From Ferguson to Baltimore to Pakistan, upheaval, violence and injustice are shaking the world. In the midst of this turmoil, what does it mean to be a peacemaker?
This year, Wild Goose Festival goers will heed the call and fearlessly dive into that conversation with the theme Blessed Are The Peacemakers.
Please join us in welcoming John Dear, William Barber, Alexia Salvatierra, Robyn Henderson-Espinoza, Brian McLaren, Frank Schaeffer and Romal Tune as our Featured Speakers at Wild Goose 2015! Read on to find out more about these powerful peacemakers, who not only talk about peace, but also practice it!
John Dear
John Dear a Catholic priest and internationally recognized voice for peace and nonviolence. He served for years as the director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the largest interfaith peace organization in the U.S. Author of The Nonviolent Life, Dear has been arrested over 75 times in acts of civil disobedience against war and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
William Barber
William Barber is North Carolina NAACP president and organizer of the Moral Mondays movement. A full-time pastor at Greenleaf Christian Church, he’s volunteered countless hours to champion social change because he believes there is no worship without commitment to justice.
Alexia Salvatierra
Alexia Salvatierra is the author (along with Dr. Peter Heltzel) of Faith-Rooted Organizing: Mobilizing the Church in Service to the World and the founder of the Faith-Rooted Organizing UnNetwork. She is a Lutheran Pastor with over 35 years of experience in congregational and community ministry, and has been a national leader in the areas of working poverty and immigration, including the co-founding of the national Evangelical Immigration Table.
Brian McLaren
Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and networker among innovative Christian leaders. His dozen-plus books include A New Kind of Christianity, A Generous Orthodoxy, Naked Spirituality, Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road?, and We Make the Road by Walking. He is a senior fellow with Auburn Seminary, and a board member and leader in Convergence Network and Center for Progressive Renewal.
Robyn Henderson-Espinoza
Robyn Henderson-Espinoza is a queer Latin@ who negotiates layers of agnosticism as their faith orientation. Believing that the ways of Jesus are tangible ways of enacting radical social change, Robyn strategically deploys theologies and ethics of radical difference to disrupt the hegemonic structures that reproduce multi-system oppressions. As an anti-oppression, anti-racist, Trans*gressive genderqueer, Robyn takes seriously their call as an activist theologian and ethicist to bridge together theories and practices that result in communities responding to pressing social concerns.
Frank Schaeffer
Frank Schaeffer is a New York Times bestselling author of both fiction and nonfiction, including Why I am an Atheist Who Believes in God. Frank is also an artist and prolific painter. The New York Times described Frank thus: “To millions of evangelical Christians, the Schaeffer name is royal, and Frank is the reluctant, wayward, traitorous prince. His crime is not financial profligacy, like some pastors’ sons, but turning his back on Christian conservatives.”
Romal Tune
Romal is the embodiment of living beyond the label. After overcoming the setbacks of his upbringing and the destructive choices of his youth, he is now a sought out communicator, community strategist, and education consultant. His platform, one of the most potent and rich stories of hope you’ll ever hear, is redemption. Since growing up in the trauma of poverty, violence, and the inner-city landscapes void of opportunity, he has triumphed to the heights of a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Howard University and Duke University School of Divinity, an ordained minister, and the author of an award-winning book entitled, God’s Graffiti: Inspiring Stories for Teens.
