I was motivated and inspired by the program on Sunday the 26th. The Right Rev. Dr. McKenzie challenges us all, no matter what our gender, race, culture, or ethnicity to continue to strive to make a tangible and significant difference in "some way" in our cities, our communities, and/or the world to those who can benefit from our unique gifts, talents, and abilities.

I am going to look forward to reading Dr. McKenzie's books. She is indeed an extraordinary woman and an inspirational role model. After Sunday's program I was left with the feeling that I must do more to make a difference in my own community and/or nationally. Although, I am proud of my own journey of the last 28 years, which has been that of a clinician, researcher, and educator; after listening to Dr. McKenzie on your program, I was awakened and challenged to consider that I still have more to do to make significant changes in my community for those who need "a step up" in some way.

Rev. McKenzie was right on when she pressed the point of political expression and comment from the pulpits of America. I am white, Protestant, and male and I always saw a truth in Rev. Wright's hard words I was never able to articulate. I admit never knowing they were not his original words. Thank you for the interview.

I am a big fan of this show and admire your talent, Krista. The editing on this particular show disturbed me, however. By her own account, and yours, the essence of Vashti McKenzie is discovered in the the story of Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well. It's an incredibly profound teaching in the same way that Native American stories are so deeply wise and transformational. (One can understand how Christianity of the mainstream stumbled so badly by failing to understand the meaning of this core teaching. Rev. McKenzie finally gets it right.) And yet, it didn't make the final cut.

When I look at what did make the cut — the emphasis on the Jeremiah Wright exegesis — and the timing of this interview, it tells me that you used Speaking of Faith and Vashti McKenzie to make an appeal to nervous undecided and conservative voters to support Barack Obama, much like the just released movie about George "W" Bush did.

This is your show, you can do that, and I hope it works. That said, the story of the Samaritan woman holds so much more meaning and value for viewers here and around the world than whether or not undecided voters now might feel a little better about Barack Obama's Christianity. Rev. McKenzie's teaching goes both to her core and the central mission of your show. Your rough cut managed to miss the mark on both counts.

Again and again, SOF deepens my spiritual life by exposing me to people of faith I need to hear. I listened to the broadcast online, excerpted parts of the unedited interview, listened to all of Reverend McKenzie's preaching at Trinity and the interview with James Cone. I am not a Christian, because though I struggle to do so, I can find no way to accept the idea of the divinity of Jesus. But I am consistently drawn to Christian scripture, almost as a puzzle I feel a desperate need to sort out for myself, a crucial poem in which I need to find important meaning for my life. God seems to relentlessly pull me to that puzzle, that poem.

I need to hear voices like Reverend McKenzie's and James Cone's to remind me that the scripture is not primarily or most importantly about me and my search for meaning. It is first and foremost about justice. These voices challenged me, saying, "OK, work out your own idea of salvation, struggle with meaning, that's fine. But you know what, a big part of what it's really about is what are you doing for God's suffering people. It's not so important what you end up believing. It's what you ending up DOING." I intend to pay attention to that call. (The program about Rabbi Heschel at that effect on me, too.)

I loved Reverend McKenzie's sermon at Trinity. For me, it was about my own tendency to let hurts I've experienced keep me from doing what I need to do. Sometimes, when I've tried to help others in a direct way, I've felt inadequate, foolish, ineffectual — and being a well-educated, upper middle-class white woman, I'm not used to feeling that way. What her sermon said to me was, "Get over it. Get back to work. Nobody's interested in your wounded ego. There's work to be done. Feel foolish. Feel inadequate. So what? Get on with it. Don't let these minor wounds get in the way of doing what you know you ought to be doing, attending to those who are profoundly wounded." Her sermon was a potent reminder of how seriously my white privilege has hurt others, and at the same time, how courageously, inspirationally, those we've hurt have dealt with those injuries and how much I owe them for that example of carrying on, wounds and all.

Thank you for this splash of cold water to wake me, this challenge to my conscience, to my tendency to make everything an intellectual "growth "experience, instead of a call to action.