Kwok ’n’ Roll

What does the Bible really say about the tyrants — and what happens when a world-class biblical scholar has lived the abuse of power herself?

Gale A. Yee — the first Asian American and first woman of color to serve as president of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) — joins Kwok Pui Lan for a conversation that spans scripture, power, racism in academia, and the urgent question of tyranny in our political moment.

Dr. Yee opens with a provocation: she is writing a scholarly article on tyrants. Not because it's an abstract exercise, but because we are living through one. From there, the conversation moves through her groundbreaking work in Asian American biblical interpretation, her personal encounters with racism and tokenism in the academy, and what the Bible — read honestly and without apology — has to say about those who seize power and call themselves kings. This is biblical scholarship with stakes. And it is long overdue.

📌 About Gale A. Yee: Professor Emerita of Hebrew Bible at Episcopal Divinity School and former president of the Society of Biblical Literature. A pioneering voice in feminist, intersectional, and Asian American biblical studies.

In this episode of Faithful Provocations, Kwok Pui Lan and Mary E. Hunt dissect the DOJ's new report on "Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias" — and reveal what it's really doing: imposing white Christian values on everyone.

They discuss:

• The DOJ report's three chilling next steps — Christian sermons at the Pentagon, faith-based housing discrimination against LGBTQ people, and churches endorsing political candidates

• How mainline denominations (Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans) have already ordained queer people — the majority of Christians don't support this discrimination

• Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Parker's landmark book Saving Paradise — how Christianity traded love of the world for crucifixion and empire

• Why the cross became the normative Christian symbol only at the time of the Crusades — and what early Christians actually depicted (fish, bread, people sharing a meal)

• Mary Hunt's argument: "The cross is not glory, but failure" — and what should replace it

• How atonement theology was weaponized during colonization — Filipino theologians exposed how suffering was used to justify brutal colonial policies •

Marco Rubio's Vatican visit to patch tensions between Pope Leo and Trump — and why it won't work

Elections have consequences. The same people who brought you a war in Iran now want to sell you a new Christian crusade. Feminist and postcolonial scholars are pointing out what's going on — and we won't stop.

#LiberationTheology #LatinAmericanTheology #PostcolonialTheology #DecolonialFaith #Theology #Christianity #SocialJustice #ChristianThought Is liberation theology still a radical force — or has it been domesticated? Nicolás Panotto, theologian, human rights activist, and director of the civil society organization Otros Cruces, argues that the real gift of liberation theology isn't a set of doctrines but a methodology — and that the second generation has taken that methodology into new territory: queer theology, intersectionality, decolonial epistemology, and the spirituality of social movements.

In this conversation, Kwok Pui Lan and Panotto explore:

• The transition from the first to the second generation of Latin American liberation theology

• Decolonial vs. postcolonial theory — and why the difference matters for theology

• The groundbreaking (and underread) legacy of Marcella Althaus-Reid

• How civil rights organizing shaped Panotto's theological method

• What theologians must do in a time of rising authoritarianism and dehumanization

Dr. Nicolás Panotto is a professor at the University of Oldenburg (Germany) and director of Otros Crucos, a Latin American organization working at the intersection of theology, human rights, and social movements. He is based in Chile.

Dr. Panotto is the coeditor of Decolonizing Liberation Theologies.

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What happens when the people who preach peace practice violence? From the Washington Hilton assassination attempt to the hidden abuses of celebrated religious leaders, Kwok Pui Lan and Mary Hunt ask the hard questions faith communities don't want to face.

In this episode of Faithful Provocations, Kwok Pui Lan and Mary Hunt begin with the moral shock of gun violence at the White House Correspondents' Dinner — 2,600 people crouching under tables at the Washington Hilton — and ask what faith demands in response.

Was Jesus truly nonviolent? What can the Catonsville Nine, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. teach us now? And what do we do when celebrated religious leaders and activist — John Howard Yoder, Jean Vanier, César Chávez — are credibly accused of abusing women? Mary Hunt names it directly: the "veneer of virtue." If violence is a feminist issue, churches and religious communities must reckon with what she calls "spiritual domestic violence" — harm done in our own spiritual homes. 

New episode next Friday.

What does it mean to be the first non-White General Secretary of the world YWCA? How does an African woman break the glass ceiling — not just once, but repeatedly — to lead global organizations and reshape the landscape of Christian theology?

Dr. Musimbi Kanyoro from Kenya is one of those rare leaders. She served as the founding coordinator of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, championing African women's voices in theology and driving their work into publication and global recognition.

In this conversation, Dr. Kanyoro unpacks what makes African women's theology distinctive: it is contextual, rooted in lived experience, and always addressing the urgent needs of the moment — from women's leadership and HIV/AIDS to the COVID pandemic and now the vital relationship between religion and the environment.

She also shares her work in women and philanthropy, channeling resources through foundations that fund innovative solutions to female education, the lack of opportunities, and gender-based violence. Her vision is clear: the older generation of women must hold the ladder steady so the younger generation can climb to new heights — breaking gender inequity and transforming their communities.