CHRISTIAN PODCAST EPISODE #42
Sandra Maria Van Opstal shares what does an activist do. She is the founder and executive director of ChasingJustice and a second-generation (USA) Latina, pastor, activist, author, a powerful leading voice on the intersection of faith and justice. Sandra is the author of 40 Days On Being An Eight, part of a series of books on enneagram daily reflections.
Anytime you’re trying to imagine a new way forward in understanding Jesus and Justice and Faith, you’re reforming, you’re changing, you’re reconstructing, there’s gonna be somebody that’s no gonna like it
Sandra Van Opstal
Emoji “Tómbola”
SKIP TO: 2:10
I’m the daughter of two immigrants, my mom’s from Colombia, my father is from Argentina and they met here in Chicago, fell in love, the rest is history… I have a degree in music business, I have a masters in divinity… I’m a pastor now, a lot of my career has centered at the intersection of worship and justice, faith and worship and what does it mean to be a person that’s actively engaged in your community
SKIP TO: 3:48
From your own words, what would be your definition when you say I’m an activist?
I’m present in the places that I live. Being an activist means I’m a neighbor. I understand what’s happening in our community as far as housing, as far as equity, education and then I speak to those things from my perspective distinctly as a Latina christian and someone who wants to see the world change
Sandra Maria Van Opstal
What do you mean when you say systems of oppression?
SKIP TO: 8:40
My activism comes from my pastoring so it comes from my proximity is not like I picked topics that I wanted to care about
Enneagram 8… the way we see the world is to challenge the things that we perceive that are not right… Martin Luther King Jr. was an enneagram 8, Mother Theresa was an enneagram 8, Che Guevara was an enneagram 8, Fidel Castro was an enneagram 8
Sandra Maria Van Opstal
I’ve been called “Marxist” or a “communist”… 1996 was the first time I was called a communist because I was teaching out of Luke chapter 4… I’m just trying to read scripture and be faithful to what I think it’s been said in there…
1965, that’s when my parents came to this country, and we have not had comprehensive immigration reform
You cannot be a good neighbor without caring about the systems and the policies and the laws that crush the neck of your neighbor
San Maria Van Opstal
If you want me to be polite to a demon, If you want me to polite to the spirit of racism in this country? I’m not gonna be polite and if you wanna say I’m an unrepentant person who doesn’t like white people, whatever, I love white people I just don’t like white supremacy, so I’m gonna call it out like a demon
What is your dream?
From Blasphemous to Divine
CHRISTIAN PODCAST VIDEO EPISODE ON YOUTUBE
ChasingJustice.com
Forty Days on Being an Eight
Enneagram Daily Reflections
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