9-11, 2026, in Philadelphia, PA. Registrants can attend the Clearing-only or register for the larger conference. All are welcome. Convened by FreedomRoad.us. Sponsored by Oikos Institute for Social Impact.

Come To The Clearing - Richmond

THE CLEARING: RICHMOND: October 7, 2026. 9am-4pm ET.

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The Two Juneteenths

Lisa Sharon Harper — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 18:12:00 GMT

To fully grasp the meaning of June 19, 1865, we must first understand its context. Journey with me to 1820, to the land of the Karankawa Peoples in the land we now call, Texas.

In 1820, Spain granted Moses Austin a large swath of land in its northern Mexican territory. A year later, on his deathbed, he made his son, Stephen Austin, promise to make the l…

Tad Stoermer “Resistance History and Restoring Voting Rights” | Kitchen Table Conversations with Lisa Sharon Harper

Lisa Sharon Harper — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:23:47 GMT

Read A Resistance History of the U.S.

Tad Stoermer is a public historian who trained at the University of Virginia, Johns Hopkins, and Harvard, with a particular focus on Colonial and Revolutionary America. He is also a former congressional staffer and speechwriter, and he served in the U.S. Army as a reconnaissance scout. Tad’s new book dropped into the world last week: A Resistance History of the United States, and we are here for it.

Through masterful cinematic storytelling, Stoermer’s Resistance History lifts the Kinkaidesque moss-covered rocks, placed just so in America’s rehearsed founding narrative. He reveals the world of flesh, bone, and ego writhing beneath the staid fantasy of American political foundations. put it best in her singular back-cover blurb, “[Stoermer] offers a clear-eyed account of how freedom is constructed, defended, and repeatedly taken back.”

As we approach the 4th of July in the 250th year after our transition from Colonial to Revolutionary America, this book matters. My opening question for Stoemer asked how he would describe the context of our conversation. He said, “Surreal.” That’s it, exactly. In this surreal world where constitutional law means nothing, while our legislative branch sits stymied by overwhelming corruption, we need a word—a clarifying word. Stoemer brings us such a word from his historical discipline—Resistance History—history that marks precise patterns that reveal how power moves between the powers and the oppressed.

In this conversation, I am focused on the struggle to regain voting rights and what we can glean from how resistance movements have succeeded (or failed) in the past. But there are lessons for the broader U.S. struggles, as well.

Listen in as we discuss:

Our surreal context and the need for Truth
Black Loyalists and the making of democracy in the Bahamas
Nancy Dixon, Ona Judge, and their refusal to accept the terms of oppression.
James Madison’s outsized ego and Patrick Henry’s strategic use of it to secure the Bill of Rights!
How the 14th Amendment was passed (OMG! Hands to face!)
How to “Force the Fight”
and more!

If you received from this post, please consider supporting my work by liking, commenting, sharing, and subscribing! “The Truth Is…” is a reader-supported publication. Each small action you take to support the work helps others to find us in their feeds. If you are already a free subscriber, please consider upgrading for only $6/mo (or $60/year). Each subscription helps sustain this critical work, making it possible to bring you Kitchen Table Conversations, essays, notes, and special projects that help process the events of the day through a historically grounded theo-ethical lens.

Upcoming Virtual Events

It was an honor to rejoin my friend, the incomparable , on her “For the Love” Podcast! This Juneteenth episode drops on June 17th. Stay tuned, y’all! This was one of those conversations that lived with me for the entire week following our time together. Rich, raw, informed, connected, and beautiful. Do not miss this and make a plan now to share it with everyone you know! It really is that good.

Upcoming In-Person Events

THE CLEARING: PHILADELPHIA: September 9, 2026. 9am-4pm ET.

THE CLEARING: RICHMOND: October 7, 2026. 9am-4pm ET.

This retreat is a pre-conference one-day gathering that is part of the CCDA Conference, Oct 7-9, 2026, in Richmond, VA. Registrants welcome to attend The Clearing-only or register for the larger conference. All are welcome. Hosted by FreedomRoad.us. Convened by CCDA.

Thank you , , , , , and many others for tuning into my live video with ! Join me for my next live video in the app.

Available for iOS and Android

Thanks for watching Kitchen Table Conversations with Lisa Sharon Harper! This post is public, so feel free to share it.

"They had never known freedom before, and yet..."

Lisa Sharon Harper — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 13:53:03 GMT

On June 8, 2026, at precisely 5pm local time, four consecutive weeks of Moral Monday protests began outside the White House at the top of Black Lives Matter Plaza. These were my reflections on my grandmother, Willa, and Voting Rights, delivered at the Public Pulpit.

I want to tell you a story.

My Grandmom, Willa Jenkins Lawrence, was born in 1909 in Camden, South Carolina. She came into the world 30 minutes from the state capitol, where the state flag, featuring a white Palmetto with a crescent moon, once had served as a symbol of secession.

When Willa was only 8 years old, her mother, Lizzie, left her and her brother with family members as she fled the mounting violence in South Carolina. They had to stay behind, because they were too dark to pass.

Willa earned her keep, working in the fields. She eventually worked as a domestic servant to rich white families in the area. We believe she was sexually assaulted there.

Flash forward to the 1940s and 50’s. Willa is a married homemaker with two small children in bitterly segregated Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In the 1950s—before the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and before the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965–Willa got off her butt and knocked on doors, making sure her South Philadelphia neighbors were registered to vote!

Willa knew something! She said, “We cannot do anything unless we can vote.”

My family members—people I knew—lived in pre-Voting Rights Act America! They suffered the violence and indignities that pushed millions to run north and break up Black families a second time!

They suffered the dehumanization of Jim Crow laws that declared to these people, made in the image of God, that they were not called and created to exercise agency in this land. No, they were created to be exploited for rich white men’s gain.

They survived the targeted racialized violence of fascism. They survived and overcame, having never really experienced freedom before!

And yet, they marched. And yet, they could taste freedom. And yet, they could see freedom.

Now the Voting Rights Act is dead—and we are living in a world with a legal structure much like the one that my vulnerable grandmother went door to door to end! The Voting Rights Act is dead—but we are not! We are here!

My grandmother’s blood courses through my veins. She calls me to gird up and stare down fascism in its snarling face. Our ancestors call us all to walk forward—together—in faith!

We cannot freeze! We must act!

We cannot freeze! We must gather the community!

We must knock on doors!

We must hold community meetings!

We must listen to each other’s stories and dreams for our families and our nation!

We have an opportunity here, and we must get ready for it!

It has all crashed to the ground now. And, as says, “We are the architects now!”

Now, in this 250th year of our nation, the founders’ flawed blueprint for slavocracy, Jerry-rigged into a multi-racial democracy, the whole thing is tumbling down.

NOW is our time to dream, design, and build the next America!

Let it be so, oh, Lord!

Amen.

Upcoming In-Person Events

Thursday-Sunday, September 3-6, 2026. Wild Goose Festival. Join me on Thursday, 9/3, for a full day of pre-festival Faith-Rooted Organizing Training with (founder and executive director, Faith in Democracy) and CeCe Jones Davis (national faith organizer and host of We Mend the World Podcast)! Plus, I will be on the mainstage in conversation with and will record a live podcast with CeCe Jones Davis on her Zoom meetings with white folks considering leaving MAGA. (Harmony, NC) It’s going to be a super-full, super-fun time. Don’t miss it! Hope to see you there!

THE CLEARING: PHILADELPHIA: September 9, 2026. 9am-4pm ET.

THE CLEARING: RICHMOND: October 7, 2026. 9am-4pm ET.

Thanks for reading The Truth Is...! This post is public so feel free to share it.

"Colbert," "Outlander," TV Endings and America250 | Kitchen Table Conversations with Lisa Sharon Harper

Lisa Sharon Harper — Fri, 22 May 2026 22:36:31 GMT

Television is one of the most powerful media on planet Earth. Societies are shaped and re-formed as we sit in front of flickering screens and journey with imaginary characters over long stretches of time. We don’t just watch. We experience. This is true of films, as well, but we don’t spend as much time with movie characters. We travel with them for two hours—then we move on. But television grabs our hands and walks us through a character’s journey over years and decades. They teach us deep. Think: “Will and Grace”. That roudy crew introduced America to the glorious, hilarious, humanity of the LGBTQIA+ community. Think: “Sex in the City.” Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte challenged the patriarchy, centering sex (not love) from a woman’s point of view for the first time in television history. And, ultimately, the show about sex taught us about love. And think: “Bridgerton.” Shondaland’s Bridgerton is helping us to imagine a world where dignity is for all.

So, when series breathe their last breaths in their final episodes, I pay attention. My PhD work is studying the power of television writers and producers to make theological and ethical meaning. This week, I watched two long-running shows breathe their last: “Outlander” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”. One is an epic drama spanning three continents and two centuries. The other is a live satirical talk show.

Join me at my Kitchen Table this episode while I share some theological and ethical meaning I gleaned from the final episodes of these very different shows. There is a lot more to be said, but you have to start somewhere, so, let’s dive in…

If you received from this Kitchen Table Conversation episode, please consider supporting my work by liking, commenting, sharing, and subscribing! Each small action you take to support the work helps others to find this conversation in their feeds. If you are already a free subscriber, please consider upgrading for only $6/mo (or $60/year). Each subscription helps sustain this critical work, making it possible to bring you Kitchen Table Conversations, essays, notes, and special projects like daily devotionals that help process the events of the day through a historically grounded theo-ethical lens.

Upcoming In-Person Events

Thursday-Sunday, September 3-6, 2026. Wild Goose Festival. Join me on Thursday, 9/3, for a full day of pre-festival Faith-Rooted Organizing Training with Rev. Jen Butler (founder and executive director, Faith in Democracy) and CeCe Jones Davis (national faith organizer and host of We Mend the World Podcast)! Plus, I will be on the mainstage in conversations with Grace Ji-Sun Kim and CeCe Jones Davis. Plus, I will offer a keynote on the “Beatitudes in Wilderness Times.” (Harmony, NC) This is a do-not-miss-it opportunity. Hope to see you there!

THE CLEARING: PHILADELPHIA: September 9, 2026. 9am-4pm ET.

This retreat is a pre-conference one-day retreat that is part of the Fishing Differently Conference, Sept 9-11, 2026, in Philadelphia, PA. Registrants can attend the Clearing-only or register for the larger conference. All are welcome. Hosted by FreedomRoad.us. Convened by Oikos Institute for Social Impact.

THE CLEARING: RICHMOND: October 7, 2026. 9am-4pm ET.

This retreat is a pre-conference one-day retreat that is part of the CCDA Conference, Oct 7-9, 2026, in Richmond, VA. Registrants welcome to attend The Clearing-only or register for the larger conference. All are welcome. Hosted by FreedomRoad.us. Convened by CCDA.

Thank you , , and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.

Available for iOS and Android

Thanks for watching Kitchen Table Conversations with Lisa Sharon Harper, a project of “The Truth Is...!” This post is public, so feel free to share it.

Alice Thomas Moore and Denise Thomas Holt (Foot Soldiers of the original Selma Movement) | Special Conversation with Lisa Sharon Harper)

Lisa Sharon Harper — Mon, 18 May 2026 15:14:21 GMT

Thank you , , and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.

Available for iOS and Android

Faya Toure (The National Voting Rights Museum and Institute) | Special Conversation with Lisa Sharon Harper

Lisa Sharon Harper — Mon, 18 May 2026 15:04:00 GMT

Nestled at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute chronicles and preserves public memory of the centuries-long struggle for true democracy in the United States of America. The struggle did not begin in Selma, but it was won there. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was won with the organized protests of Selma residents who had been trying to register to vote, thwarted by Jim Crow poll taxes, literacy tests, and threats to their livelihood. The Act was won by Selma citizens whose bodies absorbed the violence of Bloody Sunday on Edmund Pettus Bridge. And it was won with the solidarity of diverse faith leaders and people of good conscience who streamed to Selma in solidarity.

I visited the National Voting Rights Museum on my very first pilgrimage, back in 2003. In those days, white walls held original documents of Selma’s Voting Rights movement along with rudimentary educational displays that clarified the historical significance and procedures mandated by the Voting Rights Act. Now, 23 years later, in the shadow of the judicial assassination of the Act by the Republican majority of the Supreme Court, the updated displays stand as evidence of the possible—The Voting Rights Act is possible. We know it is, because we did it before. Now, we must organize to do it again.

Meet Faya Toure, Selma community leader and volunteer steward of the museum, which runs on volunteer power. She took time out during the All Roads Lead to the South activities to talk with us about the museum!

Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.

Available for iOS and Android

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My Prayer on Edmund Pettus Bridge

Lisa Sharon Harper — Sun, 17 May 2026 15:03:58 GMT

I was honored to be asked to offer a prayer at the conclusion of the All Roads Lead to the South march across Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge. This was my prayer…

The Beatitudes for Today

Lisa Sharon Harper — Thu, 14 May 2026 19:14:44 GMT

They are going after , the prolific UK-based photographer who documents the global struggle against oppression in hues of black-and-white. Four traditional UK press organizations recently published pieces that took Mr. Harriman’s words out of context and twisted them to frame his commentary as antisemitic. The Telegraph, The Daily Mail, GB News, and The…

Masala Chai Theology: Genealogy as Resistance with Lisa Sharon Harper

Lisa Sharon Harper — Wed, 13 May 2026 14:01:09 GMT

What a privilege to sit down with Fr. Joash for this important conversation. It’s not too late to join the course we talked about, Fortune: Genealogy, Revolution, and Repair! Class is in session NEXT WEEK! Register at the link below!

Let's do Summer School together!

Fortune: Genealogy, Revolution, and Repair

It’s not too late to register for this St. Stephen’s University Summer Course! Take it for credit or audit for super cheap. Come together with me and an international cohort each week this summer and learn the power of your family story—even the complicated parts—to heal the world!

Thank you , , , , , and many others for tuning into my live video with ! Join me for my next live video in the app.

Available for iOS and Android

Thanks for reading The Truth Is...! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Reflections on LaTosha Brown's "We Are The Architects Now" | Kitchen Table Conversations with Lisa Sharon Harper

Lisa Sharon Harper — Sat, 09 May 2026 01:30:18 GMT

Y’all, LaTosha Brown’s Substack Essay is a prophetic MUST READ. I was so fired up during this Kitchen Table Conversation reflecting on her analysis that I just about preached. (Yes, this is a MUST WATCH).

At the intersection of social justice, political empowerment, human development and the cultural arts one will find LaTosha Brown. As a catalyst for change, thought leader and social strategist, her national and global efforts have been known to organize, inspire and catapult people into action—not just lip service—enabling them to build power and wealth for themselves and their community. Recipient of numerous awards, including the 2010 White House Champion of Change Award, LaTosha is the co-founder of Black Voters Matter and the BVM Capacity Building Institute and is currently developing the Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium.

LaTosha was supposed to be with us, but was called away at the last minute. This is understandable for the Selma-born-and-raised cofounder of Black Voters Matter on the day after Alabama voted to erase the only two Black districts in Alabama. So, we did the next best thing—we reflected on LaTosha’s charge to us all in this new post-Democracy America.

In this episode, we discuss:

The viral video that revealed the author of Project2025 studied African American history for 30 years an,d what he found informed his strategy to dismantle democracy. His analysis found that Black women were the backbone of the Black community’s resilience in the Antebellum, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow eras. This helps us understand why Black women were so effectively and violently targeted for economic, social, and political disenfranchisement in 2025.
What exactly happened to the Voting Rights Act?
What can the Black community (and all newly unprotected minorities) expect? In short, think: Jim Crow—all of it—with impunity.
LaTosha’s declaration that “We did not fail.”
LaTosha’s short-term strategy: It’s about power, not pacifism, not party. In light of Black voters’ diminished status as a “leverage vote," I shared thoughts on LaTosha’s profound (and controversial) call for Black people to “leverage the hell out of” their choices in every election going forward.
Y’all, this is where I preached and threw down a warning to the Democratic Party for what they did in election 2024—they compromised people of color in favor of winning conservatives and independents. Shout out to Christina Edmondson, who was sitting in the Democratic Convention with Ekemini Uwan and me, and witnessed the compromise with us.
In light of LaTosha’s call to leverage our votes, I put the Democratic Party on notice. “We refuse to be compromised anymore.”
Talked about the need for a Freedom Summer 2026! Watch the film about Freedom Summer 1964 now!
Finally, we reflected on LaTosha’s call to reimagine and “architect” the new America!

It was a rich, enraged, inspired, informing conversation. Don’t miss it. And share it.

Read "We Are The Architects Now"

Read The Very Good Gospel

Read Fortune

If you received from this Kitchen Table Conversation, please consider supporting our work by liking, commenting, sharing, and subscribing! Each small action you take to support the work helps others to find this conversation in their feeds. If you are already a free subscriber, please consider upgrading for only $6/mo (or $60/year). Each subscription helps sustain this critical work, making it possible to bring you Kitchen Table Conversations, essays, notes, and special projects that process the events of the day through a historically grounded theo-ethical lens.

Join me at Wild Goose Festival!

Upcoming Live Events

Several live events are coming up! If you’re in town, I’d love to connect in person!

Thursday-Sunday, September 3-6, 2026. Wild Goose Festival. Join me on Thursday, 9/3, for a full day of pre-festival Faith-Rooted Organizing Training with Rev. Jen Butler (founder, Faith in Public Life)! Plus, I will be on the mainstage in conversation with Grace Ji-Sun Kim on Saturday morning, 9/4, and will offer a keynote on the same day! (Harmony, NC) Don’t miss it!

September 9, 2026. 9am-4pm ET. Host. The Clearing: An Intervention (Pre-conference one-day retreat. Part of the Fishing Differently Conference, Sept 9-11, 2026, in Philadelphia, PA) Hosted by FreedomRoad.us. Convened by Oikos Institute for Social Impact.

Come to The Clearing - Philly

October 7, 2026. 9am-4pm ET. Host. The Clearing: An Intervention (Pre-conference one-day retreat. Part of the CCDA Conference, Oct 7-9, 2026, in Richmond, VA) Hosted by FreedomRoad.us. Convened by CCDA.