Togetherness is not a warm slogan, it’s the only way we meet the scale of what’s in front of us. From the start, we press on a simple question: how do you remember the past honestly without letting it turn into bitterness?
In this episode, Bishop Wright has a conversation with Senator Jon Ossoff about faith, leadership, and what it takes to build a better world when the headlines feel like a steady stream of bad news. Ossoff traces his moral education through the legacy of Congressman John Lewis and the civil rights movement in Georgia, including the historic alliance between Black and Jewish communities in the South. He shares the powerful symbolism of being sworn into the US Senate on scripture belonging to Rabbi Jacob Rothschild, the Atlanta rabbi whose temple was bombed in 1958 for supporting Dr. King and the SCLC. They discuss what interfaith coalition building looks like when it’s real, not performative, and why serious faith traditions should pull us alongside each other when the stakes are high. Listen in for the full conversation.
Born and raised in Georgia, Senator Jon Ossoff serves as our Senior United States Senator. Since his election, Sen. Ossoff has built bipartisanship in the Senate to achieve meaningful legislative results for Georgia — even in a divided Congress. In his first two years in office, Sen. Ossoff passed into law more standalone bills than any other freshman Senator. Sen. Ossoff’s legislative achievements include laws to protect children online; to strengthen public safety; to tackle the opioid epidemic and prevent fentanyl trafficking across the Southern Border; to investigate unsolved lynchings and Civil Rights murders; to strengthen mental health care services for veterans; and to fight corruption and improve security in U.S. prisons. Mentored by civil rights legend Congressman John Lewis, Sen. Ossoff previously led a small business that produced investigative journalism exposing war crimes, public corruption, human trafficking, and organized crime. Sen. Ossoff lives with his wife, Dr. Alisha Kramer, and two daughters in Atlanta.
