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By Eric A. Gordon
People’s World (PW) was recently introduced to a remarkable phenomenon out there in Cyberland that we’d like to share with our readers. The Magnificast is a weekly podcast about Christianity and leftist politics. Each episode focuses on the under-explored territory of Christianity and the left that they didn’t teach you in Sunday School.
According to co-hosts Matt Bernico and Dean Dettloff, “the big idea is to contribute to the dialogue between Christians and leftists, and hopefully motivate some Christians to transform their desire for justice into political action.” PW posed a few questions about the program, and Matt and Dean kindly responded.
PW: Let’s get acquainted. Who are you guys, and how did you meet?
Matt is a professor of media studies and communication at Greenville University in Greenville, Ill. He’s also a podcast producer. Dean is a Catholic PhD student at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto and writes as a journalist. We first met on the internet, on some forums related to progressive Christianity, and later we worked on some research together. We’ve shared a similar trajectory in terms of exploring our own Christian upbringing and the left, and we decided to start this podcast as an excuse to hang out and keep thinking all that through.
PW: Would it be fair to say that you embrace what’s been called “liberation theology?” Or how might you qualify that?
In a way, yes, we embrace certain forms of liberation theology. When liberation theology talks about what it calls a “preferential option for the poor,” and tells us to look for where people are marginalized in all societies, we resonate with that. We really admire people like Ernesto and Fernando Cardenal, Frei Betto, Leonardo Boff, James Cone, Dorothee Soelle—all those folks. We’re also interested in the ways theology works itself out in other revolutionary situations...
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