In this Newsletter
All Eyes on Rafah
The Gaza Call
Christ at the Checkpoint
Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimages Phase 2
Lisa on Heretic Happy Hour
Truth Listening Webinar now available
On the Freedom Road Podcast
Build a Better World
Subscribers Calls
Global Writers Group
Fly
All Eyes on Rafah
“Just carry your son and run, we don’t have anything with us,” said one man, Mohammad al-Hadad. Some who fled overnight were able to return Friday, throwing their belongings atop vehicles or wagons pulled by donkeys and setting off.
“We do not know where we can go,” said a woman, Ghada Qudeh. “Since yesterday, we have not found food or drink.” She said her family fled after Israeli forces fired missiles at a house where they were sheltering Thursday.
The Gaza Call
TDear Fellow Disciples of Jesus,
We are a community of Christians from around the world who are writing to you with heavy hearts. From our countries, we are watching with horror as a crisis has unfolded in Palestine/Israel. Since October 7, 2023, 1,139 Israeli Jews and more than 37,000 Palestinian Gazans have been killed. In the West Bank, more than 500 Palestinians have been killed, including many women and children. We condemn all of it. And yet, we see again and again how Christian leaders, theologians, institutions, and churches around the world have not only failed to call out their governments, which support Israel’s military, but also have been incapable of calling Israel out for what is clearly the utter devastation of Gaza and the dramatic loss of life there. Followers of Jesus in Palestine, the United Nations, and the International Court of Justice have identified Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank as ethnic cleansing and a plausible genocide. The Pope named Israel’s assault on Gaza as “terrorism.” We are appealing to you, imploring you to ask how God sees this litany of destruction and death, and what Christ requires of you…
Read the rest and add your name to the open letter here!Christ at the Checkpoint
From Lisa: I’m here in Palestine and it’s already been a profound gathering of theologians and practitioners engaged in the faith-rooted work of liberation for all peoples. We are wrestling with the ways that Christianity (think: imperial religion) has fed and justified genocide, apartheid and occupation and the ways that brown, colonized Jesus has and is making ways toward liberation.
I have been asked to share what compelled me, an African American follower of Jesus, to engage the Palestinian liberation struggle early in this current darkness. So, I will share a message from my book, The Very Good Gospel.
Learn more about the conference: https://christatthecheckpoint.bethbc.edu/
Lisa’s talk at Christ at the Checkpoint starts at 35:07:
Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimages Phase 2
PILGRIMAGE TO PLACES OF POWER
Launched with a pilgrimage in Occupied East Jerusalem with Palestinian Christians and international Christians in solidarity, we have the same message - Come, walk with us! 🚶🏼♂️🚶🏾♀️🚶🏿
In Phase 2, we are inviting people to pilgrimage to the office of their elected officials; to pilgrimage to places of power. Our Core Convictions and demands remain the same:
1. Enduring and Sustained Ceasefire.
2. Immediate flow of life saving food, water, aid, fuel and humanitarian assistance.
3. Release of all hostages – both the Israeli hostages held by Hamas – and the Palestinian hostages held in the Israeli prison system.
4. End of occupation so a just-peace can begin.
Organiser! Organise ✊🏼🇵🇸
Heretic Happy Hour
Lisa was a guest on the Heretic Happy Hour Podcast, listen to the clips below then listen to the whole episode!
On the Freedom Road Podcast
Build a Better World: A Learning Community from Freedom Road
Have you read one of Lisa Sharon Harper’s books? Or one of the books from our Global Writers’ Group authors? Have you been a part of one of Freedom Road’s Webinars either live or purchased one on demand? We have just launched a learning community on Facebook for anyone who wants to chat with like-minded people about the material they’ve been reading or watching.
Join us today and we will grow together to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly into a better world!
Join the Facebook Group
To make things easier in these difficult times where everything seems to be more expensive, we have lowered our individual pricing on all our courses to make them accessible to more people. And don’t forget there’s a couple of free offerings to get you started as well! Check out our institute page and the course archive now.
Rather read a book? Check out The Very Good Gospel: How Everything Wrong Can be Made Right or Fortune: How Race Broke my Family and the World… and How to Repair it All both by Lisa Sharon Harper.
Or check out the list of books written in our Global Writers’ Group here.
2024 Subscribers’ Calls
Every quarter, Lisa sits down with our subscribers and patrons and chats about different things going on in the world.
If you are a paid subscriber to Substack or a Patreon patron at the James Farmer level or above, you are invited to participate in a quarterly call with Lisa Sharon Harper.
If you aren’t a subscriber or Patron, upgrade your subscription today, or join our Patreon!
Mark your calendars now, and you’ll get an email prompting you to register closer to the each date:
August 8, 2024 at 8pm Eastern
November 14, 2024 at 8pm Eastern
Fly
Download Fly now on Apple or Amazon Music or stream on Spotify and take it with you wherever you go!
Global Writer’s Group
Since April of 2020 as the world closed down, the Global Writer’s Group has been meeting via zoom every Saturday, with time off only for Christmas and New Years. Early in our time together, Lisa Sharon Harper charged the group with the task of “writing a new world into existence” and over time we have truly seen this in action. We have taken on the task of changing the world, and of course what changed first was ourselves. We as a group have become better writers over this time, but also better people, finding true community in the sacred sharing of ourselves with each other and the world.
We accept members on a rolling basis: it’s never too late to join the community. Prepare to find your life changed for the better as you sharpen your writing skills and prepare to bring your words to the world.
Collectively, we have published six books, have several writers who’ve recently become agented and/or are under contract for upcoming books, and many, many journal articles over the past three years with several more books in the works.
The Narrative Gap, as coined by Lisa Sharon Harper, is the distance between the stories that we tell ourselves about ourselves, including how we got here and what it will take to make things right. In our world today, competing narratives vie for our loyalty, dividing society and the church, therefore making justice impossible. Our mission is help communities shrink the narrative gap, by identifying core issues and building community capacity so they might work toward common solutions for a just world. Here on the Freedom Road Substack, we can converse together on ways to shrink that narrative gap and help ensure everyones’ stories are told.
Connect
Freedom Road Instagram | Facebook | Threads | Website | Patreon | Podcast