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This week on Uprising:

* All My Bones Shake: Seeking a Progressive Path to the Prophetic Voice – a one hour special with Robert Jensen

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Hello and a very happy new year to all of you.

The decade that just ended was characterized the world over and especially here in the United States by the tenure of President George W Bush, who many have hailed as being the worst president in the history of the nation. One major hallmark of Bush’s presidency was the proximity of religion, especially fundamentalist Christianity into the halls of government. At the same time there are wars still being fought against forces riding the wave of resurgent fundamentalist Islam on the other side of the globe. In this context there has been a much needed public discourse on religion. Books written by self-professed atheists like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris have sharply criticized the irrationality of organized religion and how it leads to conflict and violence. Countering the rigidity of these writers, journalist Chris Hedges wrote the book I Don’t Believe in Atheists. Now, Journalism professor and activist Robert Jensen has added a book to the discussion. It’s called All My Bones Shake: Seeking a Progressive Path to the Prophetic Voice. In it Jensen tells the story of how and why he joined a progressive Presbyterian church after a life-time of shunning religion. In this speech given on October 21st 2009 at the University of Southern California, Jensen explains his motivations as a “secular Christian,” or even a “Christian atheist” as he has described himself, and how it relates to his social justice activism. Special thanks to Global Voices for Justice for providing this recording.

GUEST: Robert Jensen, Professor of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, author of several books including Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity, Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity, and The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege

Find out more about Global Voices for Justice at www.gvfj.org.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day:

“One way or another, we all have to find what best fosters the flowering of our humanity in this contemporary life, and dedicate ourselves to that.” — Joseph Campbell