This Wednesday, 14 January 26, you’re invited …

Friend and gifted documentary filmmaker Kristen Cesario Irving (see her latest: TRUE BELIEVER, here:  https://kinema.com/events/True-Believer-nfff3z) has invited me for a live online conversation about the ongoing authoritarian takeover happening here in the US, especially in light of recent ICE violence: 14 January 2026 at 1 pm PT/4pm ET.

It will take place on Kristen’s Substack, and will be based on an interview that Kristen filmed with me ten years ago.

Here’s the link for the livestream:

https://open.substack.com/live-stream/97188

And here’s background information for the livestream:

https://kristenirvingcesario.substack.com/p/the-cost-of-loving-thy-neighbor

Here’s backstory and video of the 2016 interview (you’ll see I look way younger):

https://kristenirvingcesario.substack.com/p/part-3-this-ones-for-the-pastors

A few excerpts … from 2016:

If you are a pastor who is aware that your congregation is more devoted to the Fox News of Rupert Murdoch than the good news of Jesus Christ, and you realize how dangerous that is but you know that if you confront it you will probably get fired, the first thing I would say to you is you are in great, great, great danger. If you remain silent and complicit, you lose your integrity. You will be injuring yourself morally in ways that you may never recover from. Your soul is in danger. 

… you’ve got to figure out what you’re going to do as a leader, but do not try to do something as a leader until you get a safe space to get back into being a human being, an honest human being and an honest Christian. I think we’re in a situation that could be a whole lot like Germany in the 1930s. We’re in a very, very serious situation. We don’t have time to waste, but we’ve got to deal with the authenticity of who we are first and foremost because what we’re able to do depends on us first becoming divided no more.

I hope you’ll consider joining us, either live or asynchronously.