In this episode of The Convocation Unscripted, we wrestle in real time with two competing visions of America unfolding side-by-side. On one hand, we discuss the “Rededicate 250” event and the growing effort to frame the United States as a distinctly Christian nation rooted in white Christian nationalist mythology. On the other hand, we reflect on “All Roads Lead to the South,” a contemporary voting rights pilgrimage through Montgomery and Selma that reminds us democracy has always required organized resistance, moral courage, and collective action.

We connect the current political moment to deeper historical currents: the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act, the myth of “Christian America,” the weaponization of religious liberty rhetoric, and the ways memory and public history shape our understanding of democracy itself. Along the way, we talk about political performance art in Washington, DC, the emotional and spiritual weight of visiting civil rights landmarks, and why this moment increasingly feels like the Civil Rights Movement of our generation.

As always, this conversation is unscripted, historically grounded, and deeply engaged with the urgent questions shaping religion, culture, and politics in America today.

• The Supreme Court’s continued dismantling of voting rights protections
• The significance of Selma, Montgomery, and “All Roads Lead to the South”
• The “Rededicate 250” event and the resurgence of Christian nationalist rhetoric
• The myth of “Christian America” and why it remains politically powerful
• How public memory and historical storytelling shape democracy
• Political performance art, protest, and creative resistance
• The difference between patriotism and nationalism
• Why this political moment echoes earlier struggles for civil rights and democratic participation

• The Search for Christian America by Mark Noll, Nathan Hatch, and George Marsden

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This week, we talk about the dismay our friends in Canada and other nations are expressing about the decline of America as a good neighbor. We also talk about two events that are taking place this weekend: 1) Jemar is attending the “All Roads Lead to the South” event, a day of action in Selma in response to the dismantling of the voting rights act; and 2) Robby is attending the Trump administration’s Christian nationalist event called “Rededicate 250” that is taking place this Sunday on the National mall in Washington, DC. Diana gives some hopeful examples of how Virginia, home to the former capitol of the Confederacy, is honestly facing the troubling parts of its past while illuminating a new path forward.

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In this live episode, we talk about the hollowing out of the Voting Rights Act that the U.S. Supreme Court has accomplished with its recent LOUISIANA v. CALLAIS ET AL. ruling. The court’s conservative majority found that the Louisiana district represented by Democrat Cleo Fields relied too heavily on race. In its wake, a number of southern states with white Republican-dominated legislatures have raced to redraw their electoral maps to further dilute the power of African American voters. We talk about the perfect storm of the erasure of history, faulty logic, and gaslighting that is turning the clock back on voting rights for Black Americans and what we can do in response. And we took viewers questions on a wide range of topics in the last half of the show.

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The White House released a report on so-called “anti-Christian bias.” But who counts as Christian in these claims?

Diana, Kristin, and Jemar discuss how this regime is narrowing the definition of Christianity to a particular ideological and political express, while positioning that version as under threat.

This is not about defending religious freedom, it’s about reframing power as persecution.

Then we turn to the Voting Rights Act and how the latest decision from the conservative majority on the Supreme Court renders it all but a dead letter law.

The justices’ claim to colorblindness actually ignores the historical conditions that made an intervention like the VRA necessary in the first place. The ruling is part of a pattern on the far-right to view structures built to address racial inequality as unfair while leaving the inequalities themselves in place.

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In this week's episode of TCU, we talk about Trump's participation in a public reading of the Bible, sponsored by a white evangelical group, where he read II Chronicles 7:14, a favorite of Christian nationalists. We also talk about the continued platforming of self-described Christian nationalist, "paleo-Confederate" pastor Doug Wilson not only by the likes of Pete Hegseth but by more mainstream outlets in the evangelical world. But we also review his recent dressing down by Wajahat Ali on the Piers Morgan show. Finally, we talk about the ways local churches are banding together to advocate for and serve immigrants who have been wrongfully detained by ICE.

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On parallel channels over the last two weeks, we’ve witnessed Hegseth’s dangerous holy war rants, Vance’s arrogant lecturing Pope Leo XIV on Catholic theology, and Trump’s direct attacks on the pope, followed by an unhinged promotion of an AI image of himself as Jesus. Just typical post-Easter weeks in the MAGA era. In this week's Convocation Unscripted, we were joined LIVE by nearly 300 in TCU community. Tune in to hear a rich conversation based on your questions.

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On this episode, the Convocation team talks about the large new survey by that demonstrates that most Americans want a more humane approach to immigration policy and do not support indiscriminate mass deportation, the construction of concentration camps on U.S. soil, and the increasingly aggressive and violent tactics of ICE. Jemar gives a preview of his new short documentary, “Jesus Was a Migrant.” For the film, he traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border to examine the theological crisis at the heart of American Christianity — and what it means when a nation built on faith turns its back on the most vulnerable. We wrap with theological reflections about the abandonment of any pretense of trying to make government humane by this administration in both domestic and foreign policy.

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On this episode we talk about the recent bombshell story from the New York Times, “Cesar Chavez, a Civil Rights Icon, Is Accused of Abusing Girls for Years.” We note that these stories of men abusing women and children cut across ideology and reflect a broader brokenness in our culture. But we note that one thing that matters always: how institutions react when these kinds of credible, corroborated allegations come to light. Do they take them seriously or protect the powerful men at the top. We also talk about the new Varieties of Democracy (full V-Dem report here) that shows the massive decline in the United States as a liberal democracy over the past year under the Trump administration, which has by these metrics wiped out 60 years of democratic progress. Finally, we talk about the Republican push to pass the so-called SAVE Act, whose draconian voter identification measures would dramatically restrict the ability especially of women to vote.

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