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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Here we are in the first week of April. As it happens this year, Easter Week, Ramadan, and Passover, are all happening at the exact same time. The three Abrahamic religions, as they're called, are all in holy months. Yesterday was Palm Sunday, which means Easter is next Sunday. Today by my count is day 10 of the month of Ramadan. This Wednesday begins eight nights of Passover, get the matzo and get gefilte fish ready to eat.

Now, we will launch a series of callings on your relationship to your religion for Christians today, for Muslims tomorrow, and for Jews on Thursday of this week on the morning, after the first Seder night. Here's what we'll do right now. For listeners who identify as Christian, answer any or all of these three questions. How does your Christian identity inform your sense of yourself? How does your Christianity inform your ethics in your personal life or in your politics? How does your practice of Christianity differ from your parents?

Especially for people under 40 listening right now is your Christianity, in practice or in your spiritual life, different from that of your probably baby boomer parents, for example, or maybe your immigrant parents? Maybe there's a difference by where you grew up. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, for anyone right now who identifies as Christian. Again, we'll have similar questions for Muslim listeners tomorrow and Jewish listeners on Thursday. How does your Christian identity inform your sense of yourself? How does your Christianity inform your ethics?

How does your practice of Christianity differ from your parents especially if you're under 40? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, on this day after Palm Sunday, as Easter Week begins.

On the identity question, what do we even mean by identity? It's such a big word. Is there such a thing for you as a Christian identity? We talk about identity a lot these days in the United States. Mike Pence, famously said, "I'm a Christian, first, a conservative second, a Republican third." Remember that? "I'm a Christian, first, a conservative second, a Republican third."

He didn't put American in the top three, interesting, but he said he's a Christian first, a conservative second, a Republican third. He also changed denominations. Did you know that Pence was raised Catholic, and as an adult, switched to a more evangelical branch of Christianity? I'll admit, I don't exactly know what any of that means. I don't know what he means by being a Christian first. To you, is it just belief in the divinity of Jesus or does it have more implications? For Pence, his ethics, how he treats people in his personal life or in the broader community that is our country in our world, I don't know.

We're inviting you to answer that question, not from Mike Pence, but for yourself those of you who identify as Christian. Is Christianity an identity group for you, like your race or gender or other parts of you might be? If so what is at the heart of Christian identity for you? How does your Christian identity inform your sense of yourself? In an intersectional sense, and I know Ron DeSantis, doesn't want anyone to even say that word. Intersectional freaks him out for some reason, but it's real in our souls.

Intersectional sense, meaning, maybe your Black evangelical Christian identity is different from your white evangelical Christian identity, or by gender, or nationality, or anything else. 212-433-WNYC. How does your Christianity inform your ethics, your behavior in your personal life, or in your politics? Finally, one more time how does your practice of Christianity differ from your parents? Some of you know we've been doing lots of generational callings this year for people of different ages. How about if you're under 40, and your parents are baby boomers, and you're all Christian?

How does your practice of Christianity or how does your Christian identity differ from your parents, or people of any age can call in on that? 212-433-WNYC, whichever of these questions is something you think about or something you want to answer. It's a calling for anyone right now who identifies as Christian. Will ask similar questions for Muslim listeners tomorrow and Jewish listeners on Thursday. 212-433-WNYC and we'll take your calls right after this.

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now to your holy month calls on how your Christian identity informs your sense of yourself, or your ethics, or how your Christianity and practice, or in your internal spiritual life differs from that of perhaps your baby boomer parents or however old your parents are. 212-433-WNYC. We'll start with Joseph in Greenwich, you're on WNYC. Hi, Joseph, thanks for calling in.

Joseph: Hi, Brian. I appreciate being on. Thanks a lot. This is something my wife and I talk about all the time because we see what happens in the news and what people preach as far as their Christianity. To me, the teachings of Jesus are amazing, and they're wonderful. I was raised Catholic, and I bought into it at an early age, but the institution and a lot of the other stuff obviously had me looking elsewhere. My wife and I are actually practicing Unitarian Universalists, which is Christian-based Unitarianism.

You've opened a huge can of worms so I don't know which way to go, but I will say that my Reverend yesterday spoke on LGBTQ transgendered rights and the fact that-- she mentioned that the first convert was an Ethiopian non-binary convert. I trust her, I don't know what part of the Bible she was looking at, but those types of specifics, I think, though people can take what they want and leave the rest, which is good, but also bad depending on how you use it. I think it's just a big conversation about, what is Christianity?

Is it about Jesus or is it about the divinity of it or is it about how you practice it? If I'm saved, does that mean that other people aren't saved? This duality thing. There's just so much. For me, to say I'm Christian, I think people may take it the wrong way. I compare it to I studied drums my whole life, and when I tell somebody I'm a drummer, they're like, "What does that mean?" You know what I mean? There's a lot of types of different drummers.

Brian Lehrer: How are your Catholic baby boomer parents with you having I guess, somewhat different expressions of Christianity, it sounds like than maybe they did raising you.

Joseph: My dad still practice Catholicism, but he loves it. He loves that we're opening the kids up to different types of world religions. They love the services when they come down because they did raise me with-- It's about the teachings, it's not about the institution. Really, my mom actually it freed her up because she had a lot of issues with the Catholic Church. Maybe I already had a preconception to it, but at the same time, I married into a Muslim family. The fact that all of these are brought together and we can all sit down and say, "Yes, let's talk about it. Let's look at the real teachings."

Brian Lehrer: It really matters. Joseph, thank you. Thank you so much. Please call us again. Ashley in Orange, you're on WNYC. Hi, Ashley.

Ashley: Hi, Brian. I just want to say you are a national treasure. It's a pleasure to be on the show. I'm calling because of the question, I feel like you've made this question specifically for me. I'm in my 30s, and my parents are in their boomers, and we all grew up in Black Methodist church, or what most people are familiar with AME. I'm definitely more progressive than our parents on a lot of political issues. I'm still, I believe, a follower of Christ. I'm still a devout Christian, but I really think that to your question about how does my faith shape my politics and my ethics?

It's largely shaped my career and my commitment to prison abolition. I believe that my Christian faith calls me to want people to be free and not have the prison industrial complex that we have and really dismantle the system of incarceration and punishment that our country is so deeply invested in. It's also difficult in attention, I think. I'm a Black woman, I'm queer, I'm a Christian, and I definitely think that there are people who believe that those things can't be reconciled, but I have been really fortunate to be connected to a Christian community, where I have been supported.

I've been doing a lot of reading with more progressive Christians. I just, sometimes think it's hidden, but we exist. There are people who are queer and trans who are deeply working out our face every single day, and who are holding on to our sacred texts holding on to our faith. We're using that as motivation to fight for the liberation of others. It's difficult sometimes I will definitely admit, I heard your previous caller say, sometimes it's awkward to say you're a Christian.

I still feel it's really important for me to share my faith whenever it's appropriate as an opportunity for someone to experience liberation or freedom or grace or care. The teachings of Jesus where he talks about like, "I'm hungry and you fed me not, I was in naked and you didn't cloth me. I was imprisoned and you didn't visit me." That's how I guide my practice of faith and also my politics. I just hope people hear those perspectives a little bit more.

Brian Lehrer: I guess you could say in a way, Easter is political because Jesus was crucified, given the death sentence unjustly. It's also very mystical, metaphysical, very sci-fi in a certain respect because he was conceived in a mystical way in the first place and then he comes back from the dead. Does that resonate with you in any way? Or is that beside the point over there? That's just the story. It doesn't have to do with improving the world.

Ashley: Yes, both are true and both mystical, I believe in the supernatural. The resurrection part resonates for me. Him being executed by the state and by the government also resonates with me into both. I know that the mystical part is probably throwing some people off or thrown some people off, but I have to choose to believe that miracles are possible. I have to believe. For me, it's important to believe that we can transcend because of my faith in God that I can move past some of the limits and the hardships of life.

I think one of the things I've learned in my little tiny bit of organizing around prison abolition is we have to believe that something that we've never seen happen can happen. We have to believe that we can live in a society that's safe and where people experience safety and freedom outside of prisons and policing. That's a hard thing to conceptualize because none of us have ever lived in that. I have to believe in things like resurrection power and a God who is on the side of the vulnerable and the marginalized.

Brian Lehrer: Wow. Great call Ashley. Thank you. Call us again, please. Karen in Manhattan. You're on WNYC. Hi Karen.

Karen: Hi Brian. How are you? Thanks so much for having this program today. I'm really appreciating it. I wanted to respond to your third question, which was really how my faith differs from that of my parents. I would describe my parents' Catholic faith as much more based in faith and ritual. I think in 2023 any thinking person has to combine both faith and reason. I think what's wonderful is that there's so many more resources available that really prove not beyond a shadow of a doubt the way that a cable can hoist a very heavy object, but more that 50,000 threads of string can lift that same heavy object.

Nothing can point to the truth of the resurrection. Not one thing, but there are 50,000 things that can do that. I actually attended a fascinating presentation last night at St. Patrick's Cathedral on the-- It was by Father Andrew Dalton, who's considered one of the world's living authorities on the Shroud of Turin. He talked about the confluence of biblical evidence, and scientific evidence behind the Shroud of Turin, which some of us might remember the headlines back in 1988, really dismissing it as fraud.

Now with advanced science, the common consensus in the scientific community is that the Shroud of Turin cannot be explained away by any man-made efforts. It really is as the previous caller was saying this is a supernatural phenomenon. There's a wonderful discussion on Pints with Aquinas that really goes into detail about this physical evidence of this supernatural resurrection that is the basis of the Christian faith and its central mystery.

Brian Lehrer: In that concept, and since you were at church yesterday, what's the significance of Palm Sunday? If we talk about any Christian holidays in the secular civic space, it tends to be Easter itself and Christmas, I guess. What about Palm Sunday? Karen, one of the points of significance is that it was when Jesus came to Jerusalem, I believe.

Karen: Exactly.

Brian Lehrer: You tell me.

Karen: Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a burro donkey as the multitude spread palm branches on the ground, and it was his historic entry into the city. We see how quickly things turned around. Palm Sunday is the triumphs beginning of Holy Week, and of course, it ends in the tragedy of Good Friday and then the triumphs of Easter Sunday with the resurrection. It's the holiest week of the year.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much for your call, Karen. Thank you. Claudia in Maine. You're on WNYC. Hi Claudia.

Claudia: Good morning Brian. Thank you for picking up this line. As I told to your pre-screener, I'm a foreigner. I have come 30 years plus ago to this country and I grew up in Bavaria, in the Alps, in a very Catholic and traditional Catholic family. I was part of the Catholic youth groups and a leader there as well. Throughout my life, I was exposed then more and more to different faith practices. My husband is now Jewish and I had to learn how to do Seder and I find it amazing and wonderful how now we are living most of the time in Maine, we still have a foothold in New York.

How we managed on this island or this island to find a congregational faith community within which we are able to practice our devotion, neither one of us typically in our grown-up direction, but yet feeling at home practicing.

Brian Lehrer: What defines that congregationalist identity, if you can put it into words that ties you and your Jewish husband together or that might even tie, as the premise of this whole series, is that it's Holy month for Jews and Christians and Muslims that ties the two together. Anything you can put into words in our last 30 seconds or so?

Claudia: In our little family. To me, I think it ties together where we say we-- Both of our faith directions result in a day-to-day life commitment. We are not practicing in church, but we are practicing at home with our neighbors and in our lives. That is what teaches us our Sunday gathering at that congregational church, irrespective of these very valuable different teachings with which we grew up.

Brian Lehrer: That's going to be the last word in this segment for today. Claudia, thank you so much for participating from Maine. Listeners, we're going to ask the same three questions or very similar ones for Muslims tomorrow and for Jews on Thursday after the first Seder night on Wednesday. Happy Easter week. Happy Ramadan, happy Passover in advance. We will continue this series of call-ins around this time as this week goes on. That's the Brian Lehrer Show for today, produced by Mary Croke, Lisa Allison, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond, and Esperanza Rosenbaum.

Zach Gottehrer-Cohen produces our Daily politics podcast. Our interns this term are Trinity Lopez and Briana Brady. We had Juliana Fonda and Milton Ruiz at the audio controls

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