Is it possible to love Jesus and pursue justice?

For the believer who’s wrestling with faith, identity, and the world’s deep ache.

Can you love Jesus and care deeply about justice? If you’ve ever felt caught in that tension—longing to follow Christ while also seeking change in a hurting world—this episode is for you.

In this Season Two opener, Kristen shares the heart behind Jesus, Justice + Mercy and her personal journey navigating faith, identity, and the messy, beautiful call to justice. As a trauma-informed mentor, budding theologian, and solo parent to two bi-racial boys, Kristen opens up about what shifted her theology, challenged her comfort, and led her to ask harder, more honest questions about the gospel.

This episode lays the groundwork for what’s ahead: a season filled with Scripture-rooted conversations about race, identity, power, justice, and compassion. Whether you're feeling uncertain, curious, frustrated, or hopeful, this space invites you to show up fully—with your faith, your questions, and your heart.

You’ll hear:

• Why so many believers feel the tension between faith and justice
• How Kristen’s story as a parent and a learner reshaped her view of discipleship
• What to expect this season—from biblical foundations to real-world conversations
• An invitation to walk this road with humility, courage, and mercy

This isn’t about abandoning faith. It’s about reclaiming it—anchored in Jesus and committed to the kind of love that restores.

If you find hope and challenge here, help grow this community by liking, sharing, and leaving a review so more people can join us in pursuing justice and Jesus together.

RESOURCES:

www.kristenannette.com

Holy Disruption: Reclaiming a Justice-Rooted Faith course info and interest list

Justice Coaching options!

"Find your justice mindset" quiz!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:01

Hey friend, it has been a minute, so welcome to Season 2, Episode 1 of Jesus, Justice and Mercy. The title of the first episode of this season is, Is it possible to love Jesus and pursue justice? Because that's the question at the heart of so many conversations I've had, both in my own journey and with others who feel caught in the tension between their faith and their longing for justice. In this episode, I want to set the stage for the season ahead by sharing a bit of my story, why I'm here, what this podcast is about, and an invitation for you to walk this journey with me. So again, I'm Kristen, a trauma-informed budding theologian, justice-minded mentor, and fellow question asker. I'm also a mom, a solo parent, and a and someone who's walked through a lot of complex faith spaces, holding both a deep love for Jesus and what I might call a growing ache for the kind of justice and compassion I believe he came to bring. I'm currently finishing a master's in theology and social justice at Northeastern Seminary. That might sound kind of official, But all it really means is I've spent the last few years sitting with scripture, reading a ton of great and thought-provoking books, learning from theologians and pioneers of our faith, and asking real-life questions about how we live out the gospel in a hurting and divided world. This podcast was born out of both heartbreak and hope. Heartbreak over the ways faith has sometimes been used to exclude or wound people, and hope that we can reclaim a vision of Jesus that is deeply rooted in mercy, truth, and love. Just to clarify, when I say heartbreak, I mean the deep wounds I've seen in the church. The exclusion, the silence, the misunderstandings, and sometimes the spiritual harm done in the name of God. One example is sitting with women of color whose stories are filled with pain from people who should have been their allies, their spiritual family. Listening to these voices has been humbling, challenging, and absolutely necessary. It's one thing to hear stories. It's another to listen, to truly open our hearts and to be changed by them. And when we let those stories shape us, we start to ask new questions about what we've been taught, what we might've ignored, and what Jesus actually calls us to. That kind of listening can stir something deep, a discomfort, a reckoning, a longing for a faith that makes room for justice and mercy. Because if you've ever felt torn between your heart for justice and the way you were taught to follow Jesus, Or if you've wrestled with how to stay rooted in your faith while engaging hard conversations with love and integrity, you're not alone. We need space to ask honest questions, space to explore scripture with a new curiosity, and to rethink how we show up, not from a place of fear or pressure, but from a place of courage, compassion, and trust in a God who is both holy and, thankfully, merciful. Scripture shows us this tension in the life of Jesus, the way he spoke truth to power and also welcomed the outcast with open arms. He challenged religious leaders while dining with sinners. He confronted injustice while offering compassion. That balance of justice and mercy is messy and hard, but it's also our model. And that's the tension I want to walk through with you. You might be wondering how I got here. Honestly, I never set out to lead conversations on faith, justice, and race. But when I became a parent to two biracial boys with complex trauma histories, I found myself face-to-face with questions I couldn't ignore. Somewhere along the way, I also learned how vital it is to truly listen. Without judgment or defensiveness or or dismissiveness to my friends of color and their experiences both within and outside the church. That practice changed me. It shaped my theology. It deepened my understanding of what discipleship really means and also shaped how I understand justice and faith. This podcast grew from that journey. It has become a space where I can share what I'm learning and invite others into honest reflection and bold dialogue about faith, identity, and justice. At some point, I may have started as a writer and I still have visions of writing a book. Years ago, I started a blog. I thought I would share my experiences raising my boys, but that's their story to tell and it's still unfolding. What I can offer is my own story, one of obedience, of wrestling with fear and insecurity, of pushback and imposter syndrome, and ultimately, a story of listening to the voice of God that refused to be silent and kept nudging me forward. But this all probably started much earlier. I grew up deeply embedded in a white conservative Christian world. I was born in 1963, a year that included Martin Luther King Jr.''s I Have a Dream speech, his letter from a Birmingham jail, the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, and so many other pivotal moments in the civil rights movement. But in my childhood church and family, none of that was mentioned, at least to my recollection. It felt far from my daily life, my family, and my church. My faith was familiar and comfortable. We went to church every Sunday. And growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, I probably was exposed to more progressive views. But the issues of race and injustice didn't come up. It wasn't until adulthood that I began to realize how much I hadn't seen and how much I had to learn and unlearn. Through relationship learning and painful reflection, I began to see that justice isn't a side issue. It isn't just a political or social issue. It's sacred. It's central to the gospel. And that realization changed everything. This podcast is part of that journey. It's born out of sorrow for the pain I've witnessed and hope for the healing that's possible when we lean into truth and grace. So what can you expect this season? We're diving into what happens when your love for Jesus and your burgeoning questions about and hunger for justice collide. How do we hold that tension without losing our footing? Each episode will explore a big question or theme like why social justice feels so divisive, especially in church spaces. What the Bible really says about justice. How race, identity, and privilege shape our discipleship. Navigating LGBTQ conversations with both conviction and compassion. How to separate your personal faith from political pressure. And how to engage all of this with grace, even when it's hard. Some of this will be tender. Some will challenge what we've been taught as unshakable truth, not to dismantle our faith, but to deepen and refine it. And all of it will be grounded in Scripture, thoughtful reflection, and the kind of hope that doesn't give up on the church or each other. I believe that this is what God is calling the church to right now, and I'm convinced it starts with each of us showing up, listening deeply, and leaning into the hard questions with humility and hope. I'm inviting you to walk along wherever you are in your faith, however you may have been wounded or stretched or stuck. Because I know this work is hard, but it is also necessary. And none of us need to do this alone. Over the course of this season, we'll follow an intentional arc of learning. We'll spend some time in honest self-reflection and identity. We'll root ourselves in the biblical foundations of justice and how they align or sometimes challenge our modern understanding. We'll explore systems of inequality, grow in spiritual discernment, and learn how to have hard conversations with both conviction and compassion. And finally, we'll begin to imagine what faithful, justice-rooted action can look like in our everyday lives. That said, this journey isn't always linear. Like most things in faith, we'll circle back, wrestle, revisit ideas and hold tension. But through it all, we'll be anchored in the heart of Jesus, trusting that he meets us in the questions and leads us toward wholeness. Because justice isn't just an idea. It's a way of life, and we all have a part to play. If you're new here, welcome. Season one launched during Black History Month in 2024, and I focused on the intersection of systemic injustice, the church's historical role, and what scripture really says about race, power, and justice. In that season, I laid a lot of groundwork. I believe it is important to look honestly at the past so we can better understand our present and better live out God's call. You don't have to start there. But if you're curious... Those episodes are there for when you're ready. You might still be wondering, is this podcast for me? Let me give you a glimpse of what I imagine. This podcast is for those wrestling with their faith and what it really means to follow Jesus in a divided, polarized world. It's for the ones who love the church but feel uneasy or even heartbroken about how it has handled race, power, politics, or belonging. It's for those of you whose convictions have grown deeper, but also more complicated. Those whose questions feel heavier than their answers. It's for anyone whose relationships have been stretched, strained, or even broken as their faith has shifted. And it's also for those of you who have walked away, who just couldn't reconcile what you were taught with what you were seeing. For those who are still curious about Jesus and but cautious around Christians. So if you want to face hard questions with courage and clarity, if you want a faith that is honest, rooted, and resilient, even if it doesn't look like it used to, this space is for you. The invitation is for you to decide if you are open to taking the journey with me. You can stay connected by subscribing to the podcast, sharing this episode with a friend who might need it, leaving a review so others can find it, or visiting my website where you can find discussion prompts and more resources. I also want to encourage you to journal or reflect after these episodes, because processing this and these questions takes time and grace. Next time, we'll start by diving into a tough but important question. Why does social justice feel so divisive in the church? I hope you'll meet me there. Thanks for listening, friend. I'm glad you're here.