By Andy Hal
This week on the CBF Podcast Conversation, Andy Hale welcomes theologian, writer, and podcaster Kat Armas for a rich and deeply challenging conversation about her new book, Liturgies for Resisting Empire: Seeking Community, Belonging, and Peace in a Dehumanizing World. Drawing from theology, lived experience, and the wisdom of marginalized communities, Kat explores how empire quietly shapes our bodies, relationships, churches, and imaginations—and how communities of faith can begin the sacred work of disentangling from those patterns.
The conversation moves beyond abstract political critique into the everyday realities of discipleship. Kat reflects on the influence of her Cuban American upbringing, the wisdom of her abuelita, motherhood, grief, land stewardship, and the ordinary practices that shape belonging. Together, Andy and Kat explore themes like the “daily liturgies” of empire, Scripture and resistance, conditional belonging, digital overwhelm, and why practices like slowness, kinship, and peace are themselves acts of theological resistance.
Rather than offering simplistic answers, this episode invites listeners into what Kat calls “the honest way”—a path of wrestling, confession, healing, and imagination. It’s a conversation for anyone longing to reclaim a more whole, embodied, and liberating vision of faith in a fractured world.
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Sponsorship
This podcast is presented by:
- Baylor’s Garland School of Social Work: Social workers can be found addressing the full scope of the human experience in churches, schools, prisons, government agencies, senior living centers, nonprofits, and Fortune 500 companies.
- Baptist Seminary of Kentucky: BSK equips leaders through their Homegrown Initiative, offering ministry leaders training and growth that fits into their busy schedules.
- The Gardner-Webb School of Divinity: The Gardner-Webb University School of Divinity aims to equip, nurture, encourage, and support men and women for their very best service in the Kingdom of God.
- The Center for Congregational Health: Strengthening congregations through consulting, leadership coaching, and intentional ministry.
- The Baptist House of Studies at Union Presbyterian Seminary: Exists by God’s grace to educate, inspire, and support generations of bold, faithful servant leaders as they seek actively to participate in God’s mission in the world.
- Community Transformation Center: Through educational opportunities, community conversations, and research initiatives in collaboration with universities and local leaders, PBACTC is at the forefront of integrating spiritual care into holistic community development.
- Creation Justice Ministries: Creation Justice Ministries equips churches to turn conviction into faithful action with Scripture-based resources, worship guides, and community support to pursue environmental justice and care for God’s creation.
- Dawnings: Through prayerful discernment, storytelling, and collaborative visioning, Dawnings helps churches rediscover their calling and imagine their next chapter—guided by trained facilitators and grounded in God’s ongoing story.
- Congregational Ministries Team of CBF Global: Through coaching, resources, and collaborative support, CBF’s Congregational Ministries Team helps churches and ministers cultivate the five traits of thriving—Rooted Relationships, Compelling Clarity, Holy Tenacity, Strategic Agility, and Dynamic Collaboration—for faithful and flourishing ministry.
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Andy Hale is the creator and host of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Podcast. Hale is the Associate Executive Coordinator of CBF North Carolina. He’s also served as CBF’s Church Start Specialist, the founding pastor of Mosaic Church of Clayton, and the senior pastor of University Baptist Church of Baton Rouge. Follow on Twitter @haleandy.