7 - Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove - What Does Love Look Like in Public?

The Ferment

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is a southern-bred preacher, a New Monastic, and a street-level activist. His disciplined life of prayer has driven him straight into the public square as a leader in North Carolina’s Moral Monday movement, a movement that has now morphed into a nation-wide poor people’s campaign, Repairers of the Breach.

In a wide-ranging, candid conversation, Jonathan offers a compelling argument for faith-based political engagement, a punchy deconstruction of the Religious Right he once served as a foot soldier, lessons from the Black church in challenging the “bullhorn racism” of Donald Trump, and a hopeful vision for a grassroots ecumenism coming together as Christendom falls apart.

Welcome to this episode with Jonathan, named for a burning question that drives his work and witness: “What Does Love Look Like in Public?”

Note: Some time has passed since the original interview. The monthly podcast of “The Gathering” of the Repairer’s of the Breach has run its course along with the campaign of focused action that ran in spring and summer of 2018. But the content is still worth checking out. The issues remain and the fight for justice carries on.

Episode References:

• Reba Place Fellowship
• Koinonia Farm
• Rutba House
• Benedictines
• St. Benedict’s Monastery
• Andrew Nikiforuk, journalist & author of:
  • Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent
  • The Energy of Slaves: Oil and the New Servitude
• Rev. William Barber II
• Wild Goose Festival
• Strom Thurmond and the Dixiecrats
• Ivan Illich on houses of hospitality – check out “The Corruption of Christianity, Part 1,” one of a series of interviews with Ivan Illich by David Cayley.
• Book of Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, by Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove, Shane Claiborne and Enuma Okoro