PODCAST · religion
The Convocation Unscripted
by Diana Butler Bass, Kristin Du Mez, Robert P. Jones, and Jemar Tisby
Welcome to "The Convocation Unscripted," a free-wheeling conversation between Diana Butler Bass, Kristin Du Mez, Robert P. Jones, and Jemar Tisby. We are each scholars (three historians and one sociologist) who write about religion and its intersection with culture, history, and politics in America. We also each take our own Christian faith seriously and are deeply concerned about the future of both democracy and Christianity in the U.S. Most importantly, over the years, we’ve found ourselves to be not just fellow travelers but friends. This is the video/podcast component of our unique Substack magazine "The Convocation," which you can subscribe to here: https://convocation.substack.com/
Episodes
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TCU+Live: Your Questions on Religion and Politics Answered
Follow on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/jemartisby.b... https://bsky.app/profile/kkdumez.bsky... https://bsky.app/profile/dianabutlerb... https://bsky.app/profile/robertpjones... Follow on Substack: The Convocation- convocation.substack.com Robert P. Jones- www.whitetoolong.net Diana Butler...
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Hegseth’s Disturbing Move to Establish New Office of Religious Affairs at “Department of War”
This week, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s used a newly invented “State of the Force” speech to announcement that he was establishing a new Office of Religious Affairs inside of DOD that would “oversee research, technology, and analytical tools to support and assess spiritual fitness…
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Where are the Conservative Patriots?
Amid the continued visible destruction of symbolic institutions, the Convocation Unscripted team asks, “Where are the conservative patriots?” You know, those who have so loudly professed a commitment to CONSERVING not only things like our most beloved public spaces like the Kennedy Center and the...
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The Long Shadow of 9/11
Twenty-Five Years Later, the Fear Is Still Running the Country The twin towers fell twenty-five years ago, but the outrage that moment spurred is still shaping life in the U.S. and beyond. Kristin Du Mez, Diana Butler Bass, and Robert P. Jones sit with the anniversary and ask: What became of this...
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What Vance and Thiel's Talk of the Antichrist and End Times Really Reveals
This week, TCU came to you live across multiple platforms--via the Convocation Unscripted substack plus our own individual substack platforms. In this episode, we talk about a recent interview given by J.D. Vance in which he discusses his views of the Antichrist and th end times, echoing themes...
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The Important of Strengthening Community Ahead of the Midterms
In this TCU+LIVE episode, the Convocation Unscripted team talked about the challenges of finding rest amid the ongoing assaults on our democracy and American decency--from the $100 billion spent on the unjust and unnecessary war in Iran to $20 million for new "shock gloves" that will be issued to...
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The Smithsonian, the State, and the Spirit of Freedom
Follow on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/jemartisby.b... https://bsky.app/profile/kkdumez.bsky... https://bsky.app/profile/dianabutlerb... https://bsky.app/profile/robertpjones... Follow on Substack: The Convocation- convocation.substack.com Robert P. Jones- www.whitetoolong.net Diana Butler...
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Why Steven Miller's Chilling Speech Matters
Did you miss Steven Miller’s chilling speech at a recent counter-terrorism conference with European officials in Washington, where he evokes Nazi tropes abt the deformed physical appearance of his political enemies? The Convocation Unscripted team unpacks the dehumanizing rhetoric and the Nazi...
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ICE is Killing Innocent People in Our Streets
ICE has killed two more innocent people in our streets. Despite public outcry, ICE continues to kill while wearing masks and not wearing body cams. We cannot be numb to this reality--that our own government is killing people with impunity. If we care about the rule of law, family values, and the...
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The Mainstreaming of Doug Wilson, Self-Described Christian Deceiver
This week, we reflect on the anticlimactic America250 celebrations in Washington, DC, and around the country. We also talked about the tragic, suspicious death of African American 18-year-old Nolan Xavier Wells, whose body was found after he disappeared during a boat trip with a group of white...
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TCU+Live: Your Questions on Religion and Politics Answered
Independence Day Edition Follow on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/jemartisby.b... https://bsky.app/profile/kkdumez.bsky... https://bsky.app/profile/dianabutlerb... https://bsky.app/profile/robertpjones... Follow on Substack: The Convocation- convocation.substack.com Robert P. Jones-...
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SCOTUS Declares Trump Not "Overtly" Racist
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld President Trump’s order to remove Temporary Protected Status from hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants. The lead opinion, written by Justice Alito, declared that Trump’s derogatory language about these groups (“they’re eating the pets”)…
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Listening to the Testimony of Women and Black Americans in the Church and the Country
This week, the Convocation Unscripted team talk about the implications of the silencing of women’s voices in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) and the erasure of women’s voices in the New Testament. On the even of Juneteenth, we also discuss the importance of embracing Juneteenth as our…
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TCU+Live: Your Questions on Religion and Politics Answered
Because it’s the first week of the month, this week’s Convocation Unscripted episode was live. We talked about the latest happenings in the world of religion and politics: the drastic narrowing of officially recognized religions within the Department of Defense, the further politicization of the...
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Christian Nationalism, Demonization, and the End of Moral Politics
In this episode, we talk about the broad interdisciplinary research across the humanities and social sciences that has converged to establish the clear threat of Christian nationalism to pluralistic democracy, both here and across Europe. From the headlines, we also discuss the surprising victory...
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Rededicate 250, Selma, and the Future of American Democracy
In this episode of The Convocation Unscripted, we wrestle in real time with two competing visions of America unfolding side-by-side. On one hand, we discuss the “Rededicate 250” event and the growing effort to frame the United States as a distinctly Christian nation rooted in white Christian...
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The Decline of America as a Good Neighbor
This week, we talk about the dismay our friends in Canada and other nations are expressing about the decline of America as a good neighbor. We also talk about two events that are taking place this weekend: 1) Jemar is attending the “All Roads Lead to the South” event, a day of action in Selma in...
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Gerrymandering Our Way Back to Jim Crow
In this live episode, we talk about the hollowing out of the Voting Rights Act that the U.S. Supreme Court has accomplished with its recent LOUISIANA v. CALLAIS ET AL. ruling. The court’s conservative majority found that the Louisiana district represented by Democrat Cleo Fields relied too…
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“Anti-Christian Bias” and the War on Voting Rights
The White House released a report on so-called “anti-Christian bias.” But who counts as Christian in these claims? Diana, Kristin, and Jemar discuss how this regime is narrowing the definition of Christianity to a particular ideological and political express, while positioning that version as…
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Trump Reads the Bible, Doug Wilson Falls Flat, and Churches Step Up
In this week's episode of TCU, we talk about Trump's participation in a public reading of the Bible, sponsored by a white evangelical group, where he read II Chronicles 7:14, a favorite of Christian nationalists. We also talk about the continued platforming of self-described Christian…
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Trump's Attacks on Pope Leo XIV, Posing as Jesus
On parallel channels over the last two weeks, we’ve witnessed Hegseth’s dangerous holy war rants, Vance’s arrogant lecturing Pope Leo XIV on Catholic theology, and Trump’s direct attacks on the pope, followed by an unhinged promotion of an AI image of himself as Jesus. Just typical post-Easter...
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Humanity vs. Brutality Amid Trump's Immigration Crackdown
On this episode, the Convocation team talks about the large new survey by that demonstrates that most Americans want a more humane approach to immigration policy and do not support indiscriminate mass deportation, the construction of concentration camps on U.S. soil, and the increasingly…
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Cesar Chavez, Reckoning, and Democratic Backsliding
On this episode we talk about the recent bombshell story from the New York Times, “Cesar Chavez, a Civil Rights Icon, Is Accused of Abusing Girls for Years.” We note that these stories of men abusing women and children cut across ideology and reflect a broader brokenness in our culture. But we…
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Normalcy and Resistance Amid an Unjust War
This week, we open the conversation with reflections on the challenges of living daily life amid the onslaught of horrific news, so often these days instigated by our own government. We reflect on normalcy—focusing on daily tasks of caring for family, tending friendships, and connecting with…
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TCU+LIVE: Pete Hegseth's Christian Nationalism and the War in Iran
In this TCU+LIVE conversation, we covered a lot of ground. We opened with the significance of Trump’s falling favorability numbers in a brand new survey, especially among white non-evangelical Protestants and Latino Protestants. We also talked about Pete Hegseth’s dangerous commitments to…
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It's All About the Hierarchy
On this episode, we discussed the deep logic of white Christian nationalism. It’s all about protecting the hierarchy: men over women, white people over all people of color, straight people over LGBTQ people (when they are even acknowledged at all). So this week, when we saw Doug Wilson—who has…
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Weaponizing White Femininity, Erasing Climate Change
On this episode, we discussed the ways white femininity has been weaponized by Trump and the MAGA movement, along with the erasure of climate change as a scientific conclusion by the Trump administration. Pam Bondi’s recent contentious testimony before Congress, which was widely criticized for…
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Trump's Shameful National Prayer Breakfast Ramble
In this TCU+LIVE conversation, we talked about Trump’s shameful, rambling speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, where he talked three times longer than his allotted slot. His remarks were filled with lies about losing the 2020 election, cursing, threats to churches and nonprofits who disagreed...
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The Courage to Speak Up
In this episode of The Convocation Unscripted, Jemar, Diana, and Kristin talk about what it means—and what it costs—to speak up in a moment of moral and political crisis. Reflecting on the Southern Lights Conference, Alex Pretti, and midterm elections, they explore why so many people who once...
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The Escalating ICE Brutality and Church Protests
This week we talk about the recent autopsy reports that reveal the escalating brutality of ICE. Renee Goode’s autopsy revealed that she was shot four times in rapid succession. Another autopsy report this week revealed that the death of migrant Geraldo Lunas Campos, who was in ICE custody at an...
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Minneapolis Clergy Standing with Immigrants against ICE, Featuring Rev. Angela Denker
Following our conversation last week about the senseless, unjustified killing of Renee Good by and ICE agent in Minneapolis, this week we bring you a special episode of The Convocation Unscripted with our first ever guest, Rev. Angela Denker. Angela is an ordained Lutheran pastor in Minneapolis...
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Standing Together for Truth Amid Trump's Lies and ICE Violence in 2026
Our first conversation of the year was a heavy one. We mourned the senseless, unjustified killing of Renee Good by and ICE agent in Minneapolis, noting that the chain of events that lead to her death is anchored in Trump’s racist lies about Somali immigrants. And we also warned that the $170...
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MAGA Vanity and Advent Humility
This week we discuss the explosive Vanity Fair article and accompanying photographs that reveal unflattering images of Trump administration officials, including Susie Wiles, Marco Rubio, and Karoline Leavitt. The photographer, Christopher Anderson, defended his work as authentic journalism rather...
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The Moment Trump’s Panic Became Visible
Why his latest rants signal a deeper unraveling We’re living in a moment where authoritarian power is panicking, elites are hiding, and ordinary people are the ones finding their voice. You could read Trump’s outburst against Somali immigrants as just another racist rant. But if you listen more...
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Trump’s Continued Endorsement of Violence and Christian Nationalism
Just this week, Trump and his administration have shrugged off the brutal 2018 murder of a Washington Post Journalist and welcomed the person the CIA identified as its mastermind to the White House, called for the death penalty and hanging for six democratic sitting members of Congress, and—over…
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Shutdown and Release: Dems Cave, Consequences of Epstein Files
This week, Diana was on the road promoting her new book, A Beautiful Year, but Robby, Kristin, and Jemar took advantage of all being in Washington, DC, together and recorded this special episode from PRRI’s new office. We talked about our disappointment at the capitulation of a handful of...
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The Most Important 2025 Election Result: A Reminder that an Authoritarian Future is Not Inevitable
After a month of heavy travel, the Convocation team was all back together for our live show, which we do the first Thursday of every month. This week—for two weeks in a row—we brought mostly good news to the conversation. We talked about the most important lesson from the blue wave 2025 election...
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"A Beautiful Year" with The Convocation Unscripted
The group discussed Robert's manuscript feedback from his editor and Diana's experience promoting her book "A Beautiful Year" at events, leading to a decision to focus the podcast segment on exploring Robert's book themes rather than PRI studies. The panel shared holiday traditions and…
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The Good News Episode: Defenders of Democracy are Finding Their Footing
This week, we spent most of the show talking about some important signs that the resistance to Trump’s authoritarianism is finding its feet. This week MIT and eight other universities stood together and refused to sign agreements to allow the Trump administration control over their admissions,...
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Calling Out Christian Glee Over ICE Brutality, Answering Your Questions
This week, we discuss the shameful Christian celebration of ICE brutality and violence in the wake of ICE agents shooting Rev. David Black, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Chicago, in the head with pepper balls—while he was praying and inviting ICE officers to repent of their complicity in...
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Hegseth's "Warrior Ethos" and White Evangelical Toxic Masculinity
Secretary of Defense (not calling it "War" unless Congress changes it) called a meeting of the U.S. military's top generals from around the world. In it, he spoke of what he called the "warrior ethos." Far from building on the military's vaunted traditions of honor and service, Hegseth harped on...
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Patterns from the Past, Lessons for our Future
On this episode of The Convocation Unscripted, we discuss the big question of how history can help us in the present. The task of historians is to identify patterns in the past in order to fashion a coherent narrative, which tells a story about how we got to the present. Unavoidably, this…
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Truth and Reality Amid Political Violence and Attacks on Free Speech
On this episode, the Convocation Unscripted team talks about the importance of truth and reality amid the whirlwind of debates about political violence in the aftermath of the horrific murder of Charlie Kirk and the subsequent attacks on free speech, such as the suspension of Jimmie Kimmel by…
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Stuck in the Cycle of Doom and Gloom?
We love your comments. In fact, we led off our discussion by sharing our reflections on one particular comment. Robby shared, [This person was] finding themselves feeling a little jaded by the constant, “You won't believe what just happened now.” And same thing, day after day, after day—kind of a...
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Minneapolis Catholic School Shooting, CDC and Vaccines, Trump Getting into Heaven
We start this discussion this week with the tragic news of yet another mass school shooting, this time at a Catholic school in Minneapolis, which killed two children and injured 18 others. In this case, the violence broke out while students were gathered for mass. We discuss the trauma that such...
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The Legacy of James Dobson, Trump's DC Military Takeover
In this episode, we discuss the influence of James Dobson, who died this week, on evangelical Christianity and the Christian Right political movement. Dobson's writings, particularly his parenting guide Dare to Discipline, promoted harsh punishment of children and patriarchal norms. Dobson’s…
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Trump’s Attack on Universities, Authoritarian Hierarchies vs. Christian Egalitarianism
In this episode, The Convocation Unscripted team talked about Trump’s attacks on universities and the tragedy of the capitulation of Columbia University, who has agreed to pay the government $200 million and to submit to the oversight of a “Resolution Monitor,” specified in the agreement to be…
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Epstein and QAnon, DHS’s White Supremacists Memes, Hunger in Gaza
This week, Robby, Diana, and Jemar talk about the ongoing revelations about President Trump’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein, and the ways Trump’s previous encouragement of QAnon conspiracy theories is now coming back to bite him. Nearly half of Republicans who most trust far-right news are QAnon...
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When the Warnings Come True: The Big Ugly Bill, ICE Funding
In this deeply honest episode of The Convocation Unscripted, historians Dr. Jemar Tisby, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, and Diana Butler Bass gather to reflect on the emotional toll of studying and speaking out on faith, politics, and power in America. As cultural crises mount, they explore the personal…
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Israel, Iran, and End Times Prophecy
Religion is always part of the story--even when it comes to U.S. foreign policy. Trump's decision to bomb nuclear sites in Iran, an action taken after Israel's military actions in the nation, are not simply geopolitical in their dimensions. Many Christians uncritically support the modern state of...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Welcome to "The Convocation Unscripted," a free-wheeling conversation between Diana Butler Bass, Kristin Du Mez, Robert P. Jones, and Jemar Tisby. We are each scholars (three historians and one sociologist) who write about religion and its intersection with culture, history, and politics in America. We also each take our own Christian faith seriously and are deeply concerned about the future of both democracy and Christianity in the U.S. Most importantly, over the years, we’ve found ourselves to be not just fellow travelers but friends. This is the video/podcast component of our unique Substack magazine "The Convocation," which you can subscribe to here: https://convocation.substack.com/
HOSTED BY
Diana Butler Bass, Kristin Du Mez, Robert P. Jones, and Jemar Tisby
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Convocation Unscripted have?
The Convocation Unscripted currently has 87 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Convocation Unscripted about?
Welcome to "The Convocation Unscripted," a free-wheeling conversation between Diana Butler Bass, Kristin Du Mez, Robert P. Jones, and Jemar Tisby. We are each scholars (three historians and one sociologist) who write about religion and its intersection with culture, history, and politics in...
How often does The Convocation Unscripted release new episodes?
The Convocation Unscripted has 87 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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You can listen to The Convocation Unscripted on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Convocation Unscripted?
The Convocation Unscripted is created and hosted by Diana Butler Bass, Kristin Du Mez, Robert P. Jones, and Jemar Tisby.
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