good morning a welcome to was a. was privileged to host mosaic. on behalf of my cohost elizabeth we welcome you into this new year. this begins my 19th year as cohost of mosaic. and my good colleague and friend, the late hugh barrows asked me about 19 years ago, i love to be able to say this is my 20th year to go along with 2020, but it's only my 19th year. one of the things that he did about six times in that time was that he asked us to give a

highlight of some of the top religious and secular stories of the previous year. i did that last year with two of my colleagues and friends. i have invited them back. i will come again reverend dale witherspoon of eastern hill united methodist church. great to have you. and reverend jim hopkins of lakeshore baptist church. >> good morning. great to be here. >> some people know your churches and where you are, but what i discovered that i did not ask you is your family background. and some of your family. i know that you have spouses and you have children, so tell us, beginning with you, dale. >> i'm married to reverend debbie weatherspoon. she is working harder doctorate of ministry. i think in the area of engaging faith in the public square. i have two sons, teenagers, wesley who is a senior, graduating senior at el cerrito

high school and his younger brother justice is a freshman el cerrito. also have a brother and sister that live in the sacramento area. my cousin lives in oakland. i'm a native san franciscan. >> that's right. rate of wesley with us. he is in the audience. >> yes he is. >> and jim? >> karen and i, my wife, have been married 41 years. we have three adult kids. aaron who is a physical therapist, kristin who is a registered nurse, and ethan who is completing his program to be a journeyman electrician in the alameda county electoral unions worker un e a fourgrdsons. daschle, danheon pastor jim to some, but to my grandsons and my sons pack i am hop, pop.

>> great to have you over. i've had you before, but i realized i didn't give the audience some of your backgrounds and your relationships with family and so forth. i think it's very important. before we go on what are one or two of the top stories that you think, according from last year, let's go with you, jim. >> certainly, the relationship of the evangelical christianity, white evangelical christianity, their embrace of the president, their seemingly unfeeling embrace of the president no matter what is a story that needs to be examined and questioned. >> at about 81% of them still. >> he seems to fight for their causes. regardless of his inability to tell the truth, his absolutely immoral immigration policies, his misogyny, there seems to be very little that will separate him from his base and his religious base. >> christianity today article

seemed to push back on it. >> just at the end of the year mark galli said,,. trust matters. how can we trust this person? a lot of the leg evangelical voices came back and said um yeah, but look what he has done for us us. the judges he has appointed. is standing to be antiabortion. this is the best president we have ever had. >> deal? >> i think along the same lines. i think impeachment and how much time has been spent dealing with the issues of impeachment. and think about dartmouth over -- dr. martin luther king and talking about how important character is. in this impeachment we are just overlooking character and immorality, just dealing with the policies. this impeachment fight is going to go on into 2020. i think this is taking away from our government officials caring for the people in our nation and

has marginalized those that are homeless. i think impeachment has a big story. >> thank you both. we will be exploring further in the next segment. i'm so glad you are both here. please join us with dale witherspoon of eastern hill united methodist church and jim hopkins of lakeshore baptist.

welcome os the historian doris kearns goodwin has said that leadership is five qualities. humility, empathy, resilience, self-awareness, and self reflection. i think my colleagues have these qualities. i'm glad they are here with us.

dale and jim, tell us a little bit more about the stories from this last year that i thought were important in our society and will. >> as reflecting on our conversation last year as we ended the year, i think a stories that continuing in the news is the shootings. the mass shootings. and i think it has been intensified where we are having more shootings and places of worship. so, it seems like not a week goes by, we just have the shooting in texas the other day and it is bringing into question whether parishioners should be carrying firearms in the churches or not. so, that is still disturbing, as disturbing is becom e fm synagogues to masks, mosques to christian communities. >> every place of worship. everything. >> i just don't understand some of the tribalism that goes on that creates the kind of violence. it's prevalent in society in the world.

what about you, jim? >> certainly that is a very important story and anti- semitism is an ancient evil that seems to be experiencing a resurgence right now. we saw it with the shootings in pittsburgh last year and the synagogue and hallway this year and the stabbings at the hanukkah celebrants in new york. and just the whole relationship between religion and violence. it is very complex relationship that you think religion would be a clear voice against violence, but we have also embraced it in and out of ways. that is the next story, sexual violence that continues. in the church and in the name of the church. the perpetrated by church leaders on vulnerable members of their congregation. the ist ches certainly not jus

southern baptists, but our whole theology that tends to elevate mail over female really makes us very vulnerable to that sort of abuse and inability to address the abuse. >> and united methodists with our not embracing the lgbtq community is a major issue with us. we still are blocking people and marriage to being open . it is a huge issue for us. >> it's a huge issue. thneral conferthraconferce wne, the traditional plan, which was to retain the language of not welcoming the lgbtq persons

into the church. continuing to have our clergy brought up on charges and trials. so, as we enter into 2020, january 1 some of those laws, prohibitions, will see if we are going to have more trials. there is lots of movement to resist in all kinds of ways to say all folks are welcome into the church. when we have our general conference in 2020 in minnesota we will see how this falls out and if we can change the language or if there's going to be a split in the united methodist church. >> that was my next question. the tremendous struggle over the last 40 or 50 years and now even here, possibly, a possibility of a split. >> lots of talk about this affiliation. how to retain the property. what is it going to look like? that is going to be a huge

conversation for the united methodist denomination. >> what about you, jim in your church? >> our church, we were disfellowshipped back in 1996 by our regional body we were ter members of the association of welcoming and affirming baptists. a little organization that said there is place for sexual minorities, their friends, and families, and allies in the church. that was a hard period of time. i wouldn't want to go through the 10 neither would i trade it for anything. those the struggles, those questions, those battles are addressed week in and week out on congregations, the large and small across united states. it seems less a matter of pronouncement from on high, but each congregation coming to accept the truthin our pe i, in bed mmunity this wide rsexual expression. >> i was leaving a bookstore

the other day and i saw this little book on the history of notre dame. it was a must destroyed in april and the writer took a little bit of the history, i did not know what was going way back to the 1100s, the male men and women participated in the building of it. i think since 1803 is the first time he did not have a christmas eve service. >> i read that. >> that struck me as one of the major stories >> notre dame is a major symbol of the christian faith globally for it to, to see the smoke billowing up, that was an attack on the sole of a lot of folks. >> almost destroyed. that's why. >> five years to be rebuilt they say. >> that's optimistic i would think. >> probably so. >> we are coming to the end of the segment. anything else before we closing come back? >> certainly, we need to talk about immigration policy. >> climate change. >> climate change, separation,

that immigration issue. >> thank you for being with us. >> please join us in our next segment i we look at some further stories that have impacted our lives.

welcome back mosaic. before we look at some of the top stories again of this past year i asked my colleagues to mention a few books that they have read that they would hi rail i can recommend for you to read. let's go with you, jim. >> my favorite book this year has been gentleman in moscow by a more tolls. just a sweep of a philosophy in russian history and human

interactions and then dignity. life back row america by chris and i is also a good insight into what is happening in a lot of lives across united states of america. >> i thought i knew my books. i didn't know that last one. >> and dale? >> right now and our prayer ministry on saturday morning we are reading another book written by ryan mcclary. it is called naked spirituality, a life with god in 12 separate words. we are in chapter 12 now. it has been a powerful book. in chapter 12 some words struck out. how we need to say i'm sorry. how we live with honesty antibody and compassion. i think th's something that our leadership of our nation is , leading and causing more harm. this naked spirituality is helping us take a look at our own souls and how we had that walk of faith. >> mcclary and does a great

job. >> he does. we just finished walking my faith. that was another excellent book. >> i brought if you also. universal christ by richard moore. anything by moore is outstanding, the franciscan priest. joan just that are, anything by her. now is the time. she talks about being a spiritual profit and it is open to all of us. talking to strangers, matthew gladwell. malcolm gladwell. excellent. this other one is new, the color of compromise. he talks about how racism and slavery influence the church in its early years. highly recommended. we talked about it in the last segment, immigration and climate change. would like to say a word about either? >> we were mentioning with immigration comes this whole terrible practice of family separation. how can that btualjf

anyway? any shape, any parents, come on. that should unite folks from across the religious spectrum. >> one of those things you are looking at my folks are going back 20 or 30 years to find out if they have a misdemeanor or some other charges? using that as a basis to separate your kids where they have lived a clean life, a decent life, a hard-working life . so, just a separation of the families is just unconscionable but some of our members in the past years have said please don't talk about politics. you addressed to that in an article recently. >> i wrote an article about how

christmas is really profoundly political. there is taxes, empires, housing shortages, immigration. icing, christmas is political and it's about the uplift of people. it's not abparty, it's not pn. anetcibut po negotiation of how we are going to live in a society that thrives. as such, that, politics are profoundly religious. >> greta. >> greta, a common change, standing up for the climate. standing up for the climate and it's an intergenerational movement. >> she is 16. >> she has parked the consciousness of america. even working with someone like jane fonda and lily tomlin who are also out there on fridays. we are trying to say this is a generational issue. we are trying to say save the

nation. we are trying to sa nment a d shall lead them there is greta. similar to last year with the parkland shooting there was high school students that were leaving. our young people are passionate, passionate about this country. >> that's right. 7 million people have been in this place because of environment and climate change. weerazon d arctcoalof that. >> and all of the fires. especially here in california. all of these wildfires. the kincaid in the getty fire. >> she has really sparked us to really try to address this decade to come, because there will be millions of people displaced if we don't address this now. we have one more segment. so, we will close out with a word of hope and inspiration, which is what we truly try to do here . thank you. >> thank you. >> please join us for our segmn

a composer recently said that tradition is not worshiping ashes, but preserving the fire. i see that in here that as the

fire of the spirit, the spirit of hope, joy, love. this is what my cs bring tos i'm thankful for cles s e future 2020was watc an econ special with tiffany haddish the other day and she was trying to do some teaching. she was closing out her segment and she talked about babies crying and how when a baby cries people will go to that baby and the either had the baby change the baby, feed the baby, they give the baby love. she was thing we have a lot of folks today that are hurting, adults that are hurting and we want to institutionalize and criminalize them instead of going to them and just letting them know they are loved. giving them a hug. paying attention to them. i think, for me, we are getting to be more of an individualistic society. we need to reclaim our communal roots. we are all in this together.

we still don't know our neighbors. we have locks on our gated communities. why are we fearing folks instead of understanding that we are living together? i would encourage folks to get to know your neighbors on the right and the left and across the street. >> talking to strangers. >> talking to strangers. yeah. being a community. we seem to come together in times of natural disasters, fires, earthquakes, but why do we have to wait for a natural disaster instead of just making that a part of our everyday living? getting to know someone new. >> thank you. >> i love that. the power of community. especially the power of the love in community. as we talked about the top news stories of the we talked about the feelings of religious communities. those are well documented. but the enduring life-giving power of faith communities also needs to be lifted up and noted that this is airing on january 12th, the liturgical calendar

the baptism of jesus jesus raised his hands and stepped in the waters and said i want to be in that number. that they community i want to be with. to celebrate the power of our communities, to mitigate against loneliness, to find hope, to seek justice there are religious communities, christian, jewish, muslim, buddhist around the globe and across the country that are doing wonderful things and are bringing people together to create the beloved community. >> that's wonderful. that's why i keep inviting you back. the keep that spirit and tell us againyo churches are so people can come visit you and worship with you. >> easter hill united methodist

church. 3911 cutting boulevard in richmond, california. we have worship services at 8 a.m., sunday school at 9:15, and a 10:30 worship service. all are welcome. we have plenty of room for you. >> jim? >> lake shore baptist church 3534 lake shore in oakland. sunday worship at 10 a clock and bible studies at 11:30 sunday. 6:30 tuesday evening and 10:30 wednesday mornings. we try to live out the beloved community and welcome for >> a hope you have been with us and been inspired by these two great pastors and all that they bring. we have lost so many people this past year, entertainers and doctors and activists on many levels. i thought of toni morrison. anshsaid that great literature along with great jazz music has three qualities. memory, history

, and imagination. use our imagination as well as understanding our history and may our memories keep us active and alive. the thank you for joining us. i'm ron swisher.

i'm emily turner. los angeles now. officers are on the hunt for goodman. who shot two deputies in an ambush attack overnight.