Proposal:
Reclaiming Jesus: A Conference

We propose Reclaiming Jesus as the title of a national conference to be organized and held in Austin, Texas in October 2026.

In the spring of 2026 with Trump’s war on Iran, with Trump’s appropriation of the person and message of Jesus, and with the beginning of the breakup of the MAGA coalition, we believe we’ve arrived at a critical moment. We believe followers of Jesus are presented with a generational opportunity to center the true teachings of Jesus in the national dialogue.

Jesus has been kidnapped. His identity, his core teachings, his prophetic example, are being held hostage by unscrupulous political forces who seek to deny his very essence. The kidnappers pretend that Jesus condones imperial war and violence, despises immigrants, hates the poor, encourages the worship of corrupt politicians, and puts wealth on a pedestal. The public meaning of the Jesus of the Gospels has been dramatically distorted by the fusion of white evangelical identity with MAGA politics. MAGA evangelicals treat political authority, specifically the authority of the Trump regime and not the teachings of Jesus, as the center of Christian life, reversing historic commitments to humility, compassion, and separation of church and state.

The Reclaiming Jesus movement affirms Jesus' command that we love God and love our neighbors as ourselves; that we be peacemakers rather than warmongers; that we welcome the stranger, feed the hungry, work for justice, serve the poor rather than the rich; that we be the light of the world.

Reclaiming Jesus invites those who feel disenfranchised from the Jesus of the gospels to join a movement dedicated to disentangling faith from the State and redefining Christianity as a moral framework that brings people together, not a political tool that divides us. We propose to publicly separate the historical Jesus from political nationalism, to offer a spiritual alternative for Christians who feel displaced, and to restore credibility to Christian witness in public life.

Interested in helping design, organize, and produce “Reclaiming Jesus”?

Introducing Off the Map

Since 2000 Off The Map has been a vehicle for exploring people’s spiritual narratives. Off The Map has presented conferences, events that provoke people to change, see new opportunities and expose abusive religious systems. Off the Map events explore the hills and valleys of religious + political practices … racial, ethnic + gender relationships … and individual + collective change.

Off The Map produces events on public spirituality whenever the Spirit moves us. Our last event, “Hack The Ministry,” was a 3 city tour with Brian McLaren and Friends that we called “Is Christianity Salvageable” in March 2023. So, we think we’re feeling The Spirit prompting us to produce a new event with the provisional title of “Reclaiming Jesus. But before we pull the trigger we want to invite your participation.

Off The Map events are fast moving, highly interactive and offer lots of connections. Given that most of us are zoomed out, being together in a room with other human beings for a day sounds like a nice change.

Brian McClaren: Is Christianity Salvageable? — March 2023

Speakers for “Is Christianity Salvageable?”