There is a mythical stigma associated with homelessness that says people who are homeless are lazy. They’re often treated as “others”, and characterized as a “problem” to be solved or hidden. Lets take stock of our assumptions about homelessness and consider how we can truly love our neighbors.

This is Episode 10 of the What Would It Take Podcast. Join me as I ask, What Would It Take for Everyone to Have a home?

Links to sources for this episode:

• Article from Strong Towns, Resilient, Long-term Approach to Addressing Homelessness
• Article from Fox 11 Los Angeles, City of Los Angeles accused of moving the homeless in order to prepare for the Oscars
• Article from Los Angeles Times, L.A. near settlement to create shelters and clear homeless people off the streets
• Information from the National Alliance to End Homelessness – Chronically Homeless
• Information from the National Alliance to End Homelessness –What Causes Homelessness
• Information from homeless hub – Causes of Homelessness
• Proven Solutions from the coalition for the homeless
• PDF resource from the National Law Center on homelessness and Poverty – No Safe Place, The Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities
• Alternative resources than calling the police, from Don’t Call The Police – Resources by City
• Youtube video from Invisible People which share’s Lavern’s story

As we begin to see our way out of the Covid-19 pandemic, we are plunged back into the national epidemic of gun violence. Lawmakers trot out the same tired excuses for doing nothing all the while our friends and loved ones are lost. It doesn’t have to be this way.

This is episode 9 of the What Would It Take Podcast. Join me as I ask What Would It Take to find a cure for gun-related violence?

Links to sources for this episode:

• Indy Star article, Names of eight victims who died in Fedex shooting have been released
• New York Times article, Officer who Pepper-Sprayed a Black Army Officer Is Fired
• Reuters article, Chicago releases graphic video of police shooting 13-year-old
• Vox map of mass shootings in the United States
• New York Times article, Was Slavery a Factor in the Second Amendment?
• New York Times article, Why America cant fix its gun violence crisis
• The Intercept podcast – White supremacy and the church of the second amendment
• Spirituality Practice article, For the Inward Journey
• Last Week Tonight, reporting on the NRA
• The Daily Show, “Good Guy With A Gun”
• The Daily Show, “Switzerland: So Many Guns, No Mass Shootings”

For weeks news outlets have been talking about the crisis at the US-Mexico border. What is actually happening at the southern border? And in response to so much suffering, what are we called to do as followers of Jesus?

This is episode 8 of the What Would It Take Podcast. Join me as we explore the question: What would it take to truly love our neighbors?

Links to sources for this episode:

• Vox article 9 questions about the humanitarian crisis on the boarder, answered
• Center for Disaster Philanthropy report, Southern Border Humanitarian Crisis
• Washington Post article The migrant ‘surge’ at the U.S. southern border is actually a predictable pattern
• USA Today article How US foreign policy in Central America may have fueled the migrant crisis
• Boarder Advocacy Groups from National Network for Immigrant and Refugee rights – Organizations to support

Many of us have grown up with a very strong understanding of what hell was. Eternal torment, literal flames, pain and agony forever. For a long time, our understanding of hell has been divorced from the practical realities that many face day-in and day-out, but does it have to be that way?

This is episode 7 of the What Would it Take Podcast. Join me as we explore the question, What if Hell is closer than we think?

Links to sources for this episode:

• Article from Christian History Institute: Three Views of Hell
• Article from Christianity Today: What is Hell? A Biblical Guide of Its Existence
• Bible Gateway passage Mark 9:48
• Bible Hub passage Luke 13:28
• CBS News story from 60 Minutes: Early results from 174 Flint Children Exposed to Lead During Water Crisis Shows 80% of Them Will Require Special Education Services
• Article from The New York Times : British Police Office Charged with Murder in Killing of Sarah Everard
• Article from National Geographic: The Campaign to Eliminate Hell 
• Podcast God is with poor people: Liberation theology’s challenge to this world

When we endorse leaders, who favor policies that disenfranchise BIPOC, we are undercutting the Gospel message we claim to believe. Gerrymandering is a tool of voter disenfranchisement and even if it works in favor of our political party, we must stand against it.

This is episode 6 of the What Would It Take? podcast. Today we’re asking ourselves, what would it take for every vote to matter equally?

Links to sources for this episode:

• Rock The Vote get involved opportunities
• NPR article, In New Documentary, Stacey Abrams Probes The State Of Voter Suppression In 2020
• NPR article, Stacey Abrams On Why Securing Voting Rights Is As Necessary Now As In The Past
• New York Times article, What is Gerrymandering?
• American Civil Liberties Union fact sheet on voter ID legislation
• Washington Post article, What counts as voter intimidation?
• Center for American Progress article, Voter-deterimined districts; ending gerrymandering and ensuring fair representation
• NPR article, Supreme Court Rules Partisan Gerrymandering Is Beyond The Reach Of Federal Courts
• Vox article, A new study finds voter ID laws don’t reduce voter fraud — or voter turnout
• FiveThirtyEight article, What We Know About Voter ID Laws
• The Guardian article, Federal judge blocks North Carolina’s voter ID law, citing its discriminatory intent
• Associated Press article, Georgia House passes GOP bill rolling back voting access

LGBTQ+ youth are at increased risk of suicide and violent crime. Teenage years can be difficult for everyone, but for LGBTQ+ youth they can be especially dangerous. Why is that the case though? Well, our attitudes and beliefs about LGBTQ+ people are part of the problem.

This is Episode 5 of the What Would It Take Podcast. Join me as I ask What Would It Take for Love to Conquer All?

Links to sources from the episode:

• The Reformation Project 
• PBS News Hour article Study finds lgbtq people much likelier to be crime victims
• GAP LGBTQ Religion Project PDF 
• Q Christian Fellowship Prayer Wall 
• HuffPost nest article, Chilling Study Sums Up Link Between Religion And Suicide For Queer Youth 
• The Trevor Project national survey results 
• CDC resources for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Health
• NBS news article, Nearly 1 in 5 hate crimes motivated by anti-LGBTQ bias, FBI finds 
• Indiana Youth Group 
• OK2BME article, WHAT DOES LGBTQ+ MEAN? 

Every year, through the U.S foster care system, thousands of children are sent back into abusive homes, unnecessarily separated from their parents or even abused while in foster care. We have a system that is failing our youth, and more often than not, its affecting Black and Native families disproportionately.

This is Episode 4 of the What Would It Take Podcast. This week we’re exploring the question, What Would It Take To Keep Our Families Together?

Links to sources from this episode:

• The Appeal, Hidden foster care: all of the responsibility, none of the resources
• Scary Mommy article, Transracial adoption frequently ruins lives – I say this as a White adoptive mom
• Marquette Law Review, Racial Bias in American Foster Care: The National Debate
• Religion News Service, Black children in foster care need relief from systemic racism, too
• Foster-to-prision pipeline video, Step Inside the circle
• U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Federal foster care financing: How and why the current funding structure fails to meet the needs of the child welfare field
• Together we rise, 15 things you should know before fostering
• Todays Parent, 4 things I wish I’d known about foster parenting

What should be one of the most joyful days of a life, ends up being the last for too many women.

This is the episode 3 of the What Would It Take Podcast and this week we’re exploring maternal and infant mortality rates in black, native and alaskan native women as we wrestle with the question what would it take for our mothers and children to survive.

Links to sources from this episode:

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System
• Consumer Watch Dog article Kira Johnson, Cedars-Sinai Los Angeles
• New York Times article Why America’s Black Mothers and Babies Are in a Life-orDeath Crisis 
• Center for American Progress comprehensive policy blueprint on eliminating racial disparities in maternal and infant mortality
• Insider article Black babies are 3 times more likely to die when cared for by white doctors. Their mortality rates plunges with Black doctors 
• Kaiser Family Foundation article Racial Disparities in Maternal and Infant Health: An Overview
• AJMC article Racial Disparities Persist in Maternal Morbidity, Mortality and Infant Health
• ProPublica article Black Women Disproportionately Suffer Complications of Pregnancy and Childbirth. Lets TAlk about it
• ProPublica series of articles Lost Mothers
• ProPublica article The New U.S. Maternal Mortality Rate Fails to Capture Many Deaths
• Medscape article Black Chief Resident Dies After Childbirth, Highlights Tragic Trend
• American Progress article American Indian and Alaska Native Maternal and Infant Mortality: Challenges and Opportunities

As Anabaptist christians, we claim to center Jesus’ work and actions in our faith. If Jesus came
to set the oppressed free, how can we go about our lives while ignoring the truth that our
brothers and sisters are not only oppressed, but often murdered without justice?

This is Episode 2 of the What Would it Take? podcast. Today we’re exploring police abolition as
we wrestle with the question: What would it take for everyone to be free?

Links to sources from this episode:

• Washington Post article about John Crawford III 
• Washington Post article about Kenneth Walton’s traffic Stop 
• 8toAbolition policy changes PDF 
• 8toAbolition Resource library 
• NPR article about the Rodney King Riots 
• Democracy Now! article about the Fred Hampton Assassination 
• Link to  The End of Policing by Alex S Vitale 
• Link to The Politics of Jesus by Obery M. Hendricks Jr. 

For this first episode host, Ben Tapper, takes a minute to introduce himself, his journey, and what you can expect from this podcast moving forward.