or call during business hours. >> welcome to mosaic. it is a privilege to host mosaic on behalf of my cohost, we welcome you into this new year. this begins my 19th year as cohost of mosaic. and my good colleague friend, hugh burrell's, asked me 19 years ago i love to be able to say this is my 20th year, but 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 colleagues and friends, i am inviting back this time -- >> thank you. >> good morning, good to be here. >> some people know your churches and who you are but what i discovered is that i never asked you what your family background and some of your family i know that you have spouses and children, so tell us, dale. >> married to reverend debbie weatherspoon. she is on sabbatical, working on her doctorate ministry in the area of engaging faith in the public square. i have two sons, teenagers,

wesley, a senior at high school, and his younger brother justice, who is a freshman. i have a brother and a sister in sacramento and a cousin here in oakland. i am a native san franciscan. >> he is in the audience, great to have him. and gym? >> karen and i have been married 41 years, we have three adult kids, aaron a physical therapist, aaron, registered, and ethan who is completing his program to be a journeyman electrician in the alameda county electrical workers union , and we have four grandsons. and my -- i am pastor jammed his son, but to my grandsons i'm hop pops. >> it is great to have you both, we've had you before.

but i wanted to give the audience some your background and your relationships with family and so forth. i think that's very important. before we go on break, what are some of the top stories you think that are important from last year? >> certainly the relationship of the evangelical christianity, white evangelical christianity embracing the president. seemingly failing embrace of the president no matter what is a story that needs to be examined and questioned. >> 81% of things. >> he seems to fight for their causes and regardless of his inability to tell the truth, has 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,

they've seen them to push back. >> just at the end of the year. trust matters, how can we trust this person? and a lot of the leading evangelical voices came back and said yeah but look what he is done for us, the judges he is appointed, his stand to be antiabortion. this is the best president we have ever had. >> dale? >> along the same lines. impeachment. and how much time has been spent dealing with the issues of impeachment, dr. martin luther king and talking about how important character is and so it seems 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 sinking away from our

government officials caring for the people in our nation is the marginalized, those that are homeless. i think the impeachment has been a big story taking up the news. >> thank you both, will be explained further in the next segment. i am so glad that you are all here. please join us with dale weatherspoon and jim sure .

>> back to mosaic. a historian has said that leadership is five qualities. humility, empathy, resilience, self-awareness, and self inflection. i think my colleagues have these qualities, so i'm glad that they are here with us. dale and jim, tells more about the stories of this past year that i thought were important to society in the world. >> i was reflecting on our

conversation last year as we did the air, story that continues in the news is the shootings, the mass shootings. i think it has intensified, more shootings and places of worship. so it seems like not a week goes by, we just had a shooting in texas the other day. it is bringing into question whether person or should be carrying firearms in the churches are not. it is disturbing. >> it seems like i'm synagogues to mosques to christian communities. >> every faith. >> i just don't understand some of the tribalism that creates a kind of violence, but it's prevalence. what about you, jim? >> certainly that's an important story, the anti- semitism is an ancient evil seems to be experiencing a resurgence right now.

is sought with the shootings in pittsburgh last year, this in a gun this year, the stabbings of this hanukkah celebrants in new york. the relationship between religion and violence. very complex relationships like you would think religion would be a clear voice against violence, but we have also embraces in a lot of ways. that is the next stories. the sexual violence that continues, in the church and in the name of the church, perpetrated by church leaders on vulnerable members of their congregation. certainly the catholics have received most of the news, but, the baptist church -- >> i am not a southern baptist, it is certainly not just the southern baptists, our whole

theology that tends to elevate mail over female. really makes us very vulnerable to that sort of abuse and inability to address it. >> united methodist with not embracing lgbtq community is a major issue with us, and we are so blocking people, marriage to being open and inclusive in terms of ordination. it's a huge issue for us. >> it's a huge issue, we had a special general conference in february 2019, it was on one issue. and the vote came to do traditional plan which was to retain the language of not welcoming the lgbtq ia persons into the church, continuing to have clergy brought up on charges and trials. so as we entered into 2020, january 1st, some of those laws and

prohibitions, we will see if we have more trials. there was lots of moments to resist in all kinds way to say no, all folks are welcomed into the church, when we have general conference in 2020 in minnesota, we will see how this falls out. and if we can change the language or if there will be a split in the united methodist church. >> that is where my next questions. the enormous struggle and now, the possibility of a split. >> just affiliation, having to retain property. what will that look like? that will be a huge conversation for the united methodist denomination. >> what about you, jim? >> are church, we were disfellowshipped back in 1996 by original body because we were charter members of the associations of welcoming and affirming baptists, little organization that said there was a place for sexual

minorities, friends, families, and allies in the church. that was a hard period of time, would not want to go through it again. neither would i trade it for anything you. but those struggles, those questions and battles are addressed week in and week out congregations large and small across the united states. and it seems less a matter of pronouncement from on high, but each congregation coming to accept the truth that -- in our pews and membership and communities, and the beloved community, there is a wide range of healthy sexual expression. >> i saw this little book on the history of notre dame, and we know that it was almost destroyed in april, and the right ear took a little bit of the history. i did not know's else in 1100,

take hundred years to build. men and women participated in the building of it. i think since 1803, the first time it did not have a christmas eve service. that hit me as one of the major story. >> notre dame is a major symbol of christian faith globally, and for it to see the smoke billowing up -- >> it was almost destroyed. >> it was the attack on the soul of lotta folks. >> five years to rebuild, they say. >> the top domestic. >> we are coming to the end of the segment, anything else before we close and come back? >> we need to talk about immigration policy. >> climate change. separation. >> okay. thank you for being with us. please join us in the next segment as we look at some further stories that have impacted our lives.

>> welcome back to "mosaic". before we look at some of the top stories again, of this past year, asked my college to recommend books for you to read. let's go with you, jim. >> my favorite book this year has been "tran17 and then as another very good insight into

what is happening and lives across the united states of america. >> i did not know that last one, that's pretty good. >> right now on saturday morning we are reading another book called "naked spirituality". some words stuck out is how to say i'm sorry, how we live with honesty and humility and compassion. i think it is something that our leadership of our nation is lacking humility compassion as we are leading and causing more harm. this "naked spirituality" is helping us to get our own souls and how we have that walk of faith. >> he does a great job. >> we just finished "walking by faith" another excellent book.

>> anything by him is outstanding. the franciscan priest, anything by -- now is the time talking about being a spiritual profit and opened all of us. talking to strangers, malcolm gladwell, excellent. this other one that is new, the color compromise. he talks about how racism and slavery influenced the church in early years, highly recommend. we talked about, before closing, immigration and we talked about climate change. would you like to say a word about either? >> were mentioning with immigration comes this whole, terrible practice of family separation. how can that be morally,

spiritually justified in any way? any shape? any form? regardless of party, regardless of background, taking babies from their parents?, and. that should unite folks across religious spectrums. >> folks are going back 20 or 30 years to find out they had a misdemeanor or some of the charges and using that as a basis to separate their kids or they have lived a clean life, decent life, hard-working life. just a separation of families is unconscionable. >> some of my members say please don't talk about politics. and you addressed that in an article recently. >> wrote an article about how christmas is profoundly political, their taxes, empires, housing shortages, immigration, and christmas is

political and it is about the uplift of people. and that is political, it is nonpartisan or about anyone party or set of policies, but politics is ongoing negotiation of how we are going to live in a society that thrives. politics a profoundly religious. >> thank you for that. greta. >> climate change, standing up for the climate, standing up for the climate it is an intergenerational movement. she is 16 and she is sparked a consciousness of america, even working with someone like jane fonda and lily tomlin that are out there on friday. we are trying to say this is a generational issue, trying to save the nation, the environment and a child shall lead them.

it was similar to the parkland shooting. students relieving. our young people are passionate about this country. >> 7 million people have been misplaced because of climate change. we have amazon and and article and all of that. >> all of the fires. especially here in california. the kincaid and geddes fires. >> usually sparked this to try to address this for decades to come. millions of people will be displaced if we don't address this now. we have one more segment, so we will close out with hopefully a word of hope of inspiration which is what we truly tried to do here. >> thank you. >> please join us in our last segment.

>> tradition is not worshiping ashes, but preserving the fire. and i see that as the fire of

the spirit, a spirit of hope. joy, love, this is what my colleagues bring to the segment . i am thankful for them as they close this segment, let's say a few more words about our hopes for the future. >> i was watching at comedy special with tiffany haddish the of the day and she was trying to do some teaching. as she was closing out her segment she talked about babies crying and how would a baby cries, people go to that baby and they had the baby, they change the baby, they feed the baby, they give the baby love. a lot of folks today are hurting, dolts 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, and we need to reclaim communal roots.

we still don't know our neighbors, we have locks and gated communities. wire wayfaring folks? i would encourage folks to get to know your neighbors. >> talking to strangers. >> being a community. we come together in times of natural disasters, fires, earthquakes, but why do we have to wait for a natural disaster instead of making it part of our everyday living? getting to know someone new? >> thank you for that. jim? >> i love the, the power of love and community. as we talked about top news stories of the year, we talked about the failings of religious communities, those are well documented. but the enduring, life-giving power of faith communities also needs to be lifted up and noted,

airing on january 12th, the liturgical calendar, the baptism of jesus. he stepped into the water since it i want to be in that number. is a community, that is what i want to be with. to celebrate the power of our communities, to mitigate against loneliness, define hope , to seek justice. their religious communities, christian, jewish, muslim, buddhist, or those around the country and world that are doing wonderful things and are bringing people together to create beloved community. >> that is wonderful my friends. that is why keep inviting you back. keep that spirit entellus again where you churches are so people can come visit you and worship with you.

dale? >> easter hill united methodist church, 3911 cutting boulevard in richmond, california. web services at 8:00 a.m., sunday school 9:15, and at 1030 welsh of service. plenty of room for you. >> lake shore avenue baptist sure corner of lakeshore on mandana in oakland, sunday worship at 10:00, bible studies at 11:30, 6:30 tuesday evening and 10:30 wednesday mornings. we try to live out the beloved community welcome for all. >> amen. i hope you have been with us and inspired by these two great pastors and all that they bring. with us so many people this past year, entertainers and actors and activists of many levels. toni morrison, the woman who won the nobel prize for literature in 1993, and she said that great literature alone with great jazz music has three qualities.

memory, history, and imagination. >> s. >> use our imagination as well as understanding our history, and mayor memories keep us active and alive. thank you for joining us.

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impeachment plans are gaining support. nancy pelosi says he may need to come to the capital. 200 lawmakers have signaled their support. they area stay-at-home orders are extended indefinitely. what is the impact on businesses? the vaccine rollout has been frustratingly slow. how joe biden plans to speeded up. good morning, it is sunday. let's start with a weather. >> well,