Ep. 81: This is Going to Hurt w/Bekah McNeel

Holy Heretics: Losing Religion and Finding Jesus

Episode Summary:

Like a dog returning to her vomit, America chose the sexual predator, white nationalist, pathological liar, and criminal instead of an educated, compassionate Black woman to lead this nation into our collective future. This feels more sinister than 2016 because Trump and his henchmen now have a plan in Project 2025 and I promise you, people are going to suffer.

How do we sit with suffering and respond with compassion? How do we continue to seek justice without demonizing the Christians who willfully voted for this madness? How do we implement a politic of compassion in an era of cruelty?

Bekah McNeel joins me today on Holy Heretics to reset this new normal, to offer a way forward through the solidarity of suffering.

In her career as a journalist, Bekah has encountered a lot of suffering. After all, the most polarizing topics in US politics all revolve around suffering (gun violence, immigration, Covid-19, sexual violence, and white supremacy). She’s sat with migrants seeking asylum. She’s stood outside the school in Uvalde, Texas weeping with parents. She’s been to Detroit and shared space with Iraqi immigrants. As she says in this conversation, “I have zero tolerance for political justifications for suffering.”

Bekah’s ability to break down complex political and ethical arguments through the lens of compassion is a starting point for those of us who refuse to give up the fight for justice.

In this timely conversation, we discuss the following:

How for-profit journalism failed the American people

The media’s role in electing Trump

The power of compassion and the limits to our compassion

How to respond to disinformation with questions and compassion

How to distinguish between political and ethical issues

How to cultivate healthy relationships with friends and family with whom we vehemently disagree with

The issues behind the issues that turn political disagreements into personal attacks, i.e. the conversations about politics with your parents

Bio:

Bekah Stolhandske McNeel is a native of San Antonio, Texas, where she works as a journalist. Her work has appeared in Texas Monthly, Sojourners, The Guardian, The Trace, The Texas Tribune, The 74 Million, Christianity Today, Texas Public Radio, Relevant, Andscape, The Hechinger Report, and the Christian Science Monitor, among others. She published her first book, Bringing Up Kids When Church Lets You Down: A Guide for Parents Questioning their Faith with Eerdmans in 2022.

Known for her ability to communicate the high stakes of politics and policy and bring clarity to complex systems, Bekah keeps the human beings most affected at the front of her coverage.

Bekah is a graduate of the London School of Economics, where she earned a MSc in Media Studies. She is married to Lewis McNeel, an architect with Lake | Flato. They have two young children who, while they do not yet have careers, are very busy.

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Show notes:

http://www.sophiasociety.org/podcast/this-is-going-to-hurt-Bekah-Mcneel

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This episode was produced by The Sophia Society and written by Gary Alan Taylor. Music is by Faith in Foxholes.