Intersections with Phil Allen, Jr.

Episode: 027 “Breaking White Evangelical Silence”

Airdate: April 19, 2021

Length: 1:08:03

Guests: Dr. Susan Maros, PhD

This is a special episode for me. This week’s guest, Dr. Susan Maros, has been investing in my educational journey for almost fourteen years now. She was my professor in my first undergraduate class in 2007 when I embarked on this theological journey. She taught me what leadership was all about from a theological perspective.

In this episode she talks about everything from leadership to discerning calling to “white followship.”  She draws from her life as a missionary kid when her parents served in Brazil and her own experiences in ministry and as a professor. You will sense both her humility and boldness when she offers her views on issues of race and the church’s role and responsibility in it.

This conversation will encourage you in terms of discerning God’s calling for your life, but it will also challenge you in terms of connecting that calling to social/racial issues. She thoughtfully engages the complicit silence that the white evangelical church has been guilty of when it comes to their response (or non-response) to racism and white supremacy. Her counsel and challenge is to break the silent complicity to the injustices we are witnessing and experiencing.

I invite you to listen, be encouraged, be challenged and reflect on her words in this episode.

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Phil Allen, Jr. is a Los Angeles-based pastor, social justice activist, filmmaker and author. Allen’s book Open Wounds explores the murder of Nate Allen—Phil Allen’s grandfather—in the Jim Crow era of South Carolina and how that traumatic event resonated through generations of his family. Open Wounds – which is based on the Allen-produced documentary of the same name – was published on February 9, 2021. The book can be purchased on Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, or Fortress Press.com. Allen is a Ph.D. student studying Christian ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA.