A look back at 2023 and some thoughts about preparing for the year we’re about to enter

2023 was year of important conversations, readings, reflections and preparations

Dear friends,

Here are a few thoughts at the end of 2023, laying foundations for the momentous year we’re about to enter.

Conversations have been very important to me this year, and will be important for all of us next year, especially with people who disagree with us on important matters. Most of my conversations have been personal with my family, my students and colleagues at Georgetown, my team at the Center for Faith and Justice, and a host of dear friends. 

Many of the conversations I enjoyed this year were hosted by the Center on Faith and Justice at Georgetown and Soul of the Nation podcast. Here are a few favorites: 

A discussion at Georgetown of The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy, with its author Robert P. Jones, as well as Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post and Vann Newkirk II of The Atlantic.  More than 120,000 people have watched the conversation online! 

A live recording of The Soul of the Nation podcast with Harvard scholar Steven Levitsky and a room full of Georgetown students who were very interested in their future and the future of our democracy.

My Soul the The Nation conversation with Rachel Kleinfeld, who is the clearest voice on the skyrocketing rise of political violence, and what we can do about it.

My old friend Bill McKibben and I talked about where our generation stands on race, the environment, and the consequences of our consumptive lifestyle – so much here to reflect upon.

Matthew Desmond and I spoke about his insightful and convincing book “Poverty, By America,” the most important book on poverty I’ve read in many years. 

I loved a conversation with two friends, Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie and the Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III reflecting on the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” and what it means for us today.

Please watch a remarkable recent conversation with Senator Chris Coons in the beautiful Riggs Library at Georgetown, where he explains what the words “Higher Calling” mean for his personal and professional life. Earlier this year, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi kicked off our new “Higher Calling” series with a headline making appearance.

Readings shaped my life in deep ways this year as well.

Read The Book of Joy if you haven’t yet, which is a conversation between Archbishop Desmond Tutu and His Holiness the Dalai Lama discussing how suffering and even crisis cannot keep us from finding real joy. 

I suggest you read both Steven Levitsky’s Tyranny of the Minority and Matt Desmond’s Poverty, By America.

Two more books I am reading now are The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, by Tim Alberta, about his evangelical background with a clear analysis of how our tradition has been dangerously politicized. And King, by Jonathan Eig, a biography that inspires reflections on how King’s “urgency of now” applies to us.

Some of the columns that meant the most to me were:

On the meaning of peacemakers, which Jesus instructs his followers to be, and the moral questions raised by the war between Israel and Hamas. 

A remembrance at Wheaton College this fall on the 50th anniversary of the Chicago Declaration of Evangelical Social Concern. I was glad to see a new generation of Christian students, faculty, and activists are being re-inspired by the declaration.

A column on gratitude prompted by the funeral of Thelma Carroll, my wife Joy’s mother.

Gratitude has become a key spiritual word and anchor for me.

Go see the movie Oppenheimer whose director, Christopher Nolan, said he made to get his children to think about nuclear weapons. That worked when I took my son Jack to see it with me.

My new book comes out at Easter, in the midst of crucial primary elections, on April 2. It is titled The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy. The book is available for pre-order now. 

I plan to take a book tour across the country, which I hope to turn into town meetings on faith and democracy. Stay tuned for updates on that. I hope to see some of you readers there! 

Blessings for the New Year,

Jim 

Please consider pre-ordering a copy of my book.