The Growing Edge Podcast With Parker J. Palmer & Carrie Newcomer - April Special Guest Pastor/Author/Theologian Phillip Gulley
The Growing Edge Podcast With Carrie Newcomer & Parker J. Palmer
Episode 55: A Conversation with Author Philip Gulley
In this episode, Parker J. Palmer and Carrie Newcomer have a conversation with author/pastor/theologian Philip Gulley. Gulley is a pastor, an author, a source of wisdom and hope, and a clear and prophetic voice in progressive theology & spiritual activism in these challenging times. He has written 22 books, including the Harmony series recounting life in the eccentric Quaker community of Harmony, Indiana, several collections of essays including the best selling "Porch Talk", and a memoir called "I Love You, Miss Huddleston" which was a finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor. In addition, he has co-authored with James Mulholland several works of theology and progressive faith including "If Grace Is True" and "If God Is Love", followed by "If the Church Were Christian". Here’s a link for his books!
Phillip has recently joined the Substack platform with “Plain Talk: With Phillip Gulley.” We hope you’ll check out his many works and subscribe to his Substack offerings.
If you are interested in the archives of The Growing Edge Podcast you can find them on I-Tunes, Spotify, or on The Growing Edge Website!
This conversation was very timely for me. I’ve been increasingly disturbed by our current media’s amplification of voices in the Christian nationalist and MAGA Evangelical political movements. These two movements have never been spiritual movements, only political movements using the trappings of religious language. This amplification has made these strident voices the loudest in the room, leaving little air for more nuanced conversations about what it means to live into our deepest values during challenging times. So I was energized to be in conversation with Phil and Parker, who both speak with historical knowledge, great personal wisdom and human compassion, but also with clear prophetic voices that are so needed in our challenging times. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did!
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BOOK NEWS About Parker’s Healing The Heart of Democracy Updated Edition!
An updated edition of Parker’s book 2011 book Healing the Heart of Democracy is now available—with a Study Guide and author videos—just in time for the start of the 2024 election year. In this era of deep divides and threats to our democracy, many have found this book a practical and inspiring guide to citizen action. Order the book HERE—and if you know the book and feel so inclined, please leave a review.
To quote the book, “The democratic experiment is endless, unless we blow up the lab, and the explosives to do the job are found within us. But so also is the heart’s alchemy that can turn suffering into community, conflict into the energy of creativity, and tension into an opening toward the common good.”
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Today’s NYT has an article about how T closes his rally’s like a Christian church service. He spends about fifteen minutes in a toned down voice and says things like:
The great silent majority is rising like never before and under our leadership,” he recites from a teleprompter in a typical version of the script. “We will pray to God for our strength and for our liberty. We will pray for God and we will pray with God. We are one movement, one people, one family and one glorious nation under God.”
Evidently, this gross manipulation works.