Saved by the City

There's even an ICE Nativity. Baby Jesus in zip ties. Mary and Joseph in gas masks. Roman centurions wearing ICE vests. This December, nativity scenes are getting political. Lake Street Church in Evanston, Illinois sparked national attention with their ICE-themed nativity. Sean Hannity called it "woke" and a "war on Christmas." The Daily Show covered it. But it's just one example of clergy around the country participating in immigration activism — getting arrested outside detention centers, accompanying people to immigration hearings, taking food and the Eucharist to migrants too afraid to leave their homes. On this episode, Katelyn and Roxy talk with one clergy person, Michael Woolf, who has long been involved in immigrant activism and who was recently arrested outside an ICE detention center near Chicago. His church was responsible for the aforementioned provocative nativity and he believes clergy should be willing to put their bodies on the line in this moment. We are also joined by RNS reporter Jack Jenkins, who has been reporting on clergy efforts to resist ICE around the country. GUESTS: The Rev. Michael Woolf is a senior minister of Lake Street Church of Evanston, Illinois, and the author of “Sanctuary and Subjectivity: Thinking Theologically About Whiteness and Sanctuary Movements.” He also has an upcoming book, "Confronting Islamophobia in the Church: Liturgical Tools for Justice," co-written with his wife, Ana Piela. Jack Jenkins is a national reporter for Religion News Service and has covered immigration issues and progressive clergy for a decade at least, including in his book on the religious left: "American Prophets: The Religious Roots of Progressive Politics and the Ongoing Fight for the Soul of the Country." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Exploring the mystical, the skeptical, and the spiritually surprising with Ross Douthat. What’s your woo level? In this episode, Katelyn and Roxy run through their most mystical instincts—angels, ghosts, manifesting, energies, astrology—and ask whether modern Christians have grown a little too allergic to spiritual experience. Then New York Times columnist and UFO enthusiast Ross Douthat joins to talk about the persistence of the supernatural, why he thinks religion is still the most rational bet, and the dangers of patchwork spirituality. A funny, curious, and unexpectedly grounding conversation about what might be lurking just beyond the empirical. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is it the holy spirit or is it a ponytail facelift? What does it even mean anymore to age with grace in the era of deep plane facelifts and eyelid surgeries and celebrity procedures that have women looking 40 years younger? On this episode of the podcast, Katelyn and Roxy wrestle with tensions and fears about aging ... about why our faces just do not look like our faces in the mirror anymore. And we ask: Is "having some work done" becoming inevitable? Instagram and TikTok are full of posts on the dramatic changes these procedures can create — and they are no longer limited to celebrities. Social media is showing us just how accessible — and gosh darn effective — today's cosmetic procedures have become. But at what cost? Certainly at the cost of tens of thousands of dollars. But what else are we losing if we refuse to grow old? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The one where our BoOoOos take over ... We're at the height of spooky season, and what could be spookier than two dudes talking theology? Just kidding, Roxy and Katelyn love the two men who are taking over SBTC this week!John Schmidt, Roxy's husband, returns to talk preaching, Fleabag, and lady editors with Jack Brownfield, who is also an Episcopal priest as well as Katelyn's fiancé. John and Jack discuss their respective callings to pastoral ministry, expectations others may have for priests' wives, and some relationship tips John and Roxy have learned in their first year-plus of marriage. Jack also recounts his and Katelyn's meet cute, and the boys get both sporty and nerdy by doing a play-by-play with their favorite dead theologians.Don't be scared, Katelyn and Roxy will be back ... after they're done taking over John's and Jack's pulpits. GUESTS: The Rev. John Schmidt is the associate rector at Church of the Epiphany in Manhattan. He has broad experience leading teams and communities across difference, especially individuals experiencing food and housing insecurity, and those justice-impacted. He has a deep love of liturgy and people, especially when a community fashions a common life around practices and habits that lead to loving one another and their neighbors well. The Rev. Jack Brownfield is an associate rector at St Michael's of the Valley outside Pittsburgh. Jack is passionate about preaching and teaching the Good News of God’s free grace toward the world and listening to God’s Word as it is spoken to each of us, here and now. He enjoys connecting theology and history to our lives in the real world, so these subjects are not just shut up in books but make a difference for how we love and trust God and live with one another. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you there God? It's me, Mushrooms ... Katelyn and Roxy are what researchers would call "psychedelically naïve." As in, we've never gone on a hallucinogenic trip before. But we're not necessarily psychedelically negative -- we're fascinated by how many people are using psychedelics for spiritual purposes. So when a new study released this summer from Johns Hopkins and NYU on the effects of psilocybin — as in magic mushrooms — on clergy, we knew we had to do an episode on it. We're guided through this episode by RNS reporter Kathryn Post, who has been talking with the clergy participants of the study for years about their experiences. And, as she notes in her reporting, those experiences were overwhelmingly positive — 96% of the 24 participants retroactively rated one of their psilocybin experiences among the top five most spiritually significant of their lives. We're also joined by one of the clergy participants, Rabbi Zac Kamenetz, who in the years since the study has gone on to found his own organization to support "Jewish psychedelic explorers" around the world. GUESTS Kathryn Post is a Pittsburgh-based reporter for RNS covering topics such as Gen Z spirituality, pop culture and abuse in religious contexts. Zac Kamenetz is a rabbi, community educator, artist and aspiring psychedelic chaplain. He is the founder and CEO of Shefa, which works to create spaces for healing and self-discovery in community by integrating Jewish wisdom with psychedelic practices. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices