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Lisa Sharon Harper

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Speaking

Lisa speaks to diverse audiences around the world on issues of faith, power and politics. Followers are as likely to find Lisa speaking at a justice conference in Australia, New Zealand or Brazil, a Sunday service for a mega-church in Baltimore or a church plant in South Bend, Indiana, a theological consortium in Chicago, a women’s conference in Kansas or a justice protest in Washington, DC. With a profound mix of intellectual rigor, powerful story-telling and searing wit Lisa leads listeners through a transformational experience that deepens their love for God and their commitment to a just world.

Videos


Talk Descriptions


HOW RACE BROKE THE WORLD–AND HOW TO REPAIR IT ALL

Core Scripture: 2 Samuel 21:1-14
What if now is the time to dream–in the middle of the mess, in the middle of the deepest division that our nation (and the church) has experienced since the Civil War. What if now is exactly the time to prepare for peace and justice to kiss? God’s vision is still possible, but only if we trust God and go deeper. Wade into deep waters with Lisa Sharon Harper as she guides us through the story of race in America through the framework of her family story and considers three practices that could repair all that race broke in the world.

THE SUBVERSIVE POWER OF YOUR FAMILY STORY

The most consequential divide in our nation is the narrative gap. Stories shape worldview. Worldview shapes both politics and policy. Therefore stories shape the world.

Competing narratives are vying for the soul of America. To heal our nation—and the church—we must shrink the gap between our narratives. What if your family story has the power to help heal the world?

Lisa Sharon Harper, author of the celebrated epic memoir, Fortune: How Race Broke My Family And The World—And How To Repair It All, researched and wrote the stories of 10 generations of her family. In the process, she traced the origins and impacts of racial hierarchy in the US. Join us as Lisa demonstrates the subversive power of family narrative. And consider how your own family history might help reveal and heal the world.

FOUR WORDS THAT CHANGE EVERYTHING

Core Scripture: Genesis 1:26-31
Drawing from her celebrated book, The Very Good Gospel, Lisa Sharon Harper talks the Gospel, race and how God intended us to live together. Mining Genesis 1 Harper sheds light on four simple words that change everything.

THE CALL TO BELOVED COMMUNITY

Core Scripture: Psalm 85

How do we respond to a history of racism and become the Beloved Community described in Psalm 85?

RACE AND POLITICS IN THE U.S.

Core Scripture: Genesis 1:26-27
Come and consider how race and bias impact public policy and how faith can flip the script.

THE INTERSECTIONAL ORIGINS OF RACE AND GENDER IN THE U.S.

The first race laws crafted in the English colonies were also the first gender laws written on North American colonial soil. This lecture will uncover the legal roots of white patriarchy in the U.S.. Harper will illuminate the real-life consequences of the laws for people of African descent, particularly Black and mixed race women, and Harper will explore the theological implications of the American constructs of race and gender.

HOW TO REPAIR WHAT RACE BROKE IN THE WORLD

What will propel us towards Shalom and a generation of abundance? This lecture is based on Lisa Sharon Harper’s upcoming book Fortune.

THE VERY GOOD GOSPEL FOR WOMEN

In an era of me-too, church-too and separation of black and brown mothers from their children by mass detention and mass incarceration, what is the very good news for women? What transformative work might God have yet to do for and through our silenced voices and traded bodies? Come along as Lisa Sharon Harper takes us back to the beginning with deep exploration of Genesis 1-3 and considers its profound implications on the lives and calling of women right now.

FAITH ROOTED ORGANIZING TRAINING

Faith-Rooted Organizing draws from the roots of our traditions to help faith communities engage the larger movement for justice in our world. In this workshop Lisa Sharon Harper will  equip participants to engage the issues at play in their towns and cities by examining the response of Nehemiah to his colonized context.

Learn About the Faith- Rooted Organizing Training for Businesses/Academia and Nonprofits.

TV/Radio


NPR: The Takeaway (with Randall Balmer)

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NPR: The Takeaway

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MPR: #SilenceisNotSpiritual (with Rachel Held Evans)
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MPR: Christian Women Against Trump

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Most popular podcast episode ever with Jen Hatmaker: Hit #5 on iTunes. Beat Oprah that day.

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PBS Religion and Ethics Weekly

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Fox News: Left Right and Christ

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Fox News: Immigration

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Fox News: Religious Liberty

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Roland Martin: TV One: My Brother’s Keeper

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The Call to Pause: Faith Leaders/Congressional Press Conference

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lisasharper

lisasharper
Better late than—well, you get it. 😁 This Mo Better late than—well, you get it. 😁

This Mother’s Day, after church mom, Aunt Najuma (my father’s sister), and I paid respects to my Grandmother Willa and Great Grandmom Elizabeth (“Lizzie”). They are buried in the two black cemeteries in Philly (Mount Lawn and Eden, respectively). It was a beautiful day of connection with the ancestors.

Then on the way out of Eden, which is an national historic site on the Underground Railroad trail, my mom mentioned that the incredible black philanthropist/abolitionist, James Forten, is buried in the same cemetery as Lizzie. 

So, we rounded a corner, went up a hill and…

WOOOW!! 

Side by side in a row lay James Forten, William Still (who partnered with Harriet Tubman to chronicle the stories of self-emancipated people), and Rev. Absalom Jones (abolitionist founder of my church @aecst1792 and the Black Episcopal church in general)! 

Both Absolom Jones and James Forten organized the #walkout of St. George’s Methodist Church with Richard Allen in 1787! They immediately formed the Free African Society. That org church-planted Jones’s St. Thomas’s Episcopal Church and Mother Bethel AME, which was the seed for the first Black denomination. It also planted the First African Baptist Church, which launched the Black Baptist denominations. All right here in #philly. 

#blacklegacy #mothersday #philadelphia
Philly is about to elect its 1st Woman Mayor!! Th Philly is about to elect its 1st Woman Mayor!! 
The top 3 candidates were ALL WOMEN!!!!! 😵😃
And the WINNER was a Black woman!!! 
So, Philly is about to elect its 1st Black woman mayor!!!

I voted for @cherelleparkerphilly because she is the most qualified to be our next mayor, by a mile!! 

1. She earned her Masters in Public Administration from UPenn. 
2. She served in the PA House of Representatives (2005-2015) and chaired the Philly delegation. 
3.  While serving she wrote and passed legislation that allows expert testimony in sexual assault cases. (Imagine that. There was a time when that wasn’t allowed! 🫨)
4. She also passed the Philadelphia Tax Fairness Act, which has helped revitalize Philly neighborhoods!
5. She has served on Philly’s City Council for 8 years! During that time she led the passage of the “Philly First Home” program, which has helped people, previously locked into renter status, access the benefits of home ownership. 
6. Since 2020 Parker has led the Democratic Party on the City Council. 
7. As a Black mother she understands the economic and social challenges facing Philly’s most vulnerable young people. 

It is time to give Cherelle Parker the reins, elect her as our next mayor, and work with her to help make our city flourish! 

#philly #philadelphia #mayoral #election
I voted!! #philly let’s get out and VOTE! Our I voted!! 

#philly let’s get out and VOTE! Our mayoral primary will be decided by less than 1000 votes!! Your vote really does matter. 

I voted for @cherelleparkerphilly , because she is the most qualified by far.

Get out and vote!

#philadelphia #primary #election

Shout-out to my Grandmom Ethel Weeks pictured here! She was riding my cousin’s scooter (in her 70s!!) #whimsical
Y’all! This is your next #mustwatch! The decol Y’all! This is your next #mustwatch! 

The decolonized analysis of #queencleopatra @netflix was STUNNING! Truly. Stunning. 

Plus, I had no idea that Cleopatra died only about 30 years before Jesus’ birth. Never put two and two together before. This African Queen helped set the political context for the entire New Testament. (my revelation, not from documentary)

Meticulously researched through a decolonized lens, historians present simple genealogical, as well as cultural logic to make the strong case that while the Ptolemaic dynasty traces itself to Greece, they had been in Egypt and had intermarried with (pre-Arab invasion) Egyptians for 300 years—eight generations! So Cleopatra “was no more Greek or Macedonian than Rita Wilson or Jennifer Aniston. Both of whom are one generation from Greece,” said the series director, Tina Gharavi, in a piece she penned @variety to slap-back at white supremacist detractors. 

Please watch this series. You will learn a ton. And you may even hear one more beam holding up the lie of white supremacy fall to the ground with a thud. 

#queencleopatra #decolonizeyourmind #decolonize #africanqueens #africanqueen #cleopatra
This morning I boarded an Amtrak train and trekked This morning I boarded an Amtrak train and trekked to DC to accept the #RickLovePeaceAward from @peacecatalystinternational and the Alliance for Peacebuilding. 

I thought I’d share my acceptance speech here (and in comments). 

Thank you, Peace Catalyst and Alliance for Peacebuilding. I am profoundly honored to receive the 2023 Rick Love Peace Award.

I half expect to see Rick come around a corner—always moving and yet deeply rooted in the shalom of God. Rick carried a deep peace in his core. That came from intimate communion with our Creator—the creator of the harmony ethic. 

It is one of the great honors of my life to receive a recognition also given to one of my theological mentors, Dr. Miroslav Volf and Hurunnessa Fariad, who were each recognized last year. 

When I was studying Human Rights at Columbia University in New York City in 2005, American peace-builders looked outward—Croatia and Bosnia, Kosovo, Darfur, Georgia. Those were the places that needed Human Rights and peace-building in those days. 

In 2009, I traveled to Croatia for the 3rd time—to participate in a month-long faith-based peace-building “conference” with a group called Renewing our Minds (ROM), developed by @tihomirkukolja to bring together young leaders across Europe to train them in the art of peace building. There were Bosniacs and Serbs and Croats. There were Serbians and Kosovacs. There were Christians, Muslims and Jews. There were Roma. My roommate was a conservative Republican white woman from Washington state. I am an African American democrat—whose mother was a member of SNCC and dated Stokely Carmichael for a minute. To my surprise, we found that the most intractable divide among us was between us: the Democrat and the Republican.

Today, our democracy hangs by a thread. We need our elections monitored. Our courts have suffered corruption. We are suffering mass violence in our streets every single day. 

(Continued in comments)

#peacecon2023 #beyondfragileground
I just clicked out of our quarterly Freedom Road c I just clicked out of our quarterly Freedom Road consultants team mtg. We start and end each mtg with our one-word check-in and check-out. 

We’re in the midst of a major season of growth and significant impact. Yet, it hasn’t been without its challenges.

As we checked out of the meeting my word was: “Grateful.” I am so grateful for the collective wisdom, the support, the integrity and the community that the Freedom Road team has become to each other over nearly seven years of working and dreaming together. 

I clicked out of the mtg and looked up and saw Babe snuggling with her doppelgänger. 

#grateful
I’m looking forward to reconnecting at my kitche I’m looking forward to reconnecting at my kitchen table tonight! 

Click in at 7pm ET for an #april #checkin on #alladatings (“all-a-da-tings”)

#phdlife 
#ncgerrymander
#tennesseethree 
#climatecraycray 
#queencharlotte 
Charlie’s #coronation 

See you at 7!
Ah… academic stress. #forthejoy Clarification: Ah… academic stress. #forthejoy

Clarification: Final paper in my first of four classes. 😉👊🏽
If you’re hungry for a good convo, scroll throug If you’re hungry for a good convo, scroll through my videos and watch your favorite one of the 100+ convos we’ve had again! Then come back here and let’s us know your favorite #kitchentableconvo! 😃

And for extra credit, share your favorite convo to your stories!
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The Very Good Gospel on Audible

https://lisasharonharper.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/M4291_VeryGood_2.mp4

 

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