Podcasts about grants pass

Open phones and topics start the hour, we wrap on the homelessness issue with Grants Pass council president Victoria Marshall discussing how we got to this latest lawsuit, community meeting explaining this on Monday, 6pm, answering your questions.

This week on Everything You Didn't Know About Herbalism, we are joined by our long-time beloved friends, farm partners, and stewards of the regenerative organic farming movement, Elise and Jeff Higley. Tune in with Tommy, Elise, and Jeff, as they explore what it means to be a Regenerative Organic Certified® farmer and how we must grow alongside the movement of regenerative agriculture for the preservation of our food systems and the future of our planet. Elise and Jeff also share about the upcoming Oshala Herb Camp, which is weekend campout hosted in the breathtaking landscape of Grants Pass, Oregon on July 27 – 29.  Filled with classes on medicine making, materia medica, botanical crafting, and hands-on experience for what life on an herb farm is like, Oshala Herb Camp weaves agriculture, herbalism, and sustainability into one to create a weekend of community building with plant-lovers from all walks of life. Be sure to check out the hyperlink above or detailed links included below to learn more about this invaluable opportunity!   Learn more about Oshala Farm and the farmers behind it below! ⬇️

For the last year, Grants Pass has been at the center of a national conversation about where people who are homeless can stay. A lawsuit brought against the city by a group of homeless people had made its way all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court: Grants Pass v. Johnson. Last June, the court released a six-to-three decision finding that it is not cruel or unusual punishment to penalize people for living outdoors even if they have nowhere else to go.But that ruling was not an end to legal battles about homelessness in Grants Pass or around the country. Earlier this year, after the city council closed one of its two sanctioned camp sites, a new lawsuit was filed, leading a judge to order another injunction -- and the city council to re-open one of those sites.Scott Nelson is the board president of MINT, a homeless services nonprofit. Susan Clark is the executive director of Mid Rogue Foundation, a nonprofit focused on housing. Indra Nicholas is a city councilor and small business owner.  Brock Spurgeon is a tile contractor and one of the founders of Park Watch Grants Pass. They joined us in front of a live audience to talk about homelessness at the Performing Arts Center at Grants Pass High School on April 29

Terry Hopkins | President & CEO, Grants Pass Chamber of Commerce: Grants Pass native Terry Hopkins has returned to his roots after a diverse hospitality career across five states. With over 25 years of business ownership and management experience in Southern Oregon, Terry recently spent 5 years as a business advocate with the Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association. Married for 20+ years with two sons, Terry is passionate about community service, having served on numerous Chamber and city committees. He's excited to join the Grants Pass & Josephine County Chamber of Commerce team to advocate for local businesses and enhance community development. thopkins@grantspasschamber.org  |  541-956-4100  

Keep an eye out for me appearing in an Internet ad near your screen! My Insane FL Nephew, "Pancho Guero" takes his health kick to a new low--the sewer--by drinking "poop water". And besides our own stupidity, we have more from the rest of the world!In this Episode...DNA Testing Service 23andMe Files for Bankruptcy–DELETE Your DATA!Twin Brothers Marry Twin Sisters in Double Wedding, Go on Joint Honeymoon(OOPS!)...A Flight Had to Turn Around Over the Pacific Because a PILOT Forgot His Passport(Airplane Purgatory?) Unplanned 8-Hour 'Flight to Nowhere' Leaves Passengers Stuck Where They 1st StartedNational Weather Service Seemingly Captures Photo of Bigfoot During a PA Storm SurveyAZ Teacher Arrested After Peeing Into A Can–In Front Of His ClassA Guy Showed Up at the ER with His Girlfriend's Hand Stuck in His MouthWoman Born White Says She Identifies As Black…& She's Moving To AfricaPancho will also reply to a couple of questions about honesty...if we're really being honest... And test your stupidity against Pancho's in the weekly Insane Game Show to figure out if by going to Miss Cassidey's in Grants Pass, Oregon you're going to a "Strip Club" or a "Daycare"!

We were honored to have Kate Newton join us in the studio to share her powerful journey to Christ. Hailing from Grants Pass, OR much of Kate's story unfolds in her hometown. Growing up, her parents managed a trailer park that also welcomed RVs, creating an environment where she encountered people from all walks of life. While this upbringing brought a variety of experiences, it also exposed Kate to the harsh realities of crime, including instances of violence and even murder. Tragically, the concept of death became all too familiar. When Kate was just 11 years old, her world was shattered when her 16-year-old brother died in a devastating car accident involving a train. The heartbreak fractured her family, leaving Kate to navigate her teenage years largely on her own. She recalls feeling more like a roommate to her parents than a daughter, shouldering the weight of grief in isolation. Adopting a mindset of “if you're going to die, you might as well live,” she turned to partying in search of distraction and meaning. Though she occasionally attended church with a boyfriend in her early adulthood, faith didn't yet hold a significant place in her life. By the age of 25, Kate was facing financial struggles after college and found herself working at a health food store. Her coworkers formed an unusual trio — a prostitute, a self-proclaimed white witch, and an older Christian woman named Sandy. It was through these circumstances that God began to stir something within her. Sandy quickly became a guiding presence in Kate's life. Eventually, Kate moved into a room in Sandy's home, and their friendship deepened. It was there, with Sandy by her side, that Kate made the life-changing decision to give her heart to Christ. In an instant, God became undeniably real — present, active, and faithful. Kate shared remarkable stories of how God consistently showed up in her darkest moments, offering comfort and provision. Her testimony serves as a reminder that no matter the struggle — anxiety, fear, loss, or grief — we can trust in Jesus. Her encouragement to listeners is simple yet profound: place your trust fully in Him, because He is always faithful.Want to share your story on The Stories Collective podcast in 2025? Email sarah@dscchurch.comWould you please subscribe and leave us a review? This will help our podcast reach more people! We'd love it if you'd share this podcast with your friends on social media and beyond. Join us next Wednesday to hear another story of God's faithfulness!

Grants Pass, Oregon became the unlikely centerpoint of a Supreme Court case that answers whether cities have the right to move homeless encampments from public property.Order Sharyl's new bestselling book: “Follow the $cience.” Subscribe to my two podcasts: “The Sharyl Attkisson Podcast” and “Full Measure After Hours.” Leave a review, subscribe and share with your friends! Support independent journalism by visiting the new Sharyl Attkisson store.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Leaders Who Create Culture: Michael Bahn is a familiar voice on The Table podcast. Join Jason Squires as he and Michael talk about creating culture in a business or organization with multiple locations. Michael is on staff at River Valley Church in Grants Pass, OR. River Valley is a network of churches and part of Michael's role is to help create a cohesive culture amongst the different campuses.

Three lawyers walk into a bar. Megan Mack and Greg Jones, both Partners at the local government law firm, Ancel Glink, joined the podcast to talk about recent cases impacting local governments. They discussed the Supreme Court ruling affecting camping bans in Grants Pass v. Johnson. They talked about two zoning cases involving a challenge from residents about a proposed wind farm and a church claiming religious discrimination because it had to apply for a special use permit. Lastly, they discussed an equal protection case involving a municipality's interactions with a property owner. They also shared the partnership their firm has had with the Chicago Metro Section of the American Planning Association (APA) Illinois Chapter. Host: Dan Bolin

The debate over whether cities and states have the right to criminally punish people experiencing homelessness for sleeping in public. With a decision from the Supreme Court looming on whether cities and states will have the right to criminally punish people experiencing homelessness for sleeping in public, many are divided on what that decision should be. Tonight, Dr. Phil will hear from people experiencing homelessness themselves, and learn why they are strongly against being criminalized. Plus, the debate continues as Donald Whitehead (Executive Director of the National Coalition for the Homeless), Matt Mackowiak (Co-founder of Save Austin Now), Michele Steeb (Senior Fellow with the Texas Public Policy) and residents of Grants Pass, (a town that has gained national attention because of a court case between local homeless individuals and the city), debate the solutions to the homelessness epidemic. Thank you to our sponsors: PureHealth Research: Head over to https://PureHealthResearch.com  and save 35% with code PHIL Jase Medical: Go to https://Jase.com  and enter code PHIL at checkout Preserve Gold: Visit: https://drphilgold.com/   Get a FREE precious metals guide that contains essential information on how to help protect your accounts. Text “DRPHIL” to 50505 to claim this exclusive offer from Preserve Gold today.  

The debate over solutions to homelessness heats up; is criminalization an answer?  Grants Pass is a smaller community, nestled in the beautiful backdrop of southern Oregon, that has many residents claiming there has been an explosion of homelessness, leaving their idyllic community unsafe. Grants Pass has gained national attention because of a court case between local homeless individuals and the city. At the heart of the matter is whether it is cruel and unusual punishment for the city to arrest or fine people for sleeping outside in public, even with just a pillow or blanket, when there is no safe shelter available. The case has gone all the way to the Supreme Court, with a decision coming soon, and potentially having national implications on whether cities can criminalize those with no other option but to sleep in public. Dr. Phil sent his team to Grants Pass to speak with residents and people experiencing homelessness to see firsthand what is going on.  Dr. Phil will speak with residents Missy and Brock who claim the rise in homelessness has left many residents scared due to the rampant drug use, crime, and even physical assaults on residents. The debate over whether to criminalize people experiencing homelessness sleeping in public heats up when Dr. Phil invites two experts on opposite sides of the issue; Donald Whitehead (Executive Director of the National Coalition for the Homeless) and Matt Mackowiak (Co-founder of Save Austin Now). Plus, Dr. Phil speaks with Dion, a young man who is currently experiencing homelessness and says criminalizing the things needed to survive on the street is not the answer. Thank you to our sponsors: Jase Medical: Go to https://Jase.com  and enter code PHIL at checkout FYSI: Visit https://FYSI.com/DRPHIL  or call 800-877-4000 Preserve Gold: Visit: https://drphilgold.com/   Get a FREE precious metals guide that contains essential information on how to help protect your accounts. Text “DRPHIL” to 50505 to claim this exclusive offer from Preserve Gold today.  

Listen as Manny Velazquez of The House of Glory here in Grants Pass, Oregon shares his amazing story of going from New Age beliefs to belief in Jesus. As he asks the Lord to humble him without tragedy and to make him usable.

March 8, 2025Today's Reading: Introit for Lent 1 - Psalm 91:9-13; antiphon: Psalm 91:15-16Daily Lectionary: Genesis 3:1-24; Mark 2:1-17“He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” (Psalm 91:11)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.Coming up tomorrow is the Temptation of Jesus. We will hear the devil tempt our Savior three times. In one of those temptations, Satan will quote Psalm 91, part of which will be the Introit tomorrow morning. He will argue that Jesus should throw Himself down because the Lord “will command His angels concerning you.” But the devil leaves out what the command will be, skipping forward to just the results. But the command is important. It is “to guard you in all your ways.” Stepping off of the pinnacle of the temple is the epitome of an unguarded way. But ways are more than just a footpath you might take your feet on. The ‘way' in which you live is also meant. That presents us with a problem and Satan with an opportunity. Because we sin. We fall short. We fail when faced with temptation. And for those few short moments where we thought, maybe, that we succeeded, the temptation grows only stronger the next time we face it. Then evil befalls us, and plagues come near our tents.But the devil accidentally points something out to us. This Psalm is about Jesus. Because it's Jesus who treads on the adder. It's Jesus who tramples the young serpent underfoot. Jesus crushes the devil's head, that ancient serpent, while Satan bruises His heel. Jesus' feet nailed to a cross. Crucified to overthrow the accusations of the accuser forever. In doing that, all those sins have been taken away. All those failed temptations have been forgiven. Jesus has become your way, and He's the one who keeps you on His path. He has forgiven you. He has given you repentance. He has given you hope. He has given you resurrection. He has given you eternal life. And now, when temptation's hour comes, you have an advocate. You have Jesus fighting by your side. You don't need to face these things alone. You have Christ, who has overcome your temptation already right here with you. And with Him He brings His Church. You have brothers and sisters in Christ who have also faced those temptations, fallen to those temptations, and have been likewise rescued by Christ. Do not forget their wisdom and experience, for they didn't get through it alone, either. Jesus Christ has overcome temptation for you. He has won life, forgiveness, and salvation for you. And He walks with you even now on your way.In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.O Christ, You walked the road Our wand'ring feet must go. Stay with us through temptation's hour To fight our ancient foe. (LSB 424:5)-Rev. Eli Davis, pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Grants Pass, OR.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.Visit the timeless rhythms of the Christian life with award-winning author Harold L. Senkbeil. As he addresses the concerns and pressures of the world today, you'll discover that even while the world is dying, Christ's death brings about life. True life. One that He offers to you. Order Now!

Homeless conversation with Brian Bouteller, Executive Director of the Gospel Rescue Mission in Grants Pass. Why is it local media will not tell the WHOLE story of homeless, focusing on sympathy, with no responsibility for behavior?

March 7, 2025Today's Reading: Mark 1:29-45Daily Lectionary: Genesis 2:4-25; Mark 1:29-45“That evening at sundown they brought to Him all who were sick or oppressed by demons.” (Mark 1:32)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.Why did they wait until evening to bring people to Jesus? Turns out, back in verse 21, we find out it was the Sabbath Day until the sun went down. And even though Jesus had already driven out a demon in the synagogue, and healed Peter's mother-in-law's fever on the Sabbath, they were worried that getting healed on the Sabbath might count as work and that would get them in trouble. Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy. It's the Third Commandment. But our Sabbath rest doesn't come from inactivity. Our Sabbath rest is Jesus. Our Lord doesn't stop taking care of our needs, just because it's between Friday Sundown and Saturday sundown. And our greatest needs are the forgiveness of our sins, the covering of our shame, the destruction of death, and the conquering of the devil. Jesus keeps the Sabbath in our place by doing that work. On Good Friday (Thursday sundown to Friday sundown), Jesus was betrayed and arrested and denied and had false witness bore about Him. On Good Friday, Jesus was beaten and whipped and mocked, and sentenced to death. On Good Friday, Jesus was nailed to a cross, lifted up, suffered, and died. On Good Friday, Jesus was taken down, placed in a tomb, and had the opening closed. All the work of Good Friday Jesus did for you. He did it to heal you. To drive away your demons. To forgive you. To take away your shame. To destroy death. To conquer the devil forever. And from that work, He rested. On the Sabbath, from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown, to Sunday before the break of dawn, Jesus rested in that tomb. Jesus rested in death. And then, He got up in the morning to start the week anew. To start the week with your salvation. Our rest isn't found in inactivity. Our rest is found in Jesus. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Come unto Me and rest; Lay down, thou weary one, lay down thy head upon My breast.” I came to Jesus as I was, so weary worn and sad; I found in Him a resting place, and He has made me glad. (LSB 699:1)-Rev. Eli Davis, pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Grants Pass, OR.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.Visit the timeless rhythms of the Christian life with award-winning author Harold L. Senkbeil. As he addresses the concerns and pressures of the world today, you'll discover that even while the world is dying, Christ's death brings about life. True life. One that He offers to you. Order Now!

March 6, 2025Today's Reading: Catechism: Close of the CommandmentsDaily Lectionary: Genesis 1:20-2:3; Mark 1:14-28What does God say about all these commandments?He says, “I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.” (Ex. 20: 5–6)What does this mean? God threatens to punish all who break these commandments. Therefore, we should fear His wrath and not do anything against them. But He promises grace and every blessing to all who keep these commandments. Therefore, we should also love and trust in Him and gladly do what He commands.In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Why does God give His Commandments? It's not because He has some spare commandments lying around and wants to keep us busy. It's not that He needs something for us to do to show how much we like Him. God commands us to do (or not do) because He doesn't want those He loves to be hurt. Coveting our neighbor's stuff and relationships causes hurt. Taking away our neighbor's life, family, things, and reputation causes hurt. Rejecting authority causes hurt. Rebelling against God causes hurt. And our Lord isn't happy when we hurt those whom He loves, even when we hurt ourselves. Jesus loves you. That's not just some Sunday School song. The creator of all things cares so much for you, His creation, that He will give His life for your sake. He sacrifices Himself to pay for your sins. And He does all this before you've even done anything yet. His love is not earned. It is given freely to you. Breaking those Commandments is to throw away God's Gifts of love, of life, of forgiveness and to cling instead to sin and death. There are consequences for that. And those consequences do last for generations. I think of the things screwed up in my own family, and I see them passed down to my kids. And I don't want that for them. But I also see the faith that has been passed down from generation to generation. And maybe you're the very first generation in your family to trust Christ. There is His promise; hold tight to it. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.Our works cannot salvation gain; They merit only endless pain. Forgive us, Lord! To Christ we flee, Who pleads for us endlessly. Have mercy, Lord! (LSB 581:12)-Rev. Eli Davis, pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Grants Pass, OR.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.Visit the timeless rhythms of the Christian life with award-winning author Harold L. Senkbeil. As he addresses the concerns and pressures of the world today, you'll discover that even while the world is dying, Christ's death brings about life. True life. One that He offers to you. Order Now!

March 5, 2025 Today's Reading: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21Daily Lectionary: Genesis 1:1-19; Mark 1:1-13“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:1)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. It's always fascinating that the Gospel reading for Ash Wednesday, the day we put very visible ashes upon our foreheads as a sign of our repentance, is the one in which Jesus says not to let your good works be seen by others. So what did we just do then? Don't we want to be seen? Don't we want the good works, carried out in faith, to be seen by the world? Just a few verses earlier, Jesus does say, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16 ESV) Don't our good works at least get people to ask why anyone would do these things? At least start a conversation? They may. But remember, Jesus is criticizing those who do things in order that they might be praised for them. And that's a far more present danger than putting some ashes on in public. Who doesn't love praise? Yes, please thank me for helping others in need. Shower me with gifts to show how much you appreciate my awesome praying skills. Maybe those aren't your go-to works. But when we start expecting rewards for doing the right thing, then our hearts are far from being in the right place. It is better to do good with no praise at all than to do good in order to get something for me out of it. This is how Christ does His greatest work of all. There isn't anyone patting Him on the back for going up on that cross on the day He goes. They're all telling Him that they'll pat Him on the back if He comes down. There's no one telling Jesus how awesome He is for bearing the sins of the world. They're scoffing at His inability to do anything for Himself. However, by Jesus' very public work of dying on that cross and paying for all our sin, He saved us all. Our sins are forgiven. Our shame has been carried. Our death has been overcome. And we're made God's children, clothed in His righteousness, and given a seat at His table. As far as the ashes go, ask what they're there for. I mean, it's possible you might do it for praise. But probably, the response of the world will be, “What did you do to your forehead?” However, if they're there to remind you of your repentance, then they are well and good. For in repentance, we turn from our sinful hearts and look forward to the sure and certain hope of Christ's forgiveness and the resurrection that He has for us. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.Death you cannot end my gladness: I am baptized into Christ! When I die I leave all sadness To inherit paradise! Though I lie in dust and ashes Faith's assurance brightly flashes: Baptism has the strength divine To make life immortal mine. (LSB 594:4)-Rev. Eli Davis, pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Grants Pass, OR.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.Visit the timeless rhythms of the Christian life with award-winning author Harold L. Senkbeil. As he addresses the concerns and pressures of the world today, you'll discover that even while the world is dying, Christ's death brings about life. True life. One that He offers to you. Order Now!

March 4, 2025Today's Reading: Hebrews 3:1-6Daily Lectionary: Job 36:1-21; John 11:38-57“But Christ is faithful over God's house as a Son. And we are His house if we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in hope.” (Hebrews 3:6)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. I will spare you from asking whether or not we're a building (The answer is yes: 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, 1 Peter 2:4-5.), but there's another way this term can be understood. The House of Israel is all the descendants of Israel. The House of David is all the family of David through the generations and their servants. That's important. Because Moses is part of the house of God. It's as a servant, but he is part of the house nonetheless. Moses is a servant. Jesus is the Son. And being the Son comes with more honor and glory. And to the people of Jesus' day, this is big news. Because in all the Old Testament, there was no one apart from God who was worthy of more glory and honor than Moses. He was the Lord's chosen prophet who led them out of Egypt. He was the one through whom the Lord fed His people manna in the wilderness. He was the greatest of all the prophets, and there was no one like Him.But there was a promise that there would one day be a prophet like Moses. But Jesus was greater than Moses. Jesus didn't have to go see God; Jesus is God. Jesus didn't need someone else to cause the miraculous to happen; Jesus caused the miraculous to happen. Moses died, but Jesus did not stay dead. He rose on the third day. And to the people of Jesus' day, this was a big deal. Then Jesus did something amazing for us. He made us His house. We're of His household. However, Jesus didn't make us mere servants in the house of God. Jesus adopts us as sons and daughters of God. As a baptized Christian, you've been given a higher rank than Moses had when he was alive. You're a child of God, for Jesus has given you His place as heir of the kingdom of God. This adoption happens by Jesus' death on the cross and His rising again on the third day. He did that for you. This adoption happens at your Baptism, where you are baptized into His death in order to have His life. This adoption happens as your every sin is forgiven by His ultimate sacrifice. This adoption happens as He speaks His saving Word into your ears. This adoption happens as He brings you to His table and sets you a place. This adoption happens as He gives you His own body and His own blood. You are a beloved child of God. You are an heir in His house. And the kingdom of heaven is made yours. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.We are God's house of living stones, Built for His habitation. He through baptismal grace us owns Heirs of His wondrous salvation. We we but two His name to tell, Yet He would deign with us to dwell With all His grace and His favor. (LSB 645:3)-Rev. Eli Davis, pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Grants Pass, OR.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.Visit the timeless rhythms of the Christian life with award-winning author Harold L. Senkbeil. As he addresses the concerns and pressures of the world today, you'll discover that even while the world is dying, Christ's death brings about life. True life. One that He offers to you. Order Now!

It’s been eight months since the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on Grants Pass v. Johnson, which determined that cities can punish unhoused people for sleeping outside, even if they have nowhere else to go. Since then, Grants Pass officials have restricted public camping to two city-owned lots, one of which closed earlier this year. The city council recently voted to reopen the site after Disability Rights Oregon filed a lawsuit alleging that the city’s restrictions violated state law.  Amid the back-and-forth, homeless services providers have continued to provide aid to the city’s unhoused residents. Scott Nelson is the board president of the Mobile Integrative Navigation Team, or MINT. He joins us to share more about what providing services in Grants Pass has been like since the Supreme Court decision last summer.

March 3, 2025Today's Reading: Deuteronomy 34:1-12Daily Lectionary: Job 34:10-33; John 11:17-37“…and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel. (Deuteronomy 34:12)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. What is the First Commandment? You shall have no other gods. What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.Sometimes, a well-meaning person will teach that fear here means respect. We should respect God, well and true, but trust means respect. Fear means fear. When Israel sinned against God in the wilderness, they had very good reasons to be afraid. They sinned, and God sent a plague. They sinned, and God sent poisonous snakes. They sinned, God opened up the ground, and the earth swallowed them whole. It is a fearful thing to stand before God in your sin. God worked these terrifying deeds through Moses. And even though, in our reading today, Moses is now dead, the Lord is still the one to be feared, even as they enter into the promised rest. Likewise, we need to fear the Lord in our sin. We need to know God gets angry when we hurt the people He loves. Even when that person is yourself. If He didn't get angry, then that would show that He didn't care. So fear is an appropriate response when we start thinking that maybe our sin is okay after all.But how far does that fear go? If God is angry over sin, how can I possibly stand before Him when I have sinned? But remember the whole explanation of the First Commandment. We fear, love, and trust in God above all things. We fear because of our sin. We trust because Our Lord has poured out all His anger on someone else. The entire fiery wrath of God is poured out upon Jesus at the cross. The greatest deed of terror in all history. Everything that should have gone to you and me has instead fallen upon Christ. And He willingly went there for the forgiveness of all our sins. Remember, if God is not angry, He does not care. But if His anger falls upon us, then we are lost. God shows His great care for us by both His anger and His self-sacrifice. He gave up all to save you from your sin. We are able to love Him because of His great love for us given first. And given at His cross. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.Oh what blessing to be near You And listen to Your voice; Let me ever love and hear You, Let Your Word be now my choice! Many hardened sinners, Lord, Flee in terror at Your Word; But to all who feel sin's burden You give words of peace and pardon. (LSB 589:2)-Rev. Eli Davis, pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Grants Pass, OR.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.Visit the timeless rhythms of the Christian life with award-winning author Harold L. Senkbeil. As he addresses the concerns and pressures of the world today, you'll discover that even while the world is dying, Christ's death brings about life. True life. One that He offers to you. Order Now!

March 2, 2025 Today's Reading: Luke 9:28-36Daily Lectionary: Job 33:19-34:9; John 11:1-16“…His clothing became dazzling white.” (Luke 9:29b)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. In the beginning, there was no need for clothes. Adam and Eve didn't have them, and nobody seemed to mind. At least, at first. Ever since, there has been a difference between the clothes that we wear for ourselves and the clothes that our Lord provides. Rebekah clothed Jacob in Esau's clothes. They were worn to deceive– worn in order to sin. Joseph's brothers would dip his robe in blood in order to deceive their father. Joseph's clothes would again be taken from him by Potiphar's wife. She covered her own sinful desires with those clothes in order to deceive. When we ourselves dress up our sin, we claim that there's nothing wrong. That we have no shame at all. It's all lies. It's all deception. That sin is still there. We should be shamed by the fact that we sin. We need to be clothed in something else. We need repentance.Something different happens when God clothes us. The covering that our Lord provides doesn't deny our sin. It acknowledges that it's there and that it's shameful. Yet we don't hide it ourselves. We don't lie about it and say it's good. Instead, our Lord takes our shame and provides His modesty for it. After all, the clothing our Lord provides gives us the honor that rightly belongs to Him.When Joseph was called out of prison, Pharaoh gave him the clothes he would need to enter the court, covering up the shame of Joseph's imprisonment with pardon. After Joseph's brothers finally found out Joseph was in charge of all Egypt, Joseph sent them back with new clothes to their father. Covering up the shame of their years of lies with forgiveness and the promise of deliverance from the famine.The clothes that Jesus gives are His own. They cover our sin with His forgiveness. This is why the clothing of Jesus is so important. For our sake, Jesus was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. From Jesus' clothes came power to overcome sin, as some went to touch even the hem of His garments. Jesus' clothes shine brightly forth at the Transfiguration in today's Gospel lesson. Jesus is clothed so that He may properly bear your sin and your shame. And that we may wear His righteousness. And in Baptism, Jesus wraps you in His clothes. He gives them away to you and takes up your clothing instead.Jesus doesn't always wear the clothes of the Transfiguration. It's from here that He goes down to be crucified. What should have been our shame was His alone. He wears the sin of the entire world, including your sin and mine. All of it is taken away from us, and Jesus carries it all, bearing it before the entire world. And we are left washed, cleansed, forgiven, and clothed.In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.In Baptism we now put on Christ– Our shame is fully covered With all that He once sacrificed And freely for us suffered. For here the flood of His own blood Now makes us holy, right, and good Before our heavenly Father. (LSB 596:4)-Rev. Eli Davis, pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Grants Pass, OR.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.Visit the timeless rhythms of the Christian life with award-winning author Harold L. Senkbeil. As he addresses the concerns and pressures of the world today, you'll discover that even while the world is dying, Christ's death brings about life. True life. One that He offers to you. Order Now!

March 1, 2025Today's Reading: Introit for Transfiguration of our Lord - Psalm 84:1-2, 9, 11; antiphon: Psalm 84:4Daily Lectionary: Job 33:1-18; John 10:22-42“How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of Hosts!” (Psalm 84:1)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Tomorrow, the Church celebrates the Transfiguration of Jesus. On that mountaintop, Peter will say, “Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” The people weren't the only ones with tents. The Lord had a tent. We call it by its Latin name: tabernacle. It was a very nice tent, but it was still a tent. And it's where the Lord resided when the people made camp in the wilderness. The Lord resided in the midst of His people. Sometimes, we want to blame Peter for wanting to either demote Jesus to a tent with Moses and Elijah or raise Moses and Elijah to the place of God. And there are ways that idea can point us to Jesus. But perhaps the problem with Peter's suggestion, and the reason we're told that he didn't know what he said, isn't that he wants to make tents, but where he wants to make tents. “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of Hosts!” “Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise!” (Psalm 84:1, 4 ESV) The Lord doesn't dwell on a mountain apart from His people, or only with a select few of the greatest prophets. The tent of the Lord is pitched in the center of the camp, in the midst of the people. The Lord makes His house right where you're at. The Lord is not far off. He's right here.That's why we find Jesus in the midst of our sorrow: because He was betrayed for our sake. That's why we find Jesus in the midst of our loss: because He lost everything for our sake. That's why we find Jesus in the midst of our shame: because He was stripped bare for our sake. That's why we find Jesus in the midst of our sin; because He who knew no sin became sin for our sake so that we might have forgiveness. That's why we find Jesus in the midst of our suffering: because He went to His cross for our sake, died for our sake, and entered the grave for our sake. All to save us. What makes the house of the Lord so lovely and splendid is not the decorations or the holiness. What makes it lovely and splendid is that it is near. Jesus is here. In the very places the devil wants us to think He's not, Jesus is present for you, sets up His house for you, and invites you in. And He remains with you through all you endure in this world. His dwelling place is in His Church, which you are a part of. And He will be by your side through everything the world throws at you.In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.Why should cross and trial grieve me? Christ is near, With His cheer; Never will He leave me. Who can rob me of the heaven That God's Son For me won When His life was given? (LSB 756:1)-Rev. Eli Davis, pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Grants Pass, OR.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.What makes a church "good?" Come join the fictional family as they test out eight different churches in their brand-new town and answer this question along the way. Will the Real Church Please Stand Up? by Matthew Richard, now available from Concordia Publishing House.

February 28, 2025Today's Reading: Job 31:1-12, 33-40Daily Lectionary: Job 31:1-12, 33-40; John 9:24-41“Let me be weighed in a just balance, and let God know my integrity!” (Job 31:6)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. When Christians are confronted with suffering in their lives, they often read the book of Job. After all, Job suffered, and God blessed him. Maybe there's some secret in there for us. At the end, though, most people are confused. They're told this is how you deal with suffering. But reading it gave them no clue on how to deal with suffering. What did we just read? We know Job's friends aren't supposed to be any help to him. But their words are the same as found in Proverbs.Rather, Job sounds like the problematic one. Can't he see that God blesses the good and punishes the evil? Does Job really believe that he has no sin for which to repent? Does Job think that he is on equal footing with God to make statements like these? We come to the conclusion that Job needs to get his act together. Which isn't what we went looking for. Because our lives sometimes look a lot like Job's. We're told to repent of doing good. Those who do wrong are prospering all around us while we suffer. We find ourselves paying the price when we do the right thing. The pain we endure feels meaningless. We cry out as Job did and wonder where God's answer is.Did you know that everything Job lamented was answered in Jesus? In chapter sixteen, Job laments that he is attacked by enemies on all sides. Jesus conquers all of Job's enemies, including the devil who is behind them all. In chapter twenty-three, Job wishes that he could find God. Jesus is our God who became flesh and dwelt among us. And through it all, Job laments that the innocent suffer at God's hand. Jesus, the one innocent man, suffers the wrath of God in order to save us all. He's crucified, the worst death anyone can possibly imagine because that's why He came. That's how he saved Job, you, me, and the world. The book of Job is about a man who suffers even though he is relatively righteous. The whole Bible is about another man who suffers, even though He has no sin of His own but to save all people. The lesson of Job is that there is no such thing as pointless suffering. The suffering we think is unjust does, in fact, serve God's purpose.It isn't as though our Lord gives you no answer. It's that the answer is always found in the death and resurrection of Jesus. All of Job's questions are answered in Jesus. All of our pains, and regrets, and sins, and death, are answered completely in Jesus. For Jesus suffered, and we are given forgiveness, resurrection, and eternal life through Him.In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.God gives me my days of gladness, And I will Trust Him still When He sends me sadness. God is good; His love attends me Day by day Come what may Guides me and defends me. (LSB 756:3)-Rev. Eli Davis, pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Grants Pass, OR.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.What makes a church "good?" Come join the fictional family as they test out eight different churches in their brand-new town and answer this question along the way. Will the Real Church Please Stand Up? by Matthew Richard, now available from Concordia Publishing House.

February 27, 2025Today's Reading: Catechism: The Tenth CommandmentDaily Lectionary: Job 30:16-31; John 9:1-23What is the Tenth Commandment? You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not entice or force away our neighbor's wife, workers, or animals, or turn them against him, but urge them to stay and do their duty.In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. King Herod was told by John the Baptizer that it wasn't lawful for him to have his brother's wife. But what law? If he'd taken his brother Philip's wife by force, there would have been war. If Herod had acted in the legal wrong, Philip would demand Herodias back. But covetousness pretends that nothing was wrong. There's nothing illegal about convincing someone of something. Perhaps Herod convinced Philip that he should simply leave Herodias. It wasn't illegal in Rome for Herod to marry a woman who was divorced. What law did Herod break?It was God's Law, of course. And let's see it in light of the Tenth Commandment. Convincing others to destroy their relationships is evil. Especially when you benefit from that relationship being destroyed. Maybe it's difficult to prove, difficult to legislate against, but God knows the heart. The Gift this Commandment protects is the Gift of relationships, ours and our neighbor's. He's provided these relationships for us. Brothers and sisters, parents and children, husband and wife, all for our good. And so, our Lord protects these Gifts. And commands us to honor those relationships among our neighbors as well.But, this is a sin that's in our hearts. We want to have who we can't. And we try to make it happen while appearing to do the right thing. Even when we hurt those who lose that relationship. Even when we hurt the one we're after. It's a lie by action rather than word. One we don't plan to have found out. This is also the Commandment that convicts us, even if we convince ourselves that we've kept all the others. We cannot hide our hearts from God, even if we can from everyone else. And so we repent. We're sorry for our sin. And we turn in hope to the one who forgives sin. We turn to the one who has kept this Commandment in our place. Jesus faced all temptation for us, even the temptations of the heart. He refused to act selfishly, in ways that only appeared right. Instead, He stood against Satan in the wilderness during those forty days. He stood against Satan while hanging on the cross. And He fought to make even our broken relationships whole again. Our relationship with God is restored. As we forgive one another as Christ has forgiven us, our relationships with them can be mended as well. And Christ mends our hearts. The Old Adam daily drowns in the Baptism that He has given. And we begin to desire what is good with the new creation in us.In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.You shall not crave your neighbor's house Nor covet money, goods, or spouse, Pray God He would your neighbor bless As you yourself wish success. Have mercy, Lord! (LSB 581:10)-Rev. Eli Davis, pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Grants Pass, OR.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.What makes a church "good?" Come join the fictional family as they test out eight different churches in their brand-new town and answer this question along the way. Will the Real Church Please Stand Up? by Matthew Richard, now available from Concordia Publishing House.

February 26, 2025 Today's Reading: Genesis 45:3-15Daily Lectionary: Job 21:1-21; Job 21:22-30:15; John 8:39-59“I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.” (Genesis 45:4b-5)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Until the moment Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, they were very afraid. Simeon had been taken prisoner the first time they showed up. Benjamin was about to be taken as a slave, which would kill their father. And Judah had just offered to be the sacrifice to pay for Benjamin's sin. It was a selfless act done for the sake of a brother who was loved, for a father who was loved. Besides, it had been the brothers' own sin that had caused this mess in the first place. They had acknowledged that sin on the first trip down, where Simeon was lost. To lose another brother in the same way brought that sin right back to the forefront of their thoughts. So it wasn't solely a selfless act; it was Judah confessing his own sin and the need for him to be the sacrifice that paid for it. It was at this point that Joseph stepped forward and told his brother, Judah, “You're not the sacrifice. I am.”The one sinned against went before the brothers into Egypt. He endured slavery, prison, and becoming an Egyptian in order that they would be saved. He gave up all that they might live. We, too, have sinned. We sin against God. We sin against our brothers and sisters, the people God has put in our lives. And standing before God cannot help but remind us where we have done wrong and failed to do what is right. Convicted of our own sin, we know a sacrifice must be made. Sin must be paid for. And the price must come from us.It is at this point that Jesus steps forward and tells you, “You're not the sacrifice. I am.”The one sinned against goes before you into this world. He endured the suffering life of this world. He was betrayed, beaten, and crucified. He shed His blood on your behalf. He bore your sin on His shoulders so that you would not have to. He entered into death, in order that it might be conquered in full before you got there. And He gave up all that you may live. He says to you, “I am your brother, Jesus, whom you sinned against. And now do not be distressed, for the Father has sent Me before you to preserve life.” He has preserved your life. Your sins have been forgiven. The sacrifice has already been made. And His resurrection is yours forever.In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.Sin disturb my soul no longer: I am baptized into Christ! I have comfort even stronger: Jesus' cleansing sacrifice. Should a guilty conscience seize me Since my baptism did release me In a dear forgiving flood, Sprinkling me with Jesus' blood? (LSB 594:2)-Rev. Eli Davis, pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Grants Pass, OR.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.What makes a church "good?" Come join the fictional family as they test out eight different churches in their brand-new town and answer this question along the way. Will the Real Church Please Stand Up? by Matthew Richard, now available from Concordia Publishing House.

JPR's award-winning reporter, Jane Vaughan reports.

February 25, 2025 Today's Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:21-26, 30-42Daily Lectionary: Job 20:1-23, 29; John 8:21-38“The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” (1 Corinthians 15:26)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Christ has been raised from the dead. This is the act of God upon which we base our entire faith. Christ has been raised from the dead. And this is the event around which all of history revolves. Because all of a sudden, a small group of fishermen, tax collectors, and nobodies started telling us about a man who claimed to be God. And this man said that He would be killed by the religious authorities of His day and yet would stop being dead on the third day. And they killed Him, just as He said. Then He rose on the third day, just as He said. This small group of men proclaimed this resurrection. And when they threatened to kill them for it, they did not stop. James, they executed publicly. Pete,r they crucified upside down. Nathaniel, they flayed alive. All were killed confessing the resurrection of Jesus, save John, who lived unto old age confessing Christ. All the apostles were unafraid because that resurrection was for them, too. They willingly died to make sure everyone who heard them heard the resurrection of Jesus Christ. People don't always willingly die for the truth; that is a hard thing. Nobody dies for lies. The apostles confessed what they saw. They confessed the resurrection and put their hope in that resurrection. Rightly so, because Jesus did die for them. Jesus did die for you, so that when Christ was made alive, that life is for you, too. It's our sin that brings death in the first place. So that's why Jesus dies. To bear our sin in our place. To take our sin onto His shoulders so that it is not yours or mine any longer. He fights our enemies in our place. Enemies that are too strong for us to ever consider resisting. Jesus conquers death. And Jesus has conquered your death as well. It is the last enemy to be destroyed. And it's last day is The Last Day. Jesus returns, and all the dead rise. All death's trophies are taken away. And the faithful enter into eternal life. The same faith given to you by God Himself. Therefore we look forward to that day. We await the end of death. We are ready for the resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus makes us bold. For we are no different than the apostles. We face a world that does not want to hear about Christ's resurrection. And we may even one day be asked to die for that. But our strength does not come from our own efforts. Our boldness does not come from our steadfast will. We are only able to stand for the same reason the apostles did. Because Jesus really did rise from the dead. And He has made that resurrection ours as well.In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.Lord, by the stripes which wounded Thee, From death dread sting Thy servants free That we may live and sing to Thee. Alleluia! (LSB 464:5)-Rev. Eli Davis, pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Grants Pass, OR.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.What makes a church "good?" Come join the fictional family as they test out eight different churches in their brand-new town and answer this question along the way. Will the Real Church Please Stand Up? by Matthew Richard, now available from Concordia Publishing House.

February 24, 2025Today's Reading: Matthew 11:25-30Daily Lectionary: Job 19:1-12, 21-27; John 8:1-20“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. On this day, the Church remembers Matthias, the thirteenth of the Twelve Apostles. As the book of Acts starts, the Eleven figure that they need a replacement for Judas, who betrayed Jesus and died a horrible death. But doesn't it feel like the Gospel reading assigned for this festival doesn't quite fit? Does replacing Judas sound like an easy yoke for Matthias? Does facing death by confessing Christ sound like a light burden? We might ask the same question. This world inflicts heavy burdens on us. We face rejection for confessing Christ. We face addiction, depression, loneliness, and fear. Where's this rest that Jesus promises? When will all these things end? At our death? But what about now? What does rest look like now?However, we first must know what rest is. Rest isn't simply the cessation of work. Rest isn't simply the end of doing something difficult. Rest isn't turning off your brain or simply sleeping. Our world defines rest that way. But how do you feel after doom-scrolling for hours? How do you feel after binge-watching shows all evening? Or when you've done nothing at all. How do you feel after enduring work all day and waking up the next day, only to do it all over again? It's not rest you receive, no matter what our world calls it. Josef Pieper, in his book Leisure, the Basis of Culture, explains it this way: The highest form of rest comes from the festival. And at the heart of every festival is worship. You don't turn off your brain, or sleep, or do nothing when there's a festival. Instead, they are often very busy. But the doing is in service to the joy, rather than because it is necessary.Today is a festival. We celebrate St. Matthias, the apostle whom Jesus chose, that His Word would be proclaimed. There's a feast at the festival, a feast at the center of our worship, and the feast is Christ Himself. Facing the world? Christ says, “Take and Eat; this is My body.” Facing addiction, depression, loneliness, and fear? Christ says, “Take and drink, My blood shed for your forgiveness.” Doing nothing doesn't prepare us for fighting these battles. Christ putting Himself in us does. Because rest doesn't come from inaction. Rest comes from the feast in worship, which brings the strength to endure the world.Jesus Himself is who eases the yokes of this world and lightens the struggles we face. And Jesus gives you His Body and Blood in His feast for that purpose. This is why the Church has so many feasts, including the weekly feast celebrating Christ's resurrection from the dead every Sunday. We need the festival. We need the joy it brings. We need the rest it provides. We need Jesus. And here He is.In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.At the Lamb's high feast we sing Praise to our victorious King, Who has washed us in the tideFlowing from His pierced side. Alleluia! (LSB 633:1)-Rev. Eli Davis, pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Grants Pass, OR.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.What makes a church "good?" Come join the fictional family as they test out eight different churches in their brand-new town and answer this question along the way. Will the Real Church Please Stand Up? by Matthew Richard, now available from Concordia Publishing House.

February 23, 2025Today's Reading: Luke 6:27-38Daily Lectionary: Job 18:1-21; John 7:32-53[Jesus said,] “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.” (Luke 6:27b-30)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Okay, time to explain away Jesus' words. Time to find a way to make them say something different than what we just read. Surely Jesus doesn't mean for us to literally do these things, right? We would just end up a doormat. People would walk all over us. And we would be abused. There has to be a way out of these words. A way that we would be safe from them. A way to break these Commandments without, you know, breaking these Commandments. But that's not the way it works. We think that the more difficult something is to do, the greater the person who can do it. Loving your enemy is hard, so the love it takes to pull it off must be accomplishing a great work. But Thomas Aquinas puts it this way: “[I]f the love were so great as completely to remove all difficulty that would be a still greater love.”For us, Jesus' Word here is Law. Our love, apart from Christ, is not great enough to do this at all, much less with great difficulty. But in Jesus, we see the one who has the greater love, in that He loves us without it being difficult for Him. For it is Jesus Christ who has done good to us who have hated Him. He has blessed us with forgiveness as we cursed Him with our sin. He has prayed for us to the Father that we would be saved, even as our sin put the nails in His hands and feet. He has received our strikes by whip and cord. He has had His garments divided and His tunic taken away by lot. And for this, He has demanded none of it back. But died on a cross for our sake. That is the love with which Jesus loved. Not with difficulty, but with more of it than we could ever imagine. That is the love He has for you. That is the love which sacrificed Himself for your sake. That is the love that covers all your sins with His blood. And that's the love He has for you even now. And now, with that love, we return to Jesus' Word. His love in us loves our enemies, and He counts it as ours. His love in us endures, and He counts it as ours. His love gives, and He counts it as ours. And we don't always realize we're doing it. Jesus keeps the Law for our sake. And He also keeps it in you. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.For us by wickedness betrayed, For us, in crown of thorns arrayed, He bore the shameful cross and death; For us He gave His dying breath (LSB 544:5)-Rev. Eli Davis, pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Grants Pass, OR.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.What makes a church "good?" Come join the fictional family as they test out eight different churches in their brand-new town and answer this question along the way. Will the Real Church Please Stand Up? by Matthew Richard, now available from Concordia Publishing House.

Media presenting a very sympathetic case for the homeless removal in Grants Pass...how many used the mission?? Not many? Joe Guzzardi joins me, immigration reform analyst - Oregon ALREADy breaking Fed law on immigration. Could that be useful?

In this episode of The Artful Dollar Podcast, host Ryan Roi interviews Nic Luna, a veteran tattoo artist from Oregon.    Nic shares his unique journey becoming a tattoo artist, discussing the impacts of tattoo schools, the competitive market, and the importance of continuous education. Learn about the intricacies of running a tattoo shop, marketing strategies, and the future of tattoo regulations.    Follow Nic on social media: Instagram: @niclunatattoo https://www.instagram.com/niclunatattoo/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPeFDqYNpfPe253OtovGeIw TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@niclunatattoo   Follow Nic's studio, @subrosatattoostudio, in Grants Pass, OR https://www.instagram.com/subrosatattoostudio/   –   Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 01:47 Tattoo Schools and Apprenticeships 11:43 Marketing and Social Media for Tattoo Artists 20:15 The Future of Tattooing 34:30 Challenges in Tattooing 46:04 AI in Tattooing 48:35 Final Thoughts    –   Are you feeling uncertain about what actions you should take to successfully market your business? You're not alone.    Get clear on what actions you need to take to book more appointments and create a sense of security and freedom.    Book your 1-on-1 Marketing Strategy Session with Ryan Roi Now: https://Theartfuldollarbooking.as.me/?appointmentType=67870225   This is for tattooers and shop owners who: Have at least 1 year of FULL TIME, PROFESSIONAL tattooing experience Ready to take a radically new approach to marketing (Not just a few tips and tricks)   On this call we will: Take a look at your current approach to marketing Identify what is stopping you from staying consistently booked Offer a strategy moving forward   –   Find more Artful Dollar podcast episodes on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4P0j85W6U6tG6KTCTQidL4   –   Follow me on Instagram-  IG: ryanroitattoo   https://www.instagram.com/ryanroitattoo/   Check out my website- https://www.theartfuldollar.com/   #tattooartist #tattoopodcast

Matt calls from Grants Pass with reax to the Richard C. Lyons interview. I then talk with Piano virtuoso Alexander Tutunov from SOU. What a talent and story - Feb 14th concert will be a must-see. Sen. Herman Baertschiger talks Trump and more issues.

From 'The Progrum' (subscribe here) A fun episode this week as Football Equipment Administrator, Kenny Farr, joins the pod to talk all things Oregon Ducks. Through 6 different head coaches, few things have remained the same with Oregon Football. Kenny Farr has. From being a student manager out of Grants Pass, to running the show, Farr has seen many coaches, hundreds of players and just as many uniform combinations in his time. There is much more to the EQ staff than just uniforms, it is the day to day that makes Oregon Football run so smooth. Farr shares his path to Oregon, the process of uniform selection, building his EQ staff and what separates Dan Lanning from the rest. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On Jan. 6, Josephine County Commissioners voted to terminate the lease of the Grants Pass central library. Commissioners have since said they simply want to renegotiate the $1-a-year lease of the county-owned building. This comes after a legal battle last year over whether residents could opt out of the library’s special tax district. It also follows a period of 10 years in which the library system was run by a nonprofit and volunteers, rather than by the county. Josephine County Commissioner Chris Barnett and Jennifer Roberts, president of the Grants Pass Friends of the Library, join us to fill us in.

Today's West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy Podcast for our especially special Daily Special, Blue Moon Spirits Fridays, is now available on the Spreaker Player!Starting off in the Bistro Cafe, Trump's political stunts over the Southern California urban wildfire exposes to the world once again what a self-centered, disgusting liar he is.Then, on the rest of the menu, MAGA Josephine County commissioners terminated the lease with the  Grants Pass, Oregon Library that has been in place since 1959; the American Civil Liberties Union sued Ron DeSantis of failing to fulfill his constitutional obligation to call special elections for two seats in the Florida state House and Senate; and, Border Patrol arrested a Russian mercenary when he illegally crossed the Rio Grande carrying two passports and four thousand dollars.After the break, we move to the Chef's Table where South Korean impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol threatened civil war if he is detained; and, a prominent Vietnamese lawyer goes on trial for criticizing a top judge on Facebook.All that and more, on West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy with Chef de Cuisine Justice Putnam.Bon Appétit!The Netroots Radio Live Player​Keep Your Resistance Radio Beaming 24/7/365!“Structural linguistics is a bitterly divided and unhappy profession, and a large number of its practitioners spend many nights drowning their sorrows in Ouisghian Zodahs.” ― Douglas Adams "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe"Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/west-coast-cookbook-speakeasy--2802999/support.

Day 11/21- Pray for Grants Pass

The JPR news team gathers for a roundtable discussion of the top news stories they've been working on this week.

Join us as we explore a pivotal issue affecting many communities today—homelessness and public space management—alongside Chief Anthony Sizemore in this edition of the Cape CopCast "Chief's Chat." Hosts Lisa Greenberg and Officer Mercedes Simonds talk about the intricacies of Cape Coral's new proposed ordinance that seeks to manage public spaces by prohibiting outdoor camping, a topic often linked to homelessness. We shed light on how this measure, born from House Bill 1365, is not an anti-homeless law but a means to ensure constitutionality in maintaining public order. As we draw insights from a recent US Supreme Court decision on a similar ordinance in Grants Pass, Oregon, we promise you'll leave with a clearer understanding of the balance between legal enforcement and compassionate outreach.In this spirited conversation, we also uncover the critical role specialized officers play in supporting individuals without homes, focusing on connecting them to essential services through comprehensive training. We discuss the challenges of enforcing such ordinances while emphasizing that the primary aim is care and support, not just enforcement. By addressing the visible aspects of homelessness and recognizing its persistent nature due to global economic conditions and human psychology, we stress the need for both immediate action and long-term strategies. Tune in for a nuanced discussion that navigates the complexities of homelessness and the efforts made to tackle it for the benefit of the entire community.

In this case, the court considered this issue: Does a city's enforcement of public camping against involuntarily homeless people violate the Eighth Amendment's protection against cruel and unusual punishment? The case was decided on June 28, 2024. The Supreme Court held that The enforcement of generally applicable laws regulating camping on public property does not constitute “cruel and unusual punishment” prohibited by the Eighth Amendment. Justice Neil Gorsuch authored the 6-3 majority opinion of the Court. The Eighth Amendment's Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause has historically focused on what punishments may follow a criminal conviction, not on what behaviors a government may criminalize. Although, in Robinson v California, the Court prohibited criminalizing the mere status of drug addiction, that case is distinguishable from laws that prohibit specific conduct like public camping. The Court has previously declined to extend Robinson to cover “involuntary” acts resulting from a particular status. For example, in Powell v Texas, the Court declined to prohibit punishing public drunkenness by alcoholics, even though their conduct might be considered involuntary. Expanding Robinson's narrow holding would risk turning the judiciary into the ultimate arbiter of criminal responsibility across diverse areas of law, a role for which the Eighth Amendment provides no guidance. Such an expansion would lead to practical difficulties, as demonstrated by the Ninth Circuit's attempt to implement this approach in Martin v City of Boise. Cities have faced numerous challenges in determining who qualifies as "involuntarily" homeless and what constitutes "adequate" shelter under Martin. These judicially created standards have proven unworkable and have interfered with local efforts to address homelessness, ultimately undermining the democratic process and federalism principles. Justice Clarence Thomas authored a concurring opinion. Justice Sonia Sotomayor authored a dissenting opinion, in which Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined. The opinion is presented here in its entirety, but with citations omitted. If you appreciate this episode, please subscribe. Thank you.  --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scotus-opinions/support

On today's show, we dive into stories that underscore the importance of affordable housing. First, we'll examine what the recent Supreme Court ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson means for unhoused people who are living on the streets and how historical disinvestment in affordable and public housing has created our current homelessness wave. Then, we'll hear about the fight to legalize and preserve one important type of affordable housing units in New York City: basement apartments.   The post We need affordable housing now! (encore) appeared first on KPFA.

We need affordable housing now! On today's episode, we dive into stories that underscore the importance of affordable housing.  We'll examine what the recent Supreme Court ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson means for unhoused people who are living on the streets and how historical disinvestment in affordable and public housing has created our current homelessness wave. Then, we'll hear about the fight to legalize and preserve one important type of affordable housing units in New York City – basement apartments – and how the escalating impacts of climate change are making that campaign more urgent than ever. Featuring: Paul Boden, executive director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project Annetta Seecharran, executive director of Chhaya Community Development Corporation Making Contact Team: Episode Host: Lucy Kang Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang Executive Director: Jina Chung Editor: Adwoa Gyimah-Brempong Engineer: Jeff Emtman  Music credit: Pending (Relaxing Acoustic Ballad Nylon Guitar) by William_King via Pixabay Credits for "Invisible Homeless" by the Queens Memory Podcast Episode produced by Stella Gu in conjunction with Melody Cao, Anna Williams, and Natalie Milbrodt Podcast hosted by J. Faye Yuan Mixing and editing by Cory Choy Music composed by Elias Ravin Voiceover work by Xia Liangjie and Chen Xiaojun Learn More:  Making Contact homepage: www.focmedia.org Western Regional Advocacy Project: https://wraphome.org/ Queens Memory Podcast: www.queensmemory.org Chhaya CDC: BASE Campaign  Making Contact is an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world.

Ashland, Oregon, is a beautiful town with a lot of charm, but it's not for everyone. Thinking about moving here? Before you pack your bags, there are some things you should know. In this episode, we'll walk you through the realities of life in Ashland — from the cost of living to the quirks of small-town life. If you can handle these challenges, Ashland might just be the perfect place for you. If not, you might want to rethink your decision. ============================= Welcome to Simona Fino's Real Estate Adventure!

We visited Grants Pass, Oregon recently and spoke with Nevin Van Manen, the principal at Highland Elementary about school culture, and community, and what it means to be from Grants Pass, from Oregon, and from the United States. Special thanks to Adam Davis from Oregon Humanities for co-hosting this interview, and to the students and educators we've spoken with in Grants Pass who we've spoken with in recent months. Learn more about our work at childinst.org. "Citizenship is how we treat one another. It's how we are to each other, it's how we help each other. Even if I don't disagree, if you're need of help, I'm going to help you. For some of our kids who struggle with all the horrible things that people are going through like poverty, the hope is can we break that cycle somehow... can we break the cycle of feeling like you're just stuck in this."

Today, Jonathan and Sy speak with author and housing advocate Kevin Nye about the Church and homelessness. We get into:-        The ineffective housing policies Christians often promote-        The bad theology behind those policies-        A run-in Kevin had with institutional resistance to his view that governments shouldn't criminalize homelessness-        How churches can get things right in ministries to unhoused people-        Plus, hear our thoughts on the interview,-        A discussion of how we are resisting the negative ways the election is trying to shape us mentally and spiritually-        And our thoughts on all the discourse around Ta-Nehisi Coates' controversial new bookMentioned in the episode:-        Kevin's article on Christians mistakenly rejecting housing-first policies-        Josiah Haken's book, Neighbors with No Doors-        Kevin's article on Christianity Today's coverage of homelessness-        His article in RNS about a Supreme Court case on unhoused people's constitutional rights-        His book, Grace Can Lead Us Home: A Christian Call to End Homelessness-        His Substack, Who Is My Neighbor?-        Ta-Nehisi Coates' new book, The Message-        Our newsletter with links to a couple of Coates' interviewsCredits-            Follow KTF Press on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Subscribe to get our bonus episodes and other benefits at KTFPress.com.-        Follow host Jonathan Walton on Facebook Instagram, and Threads.-        Follow host Sy Hoekstra on Mastodon.-        Our theme song is “Citizens” by Jon Guerra – listen to the whole song on Spotify.-        Our podcast art is by Robyn Burgess – follow her and see her other work on Instagram.-        Editing by Multitude Productions-        Transcripts by Joyce Ambale and Sy Hoekstra.-        Production by Sy Hoekstra and our incredible subscribersTranscript[An acoustic guitar softly plays six notes in a major scale, the first three ascending and the last three descending, with a keyboard pad playing the tonic in the background. Both fade out as Jonathan Walton says “This is a KTF Press podcast.”]Kevin Nye: If you're an average middle class American Christian and you want to become wealthy, have a private jet, a mansion, here's your spiritual steps. Get closer to Jesus, you'll be rewarded with physical wealth. Well, if that's true, the opposite of that would be true, which is that if you are in deep dire poverty, it must mean that you're that much farther from Jesus.[The song “Citizens” by Jon Guerra fades in. Lyrics: “I need to know there is justice/ That it will roll in abundance/ And that you're building a city/ Where we arrive as immigrants/ And you call us citizens/ And you welcome us as children home.” The song fades out.]Intro and HousekeepingJonathan Walton: Welcome to Shake the Dust, seeking Jesus, confronting injustice. I'm Jonathan Walton.Sy Hoekstra: And I am Sy Hoekstra, today is gonna be a great one for you. We have a conversation that we're gonna have before we get into our interview, kind of about the election. A little bit of a catch up, since this is actually going to be our last show before the presidential election, which now that I say it into a microphone, is a little bit scary [laughter]. We're gonna be having a conversation today with author, theologian and housing activist Kevin Nye. I've been looking forward to this one for a long time. Basically, the church is extremely involved in housing policy in America, and we are often going about it the wrong way, and that's often because of a lot of bad theology and some falsehoods that we believe about unhoused people, and so Kevin will help us get deep into that.He's a great resource and a great person to talk about it with, as well as some of the more systemic issues of why we have such an entrenched way of thinking about unhoused people. You'll be able to hear Jonathan and my thoughts about the interview afterwards, and we will get into our segment Which Tab Is Still Open, where we go a little bit deeper into one of the recommendations from our newsletter. This week we're talking all about Ta-Nehisi Coates and his new book, The Message and some of the discussions that have been happening around it. Also, one quick note. My voice might sound a little groggy, because about 12 hours ago, I was at game one of the American League Championship Series [laughter] and I screamed my face off.Is that a wise thing for a podcaster to do before recording? Maybe not, but I trust that you all will forgive me [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Yes, and for the uninitiated, we're talking about baseball [laughs].Sy Hoekstra: Yes, that's a good point. American League Championship Series, that's a baseball series [laughter].Jonathan Walton: But before we get into all that, please friends, remember to go to KTFPress.com and become a paid subscriber to support this show and everything we do here at KTF Press. We've been creating media that centers personal and informed discussions on faith, politics and culture, and that helps you seek Jesus and confront injustice. You've been listening for a while or the first time, you need to know we're resisting the idols of the American church by elevating marginalized voices and taking the entirety of Jesus' gospel more seriously than those who narrow it to sin and salvation. The two of us have [laughs] a lot of experience doing this, have been practicing this in community for a while, and as Maya Angelou would say, we're always practicing Christianity.So if you wanna do that, you could do that with us. We'd love for you to become a paid subscriber. You get all the bonus episodes of this show, access to our monthly subscriber Zoom chats, and you can comment on posts and more. So again, go to KTFPress.com to join us and become a paid subscriber.Sy Hoekstra: A couple of quick announcements before we get into everything. In two weeks there will not be an episode. That's just a couple days after the election. We're gonna let things settle a little bit.Jonathan Walton: Hopefully so.Sy Hoekstra: I mean, hopefully settle a little bit before [laughter] we have our sort of clean, edited podcast discussion about the election. However, we are going to do something a little bit different the day after the election. So that'll be Wednesday, November 6th at 1 pm. We are going to be having a Substack live conversation. So that means basically, if you have the Substack app, you will be able to watch us just have a live conversation about the election, what happened the night before, what we're thinking, how we can move forward faithfully now that the voting is done, and all of the potential chaos that comes after that. If you don't have the app, you can download it on the App Store or the Google Play Store. Anybody who's on our email list will get an email notification or a push notification from the app when we start.So if you're not on our email list, go to KTFPress.com and sign up. Even just the free email list, you'll get that notification. The email will have a link to download the app if you don't have it. So Substack live Wednesday, November 6th, at 1 pm to talk about the election. A little bit more raw, unfiltered, that sort of thing [laughter]. And then we'll have a finale episode, we'll announce the date later once we have that set. You'll be able to comment in the chat of the Substack live, so you can put your comments and your questions there. So come prepared to dialog a little bit. We're excited to try this new feature that Substack has rolled out. Also our next Zoom chat for subscribers will be this upcoming Tuesday, October 29th at 1 pm.So if you want to join in on that, please become a paid subscriber. If you already are a paid subscriber, then the link to register for that is in your email already. Go back to your emails from us and check for it, submit your questions. We have had some really great conversations at the four or five of these that we've done so far, and we look forward to another one this Tuesday.How Has the Election Been Shaping Us? And How Are We Resisting?Sy Hoekstra: Alright Jonathan, before the interview, we're gonna start off with an election question that will kind of let us give some of our final thoughts going into actual voting day. This is a question that you came up with, and I like it a lot, actually. Jonathan, how has this election been trying to shape you and how have you been resisting it?Jonathan Walton: Yeah. I think just hanging out in this space of formation, like we're impacted by things around us, and it's literally making us into new people or different kinds of people. I have an injury in my hip, and it's like, I ran marathons and did lots of sports and work, and so my hip is shaped differently because of the pressure that I put on it.Our Political Culture Tries to Instill Fear, but Jesus Doesn'tJonathan Walton: And so I think that culture is trying to shape me into an anxious, fearful person, because violent crime can be down in the United States, but my fears about my daughter getting older and going to the train, I'm terrified.Sy Hoekstra: Really?Jonathan Walton: Oh yeah. It's terrible. It's terrible.Sy Hoekstra: Interesting.Jonathan Walton: People are like, “Oh yeah, my kid walked to the train,” I'm like, clutch my pearls.Sy Hoekstra: [laughs] Oh, you're one of those New York City parents.Jonathan Walton: Yeah. And some of its familiarity, I never did that. That just wasn't my reality. I think it's more that than all of the fears that people have. It's just unfamiliar to me. And so I think that the Democrats would love for me to fear the apocalypse, and the Republicans would love for me to fear the apocalypse [laughter].Sy Hoekstra: Different apocalypses.Jonathan Walton: Yeah, different apocalyptic visions for the state of this country and the world. And that is a very effective fundraising tactic. It's a very effective way to get people out to vote, because having people be motivated by fear rather than love is better for the prince of the power of the air. It's better for the wills within us that are not submitted to God and trusting him for our well being and the well being of those around us, and leaning into that. And so I think that I want to reject the gospel of self reliance. I want to reject the gospel that I have to control everything and hold it all close and accumulate more and protect that which I accumulate, like all that I got. I just have to say no to that, because I don't wanna be afraid all the time and then make all the people around me more afraid. I don't think Jesus made people afraid.He made demons afraid, but off the top of my head, I cannot… like Judas wasn't even afraid of Jesus. The fear and reverence of the Lord and all of those kinds of things where the angels and the Father say, “Don't be afraid,” Jesus speaking to people did not instill fear in them. I don't think I need to be motivated or driven or attracted or tempted towards fear about anything.Sy Hoekstra: I mean, there are people who seemed kind of afraid of him, but they were all powerful and largely oppressive people.Jonathan Walton: [laughs] That's true.Sy Hoekstra: Herod seemed pretty afraid of Jesus [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Herod was terrified. Yeah, that's true. I don't think that Jesus' goal in conversation dialog was for someone to be afraid.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah, that's correct.Jonathan Walton: And then for them to be compelled to follow him because they were scared. Like that… it is literally the opposite of a fire and brimstone call to faith. It's not congruent with the Christ of scripture.Resisting Cynicism by Choosing Where to Place Our HopeJonathan Walton: So what about you? How do you think our current political [laughs] realities, would love for you to be in the world?Sy Hoekstra: It feels like they would love for me to be a cynic. I don't know, someone who's just a real downer. Because I would say, if you'd asked this eight years ago, I would have said they would want me to be depressed. Because at that time, Trump just felt so dark and foreboding in a way that was deeply sad to me. Not exactly scary, but just really, really depressing. I think now I'm actually thinking more about the Democrats when I say that, because as we are recording, the Biden administration has said some very tentative things about a maybe possible weapons embargo if some undefined humanitarian crisis in Gaza is not vetted in the next month. So we'll see how that works out over the next week and a half until this publishes.But basically, up until now, it's kind of been you've got to toe the party line. You got to be effectively totally pro Israel to be in line with the Biden administration and also with the Harris campaign. That could lose them Michigan maybe or whatever, but ultimately coming out for a ceasefire or something else they must have done the calculus is gonna lose them more.Jonathan Walton: Right.Sy Hoekstra: The reason that that makes me cynical is just so much in politics, it's just about that. It's just about, are you gonna get elected or not? I think Jonathan, and I've been convinced for a long time, it is pretty impossible to be a politician and follow Jesus, because if you follow Jesus you're not gonna be a politician anymore [laughter]. Because the whole point is you got to get reelected, and you got to do whatever it takes to do that. You've got to change your mind on issues, you've got to spend money, you've got to be a hypocrite. Doesn't matter, you've just got to get reelected. There are probably certain scenarios, like certain places that you could be elected and have integrity for smaller offices than the President [laughs], that would lead me to some amount of cynicism about the whole system and despair if my faith was in the system. If I was looking to who the next president is to determine my hope for the world.And it's kind of a cheesy Christian thing maybe to say, but my hope is in Jesus. But I think it's actually, even honestly, if your hope was not in Jesus, if it was just in something other than what's happening in our current politics, that's a very powerful thing. You know what I mean? It is a very powerful thing to genuinely have your emotional steadiness in something other than whatever's happening in politics. And for me, that's Jesus. But you know, so that's where I'm trying to sit, and that's why I'm trying to resist the way that the election is trying to make me a cynic.Can Christians Be Politicians Faithfully?Sy Hoekstra: You keep taking breaths like you have something that you wanna say immediately [laughs] [unclear 00:11:14].Jonathan Walton: I'm thinking, if I heard you right you were like, you believe it may be impossible to follow Jesus and be a politician?Sy Hoekstra: Yeah.Jonathan Walton: And I was thinking about that because I think it's like, we would have to define follower of Jesus and define politician.Sy Hoekstra: Sure.Jonathan Walton: But it's interesting to me that it is impossible to be a servant of empire and follow Jesus. Like it's possible, because Jesus calls them out to be a non-Christian religious person. It is possible for Cornelius to be in the military and be faithful to God.Sy Hoekstra: I see what you're saying.Jonathan Walton: Yeah, but what you're getting at is the incoherence of that reality that we try to assert. So for example, I think it's possible to be a Christian politician. It is impossible to make politics Christian.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah. And if you want to be a Christian politician, you're gonna have to recognize that your job is going to be constantly, ceaselessly trying to pull you away from Jesus [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Yeah. It is impossible to follow Jesus and be a politician, if a politician is what you are trying to be.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah. I got you.Jonathan Walton: It is possible to follow Jesus and hold elected office, you know what I mean? But there are some people whose complete identity, which is what you're talking about, “I'm only here to get reelected. I wanna accumulate power, I wanna do that,” like it is impossible to be a politician.Sy Hoekstra: I think it's a little bit harder than that though, because it's not just about your identity if you're a politician, your job is to get reelected. That's what everyone is looking for you to do. That's what your party's looking for you to do, all people who work for you, obviously, that's what they're looking for you to do [laughter].Jonathan Walton: Right.Sy Hoekstra: Literally, if you don't get reelected, you can't do the job anymore. So it's like it is an integral part of the job description itself. It's not even just an issue of where your identity lies. You know what I mean?Jonathan Walton: That's true. Listen, if you're listening to this, I would love to hear what you think.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah.Jonathan Walton: Love to hear what you think. Unfortunately, the philosophical argument, the dominoes could start to fall around lots of professions. It's interesting. We're probably gonna talk about this as a subscriber chat now. So there we go [laughter].Sy Hoekstra: There we go.Jonathan Walton: Cool.Sy Hoekstra: Cool. Thanks for that little brief discussion as we go into the voting booths, which is in like a week and a half from when you're listening to this, if it's the day it comes out. And as we continue to behave politically after the voting happens, which I hope everyone listening to this show is doing [laughs], let's try and be shrewd. Innocent and shrewd, right?Jonathan Walton: Yes.Sy Hoekstra: That's what Jesus wants us to be.Jonathan Walton: [laughs].Sy Hoekstra: And let's continue to think hard about that. I appreciate that discussion. Let's try to find a way to continue it. We are gonna get into our interview now before we come back and talk about our thoughts on the interview and some stuff about Ta-Nehisi Coates [laughter] in Which Tab Is Still Open.Interview with Kevin NyeOur guest today, as I said, is Kevin Nye. He is a writer and advocate working to end homelessness through engaging best practices. He has written on the intersections of homelessness and faith for Religion News Service, Sojourners, Red Letter Christians and more. He has presented at national conferences on the topic of homelessness. His first book released in August of 2022 and it was called Grace Can Lead Us Home: A Christian Call to End Homelessness. Kevin currently lives with his wife and son in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he works as the housing director for an organization addressing youth homelessness.Jonathan Walton: Let's get into our interview.[The intro piano music from “Citizens” by Jon Guerra plays briefly and then fades out.]Sy Hoekstra: Kevin Nye, thank you so much for joining us on Shake the Dust today.Kevin Nye: Absolutely. It's a pleasure to be here.The Effective ‘Housing-First' Policies Evangelicals Often RejectSy Hoekstra: You and I met about a year ago at the Evolving Faith conference, just after you had published what I thought was a really great article for Sojourners about kind of the difference between treatment-first housing policy and housing-first housing policy, which can, they can sound a bit wonky to people. But you talked about how it's a really important distinction, and how a lot of times Christians are making the wrong choice in choosing the treatment-first policy and favoring those types of policies. And so because I think this distinction will actually help us get at a lot of underlying kind of spiritual and theological issues when it comes to housing policy, can you tell us what these two different approaches are and why you think a lot of conservative Christians are picking the wrong one?Kevin Nye: Absolutely. So the treatment-first methodology, it's kind of the one that we've been using for almost 100 years in response to homelessness, but it also sort of infects a lot of our thinking about many different things. And it essentially says that if you are in poverty, if you are in homelessness, that you have to sort of prove your worthiness of getting out of that. So if you are experiencing homelessness, we know that ultimately the destination that you're hoping for is to be in housing of some kind, an apartment, a house, what have you. But that in order to get there under the treatment-first model, it suggests that you have to sort of check a bunch of boxes. And those boxes have looked different, according to the program, and according to the time that it's been implemented, but they usually include some level of sobriety.So if drugs or alcohol are part of your life, they have to stop. If you struggle with your mental health or even your physical health, that you have to ascribe to a particular treatment plan, and demonstrate your willingness to do that and to stay on it to then achieve whatever objective is set for you by some institution, which often is a shelter or a government program or a Christian institution, like a Rescue Mission. And then depending on which avenue you're going or which institution is involved, that can include a lot of other more arbitrary types of rules, like that if you demonstrate your worthiness or your dedication by applying for a certain number of jobs per week, or attaining employment first, or attending Bible study every day at the Rescue Mission. There's sort of all of these expectations to demonstrate that you are sort of good enough, worthy enough to invest in with this long-term opportunity.That is opposed to the housing-first idea, which we've known and understood for closer to like 30 years and have been studying and practicing ever since, which suggests that rather than do or accomplish all of these things to prove that you deserve housing, housing being sort of the end destination, we lead with the housing because we recognize that housing is the stabilizing force that makes so many of those other things possible. And then we don't just plop you in housing and say, “Good luck,” but we put you in housing and then ask you, “Okay, now, what do you wanna work on?” Now that you have this baseline of stability, of safety, a literal home base, what's next? Let's tackle it together. Now that you can get a good night's sleep. Now that you can charge your phone in an outlet overnight.Now that your documents and your medications are safe. Now that you can buy food to store it in a fridge, rather than go to whatever dinner is available for free for you across the community, or save up enough to get fast food just to fill your belly. All these things that we sort of take for granted that a home with four walls, a roof and a door provide for us are those things that we actually need to be successful. One's ability to stabilize a physical or mental health condition is really difficult if you don't have a safe place to go every night, like where you can store your medication safely, where you can eat a healthy diet, where you can have a normal routine. And even something like drug use and alcohol use, we understand are things that are responsive to a chaotic situation.That if you are living on the streets every day, you are more likely to seek out the soothing effects [laughs] of alcohol, the numbing effects of substances, or the energizing effects of other types of substances, in order to try to get things done that you need to get done. But that even folks who are deep in the throes of those kind of problematic relationships with drugs and alcohol do so much better with housing-first, rather than saying, “Hey, you need to fix all of these things before we even help you feel safe and stable.”Sy Hoekstra: It also strikes me all three of our mutual friend, Josiah Haken, wrote a book where he talked about kind of myths about homelessness. And one of them was the myth that, basically, homeless people are dangerous.Kevin Nye: Yeah.Sy Hoekstra: And he was like, the real reality of being homeless is that you're actually in more danger than everybody else constantly. You are the one who's the most likely to be the victim who's most likely gonna be robbed, have your stuff taken. And that stuff that's on you, like you said, is all your documents [laughs], it's all of your medicines that you need to remain in your sound mind or whatever. And just having a place to not be worried about that as much feels like an enormous burden lifted off people too, in addition to all the other enormous burdens lifted off people that you just mentioned.Kevin Nye: Absolutely. Yeah, Josiah is great, and his book is really good, too. Neighbors with No Doors, for your listeners to go check that one out.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah, yeah for sure.Christianity Today, and Why the Church Doesn't Address Homelessness WellJonathan Walton: This is something that I'm very passionate about. Like Sy said, I've known Josiah for years. I spent a good part of my formative young adult years on the streets with friends. And so a few months ago, you wrote a post on your Substack about an article of yours that Christianity Today was like, “Yep,” and then said, “No.”Kevin Nye: Yeah.Jonathan Walton: [laughs] So can you tell us about that story, why you decided to go public, and the difference between knowledge and opposition. Because I think some people that are listening to this might think, “Oh, well, if we just know better, then we'll do better.” And I don't think that's true. So could you tell us about your journey writing, then having it get rejected, and then that difference between knowledge about something and opposition. Could you break that down?Kevin Nye: Sure. Yeah, the Christianity Today thing was interesting. When you're a writer on a particular topic and that topic sort of starts to get national attention, which is what was happening, at the time there was a Supreme Court case that was gonna be heard, since then has been heard, Johnson versus Grants Pass, Oregon.Sy Hoekstra: Right.Kevin Nye: We could talk forever about that, but essentially, whether or not municipalities have the right to criminalize homelessness was sort of being decided at the national level. And I wanted to write something about the faith perspective of that. And I have my own Substack and outlets where I can do that, but I thought that this being such a national issue, and my take on it wasn't particularly edgy or controversial. It was just, “Hey, maybe we shouldn't criminalize poor people for being poor.” [laughter]Jonathan Walton: Maybe. Let's try that.Kevin Nye: I thought that that was something… and actually part of what I was writing was not, “Hey, this is what I think.” It was, “Hey, this is what a bunch of churches and faith groups are thinking.” And part of my article was actually about how churches were rallying to support unhoused people in this case and writing into the Supreme Court. So it was almost like, it's kind of pro-church [laughs]. And so I thought given all of that, this would be a pretty good pitch for Christianity Today who is a more conservative publication who I hadn't published with before. I'm more likely to publish with Sojourners, which is less obviously conservative or Religious News Service, which is a little bit more like they're reporting news about religion, not religious news.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah.Kevin Nye: But I thought this was the right pitch for CT. They had expressed interest in me writing for them before, and it was just about finding the right thing, and I thought this one was it. So I sent it in, and I got a really good response. They agreed. They said, “Hey, this seems like the one. We definitely wanna work with you on it.” And I was pretty upfront from the beginning about what my stance on it was. And they seemed willing along the way, and even a couple times in the process, I just said, “Hey, I just wanna be super clear, this is where I'm going with it. It may be a little different than what you guys are used to publishing on homelessness,” and I just kept getting thumbs up along the way until it was time, essentially to publish it.I had sent it in, it had gotten the final edit, and they had said, “Hey, we're probably gonna publish this on Friday.” And then two hours later, I got an email that just said, “Hey, hold that thought. Just came from a meeting. We might be going in a different direction.” And then I didn't hear anything for 24 hours, and then it was, “Yeah, we are going in a different direction for our coverage.”Jonathan Walton: But did they pay you for it?Kevin Nye: They did. They paid me a kill fee, which…Sy Hoekstra: Which is not the whole thing.Kevin Nye: Yeah. And part of me was like, I wanna be like, “I don't want your money,” [laughter] but then I was like, “I'll take your money and I'll use it for something good.”Jonathan Walton: I can deposit this. Yeah. Right [laughs].Kevin Nye: Yeah. And so I ended up just then sending it to Religion News Service, and said, “Hey, sorry that this is coming late.” Because the deadline was that the Supreme Court was hearing it that week, and so it was sort of a timely piece. And I sent it over there, said, “Hey, I'm sorry this is such short notice, but do you guys want this because another publication didn't want it?” And they ran it. I sat on that for a while deciding whether or not I wanted to say anything about it, because I never want to, I don't wanna stir up trouble just for the sake of trouble. And I don't wanna trash this publication for no reason, even though they've given us some pretty good reasons over the years.Sy Hoekstra: [laughs].Kevin Nye: But I was like, I don't wanna pick a fight just to pick a fight. And part of that is a professional consideration. As a writer I have the potential to burn a bridge there. So I just sort of said, I'm gonna wait to see what they meant by our coverage is going in a different direction, because it does imply they're gonna publish something, right?Sy Hoekstra: Right.Kevin Nye: And for all I know it could have meant, “Hey, we actually got someone really, super, more qualified than you to write this.” Or, “One of the lawyers who's on the case wanted to write something for us.” And I'd be like, “Well, yeah, of course.” I suspected that wasn't what it meant, [laughs] but I'm gonna withhold judgment, at least publicly for a bit [laughter]. And so I sat on it, and then a couple months later, the Supreme Court ruling came out. So it was supposed to publish when they heard it, and then they had a couple months to deliver a ruling. They delivered a ruling, and Christianity Today had still not published anything, not even about homelessness, period. And so then I thought, “Okay, the ruling just happened.” It also came out the same day that they ruled on presidential immunity.Jonathan Walton: Yes.Kevin Nye: So it was like, okay, there's a lot of competing things to talk about right now so I'm gonna give them a week, two weeks, to see if they put out anything. And then when they didn't, that's when I sort of decided that I wanted to write about not being published, and again, not personal, but write about the fact that nothing was being published about this when it is such a significant ruling about what I would argue is one of the top five most significant issues on everybody's mind, which is housing and homelessness. And sort of how that feeds an ignorance and a lack of Christian conversation about this topic. And again, it wasn't, “How dare they not publish me.” It was sort of like, “How could they not publish anything, especially when they had something to publish, and they chose not to?”Jonathan Walton: Why do you think they killed it and didn't write about it?Kevin Nye: My guess is that ultimately, there is a pretty powerful voice that is Christian and institutionalized in the form of the Gospel Rescue Mission. And those who have supported it have worked in it, worked around it, worked adjacent to it, that does genuinely believe that we should make homelessness harder so that A, either people stop choosing it, which is ludicrous, but more so B, will drive people into institutional settings, like shelters, like Christian shelters, where evangelism can happen, sort of Christian teaching can happen. And the reason I believe that is because there was only one faith perspective that wrote into the Supreme Court in favor of criminalizing, and it was the Grants Pass Gospel Rescue Mission.Criminalizing Homelessness to Force People into Religious SheltersAnd they actually wrote in that publicly available letter that they felt that since it had been ruled at a lower court that they couldn't criminalize, the numbers at their shelter had been declining. Now they failed to mention that this happened at the same time as COVID, and might be another reason that people didn't wanna come into a public shared space type of shelter setting, but that because the city could not use criminalization to compel people into the Rescue Mission, that people were not getting services that they needed. But if you dig into the Gospel Rescue Mission over there, which I did extensively, you learn that they have some of the most egregious rules and expectations of people, and have a very poor reputation among the unhoused community there for how they treat people.And so what then truly is at stake here is in a town like Grants Pass where the only shelter is a Gospel Rescue Mission, can the government criminalize homelessness and force people into a religious setting where they are being taught against their will Christianity in the form of chapel and required Bible studies on a daily basis? And now I don't think Christianity Today thinks that we should institutionalize all unhoused people and scream the Bible at them, but I think that Christianity Today is reluctant to anger the voices who are pretty large and hold a lot of power that defend that institution.The theology behind Misguided Christian Housing ProgramsSy Hoekstra: Can we get a little bit at what some of the reasons are underneath all this stuff? I mean, aside from the [laughs] opportunity to evangelize, forcing people into your program to evangelize them, because that's just your whole end goal as a Christian or whatever, is to convert people, and so the means by which you convert them doesn't matter. Which is, I'm putting it that way because I'm just kind of processing that, because it's gross. It's in line with manipulating people into Christianity by scaring them about hell.Kevin Nye: Yeah.Sy Hoekstra: Like why not just scare them about prison or anything else?Jonathan Walton: Yeah, right. I'll put you outside.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah, exactly [laughs]. But I wonder what other… you've dug into the theology of this, you've dug into people's reasoning for supporting this kind of programming and the powers that be supporting this kind of programming. What are the other motivations, theological reasons that you see behind treating vulnerable people this way?Kevin Nye: Yeah. Well, I mean, the way I framed it obviously, is sort of the most insidious version of it, but I think that most folks who… I mean, especially your frontline workers in a place that, genuinely believe that Jesus is the solution to homelessness. That people who are experiencing homelessness are doing so because of a personal failure, a moral failure, and that if they commit their lives to Jesus, that that will allow them to leave behind the life that led them into the situation that they're in and propel them towards a new life. That's the nice way of understanding what's happening, which I genuinely believe a lot of folks in these settings are operating it from that more positive version.Even what you described as scaring people with hell to get people to accept Jesus, I know people that are in my family who they genuinely believe that the people that they love and care about are gonna go to hell if they don't. And there is this motivation that, again, because they have this belief that is toxic, that the way… if you are committed to that belief, to then address this problem can be very problematic. My experience by and large, has not been that people who experience homelessness are not religious or are not even committed Christians.Sy Hoekstra: Seriously.Jonathan Walton: Exactly.Sy Hoekstra: Right.Kevin Nye: And on top of that, an informed understanding of what causes homelessness is not moral personal failure, but very measurable and understandable social issues like the cost of housing, like our mental health systems, like the stagnation of wages, so that housing is more expensive and people aren't making any more money. So one plus one equals two, fewer people can access housing.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah, there's so much to say there, but things I wanna highlight, you're basically saying that Jesus is the answer to homelessness, allows you to avoid asking systemic questions, allows you to avoid talking about systems that need to change. It also kind of turns Jesus into something that he never said that he was. He never said he was the answer to homelessness. He also never even said, “If you state a belief in me and read the Bible and pray and x, y and z, then you will automatically start making significantly better moral decisions.”Kevin Nye: Yeah.Sy Hoekstra: That's not even true about Jesus. He also didn't say, “If you believe in me, all of a sudden you won't be addicted to meth,” or whatever. You know what I mean?Kevin Nye: Right.Sy Hoekstra: None of this is true. There's a real powerful underlying fundamentalist current in that perspective. In a just don't worry about the politics, don't worry about basically any real earthly concerns, just Jesus, everything else will fall in line after that.Kevin Nye: Yeah, and it's, I think a lot about how it's just an extension of prosperity gospel. That it's the same idea that says if you're an average middle-class American Christian, and you want to become wealthy, have a private jet, a mansion, here's your spiritual steps. Get closer to Jesus, you'll be rewarded with physical wealth. Well, if that's true, the opposite of that would be true, which is that if you are in deep, dire poverty, it must mean that you're that much farther from Jesus.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah.Jonathan Walton: Right.Kevin Nye: And I think even people who would reject the Joel Osteen prosperity rich end of that gospel, still believe a lot of that same stuff, but on the poverty end.Jonathan Walton: Yeah.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah. That's so true.Jonathan Walton: The connection for me happens, is yes, the prosperity gospel, but then also the plantation spirituality.Kevin Nye: Yeah.Jonathan Walton: The people who are rich are obedient, the people who are poor are disobedient. And what disobedient people actually need is supervision and discipline.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah.Kevin Nye: Yes.Jonathan Walton: And so the housing-first, the entire mentality that you are flipping over is saying you don't actually have to be good or better or on the right side of things to receive, which is the opposite of the plantation, which is the opposite of Capitalism, which is the opposite…Sy Hoekstra: You might even call it grace, Jonathan [laughter].Jonathan Walton: I mean, I was gonna get to the title of the book at the end, but like…[laughs].Kevin Nye: And not even just to receive, but to receive in a way that allows freedom and choice. Because that is one of the biggest differences between these two models. And I think, a lot of why it's we need to hold housing back until we've programmed into a person what they should be acting like and being like then we give them housing, because once they have housing, they're free to make their own decisions, and we're afraid of what that looks like. Versus that housing-first model that, baked into housing-first is choice and options and autonomy. And even in the process of getting into housing, it's not just, “Hey, here's the apartment that you get,” although that is how a lot of systems end up working, just because of scarcity of housing.But in a good housing-first model it's, “Here's all the types of housing that are accessible to you. These ones are subsidized this way, these ones are this way. This is in this part of town, this one is connected to these types of services. What works for you?” And then after that choice comes more choices like, “Hey, what's the thing that you wanna work on first?” Which is the treatment-first model says, you got to get sober before you do anything else. And that is just not true. I think that's a big piece of it too, is how much the treatment-first system allows us, whether we're government or religious, to exert social control over people.Jonathan Walton: All that to say, there are people and systems and structures, institutions in place that keep this ideology enforced.Kevin Nye: Yes.Jonathan Walton: It is moving forward. Something, harking back, we had an interview with Lisa Sharon Harper, who I believe you know.Kevin Nye: Yeah.Jonathan Walton: And one of the things she said was, the hope is in the work. As we do the work, we will find hope, because we're close and we see progress, we build relationships, that's the fruit of being in the work. And so as people are, what we were just talking about, these institutions, these individuals are reluctant to this evidence-based policy actually being rolled out in the church, where do you see good work being done inside and outside of the church, where you can find that intersection of hope and work?Kevin Nye: Yeah.Jonathan Walton: As people do start to say yes to Matthew 25.Kevin Nye: I mean, I think that my… so my book came out two years ago now, and when I wrote it, I sort of hoped that it would be revelatory for people. That a lot of Christians would be like, “Oh, this is new information. This is a new way of looking at it.” And there was a good amount of that. But what really surprised me, and gave me a lot of hope, was how much response I got that said, “Yes, this is what we over here already believe, and we've been doing.”Sy Hoekstra: Oh.Kevin Nye: Sometimes like, “We didn't know it had a name. We didn't know there were other people thinking and talking about this.” And so in those two years, as I've gotten to travel around and do some speaking and stuff like that, I've gotten to see and hear about a bunch of programs, churches that are merging this sort of faith-based and evidence-based. And, yeah, it's just been, it's filled me with a ton of hope. And where they're, I think the next growth is for them to get organized together, because right now the Rescue Missions are organized. They have a centralized network, and so they can speak together with one voice in opposition to these best practices.But there's not sort of a focal point or a voice box for all these other ones that are doing, like you said, the hope is in the work, they're doing it in their small, local ways, but don't have a collective together to speak to each other and on behalf of one another and on behalf of the things that they believe in. And so that's part of the project I'm working on right now. My next book project is to sort of give voice and awareness to a lot of these ideas that are being implemented in different places that people don't really know about outside of those local communities, and sort of name what is working and why, and hopefully inspire responses from faith communities and individuals that align with best practices and align with their faith.Jonathan Walton: One, I wanna dive into your book, because I actually haven't read it yet, so I'm looking forward to grabbing it. And I'm glad to hear that you have another one. What would you say is the bridge from the one you wrote to this one?Kevin Nye: A lot of different things, but to make it very black and white, it's the first book is about how to think differently about homelessness, and this book is about how you actually go and do that, and how those change beliefs get worked out in things as nitty gritty as program design.Jonathan Walton: Yes.Sy Hoekstra: Totally.Kevin Nye: Without being boring, hopefully.Sy Hoekstra: [laughs] That's great. Where can people find you or your work?Kevin Nye: So I'm on most social media. I'm not too hard to find there, but my handle is a little different everywhere you go. The best sort of landing spot is my Substack. So that's Kevinmnye.substack.com. And so any new thing that I'm writing, whether it's there or I publish with Sojourners, or I'm speaking somewhere, I always put that out in my newsletter there. And hopefully as some more news comes out about this new book project, I'll be able to make announcements about that there.Sy Hoekstra: That's awesome. We will definitely link to that. Kevin Nye, we so much appreciate having you on the show today. Thank you so much for being here.Kevin Nye: Yeah, absolutely. It was a blast.[The intro piano music from “Citizens” by Jon Guerra plays briefly and then fades out.]Our Thoughts after the InterviewSy Hoekstra: Jonathan, I loved that conversation. Tell me what you are thinking about coming out of it.The Church Is Actively Contributing to the Problem of HomelessnessJonathan Walton: There's a lot. I think that the thing that frustrates me the most, and I think this is true about a lot of just injustices that I'm thinking about right now, is that the church is actively contributing to the continuing…Sy Hoekstra: To the problem.Jonathan Walton: Yeah. When we're literally supposed to not do that. Like, the whole Grants Pass amicus brief, I'm just like, “Really guys?” That takes energy. That takes effort, that takes meetings, that takes emails, takes drafts. It takes time to do that. You can't just like, “Hey, I'm gonna write an amicus brief,” and just submit it. There's an effort that goes into sustaining injustice, and that to me I think is concerning and exhausting.Societies with Colonial Roots Won't Provide “Unearned” BenefitsJonathan Walton: The other thing I think about is, I mean, I would say White American folk religion, talk about a plantation mentality, but it even stretches into addressing injustice. I was having a conversation with Maya yesterday.Sy Hoekstra: Your seven-year-old.Jonathan Walton: Yes. No, she's eight. She's eight.Sy Hoekstra: Oh. I forgot.Jonathan Walton: Yeah. But we were talking about the difference between fairness and justice. And she said, “Baba, is it better to give someone what they need or give someone what they ask for?”Sy Hoekstra: You have the deepest child [laughter].Jonathan Walton: She literally asked me that. And I was like, “Ooh.”Sy Hoekstra: Does Maya wanna be on this podcast [laughter]?Jonathan Walton: No, but she was reading a book. I have a discussion or something at school, and this is what she asked me. So I started talking about the vineyard. I said, “Maya, who gets to decide what is needed? Who are the different people?” And she goes, “Well, someone outside is deciding.” And I was like, “Oh, okay, well, then let's go read the story about Jesus in the vineyard.” Like the kingdom of God is like a vineyard.Sy Hoekstra: You're talking about the parable where he pays all the workers the same, no matter how long they worked, and the ones who worked the longest get angry [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Exactly. And then we went and read… she had only read the first half of the parable about the two sons. She hadn't read the second half. So then we talked about the similarities between the father who runs out to meet the prodigal son, and then how the person in charge gets to decide how grace or resources or whatever are distributed. And I was like, it would seem to me that that person gets to define what is just and what is fair, and what is equitable. And we didn't get to talk about power, but that was ultimately what I was thinking about.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah.Jonathan Walton: And I don't know how to explain it to an eight year old. But she said everybody should get what they need. But she's like, “How can we do that?” And I said, “Maya, that right there is the fundamental question that we try to put together.” There are people who think and believe and will work tooth and nail for people not to get what they don't think they deserve. “I don't think that person deserves a home. I don't think that person deserves to live where I live. I think they should, quote- unquote, wait in line,” if we're talking about immigration. “I played by the rules. Don't pay off that debt. I worked at a job…” We're constantly doing that. There's a Hawaiian activist, her name escapes me right now, but she said, “You got to remember you live in a colony.”Like the United States is a colony. That's what it is. Another Peruvian scholar is like, coloniality is a real thing. And so in a colony, you cannot have people get things that they quote- unquote, didn't work for. The kingdom of God should literally break the brains of imperialists, which it does [laughs], because it just, it blows up everything. So all that to say, I hope, and we'll pray and will work in the influence that I have to say, “Hey, can we do what Kevin was talking about, like housing-first, resources first, hugs first, communication first?” All that.For Evangelicals, Grace Is Not TangibleSy Hoekstra: Yeah, totally. I had kind of similar thoughts. I was gonna talk about how the moralism underlying all of the policy, like the treatment-first policy like, “You have to earn this, and we are suspicious of you, and we have all these stereotypes going in that we're just not going to question and we're gonna follow. And until you prove yourself worthy of our generosity, we're not gonna give it to you.” And so it's sort of like, we can talk about grace and generosity and all of that all day long, but we're not gonna put our money where our mouth is, especially not government money [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Yeah. Right, exactly.Sy Hoekstra: That's kind of the other side of the coin of the coin of what you were talking about, which is so there's this lack of grace generosity, but I think yours is actually a step further, which is if you're denying grace and generosity, you're going to have to take active steps to reinforce the frankly, evil way of doing things [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Yeah.Sy Hoekstra: And that's the amicus briefs and everything else. What I was just saying, that kind of moralism, it really is connected to the more fundamentalist side of evangelicalism about how, basically, grace is a spiritual thing. It's not a tangible thing. It's not a material thing. It's not something you practice outside of forgiving someone for wronging you. It's not something you do with your money and your resources. It just doesn't really have any business in the public square, or in public policy, which is not a distinction the Bible draws.Jonathan Walton: Right.Sy Hoekstra: The best you can argue is maybe it's a distinction that under your theology you think the Bible implies. It's definitely not explicit [laughter]. You can look at Leviticus, where there are so so many different provisions where God is requiring people to use the fruits of their own labor to provide for the poor in their neighborhood, and not in particularly efficient ways [laughter]. And Jesus is obviously, or John the Baptist is telling people, “If you have two coats, give one away.” There's the spirit, the direction where everything's going with the kingdom of God is so opposed to that way of thinking, in my view, that it's incredibly frustrating that we have to… Kevin, in particular. I'm frustrated for him, for advocates, and then for most of all, for the actual people who aren't getting housing, who are literally out on the streets. Some of them are freezing to death or starving to death because of our insistence on this moralism.Jonathan Walton: Right. The fundamental thing is at the end of the day, moralism is an argument that you need to earn the stuff, like you were just saying. And then it's like, I'm gonna create an entire ecosystem that justifies your poverty and my comfort.Christians Should Actively Invite Unhoused People into Our NeighborhoodsSy Hoekstra: My other thought was around markets, and a lot of how some of the intractability of housing policy is that so many people just have decided that when you put out public housing or low income housing somewhere, that that lowers the value of the property around it.Jonathan Walton: Yes.Sy Hoekstra: Which is by economists, the way they speak, it's an inevitability. It's just the way things are, and it can't be changed. But that is ultimately because the potential buyers of that property are bigots toward poor people [laughter].Jonathan Walton: Yeah. No, it's true. Right.Sy Hoekstra: It's such widespread, systemic bigotry that it changes the value of homes and buildings and land. And that's a choice. It is a choice that I will grant you most societies have made [laughs]. Like most societies, rich people want to cordon themselves off from everybody else and to use their money to try and escape the things about this world that are difficult and make us sad and uncomfortable and hurt. But that doesn't mean that it's not still a choice for which God absolutely holds us accountable. Go and read Amos, or whatever [laughter]. There's no question, it does not make God happy, and that we have a different way to go. But what we would need is something that seems kind of impossible at the moment, which is a… you've heard of a NIMBY?Jonathan Walton: Yes.Sy Hoekstra: NIMBY people, like Not In My Back Yard. So that means, “Don't put that new methadone clinic, don't put that new housing project anywhere near me.” We would need a YIMBY movement.Jonathan Walton: Yes.Sy Hoekstra: You actually have to have people who say, “Yes. I want poor people around. I want people who are trying to recover from drugs around. I want people who have mental health issues around. Because of my positive value for human life and communal flourishing.” And that truly feels impossible to me. I don't think it is, again, I think it's a choice. And one thing that I'm trying to do, I have narrow influence in the world. One person over whom I have a lot of influence is my two year old. I walk around New York City with her all the time. I take her to daycare, other places. And I'm trying to make a point that, we're not going to be afraid of the person who's having the mental health crisis, because the actual reality is, in that mental health crisis, they are in more danger than we are. They are the ones at risk, we are not.Most of them are not violent. A lot of us want to be violent towards them. Aka Jordan Neely, who was killed on the subway because he was having a mental health crisis, and people were sufficiently afraid of him. And so if I'm on the subway platform with my daughter and someone's having a mental health crisis, and they're not that far away from us, and people will move away from that person because they're afraid, I will stay there. And that has never been a problem, not once. You can tell me that that's dangerous or risky, and I don't care, because I know you're wrong, and I'm going to teach the person that I have the ability to teach that you're wrong [laughs]. And we're gonna stay there, and we're gonna be completely fine. I've been here for 16 years now. I've lived in New York City, and I've been around people having, I've worked with even my clients as a lawyer.These are not alien, weird people having scary freakouts to me. These are real people, who by the way, are fully conscious when they're having their mental health crises, and they can see everyone walking away from them, and they know how afraid everybody is of them, and that affects them deeply.Jonathan Walton: Yeah.Sy Hoekstra: And I'm not gonna be part of it. I will be the yes in my backyard person, even if nobody else is. There are other people who are. I'm not saying it's me against the world, but that is something that we need to insist on it.Jonathan Walton: Yeah, and honestly I think that ties literally perfectly into Which Tab Is Still Open.Which Tab Is Still Open? — Ta-Nehisi CoatesSy Hoekstra: Oh, yeah. Let's get into it. So this is Which Tab Is Still Open. This is the segment where we dive a little bit deeper into one of the recommendations from our newsletter, which you can get by joining the free mailing list at KTFPress.com. You'll get resources articles, podcasts, books, everything, recommendations from Jonathan and I on ways to grow in your discipleship and in your political education. So go to KTFPress.com, sign up for that free mailing list. Jonathan, we're talking about Ta-Nehisi Coates today. Why don't you tell us what we're talking about exactly?Jonathan Walton: Yes. So Ta-Nehisi Coates has a new book, it's called The Message. A very significant portion of it is about his trip to Israel and Palestine, occupied West Bank, Hebron, places like that. Some important points he makes are that when you see how Palestinians are treated up close, it's not really that hard to see it as apartheid or Jim Crow or any other exploitative, discriminatory system that has been set up. And he took a trip to the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, and found it profoundly moving as well, but just couldn't shake that the lesson Zionists took from the Holocaust was that, “We have to obtain our own power at all costs to prevent this from happening again.” He's had some really fascinating media appearances while promoting the book that we'll link to in the show notes.One of them, you mentioned the newsletter, was a great interview with The Daily Show. The interview that instigated a lot of this fervor and dialog and will probably help him sell a lot of books, which he's also said [laughter], was with CBS because he was basically ambushed by Tony Dokoupil, and was called an extremist in asking him pretty nonsensical questions for people who are against genocide, totally normal for people who are for Zionism. And the question he asked that many people ask is, “Does Israel have the right to exist?” And it's a rhetorical question, which Ta-Nehisi Coates actually answered when he said that countries don't have the right to exist, they exist by power. Just that turn was really great.But about the interview, there was controversy, because it came out that the interviewer went around CBS's editorial process and just went off on his own without telling anybody what he was doing. So Sy, what are your thoughts?The Power of Clarity and Focus in Prophetic Truth-TellingSy Hoekstra: I am so happy that Ta-Nehisi Coates is back writing nonfiction [laughter]. That's my main and primary thought. Everything he wrote in the 2010s is very formative for a lot of my thinking. I just love his approach to writing and journalism. He said many times he just, he writes to learn. He really appreciates the power of writing, and he has an incredible amount of moral clarity, a really impressive inability of everyone who's trying to distract him, to distract him. Like he's very focused. Like that question that you just brought up was a good example of it. Somebody says, “Does Israel have the right to exist?” He says, “Israel exists. States don't have the right to exist, they just do. They establish themselves with power. And now I'm gonna talk about, because Israel does exist, how does it exist, and why is that a problem?”It's just, I'm going to acknowledge your question. I'm going to say very quickly why it doesn't make any sense, and then I'm gonna get back to the point that matters [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Yes.Sy Hoekstra: And that is something I want to emulate in the way that I go about my writing and my commentary and all that. I mean, those are kind of my… [laughs] I'm not sure I have a lot of substantive thoughts about what you just said, I'm just happy he's back. He took a long path down the fiction road and was writing comic books and all kinds of other stuff, which is also very cool. And he also did that because he was like, “That's the challenge for me as a writer right now. I've never done this. I'm a little bit scared of it. I think being nervous is good as a writer. And I'm gonna go do this thing that makes me sort of uncomfortable, instead of just continuing to churn out bestsellers about whatever.” You know what I mean?Jonathan Walton: [laughter]. Right. Let me go and be challenged. Right right right.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah, which I really respect that too, even though it means there were several years where I didn't get his commentary on stuff that I would have appreciated [laughter]. That's what I have been thinking as I've been watching him. But how about you, and you said you were gonna connect it back to what we were talking about before?Jonathan Walton: Yes. So one, amen, I'm glad he's writing nonfiction as well.Sy Hoekstra: [laughs].Jonathan Walton: It's really powerful to me what truth telling does. He is stewarding a platform. He is leveraging his voice. He is doing what I would hope followers of Jesus would do in the ways that we can and the lives that we live every day. You're leveraging your platform with your daughter. You are her biggest influence. You and Gabrielle. The stewardship of his power and platform to elevate and center the most marginalized voice in the media landscape over the last 65 years, people from the Middle East. That we say the Middle East, because we're the center of the world.Sy Hoekstra: [laughs].Jonathan Walton: And so that reality comes from… I've listened to so many interviews. I listened to his one with The Daily Show, MSNBC, Zeteo with Mehdi Hassan. I listened to the one with Trevor Noah. I'm gonna listen to the one for Democracy Now!, I'm gonna listen to the one with The Gray Area, because I need to be reminded every day that there are people willing and able to say the hard things, not be distracted or dissuaded from what they're trying to say, and be willing to communicate that they would risk their own injury. He said, “It doesn't matter what someone else has done to me or how evil someone is, we should not kill them.” Over and over again. There is no world where it's, “Oh, it's complex. Oh, it's complicated.”No, no, no, it's not. It's not complicated. It becomes complicated if you don't think about it. Everything's complicated if we don't think about it. But if you actually sit down and think about what it would mean to be Palestinian and what it would mean to be a Jewish person post Holocaust, post multiple pogroms, I would love for us to arrive at the point where we're like, “I don't want to perpetuate that against anyone else, because it was perpetrated against me,” which is love your neighbor as yourself.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah.Jonathan Walton: Which he's not a follower of Jesus, but where we have instead landed is where he is willing to wrestle, he talked about this with Trevor Noah, he would hope that he would not become someone who would commit acts of violence to keep acts of violence from happening to him. That, I think is a rub. Like Nat Turner's rebellion and what happened on October the seventh when the quote- unquote, Hamas escaped. Even the words we use to describe the attack that happened, it literally is described like a breakout a lot of the times, in Zionist literature and communication. All of these things frame the Lebanese, or frame now the Iranians as not people. And what Ta-Nehisi Coates is trying to do is actually say they are people.And that gets back to what you're talking about with, yes in my backyard. This is a person. Jordan Neely is a person. The person on the street having the mental health crisis, the person who's going through a messy divorce and doesn't have anywhere to go, the folks that are unemployed or bust up here from Texas, these are individuals made in the image of God, who do not deserve harm. That is the thing that draws me back to Coates' interviews, because he's not avoiding the hard questions, but what he is doing is communicating a truth that the people asking hard questions don't like. We are no better than the person that we're shooting or bombing or killing. We're just not. And so why are we doing that to someone who is literally just like us?And so I will keep watching, I will keep listening, keep reading. I hope that there is a shift happening. I'm not optimistic. I'm grateful for him and driving the conversation, because it feels something has broken through that I hope continues, because that was a conversation on CBS Morning Show. That was a conversation on progressive, liberal, conservative. Like people are talking about the book, even if you're critiquing it, you got to talk about it. I'm glad that that's happening, and I hope that this is taking the trajectory of what happened in South Africa, that's the best case scenario.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah.Jonathan Walton: It's not the best case scenario, but politically in the limits that we have, it's the best case scenario.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah. And I think he thinks that way. Like when he talks about the power of writing, he's not talking about the power of my book to end the war, he's talking about the power of my book to influence some people who so

On June 27th, 2020, Fauna Frey, a 45-year-old woman grieving the recent loss of her brother, left her family home in Dexter, Oregon with plans to visit some of his loved ones in the Grants Pass area. Two days later, on June 29th, Fauna was seen buying groceries in Grants Pass, but after that she vanished. Months later, her Jeep was discovered abandoned on a remote road over an hour from the grocery store, yet Fauna was nowhere to be found. It's been over four years since Fauna disappeared, and her family is still desperate for answers. Fauna Frey was last seen at 3:38 p.m. on June 29th, 2020, at Gooseberries, an organic food store in Grants Pass, Oregon. Her car was found months later on a spur road off BLM road 30 481 in the Mount Reuben Road area. Fauna is described as being 5'6" and weighing between 135 and 150 pounds. She has blonde hair and blue eyes, and she was last seen wearing a pink or purple zip up, lightweight jacket, cotton Capri black leggings, a light or white colored shirt, light colored sneakers and white champion ankle socks. If you have any information about Fauna's disappearance, please call the Josephine County Sheriff's Office at (541) 474-5123. A reward is available. Editor: Shannon Keirce Research/Writing: Haley Gray and Anna Luria SUBMIT A CASE HERE: Cases@DetectivePerspectivePod.com SOCIAL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/detperspective/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/detperspective FIND DERRICK HERE Twitter: https://twitter.com/DerrickL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DerrickLevasseur Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DerrickVLevasseur CRIME WEEKLY AND COFFEE Criminal Coffee Company: https://www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Crime Weekly:  https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop ADS: 1. FactorMeals.com/Detective50 - Use code DETECTIVE50 for 50% off! 2. TryMiracle.com/Detective - Use code DETECTIVE for 3 FREE towels and an extra 20% off!

Across the West Coast, cities and counties are still figuring out their approach to homelessness roughly a month after the Supreme Court gave them the OK to ban people from camping and sleeping on the street. In California, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would go so far as to withhold state funds from local governments that don't comply with his order to clear homeless encampments. It's a mandate that's divided local leaders on how to manage one of the most complex issues facing the state. Sydney Johnson, a reporter covering homelessness for San Francisco NPR station KQED, talks about how the Supreme Court's ruling is playing out in California.And in headlines: Voters in Arizona and Missouri will get a chance to enshrine abortion rights in their state constitutions this November, Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz forcefully pushed back against Republican attacks on his military career during his first solo campaign event in Los Angeles, and the Democratic National Committee says it will stream next week's convention on social media.Show Notes:Check out Sydney Johnson's reporting – https://www.kqed.org/author/sjohnsonSubscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

In 1960, a man named Lawrence Robinson was sentenced to 90 days in jail for violating a California law that made it illegal to be addicted to narcotics. This summer, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order telling agencies to clear “dangerous” homeless encampments on state land. What links these two situations? The Eighth Amendment.

It's not about BEING homeless, it's about doing something that's homeless. If you're not a 5-4 Premium member, you're not hearing every episode! To get first dibs on live show tickets, dig into our Premium episode catalog, join our Slack community, and more, subscribe at fivefourpod.com/support.5-4 is presented by Prologue Projects. This episode was produced by Lena Richards. Leon Neyfakh and Andrew Parsons provide editorial support. Our researcher is Jonathan DeBruin, and our website was designed by Peter Murphy. Our artwork is by Teddy Blanks at Chips NY, and our theme song is by Spatial Relations.Follow the show at @fivefourpod on most platforms. On Twitter, find Peter @The_Law_Boy and Rhiannon @AywaRhiannon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

While most everyone was reacting to Thursday's Presidential debate, we had our eyes trained on the Supreme Court. It was again (surprise!) bad. SCOTUS determined that sleeping outside was illegal in Grants Pass v Johnson. They limited the scope by which insurrectionists could be charged for their actions on January 6, 2021 in Fischer v United States. The unelected robed leaders then laid a finishing blow in Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo, overturning the decades-long guidance of the longstanding Chevron doctrine and upending the ways in which government agencies can regulate the things they regulate like; clean air, water, firearms your retirement account and oh, medical care.   This term has signaled something especially troubling. While you can certainly be concerned about Trump or Biden being president once again, you should be more worried about how the justices at the Supreme Court have basically made themselves the end-all-be-all of every legislative matter, regardless who wins presidential contests. It should also come as no surprise who will benefit from these decisions (rich people with yachts).  Host Dahlia Lithwick speaks with Slate's Mark Joseph Stern and Professor Pam Karlan, co-director of Stanford law school's Supreme Court Litigation Clinic to go over Friday's rulings and to break down what it means that federal agencies will no longer be able to, you know, do anything reasonable. Listen to an interview with a doctor helping unhoused people in Grants Pass, OR. This is part of Opinionpalooza, Slate's coverage of the major decisions from the Supreme Court this June. We kicked things off this year by explaining How Originalism Ate the Law. The best way to support our work is by joining Slate Plus. (If you are already a member, consider a donation or merch!) Want more Amicus? Subscribe to Slate Plus to immediately unlock exclusive SCOTUS analysis and weekly extended episodes. Plus, you'll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of "Sara Gonzales Unfiltered," Sara and BlazeTV contributor John Doyle analyze the aftermath of the recent presidential debate. They highlight the stark contrast between Donald Trump's confident performance and Joe Biden's cognitive struggles, featuring clips where Jill Biden helps him down the stairs. They discuss the Democrats' urgent need to replace Biden with a more competent candidate and the legal challenges involved, given state-specific rules on candidate withdrawal. The conversation emphasizes the importance of optics in modern debates, noting how Trump's strategic demeanor resonated with viewers while Biden's poor performance benefited Trump, especially with the media downplaying Trump's successes. They also address economic struggles like rising grocery and gas prices, further undermining Biden's credibility. Sara also discusses key Supreme Court rulings with Josh Hammer, senior counsel at Article III Project and host of "America on Trial with Josh Hammer." Josh breaks down the Fischer v. United States case, which impacts many January 6 defendants and possibly Donald Trump. They then tackle the Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council case, which limits administrative agency power and emphasizes judicial authority in statutory interpretation. Lastly, they cover the City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson case, which empowers cities to enforce laws against homeless encampments. Today's Sponsor: Flying Ace Spirits Go to https://www.FlyingAceSpirits.com and use promo code UNFILTERED to get free shipping on every order. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices