Progressive Spirit

Carol Howard Merritt is an author, speaker, and minister who grew up in a white evangelical church and with an unpredictable and sometimes violent father.  These experiences shaped her view of a punitive, judgmental God.  She writes from personal experience and as professio... Read more

Not many congregations have two out lesbians as a clergy team.   They do that kind of thing in North Carolina.    Rev. Dr. Angela Yarber is a trailblazer.  She is author of several books that address the intersections among religion, the arts, gender and sexuality. She hold... Read more

Dr. Catherine Meeks is a retired professor of socio-cultural studies at Wesleyan College. She is the editor of the newly released book, Living Into God’s Dream: Dismantling Racism in America. From the publisher: This book is a report from the front, combining personal stor... Read more

Sister Maura Clarke, a Catholic nun and three other women were assassinated by the El Salvadoran government in December 1980. This was a government supported by the United States. What did Sister Maura do that resulted in her violent death? Under the context of Vatican II, ... Read more

Known as the superego or the judge, our inner critic is the voice in our heads that is hypercritical of everything we do and of who we are. The inner critic shames us and debilitates us. How do we become free of the inner critic?  The answer is mindfulness, awareness, compa... Read more

Host John Shuck of KBOO in Portland, Oregon speaks with Penpa Tsering, the new Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the Office of Tibet, based in Washington DC. He was elected to this post in May. Previously he was a member of the Tibetan Parliament in exile whe... Read more

The Kamasutra brings to mind (and to Google searches) erotic and exotic sexual positions.   OK, it is that.  But it is much more.  It is about the art of living.   Wendy Doniger, Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions at the University of ... Read more

Robert Jensen is a professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas.  He returns to Progressive Spirit to discuss his book, Plain Radical: Living, Loving, and Learning to Leave the Planet Gracefully.  He calls this book a "polemical memoir" in that it is a s... Read more

Sue Monk Kidd has written several novels including The Secret Life of Bees, The Mermaid Chair, and The Invention of Wings.   Before the novels was the story of Sue Monk Kidd’s own journey, the Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman’s Journey from Christian Tradition to th... Read more

When many think of Tarot cards they think of a gypsy in a tent telling some rube that there is a stranger, tall, dark and handsome in her future. But Tarot is much more than fortune-telling and hocus pocus. It is a fun way to discover the “deep self.” Host John Shuck speaks... Read more