Radical Healing Radical Healing

The history episode: A conversation with J, a colleague of Erika here in Chicago, discussing her experience as an Assyrian American and her family's history. We learn about the Assyrian people, Western missionaries' attempts to restore the Assyrian church, the Assyrian genocide, and the resulting diaspora.



This conversation feels particularly relevant now as we are witnessing the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. There are certain parallels I notice between then and now--the genocide during the Ottoman Empire was conducted by Turkish nationalists who believed that religious, ethnic, and cultural homogeneity was necessary for the success of their nation. There are many today who believe that anyone who is different deserves to be deported, killed, or denied basic rights for the sake of preserving the nation. We see this today in many countries including Myanmar, Israel, and the United States. However, keeping a society homogeneous is neither realistic nor is it beneficial. People of different religions, ethnicities, and cultures can live together in peace. The solution is to fight for justice and equality for all people, tearing down all boarders and walls.



“Struggle so that all may live this rich, overflowing life. And be sure that in this struggle you will find a joy greater than anything else can give.”

― Peter Kropotkin, Anarchist Morality

The one where Erika talks about her trip back to Japan this summer. There's a lot of laughing, 2 separate times Erika starts crying on air, and many random memories from childhood.



(Note: In this episode, Erika mentions a member of the Nojiri community, Mark Ramseyer. Ramseyer is a Professor of Japanese Legal Studies at Harvard Law School who continues to publish right-wing historical revisionist defenses of Japanese imperialism, despite his work being described as “woefully deficient, empirically, historically, and morally.” For more context on Ramseyer, I recommend the Against Japanism podcast, particularly their episode "Caste Oppression and the Buraku Liberation Movement w/ Buraku Stories" from April 25, 2023.)

In November of 2022, Tells Law, the law firm that handled the abuse investigations at CAJ, organized a retreat in Colorado Springs for alumni survivors and for school and mission representatives. This was commissioned by CAJ and the cooperating missions, per the recommendations of the investigation review panel. There, siblings Jan (who we spoke with in Season 2) and Rudy Engholm delivered Impact Statements to the representatives of CAJ and the founding missions. We are grateful to have been able to speak with Jan and Rudy about their experience. 



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Although she's not a CAJ alum, we knew that we HAD to have Chami Nagai on our pod. Chami is a global nomad, yoga teacher, musician, and now mother. Chami shares about her experience growing up as a Japanese missionary kid in Papua New Guinea, grappling with identity in Nagano, expanding and deconstructing and reconstructing her spirituality as she journeyed from Canada, to the slums of Cambodia, to Miyagi, and eventually to Yokohama.

Chami’s Yoga Website; https://www.migiwayogaspace.com/
Mentioned on the podcast: On Being Podcast
(Note: we recorded this episode  in 2021 and had shelved it to finish Season 2)

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“Being me is not a sin”
We were so happy to talk to Natasha Takahashi, who attended CAJ from 2006 to 2019.

Natasha shares about their experience attending CAJ as a dyslexic, queer person. We chat about how an 8th grade essay prompt to compare Mao and Jesus kickstarted Natasha’s questioning of Christianity, about their decision to leave CAJ and attend UWC in Wales, and their journey towards self-acceptance and self-care.

(Note: we recorded this episode last year (July 2021) and had shelved it to finish Season 2)

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"Is it possible for Christians to hold their religious belief that God does not affirm same sex marriage and also support the rights, safety and dignity of LGBTQ people?"
This is the critical question that Sofia Olson ('97) posed to her Christian friends on FB as a sort of experiment to see what responses would emerge. We unpack this and more in our first episode of Season 3.
(Note: we recorded this episode last year (July 2021) and had shelved it to finish Season 2)
We start off the conversation learning about Sofia's Seattle goats (!), and later on her transformations after leaving CAJ: coming out when she was 23, learning more about systemic racism and sexism via an interest in development work, and recognizing the particular brand of hubris-wrapped-in-humility that is so common in Evangelical Christian culture. 

To learn more about Sofia's Internal Family Systems coaching work, check out her website: https://sofiaolsoncoaching.com

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