Mend the World Podcast

A Conversation with Jonathan Martin on Faith After Collapse.

In this episode of Mend the World, hosts Cece Jones-Davis and Malika McKinley Cox sit down with Jonathan Martin, writer, pastor, and spiritual guide, for an honest, often funny, and at times gripping conversation on faith evolution, the work of justice, and the fight to hold onto resilient hope. Jonathan has walked thousands through seasons of spiritual crisis and transformation through his books Prototype, How to Survive a Shipwreck, The Road Away from God, and The Book of Waiting. He currently serves as Director of the Center for Spiritual Life and Associate Chaplain at DePauw University, and as Pastor of Fillmore United Methodist Church. His words have been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, Newsweek, Vox, and Sojourners.Together, Cece, Malika, and Jonathan move through some of the most urgent questions facing people today: How did the American Evangelical Church become entangled with the rise of fascism? What does it mean to leave a tradition without leaving the spirituality? And how do we keep showing up for our neighbors when the institutions that taught us to love our neighbor seem to have forgotten how?This is not a conversation that hands you easy answers. It's a conversation that offers honest company for the grief, the questions, the laughter, and the long road of becoming.What You'll Hear in This Episode:Jonathan's own faith journey and what it has cost and given him to keep evolving How the American Evangelical Church has shaped the political currents driving the rise of authoritarianism in the United States and the trauma behind the ‘‘Left Behind’ theology The difference between a faith that protects power and a faith that protects people How to recognize spiritual bypass and what genuine reckoning looks like instead Why grief, lament, and even anger are essential parts of the evolution of the soul  How resilient hope is built, not as optimism, but as a practice rooted in community, truth-telling, and love The role of artists, pastors, and ordinary people in the work of repair Why doubt is not the enemy of faith, but often its most honest companion Mending the world is not a solo endeavor. It is built in conversations like this one, where truth is told, grief is honored, and hope is chosen again and again. We invite you to join us. Subscribe, follow our socials, like, share, and reach out. We are in this together. YouTube | / ‪@TheMendtheWorldPodcast‬ Facebook | / / themendtheworldpodcast Instagram | / / mendtheworldpodcast TikTok | / / mend.the.world X | https://x.com/MendingTheWorld/CeceJonesDavis https://cecejonesdavis.com/Instagram | / / cecejonesdavis /Malika McKinley Cox https://www.malikamckinleycox.com/Substack https://substack.com/@rememberingedenInstagram | / / malikacox /Jonathan Martin Instagram | / /theboyonthebike

Inspiration and Hope: An Invitation to Mend the World

In this inaugural episode of Mend the World, hosts Cece Jones-Davis and Malika McKinley Cox unite with a shared urgency. They respond to the injustices unfolding across our nation and globe using truth, grief, and a fierce commitment to repair. Cece draws on her journey in social justice through HIV/AIDS advocacy and anti-death penalty abolition work. Malika draws on her studies in conflict resolution, human rights, and international law. Together, they lay the foundation for a podcast rooted in truth-telling and transformative action. This is not a space for despair. It is a space for reckoning and reimagining.The conversation moves through the pressing crises of the erosion of voting rights after the Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana, the defunding of USAID with devastating ripple effects on healthcare, hunger, and education worldwide, and the troubling rise of authoritarianism at home and abroad. Malika adds an academic lens to her research on Palestine and to studies of atrocities in Rwanda, South Africa, Gaza, Sudan, and the Congo, helping listeners understand the historical colonial patterns at play today.This episode centers on a call to wholeness, both collective and individual. The hosts turn to the Japanese art of kintsugi, repairing pottery with gold, as a metaphor for restorative justice. True mending, they say, means facing hard truths, sitting with grief, and taking active steps to repair communities and ourselves.What You'll Learn in This Episode:Why the recent Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana has significantly weakened the Voting Rights Act, and what it means for Black and Brown communities in the United StatesHow USAID defunding forced clinics, schools, and food programs to close, affecting millions globallyRecognize warning signs of authoritarianism in the U.S., with historical parallels to the 1930s rise of fascism in Europe, the Rwandan Genocide, and South Africa’s ApartheidUnderstand the need to address the atrocities being committed in Gaza, Ukraine, Congo, and Sudan, and other places around the world, and take actionSee how kintsugi teaches us about restorative justice and why truth and lament must come before repairUnderstand how the tech oligarchy, environmental damage, and wealth concentration relate to the fight for human and nature rightsSee how climate disasters, the threat of World War III, and rising AI must be addressed to protect humanity's futureGrasp why radical self-love and inner healing are vital for sustainable activism and healthy and sustainable movementsMending the world is not a solo endeavor. Cece and Malika believe that real change emerges when communities come together with truth about the fractures, are willing to grieve them, and are committed to cultivating a new and more just world with intention and care. We invite you to join us as we mend the world. Connect with us, hit the subscribe button, follow our socials, like, share, and reach out to us. We are in this together.YouTube | / @TheMendtheWorldPodcastFacebook | / @TheMendtheWorldPodcastInstagram | / @mendtheworldpodcastTikTok | / @mend.the.worldX | @mendingtheworld/CeceJonesDavis https://cecejonesdavis.com/Instagram | / @cecejonesdavis/Malika McKinley Cox https://www.malikamckinleycox.com/Substack @rememberingedenInstagram | / @malikacox