Concerned Clergy Podcast July 8, 2026

Concerned Clergy Podcast July 8, 2026

https://concernedclergy.org [https://concernedclergy.org] https://progressiveindiana.net [https://progressiveindiana.net] SUMMARY: Pastor Greene is traveling, so Reverend Alexander goes it alone — anchoring a focused, data-driven hour around a single thesis: DOGE, officially declared dead this week, was itself the most significant example of waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government. Opening with the announcement of DOGE’s dissolution, Rev. Alexander walks through the CLASP (Center for Law and Social Policy) report “Tracking the Harm of DOGE Cuts,” cataloguing layoffs and eliminations across six federal agencies — HHS, Homeland Security, Education, the IRS, the CDC, and Social Security — and connecting those cuts to the foreclosure crisis, healthcare access gaps, and the gutting of services for children, seniors, and the disabled. A brief call from Fulton, who rings in asking for prayer for a health issue, becomes a live illustration of the healthcare access crisis Rev. Alexander has been describing. Caller Guy returns with his trickle-down vs. bubble-up framework and ties the Supreme Court’s TPS ruling to the labor crisis now confronting Ohio Governor DeWine in Springfield. Reverend Phillips calls to react to the energy assistance cuts before losing his connection. The final segment pivots to election integrity, where Rev. Alexander makes a pointed logical argument: Trump never claimed elections were rigged when Democrats ran them and he won (2016, 2024), only when Republicans ran them and he lost (2020) — which, Rev. Alexander argues, amounts to an implicit admission that Democrats run cleaner elections. The program closes with an announcement of the homegoing services for Mark Russell, a longtime Urban League of Indianapolis leader. Progressive Indiana Network is proud to distribute the Concerned Clergy Podcast. Help us continue to bring you more content like this by becoming a free or paid subscriber. WHAT’S INSIDE 00:00:00 Station ID and program open - Announcer legal disclaimers and station open for Concerned Clergy weekly town hall on Praise AM 1310 / 95.1 FM. - Rev. Alexander opens solo — Pastor Greene is traveling — and leads the opening prayer himself. - Lead topic announced: DOGE is officially dead. 00:02:16 DOGE is dead — and it was the real waste, fraud, and abuse - DOGE formed roughly 30 days after Trump’s January 2025 inauguration, headed by Elon Musk and uncredentialed young staffers with no agency knowledge or security clearances. - Elon Musk departed May 2025 saying his work was done; the agency itself dissolved this week. - Staffers’ own depositions: they used ChatGPT to scan for keywords like “DEI” and “climate” — cutting grants with no substantive review. - Rev. Alexander’s verdict: DOGE was itself the waste, fraud, and abuse — wasting money, operating on a fraudulent mandate, and abusing the federal workforce. 00:06:50 The CLASP report — children, public health, and immigration - CLASP (clasp.org [https://www.clasp.org/doge-tracker/]) report “Tracking the Harm of DOGE Cuts” details cuts to six agencies. - HHS / Administration for Children and Families: 700 layoffs; 40–50% cuts to Head Start; 50% cuts to Office of Child Care — programs that served nearly 1.5 million children. - CDC: NIOSH eliminated; 18,000+ new HIV patients unable to access cut treatment programs. - DHS: Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties gutted; Office of Citizenship and Immigration Services eliminated — leaving immigration processing dysfunctional despite being Trump’s stated top priority. 00:11:40 The CLASP report continued — IRS, Social Security, and the human cost - IRS: 7,000+ layoffs. Social Security: 7,000 employees gone by September 2025, serving a base of 71.6 million beneficiaries. - Some fired workers had to be re-hired after agencies discovered the cuts were catastrophic — at further cost with no accounting provided. - Over 300,000 total federal workers lost jobs; no report was ever issued on what was saved or what the process cost. 00:13:22 Caller Fulton — prayer for a health issue - Fulton calls in asking for prayer for a recurring swollen calf. - Rev. Alexander prays for him on air, asking for healing and access to care. - Rev. Alexander connects Fulton’s difficulty getting medical care directly to the HHS cuts just discussed — premiums skyrocketing, preventive care disappearing. 00:17:33 Foreclosures, faith communities, and the fraying safety net - Gloria in the Facebook chat recalls church prayer meetings as a communal support network; Rev. Alexander reflects on how streaming, cell phones, and competing activities have eroded that infrastructure. - Foreclosures now at a seven-year high — tied directly to federal job losses and the elimination of DEI departments across universities and corporations. 00:20:46 Indiana’s complicity — alignment with federal cuts - Indiana’s Republican supermajority has not pushed back on any federal cuts — actively aligning state policy with Washington and already surrendering Indiana voter data. - Rev. Alexander: it’s not that the administration is out of touch — it’s intentional and, as Pastor Greene would say, immoral. - ICE family separations cited as another example of policy that is harmful and known to be harmful. 00:24:08 DOGE’s legacy — no accountability, no receipts - DOGE never issued a report on what it actually saved or what the process cost the government. - Elon Musk left with a black eye; his own employees admitted they saved nothing and had no idea what they were doing. - Rev. Alexander’s summary: DOGE came in for three months, cut like butter, left, and now it’s gone — with 300,000 people’s lives upended and nothing to show for it. 00:29:24 Caller Guy — money transfer, trickle-down, and Springfield, Ohio - Guy frames the DOGE cuts as a simple money transfer — those who worried COVID assistance would discourage work are now enriching themselves through the same government they dismantled. - Trickle-down economics doesn’t reach most people; bubble-up investment does. This administration is firmly trickle-down. - The Supreme Court struck down TPS (Temporary Protected Status) protections; Ohio Governor DeWine — no progressive — is now publicly criticizing the ruling because Haitian immigrants were deliberately recruited to fill workforce gaps in Springfield, Ohio. 00:33:05 Post-Guy discussion — TPS, Haiti, and trickle-down - Rev. Alexander explains: Ohio communities proactively settled Haitian workers legally under TPS; the Supreme Court has undone that investment. - Haiti’s government has effectively been replaced by gang rule — TPS was a humanitarian lifeline, not an open-borders policy. - Trickle-down is simply money moving from one pocket to another — it never reaches the bottom. 00:37:12 The CLASP report continued — FDA, energy assistance, and farmers - FDA: 3,500 layoffs weakening oversight of food and drug safety. - HHS Division of Energy Assistance: a $4.1 billion program helping 6.2 million households with utility bills — cut by DOGE, especially harmful given the AES Indiana rate increase that just took effect. - The same food programs that feed seniors and children also support American farmers through federal contracts — cutting them hurts both ends of the supply chain. - Trump’s response to tariff damage to farmers: a $12 billion stimulus payment rather than lifting the tariffs. 00:41:27 Caller Reverend Phillips — energy assistance and Project 2025 - Reverend Phillips reacts to the energy assistance cuts, calling Project 2025 dangerous. - Call drops before he can complete his point. - Rev. Alexander: a Project 2025 checklist review of 2026 would show check marks across nearly every line item discussed tonight. 00:46:50 Election fraud — the data - Between 2000 and 2026, only 99 documented fraud cases in U.S. elections over 26 years. - The Brennan Center found just 30 possible illegal votes out of 23 million cast from 2017 to present. - All the money, lawsuits, executive orders, and threats being spent on election fraud are addressing a problem that essentially does not exist. 00:49:33 Election fraud — the logical argument - Trump won in 2016 under Obama (Democrat) — no fraud claims. Lost in 2020 under his own Republican administration — 60+ lawsuits, all lost; Bill Barr confirmed no fraud; only fraud found was Trump’s own fake electors. - Won in 2024 under Biden (Democrat) — no fraud claims. The pattern: Trump only cries fraud when Republicans ran the election and he lost — implying Democrats run cleaner elections. - Current push: directing the Postmaster General to vet mail-in ballots sets a precedent that could extend to intercepting Social Security cards or any other mail. 00:52:33 Program close — homegoing services for Mark Russell - Rev. Alexander announces homegoing services for Mark Russell — more than two decades of service at the Urban League of Indianapolis — Thursday 7/9 at noon at Williams & Blue Funeral Home, with viewing at 10 a.m. - He asks listeners to pray for Mark Russell’s family. https://concernedclergy.org [https://concernedclergy.org] https://www.facebook.com/ClergyIndy [https://www.facebook.com/ClergyIndy] https://progressiveindiana.net [https://progressiveindiana.net] Progressive Indiana Network is proud to distribute the Concerned Clergy Podcast. Help us continue to bring you more content like this by becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Progressive Indiana Network at www.progressiveindiana.net/subscribe [https://www.progressiveindiana.net/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Concerned Clergy Podcast July 1, 2026

https://concernedclergy.org [https://concernedclergy.org] https://progressiveindiana.net [https://progressiveindiana.net] SUMMARY: On the eve of the Fourth of July holiday, Rev. Tony Alexander and Pastor David W. Greene Sr. anchor the hour around two converging crises in Indianapolis: the Metropolitan Development Commission’s refusal to place a moratorium on data center development, and the severe understaffing of the city’s park ranger corps at a moment when summer park safety is already in crisis. The MDC voted today to push forward with a special data center zoning framework — forwarding it to the City-County Council rather than pausing to address unanswered community questions about environmental impact, utility costs, and property values. Both hosts argue the decision reflects a pattern of closed-door negotiations with developers that excludes the public and that other cities, including Henderson, Kentucky, have handled more wisely. Then, Rev. Alexander shares a startling disclosure from a recent RDC Northwest Community Resource District Council meeting at Riverside Park: Indianapolis has 220 parks but only seven park rangers — dropping to six the following week — meaning the city cannot put even one ranger per shift per side of town. Caller Guy connects both topics through the lens of public information access, invoking Lincoln’s maxim that a republic depends on an informed citizenry. The program closes with a study in contrasts: Riverside Park’s “Sunday Fun Day” model of intergenerational community ownership — which produces no incidents — versus the chronic disorder at Northwestway Park, which Pastor Greene traces to higher rental property rates, lower homeownership, and a resulting absence of community investment. Both hosts close with a holiday weekend safety message and a call for HOA and community leaders around Northwestway to replicate the Riverside model. Progressive Indiana Network is proud to distribute the Concerned Clergy Podcast. Help us continue to bring you more content like this by becoming a free or paid subscriber. WHAT’S INSIDE 00:00:00 Station ID and program open - Announcer legal disclaimers and station open for Concerned Clergy weekly town hall on Praise AM 1310 / 95.1 FM. - Rev. Alexander welcomes listeners and the Progressive Indiana Network Substack audience; greets Pastor Greene; previews topics including data centers and city parks. - Pastor Greene offers opening prayer. 00:02:35 MDC data center moratorium vote — the community loses - Rev. Alexander reports that the Metropolitan Development Commission met that day and declined to place a moratorium on data center development, instead forwarding a special zoning framework to the City-County Council. - Pastor Greene: deeply disappointed. Communities overwhelming asked for a moratorium — not a rejection of data centers, but a pause to get answers on environmental, utility, and infrastructure questions. A few insiders overrode the majority. - The hosts urge constituents to remember this at election time. The AES Indiana rate increase also took effect that day, with another increase coming in January. - Both agree the rush is not about wisdom — it’s about keeping developer timelines intact. The unanswered questions about who pays for infrastructure, what happens to property values, and how many data centers the grid can actually support are being deliberately avoided because the answers may not be community-friendly. 00:08:56 Public process breakdown — closed-door negotiations and the indy.gov resource - Rev. Alexander: all negotiations with data center developers have been conducted behind closed doors. Community members are given one-way presentations at MDC sessions, not genuine input forums. Feedback is acknowledged and ignored. - He directs viewers to indy.gov — search “data centers” — to find FAQs, draft zoning regulations, meeting recordings, and proposed guardrails (lighting, noise, environmental, water usage). - Pastor Greene: Indianapolis had no data center zoning at all prior to this process. What the council is now receiving is a framework to create that zoning — a workaround to avoid the moratorium communities wanted. - Cities like Henderson, Kentucky have already placed moratoriums to do exactly this kind of deliberate planning. Marion County is not doing the same. 00:20:20 Capacity limits and the Boone County ripple effect - Pastor Greene: there is a hard limit on how many data centers Marion County’s utility infrastructure can actually support. Nobody knows what that number is, because nobody has paused to find out. The internet rollout taught this lesson; data centers will teach it again. - Citizens Energy Group has reportedly told developers they’ll pay for their own infrastructure upgrades; AES Indiana reportedly has not taken that position — creating an unequal burden on ratepayers. - Rev. Alexander: the scope must be Indiana-wide, not Marion County alone. The Meta data center in Boone County (Lebanon) affects Marion County’s grid. A regional master plan is needed. 00:23:01 Meta’s America’s Workforce Academy — opportunity in the new landscape - Rev. Alexander pivots to a jobs message: Meta is launching its America’s Workforce Academy, training workers for data center construction and maintenance. Indianapolis is one of roughly 24 selected sites, with a launch expected around August. - The program is accessible at https://www.meta.com/actions/americas-workforce-academy/ [https://www.meta.com/actions/americas-workforce-academy/]. It targets tech-savvy young people, and Meta representatives specifically mentioned recruiting gamers — people accustomed to extended, high-focus screen time. - Rev. Alexander: even while advocating for a moratorium, he wants young people to know these jobs exist and are well-compensated. Don’t let advocacy and opportunity be mutually exclusive. 00:27:16 Break recap and pivot to park safety — the RDC Northwest meeting - Rev. Alexander recaps the MDC vote for listeners coming back from commercial, then transitions to park safety. - Earlier that Monday, the RDC Northwest Community Resource District Council — working with IMPD’s Northwest District — hosted a meeting at Riverside Park to discuss park safety issues, particularly at Riverside and Northwestway Park. 00:28:25 220 parks, seven rangers — the staffing crisis - The park rangers at the meeting disclosed a stunning figure: Indianapolis has 220 parks, but only seven park rangers — a number dropping to six the following week when one departs. - Current split: four rangers on day shift, three on night shift, citywide. - Rev. Alexander: this is not enough to cover a single side of town per shift, let alone deter ongoing problems at the city’s most troubled parks. - Pastor Greene: during summer, rangers take vacations too — so the real number is even lower much of the time. Some parks have almost certainly gone years without seeing a ranger. When something happens there, the city will blame the community rather than acknowledge the prevention failure. 00:32:16 Who owns parks? — the councilor question and budget reality - Rev. Alexander: who on the City-County Council is advocating for parks? He recalls Councilor Duke Oliver as a former champion of parks funding, but is unsure who currently holds that role. - Pastor Greene identifies Councilor Dan Boots as the current chair of the Parks Committee. He notes that the budget decisions that led to this staffing level predate Boots, and that without mayoral support and a budget line item, there is no path to more rangers. - Both hosts: the police chief will correctly say she doesn’t have the resources for parks. This has to be solved at the mayoral and budget level, not the police level. 00:35:58 The youth employment pipeline — lifeguards becoming reluctant security - Rev. Alexander: when he was growing up, city parks were important sources of first jobs for young people — lifeguards, pool staff, golf course workers. Friends of his worked at Douglas Park. - Parks staff disclosed that young workers are now refusing to take those jobs because they’re being forced into informal security roles their training doesn’t support — telling peers to stop roughhousing, mediating conflicts, and then having to go to school with those same peers the next week. - This creates a vicious cycle: fewer young workers → pools and parks unable to open → fewer resources for families → more unstructured time contributing to the very disorder that drove workers away in the first place. 00:38:51 Caller Guy — facts, Lincoln, and park ranger history - Guy asks whether any reliable cost-benefit analysis exists for Indianapolis data center development. Rev. Alexander: not yet — which is precisely why communities are asking for a moratorium. - Guy invokes a maxim attributed to Abraham Lincoln: If the people know the facts, the country will be saved. Those suppressing public information about data centers are acting against that principle. - On parks: Guy recalls significant controversy when Indianapolis park rangers were first introduced — questions about their authority and conduct. That controversy has since quieted, Guy notes wryly — which Rev. Alexander points out may be because the rangers themselves have nearly disappeared. - Guy: perhaps the city’s logic is that if there’s no visible disorder in the parks, they don’t need many rangers. Both hosts push back: the disorder is very visible. 00:41:51 Riverside vs. Northwestway — community ownership as the variable - Rev. Alexander reports a key finding from the Monday Riverside meeting: Riverside Park’s “Sunday Fun Day” community has a genuine relationship with their park rangers — they know them by name. Rev. Alexander confirmed with Commander Lewis that Riverside has had no incidents in recent weeks despite being packed every Sunday. - Northwestway Park, by contrast, is the number one source of calls in the Northwest District — issues nearly every day. - The difference: Riverside has long-term residents who have taken ownership of the space. They run organized events, have vendors, attract OGs with show cars who mentor younger attendees — creating an intergenerational environment where a takeover mentality doesn’t take root. - Pastor Greene: the Riverside model works because the people there are homeowners with a stake in the community. Northwestway Park is surrounded by higher concentrations of rental property — renters don’t have the same incentive to invest community time and energy. This connects directly to fair housing failures and declining Black homeownership rates, which Councilor Amy Nelson has addressed in her policy work. 00:48:39 Call to action — HOAs, community leaders, duplicate the model - Rev. Alexander: Northwestway Park is also surrounded by HOA communities and homeowners, not just rentals. There’s a church next door. Those stakeholders need to step up, talk to their HOA leaders, and start hosting structured community events — the way Riverside does. - Don’t wait for the park rangers who aren’t coming. Take ownership before the park is taken over. - Pastor Greene: it will require IMPD and city support to sustain, but the model works anywhere if the neighborhood is vested. Neighborhood watch groups with strong community ties produce measurably less crime. 00:52:23 Program close — Fourth of July safety message - Rev. Alexander: thank you to all listeners. Parks have splash parks, pools, and cooling centers — enjoy the outdoors this holiday weekend, but be safe. - Both hosts wish the audience a safe Fourth of July. https://concernedclergy.org [https://concernedclergy.org] https://www.facebook.com/ClergyIndy [https://www.facebook.com/ClergyIndy] https://progressiveindiana.net [https://progressiveindiana.net] Progressive Indiana Network is proud to distribute the Concerned Clergy Podcast. Help us continue to bring you more content like this by becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Progressive Indiana Network at www.progressiveindiana.net/subscribe [https://www.progressiveindiana.net/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Concerned Clergy Podcast June 24,2026

https://concernedclergy.org [https://concernedclergy.org] https://progressiveindiana.net [https://progressiveindiana.net] SUMMARY: With the Indiana Republican state convention just concluded and Stacey Abrams’ Urban League keynote fresh in mind, Rev. Tony Alexander and Pastor David W. Greene Sr. open a dense, politically charged hour with two interlocking arguments. First, they contend that the Republican Party has ceased to exist as a coherent institution — replaced by MAGA — and that traditional Republicans who fall in line with party dictates have effectively become what Rev. Alexander calls the “house Negroes” of the MAGA movement, a parallel he illustrates with the Republican delegation’s rapid pivot from incumbent Secretary of State Diego Morales to unknown party pick Max Engling within 30 days. Second, they work through the practical implications of Stacey Abrams’ presentation the previous day at the Urban League luncheon, which laid out 10 steps to autocracy and 10 counter-steps to defeat it. Caller El Amin broaches the topic of academic free speech, given the recent non-renewal of IU lecturer Jessica Adams, who was suspended after Senator Jim Banks took issue with her classroom use of “Make America Great Again” as an example of covert white supremacy. Caller Guy returns with a historical argument for reclaiming Black contributions to American democracy — Crispus Attucks, Frank Wills, Russel Honoré — as essential public relations infrastructure for the movement. The program closes with both hosts calling on the community to organize, speak up, and demand democracy, with Pastor Greene warning that too many people with power are going along silently with the erosion of rights and history. Progressive Indiana Network is proud to distribute the Concerned Clergy Podcast. Help us continue to bring you more content like this by becoming a free or paid subscriber. WHAT’S INSIDE 00:00:00 Station ID and program open - Pastor Greene’s opening prayer includes a petition for those affected by earthquakes in California. 00:03:00 Republican delegation recap — Morales out, Engling in - Rev. Alexander reports on the Indiana Republican state convention in Fort Wayne: roughly 1,800 delegates, incumbent Secretary of State Diego Morales dumped within 30 days of Republican leadership withdrawing support in favor of Max Engling. - A Terre Haute candidate (correction: Dave Shelton is from Vincennes) with actual relevant experience was also passed over. Delegates fell in line behind the party’s choice with no apparent independent evaluation of Engling. - Rev. Alexander’s argument: this is the definition of “house Negro” behavior — following orders without question, getting privileges from the master while abandoning your own values. - The distinction between Republican and MAGA is not subtle: Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have explicitly said the Republican Party is dead and has been replaced by the MAGA Party. Traditional Republicans who haven’t noticed are the last to know. 00:06:30 MAGA fractures within Indiana Republican politics - Pastor Greene notes visible fractures: Trump threatening to withhold his signature from a bipartisan housing bill unless he gets voter suppression provisions; only three or four Republican members of Congress showing any backbone. - At the state level: AES Indiana received its rate increase; Governor Braun is replacing the IURC chair after the fact, despite having hired the person who approved the rates months ago. - Someone connected to the state’s trail programs resigned this week, citing the governor being too heavy-handed. - The party dynamic: Braun is MAGA, Beckwith wants to be even more MAGA, and traditional Republicans who don’t conform are being pushed out. 00:09:17 Max Engling and what he’s actually promising - Pastor Greene: Engling’s explicit platform is to limit voter participation, not expand it — targeting people of color specifically. He’s being openly racist about it and calculating that MAGA voters will reward that posture. - This is Project 2025 in action at the state level: assume non-citizens are voting, use that as cover to suppress legal voters of color. - Rev. Alexander: whatever differences existed between Morales and Engling on the substance, Republican delegates don’t know Engling at all — they just did what they were told. That’s the house Negro dynamic in practice. 00:15:11 Rev. Alexander’s primary season story — the parking lot parable - Rev. Alexander shares a personal anecdote from primary canvassing: a woman on a cane comes out of her car calling Democrats idiots, while he — a Democrat — is the only one there to help her get to the door. - When she came back out after voting (Republican, of course), she told him “I love you.” - Pastor Greene: this is exactly what Stacey Abrams was describing — partisan identity has replaced moral reasoning. It’s not right vs. left, it’s right vs. wrong. Doing the right thing shouldn’t make you an idiot. - The MAGA framework needs division and anger to function. A civil conversation about shared problems is the enemy of their strategy. 00:21:38 Stacey Abrams’ Urban League keynote — 10 steps to autocracy, 10 to defeat it - Abrams was the keynote speaker at the Urban League of Indianapolis luncheon the previous day, presenting two frameworks: 10 steps to autocracy (expand executive power, cut government levels, install loyalists, attack media, scapegoat vulnerable communities, destroy support systems) and 10 steps to defeat it (commit, share, organize, mobilize, litigate, disrupt, deny, engage, elect, demand democracy). - Rev. Alexander notes the steps to autocracy map directly onto what the Trump administration has been doing: Medicaid and Medicare cuts, USAID gutted, DEI eliminated, Elon Musk with a chainsaw. - The Urban League had roughly 1,400 people in the room. Rev. Alexander’s ask: don’t just have the meal — share what she said. That’s step two on her own list. - Rev. Alexander adds an eleventh step of his own: tie Indiana’s dismal quality-of-life rankings directly to the Republicans who have governed the state for decades. 00:25:04 Caller El Amin — The chilling effect: IU professor fired for naming MAGA - El Amin calls in with a pointed question: how do you organize and share information when people are losing their jobs for speaking up? - A recent case: IU social work lecturer Jessica Adams lost her position after using an academic graphic that listed the MAGA slogan as an example of covert white supremacy. Senator Jim Banks intervened to have her removed. - Pastor Greene: El Amin is right, and this is precisely one of Abrams’ 10 steps — controlling education to control the message. Turning Point USA clubs in schools, the new law restricting faculty speech, rewriting history — it’s all part of the same system. - The attack is intentional and systematic. The response must be equally intentional and systematic. Commitment — Abrams’ first step — means acting even when there are consequences. 00:30:57 Republicans who don’t see it yet — a direct address - Rev. Alexander addresses traditional Republicans directly: you may call yourself MAGA, but MAGA has drawn a line and you’re on the wrong side of it. Trump and Trump Jr. have said the Republican Party is gone. Your family values candidate has been convicted of sex crimes and skipped his own child’s wedding. - Gloria in the chat asks how to get the 10 steps to the people. Rev. Alexander’s answer: that’s what we’re doing right now. But the Urban League also needs to keep pushing what she shared — don’t let it end with the luncheon. 00:33:42 The 10 counter-steps in detail — litigate in public - Rev. Alexander recaps Abrams’ 10 steps to defeat autocracy: commit, share, organize, mobilize, litigate, disrupt, deny, engage, elect, demand democracy. - His emphasis: the “litigate” step doesn’t only mean courtrooms. Litigating in public — using a radio show, a Facebook page, a community platform — is how non-lawyers fight back. - Pastor Greene: Jamal Bryant and Senator Raphael Warnock are both coming to Indianapolis next month. The question is what the community does with those visits beyond being in the audience. - AES Indiana rate increases are coming in July and again in January. Indiana budget season is approaching. These are the organizing moments. 00:44:38 Caller Guy — Trumplicans, Mussolini’s playbook, and erased Black patriots - Guy calls back after technical difficulties. His framing: what Trump is doing is not new — it’s Benito Mussolini’s playbook, adopted by Hitler, exploiting a population that feels downcast and left behind. - Guy poses names to the audience as a test of public relations failure: Crispus Attucks (first patriot killed in the Boston Massacre, whose name is rarely mentioned in mainstream media); Frank Wills (the Watergate security guard who discovered the break-in); Russel Honoré (who led federal relief after Katrina). - How many people know these names? If the community doesn’t tell its own story, the erasure succeeds. Taking away Black history from national cemeteries and military records is the same playbook, just institutionalized. - Rev. Alexander: Guy is right, but the point is that a government entity is now actively removing those references — from national cemeteries, from military history. The outcry needs to match the scale of the erasure. 00:50:08 Closing — demand it, don’t go silently - Pastor Greene: where are the people committed to pushing back? Too many minorities with power are going along with it, saying nothing. We have too many voiceless people. - El Amin posts in the Facebook chat: “Emancipation: 400 Years of History [https://normanwilkins.weebly.com/]” — a resource link Rev. Alexander directs listeners to visit and share. - Pastor Greene closes with an urgent call: we can’t dance around this. Demand democracy. Don’t go silently. Stand up. 00:52:45 Station close https://concernedclergy.org [https://concernedclergy.org] https://www.facebook.com/ClergyIndyhttps://www.facebook.com/ClergyIndy [https://www.facebook.com/ClergyIndy] https://progressiveindiana.net [https://progressiveindiana.net] Progressive Indiana Network is proud to distribute the Concerned Clergy Podcast. Help us continue to bring you more content like this by becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Progressive Indiana Network at www.progressiveindiana.net/subscribe [https://www.progressiveindiana.net/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Concerned Clergy Podcast June 17,2026

https://concernedclergy.org [https://concernedclergy.org] https://progressiveindiana.net [https://progressiveindiana.net] SUMMARY: Broadcasting through a summer storm, Rev. Tony Alexander and Pastor David W. Greene Sr. open with a brief celebration: last week’s advance warning about the planned Northwestway Park takeover worked, and the park had a safe, family-friendly weekend. That good news is immediately paired with a new alert — a social media-organized takeover is now planned for Skateland on Glen Arm Road on the west side. The bulk of the program pivots to a sustained, data-driven indictment of Indiana’s record under decades of Republican supermajority rule, anchored by a Purdue University quality-of-life study ranking Indiana 46th out of 50 states. Both hosts connect the dots from defunded youth programs (PAL Club, OK Program, IMPD Cares) and charter school expansion to the park takeover problem — arguing that cuts to prevention always produce the very public safety crises politicians then use to demand more police. Caller Imhotep phones in from Atlanta, where he is attending FIFA World Cup events with young people, and draws a direct line from Dr. King’s “beloved community” to the anti-DEI funding cuts ravaging nonprofits. Callers Tony and Guy add personal testimony and political framing. The program closes with a direct message to Indiana Democratic candidates: stop playing footsies with Republicans and make them own Indiana’s dismal rankings on foreclosures, education, and quality of life heading into November. Progressive Indiana Network is proud to distribute the Concerned Clergy Podcast. Help us continue to bring you more content like this by becoming a free or paid subscriber. WHAT’S INSIDE 00:00:00 Station ID and program open - Pastor Greene offers opening prayer, asking specifically for the safety of those affected by the storm. 00:03:04 Northwestway Park success -- and the next takeover threat - Rev. Alexander reports that last week’s on-air warning about the planned Northwestway Park takeover had its intended effect: the park had a safe, family-friendly weekend with no incident. - A new social media-organized “takeover” is now planned for this Saturday at Skateland on Glen Arm Road on the west side of Indianapolis. - Both hosts repeat the message: young people are welcome to come enjoy themselves, but the community will not allow a repeat of the chaos pattern. - Pastor Greene notes that parents may assume the skating rink is safe and need to be warned; takeover events attract people from across the city, and it only takes one encounter to escalate. 00:07:02 Gerrelian Ragland and Pain to Progress -- community filling the gap - Rev. Alexander directly addresses Gerrelian in the Facebook chat, calling on the community to keep the environment safe. - Pastor Greene highlights Gerrelian’s youth program Pain to Progress, along with Anthony Hampton’s south-side sports programming, as examples of community members filling the void left by defunded city programs. - Programs that have been cut or defunded: PAL Club, the OK Program (targeting African American males), IMPD Cares. These are now being replaced piecemeal by community volunteers with no stable funding. - Pastor Greene’s call to city-county councilors: fund programs like Pain to Progress directly. A pizza party costs money. Poverty is real. Prevention is cheaper than reaction. 00:08:42 The PAL Club, the OK Program, and what was lost - Pastor Greene details the value of programs like the PAL Club: they gave young people non-threatening contact with police officers, building relationships before any arrest or crisis interaction. - The OK Program specifically targeted African American males and operated alongside IMPD Cares. Both are gone. - Pastor Greene: people today say “I’m a product of the PAL Club -- it saved my life.” The concept works. It will come back eventually, possibly under a different name like Pain to Progress, but it needs real funding to operate at scale. - Rev. Alexander adds: cuts aren’t limited to PAL Club -- DEI rollbacks and anti-poverty program eliminations are sweeping away the CYO, charter schools lack extracurricular activities, and the entire ecosystem of youth development is being stripped at the federal, state, and local levels simultaneously. 00:15:10 Prevention vs. incarceration -- the false economy of cuts - Pastor Greene: cutting youth programs while expecting public safety is a contradiction. What are 13-, 14-, 15-, 16-year-olds doing this summer if not at home twiddling their thumbs? - You can’t police your way out of it -- IMPD doesn’t have enough officers to cover every corner, every garage, every park, every event. - Tourism, downtown sporting events, the city’s reputation -- all of it is at risk if you keep cutting prevention and then express surprise when something goes wrong. - Denise in the Facebook chat: it’s a vicious cycle -- F-grade schools get defunded, which feeds the street pipeline, which produces the public safety crisis that gets blamed on parents. 00:19:34 Break toss and framing the second segment - Rev. Alexander previews the second segment: connecting the dots between what’s happening at the federal level and what Republicans have done in Indiana specifically. - Imhotep is first in the call queue when they return. 00:21:23 Caller Imhotep -- FIFA in Atlanta, King’s beloved community, and the $300 billion question - Imhotep calls from Atlanta, where he has brought young people to attend FIFA World Cup events; notes heavy DEA and ATF security presence has kept things in order, with only a minor crowd incident at State Farm Arena involving local streamer Tysonette. - Connects the show’s discussion to the Georgia governor’s race: Keisha Lance Bottoms is running on free textbooks, free junior college, free first two years of four-year college, and mandatory job training for released prisoners; the Republican candidate offers none of that. - Visited the King Center the previous day with the young people he brought; shed a tear reading Dr. King’s vision of the beloved community -- which he argues is exactly antithetical to anti-DEI funding cuts, school defunding, and nonprofit slashing. - Closes with the $300 billion figure: federal money is going to reparations for Trump’s war on Iran, while that same amount could fund all American college students, all trade schools, and five years of health care. 00:25:34 Post-Imhotep -- Connecting federal cuts to Indiana’s Republican record - Rev. Alexander: Imhotep’s point is federal, but it’s happening right here in Indiana too -- and with the Republican State Delegate Convention coming up this weekend, this is the moment to make the connection explicit. - Rev. Alexander names the data: Indiana is #1 in foreclosures (worst in the country), 45th in education, leads in Black unemployment, and ranked 46th in quality of life by a Purdue University study from June 2025. - This happened under a Republican supermajority -- through Daniels, Holcomb, Braun, and Pence -- and Indiana Democratic candidates need to be saying that clearly, not playing footsies with Republicans. 00:30:52 Pastor Greene -- Make them own it; Behning and the education numbers - Pastor Greene: you can’t have different facts. Purdue’s numbers are what they are. Representative Bob Behning has chaired the House Education Committee while Indiana’s education ranking has fallen -- make him own it. - The Republican majority passed the policies that produced these results. No Democratic candidate can credibly be blamed for Indiana’s foreclosure crisis or its education standing -- Democrats haven’t had the votes. - Indiana Republicans won’t break with Trump because he’ll primary them. There’s no backbone in the current Congress. Democrats must be bold enough to stand on the facts and make Republicans answer for them. 00:36:32 The Republican State Delegate Convention preview - Rev. Alexander: the Republican delegation meets this week. Sen. Jim Banks has already signaled who he’s backing for Secretary of State -- someone most Hoosiers don’t know -- and Republicans will fall in line regardless. - That’s the difference: Republicans unify behind whoever their machine picks. Democrats need to learn that discipline for November. 00:37:04 Caller Tony -- Growing up in Gary, the bookmobile, and what’s being lost - Tony, 62, grew up in Gary in a single-parent household with three sisters. His family relied entirely on publicly funded programs: the bookmobile (a mobile library that parked in his neighborhood), summer programs, and free school lunch. - Those programs gave him his love of reading and shaped his childhood positively. Hearing that all of it is being cut breaks his heart for his grandchildren’s generation. - Rev. Alexander: Indiana is 45th in education. IPS has been dismantled over 20 years. Charter schools lack extracurriculars. A new education commission chaired by the Indianapolis mayor is forming while public school funding is being stripped. 00:41:10 Caller Guy -- Follow the money; trickle-down vs. bubble-up - Guy: it’s simple -- follow the money. Conservatives believe in trickle-down economics (wealth flows down from the top); progressives believe in bubble-up (investment in the masses builds upward). - The money going to Iran is going to contractors -- and look at who those contractors are connected to. This is the same pattern as the Iraq reconstruction era: war and foreign expenditure enriches the already-connected. - Investment in people is the best investment. The conservative framework says it believes that too, but the budget doesn’t reflect it. 00:43:19 Closing argument -- Indiana under Republican rule - Rev. Alexander reframes Guy’s point: every dollar in this federal government flows to Friends of Trump or Family of Trump. Democratic candidates should run on that at every level. - Indiana is last or near-last in foreclosures, education, quality of life, and Black unemployment. Republicans have been in charge. Connect the dots. Stop being scared. Make them own it. - Pastor Greene: the Purdue data is not opinion -- it’s fact. Child care, education, health care -- Republicans own the results. Democratic candidates need the guts to say so clearly. - Rev. Alexander closes: Purdue said Indiana is 46th in quality of life. Republicans have been leading Indiana. The question for November is whether voters want to continue down that road. - Juneteenth reminder: coming up this weekend. Don’t forget your history. 00:47:57 Station close https://concernedclergy.org [https://concernedclergy.org] https://www.facebook.com/ClergyIndyhttps://www.facebook.com/ClergyIndy [https://www.facebook.com/ClergyIndy] https://progressiveindiana.net [https://progressiveindiana.net] Progressive Indiana Network is proud to distribute the Concerned Clergy Podcast. Help us continue to bring you more content like this by becoming a free or paid subscriber. 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Concerned Clergy Podcast June 10,2026

https://concernedclergy.org [https://concernedclergy.org] https://progressiveindiana.net [https://progressiveindiana.net] SUMMARY: With summer underway and a Democratic state convention just behind them, Rev. Tony Alexander and Pastor David W. Greene Sr. open this week’s program on two urgent fronts: the state of the Indiana Democratic Party in the aftermath of the Secretary of State convention vote, and a gathering threat to public safety at Northwestway Park on Indianapolis’s northwest side. On the political front, both hosts dissect the convention outcome — Beau Bayh over Blythe Potter — and the immediate backlash from some Potter supporters threatening to sit out November, tracing the dysfunction back to a chronic leadership vacuum within the state and Marion County Democratic Party. Caller Marilyn provides a sharp firsthand account of bureaucratic neglect in the state’s disability services system, which both hosts connect directly to low voter turnout and the failure to hold elected officials accountable. The second half of the program focuses on a social-media-organized “Motion Party” takeover announced for Northwestway Park the coming Saturday — a flash event that follows a weapons-brandishing incident the previous Friday — raising alarms about park safety, IMPD staffing shortfalls, vanishing park ranger funding, and the mayor’s silence. Both hosts close with a call for proactive city leadership before a crisis forces reactive finger-pointing. Progressive Indiana Network is proud to distribute the Concerned Clergy Podcast. Help us continue to bring you more content like this by becoming a free or paid subscriber. WHAT’S INSIDE 00:00:00 Station ID and program open - Rev. Alexander previews the evening’s two topics: the Indiana Democratic state convention outcome and park safety heading into summer. - Pastor Greene joins; offers opening prayer. 00:02:48 Indiana Democratic convention recap -- Bayh wins, party fractures - Rev. Alexander reports on the Democratic state convention: over 2,300 of roughly 2,500 delegates attended; State Treasurer and Comptroller nominations were uncontested formalities; all the heat was in the Secretary of State race between Blythe Potter and Beau Bayh. - Immediately after Bayh won, the room split — many Potter supporters publicly declaring they won’t support Bayh in November. Rev. Alexander urges Democrats to reconsider given the stakes of the Secretary of State race. - Pastor Greene: the fracturing traces back to how the process was run -- Marion County, as the largest delegation, needed to model transparency and fairness from the start to earn trust on the back end. 00:05:51 Leadership vacuum in the Indiana Democratic Party - Pastor Greene: without transparency and accountability going in, there can be no trust coming out. The party cannot unite for a blue wave if people feel the process was tilted. - Rev. Alexander: Indiana Democrats have no single public-facing leader -- only a collection of silos. Township leaders, city-county councilors, reps, senators -- each running their own kingdom, none galvanizing the whole. - Pastor Greene agrees: fresh leadership is required. The current leaders have not delivered on the two fundamentals -- raising money and turning out voters -- and should step aside. - Both hosts: this didn’t get broken in one election and won’t be fixed in one. Transparency and accountability must come first; trust follows. 00:13:23 Indiana needs Democratic mayors supported, not picked off - Rev. Alexander: the urgency isn’t just November -- Democrat mayors in Terre Haute, Evansville, Muncie, and other Indiana cities need coordinated party support now, or they’ll be picked off one by one. - Instead of spending party money on travel, send resources directly to those local organizations to empower them with the same playbook. - Pastor Greene: the current leadership cannot bring about the unity needed. The party has been intentionally kept divided by those who benefit from the chaos. Who can unify? That question has to be answered honestly -- and asked: when did Indiana Democrats last win a statewide election? 00:17:21 Convention aftermath -- room splits, SOS stakes - Rev. Alexander: the room split almost literally the moment the SOS vote was called, echoing the division visible on Facebook in real time. Despite the disappointment, he urges Democrats not to give up -- the Secretary of State position is too critical. - Pastor Greene: Morales has been egregious with taxpayer money; his own party may not even nominate him. The Concerned Clergy raised the unifying-message question during delegate training -- now they’ve seen the answer play out. - Republicans, by contrast, will close ranks the moment their convention produces a nominee. Democrats must do the same. 00:21:41 Caller Marilyn -- Disability services crisis and congressional accountability - Marilyn, legal guardian of a severely disabled 43-year-old nephew with the cognitive level of a 6-year-old, calls to describe the state’s attempt to eliminate his 24-hour care -- not because he doesn’t need it, but because the state won’t pay for it. - She contacted Rep. André Carson’s office for help; his office redirected her directly back to the very agency that had already denied her nephew’s claim. - Her broader point: elected officials give auto-generated responses to constituent calls, cannot be reached, and face no accountability. Both parties have proven indifferent to people’s actual needs. 00:24:24 Post-Marilyn discussion -- Funding cuts and the voting imperative - Rev. Alexander: Marilyn’s experience is not isolated -- organizations like Noble of Indiana are losing funding that serves people in exactly her nephew’s situation, as are programs for disabled children statewide. - Pastor Greene: CICOA (Central Indiana Council on Aging) is on the cut list for seniors; FSSA announced a six-month freeze on autism support applications just the prior week. These cuts happen because the party in power can -- low voter turnout lets them. - Rev. Alexander: elected officials in the minority should be shouting these cuts from every bullhorn and billboard. The public doesn’t know what’s being cut. Silence is a failure of transparency. 00:29:31 Northwestway Park -- Background and the takeover threat - Rev. Alexander introduces the park safety topic: spoke earlier that day with the IMPD Northwest District commander and the Northwestway Park manager. - Northwestway Park -- trails, soccer fields, splash park, picnic areas -- has seen an uptick of incidents; the previous Friday saw two people brandishing weapons before officers dispersed a crowd. - A “Motion Party” has been announced on social media for Saturday, June 13th at 2 p.m. at Northwestway Park -- $5 cover, promoted on Instagram, drawing expected crowds from across the city. - Pastor Greene: his daughter lives near the park; he’s been getting calls. Cuts to park programming, predicted years ago to cause exactly this, have now arrived. 00:36:00 The Motion Party -- What’s coming and why it’s dangerous - Rev. Alexander details the social media flyer: the date is barely visible, the event is branded as a “Motion Party,” it mirrors the spinning and flash-mob patterns seen across the city. - Pastor Greene: youth coming from all sides of town with unresolved school conflicts, in a permitless carry state, in summer heat -- this is not a question of if something goes wrong, but when. - Community presence alone won’t stop it; the problem recurs the next Saturday at a different park. A city-wide solution is needed, not a one-off response. - Rev. Alexander: IMPD Northwest District commander is already stretched -- the city is budgeting for 2,000 officers but only has about 1,200. Park ranger funding is also being cut. 00:42:07 Mayor’s accountability and the summer youth employment pipeline - Rev. Alexander: the responsibility falls on the mayor. City parks are city property. But there’s no public plan, no designated point person, and budget season is likely to bring cuts, not investment. - When something goes wrong, Chief Terry or the current chief explains it after the fact -- the mayor is absent from the proactive conversation. - Rev. Alexander raises a secondary issue: parks have historically been entry-level employers for teens (lifeguards, maintenance). Staffing shortages have already forced some parks to close for seasons. Community-driven events like Mike Epps’s park initiatives are filling the gap where sustained city investment should be. - Pastor Greene: the mayor or his designee needs to own this, name a solution, and get ahead of it -- not wait for a shooting to assign blame. 00:45:22 Imhotep in the chat -- Closing the loop on Northwestway - Rev. Alexander responds to Imhotep’s question in the Facebook chat: yes, the Motion Party is this Saturday, June 13th; Riverside Park’s regular events continue separately on Sundays. - Indy Parks and the IMPD Northwest District are now aware of Saturday’s planned takeover; both hosts hope the advance notice sends a signal to would-be disruptors. - Rev. Alexander: the community values Northwestway Park as a resource -- families, walkers, soccer players -- and will not allow it to be taken over and abandoned. - Pastor Greene closes: the city must be at the table. Leadership has to step up before the crisis, not just show up to assign blame after it. 00:49:54 Program close https://concernedclergy.org [https://concernedclergy.org] https://www.facebook.com/ClergyIndyhttps://www.facebook.com/ClergyIndy [https://www.facebook.com/ClergyIndy] https://progressiveindiana.net [https://progressiveindiana.net] Progressive Indiana Network is proud to distribute the Concerned Clergy Podcast. Help us continue to bring you more content like this by becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Progressive Indiana Network at www.progressiveindiana.net/subscribe [https://www.progressiveindiana.net/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]