One can look at one’s Twitter feed, or watch the news to understand how dark things are right now in USAmerica, but if the old cliché is true, that it is darkest before the dawn, we’re in for a transformation. Two religious academic professionals are working to bring that into being. They say in a new book that we are at a turning point in American history and we can continue down a path of exclusion, bigotry, hatred and fear, or as a nation “summon our better angels and reclaim some of the basic human values of goodness, inclusion, fairness, love, forgiveness, humility, compassion and justice.” How to help the U.S.A. rediscover its moral compass and find its spiritual center is the focus of their new book: The World is About To Turn: Mending a Nation’s Broken Faith. They also understand if it IS to happen, it will be in a nation that is, in their words, “post-Christian.”

Paul O. Ingram is Professor of Religion Emeritus at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. He’s the author of Buddhist-Christian Dialogue in an Age of Science, Wrestling with God & Wrestling with the Ox: A Theology of Religious Experience.

Rev. Dr. Rick Rouse has taught practical theology at both the undergrad & graduate level in the U.S. and Germany; he’s a popular conference speaker & serves as a parish consultant working with congregations in the areas of strategic planning, spiritual discernment & leadership. A certified Spiritual Director & ordained Lutheran pastor for 45 years, he’s served congregations in Arizona, California, Oregon & Washington.

Here is the interview we did on October 23, 2020: