25: Irreverent Reverence in Religion. A conversation with Matt Russell.

This episode begins with Matthew and I exploring his history growing up with the fundamentalist wing of religion in Christianity. Matt’s story is one of coming to terms and wrestling with the religion of his youth and through that process asking challenging to grapple with questions. We discuss power structures within and between groups ranging from economically bound systems to geographically connected and disconnected networks. Matt’s dissertation looked at trauma and the narrative that five women maintained about their religious and philosophical worldview following overwhelming trauma. Matt offers a perspective on religion that is often not included in many religious and academic circles, atheist or theist alike. Bio: Matt is currently on staff at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Houston Texas as the Senior Associate Pastor, is the Co-Managing Director of projectCURATE, a social action and racial equity non-profit, Executive Director of Iconoclast Artists, a creative arts program in Houston and Galveston’s urban schools that has over 600 weekly participants and is Assistant Professor of Recovery Ministry at Fuller Theological Seminary. Prior to this he was on faculty at Duke Divinity School as professor of Practical Theology and Community Development. In 2013, he completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Cambridge’s Psychology and Religion Research Group (PRRG) where he explored redemptive narratives and models of social justice movements rooted in religious communities. He received his Masters of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary and completed his PhD at Texas Tech University in 2010. His dissertation explored how women construct alternative narratives of redemption from years of sustained trauma and abuse. While at Texas Tech he was the Associate Director at The Center for the Study of Addiction, responsible for the replication model helping to establish collegiate recovery communities in campuses across the United States. From 1996-2008 he was Associate Pastor of Houston’s Chapelwood United Methodist Church and founding pastor of Mercy Street. Matt is married to his best friend Michele and they have 3 crazy boys: Miguel (15), Lucas (14) and Gabriel (11). Website: https://www.projectcurate.org http://www.stpaulshouston.org/staff/ Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Band of the week: Ghostface Killah and BADBADNOTGOOD https://www.facebook.com/GhostfaceKillahOfficial/ http://badbadnotgood.com Music page: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/sour-soul/952769969 Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks