Spring Gathering: Faith after Disorientation

Angie Hong

Angie Hong is a worship leader, writer, and speaker focusing on identity, theology, and worship. She co-founded Kinship Commons, a worship collective centering BIPOC and has written for Faith and Leadership and The Atlantic. 

Teaching Fellow

D.L. Mayfield

D.L. Mayfield lives and writes on the outskirts of Portland, OR, with her husband and two children. Her first book of essays, Assimilate or Go Home: Notes from a Failed Missionary on Rediscovering Faith was released by HarperOne in 2016. Her second book, The Myth of the American Dream: Reflections on Affluence, Autonomy, Safety, and Power was released in May of 2020. Her writing has appeared in a variety of places, including McSweeney’s, Christianity Today, Sojourners, the Washington Post, Image Journal, The Christian Century, and many more. Since 2008, she has taught English to speakers of other languages, specializing in working with non-literate communities. She is trying very hard to be a good neighbor in an unjust and inequitable world. You can learn more about D.L. on her website, Instagram, or Twitter.

Teaching Fellow

Julie Rodgers

Julie is a Teaching Fellow at the Faith and Justice Network and a writer and speaker on faith and sexuality. She has a Masters in English from the University of Dallas and she’s written about topics related to LGBTQ Christians in The New York Times and Washington Post, among other publications. Previously, Julie served in the Chaplain’s Office at Wheaton College and worked in high school ministry in West Dallas. She is the author of Outlove: A Queer Christian Survival Story.

Teaching Fellow

Riana Shaw Robinson

Rev. Riana Shaw Robinson is a pastor,  preacher, and prophet. Riana is passionate about speaking the truth (in love) and offering invitations for people to love God, self, and neighbor.

Riana recently served as the Associate Pastor of Formation and Oakland City Church where she spearheaded efforts to help the community live more deeply into its anti-racist values. She expanded the church’s community partnerships and commitment to solidarity with marginalized communities in Oakland.

Riana is ordained as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Reformed Church in America. She holds a Masters of Divinity from Pacific School of Religion and a B.A. in Ethnic Studies from Mills College. Before stepping into vocational ministry, Riana worked at non-profits focused on racial, social, and environmental justice.

Riana is an East Bay native and currently lives in Oakland with her husband, 10-year-old son, and four-year-old twins. She is extremely proud of her oldest daughter, who is a recent graduate of Howard University.

Executive Director

Peter Choi

Ph.D., University of Notre Dame
M.Div., Calvin Theological Seminary
B.A., Pomona College

Peter Choi is Executive Director and Associate Professor of American Religious History at the Center for Faith and Justice and a member of the Core Doctoral Faculty at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. He has taught history of Christianity courses at Calvin Theological Seminary and the University of Notre Dame. Prior to that, he served for seven years as a pastor in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

A historian of eighteenth-century North America, Peter’s areas of specialization include transatlantic revival religion, early evangelicalism, and world Christianity. His research has been funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Huntington Library, and the Library Company of Philadelphia.

Selected Publications
• Subverting Faith: Early Evangelicals and the Making of Race (under contract with Oxford University Press).
• “Tearing Down Evangelical Icons,” Religion Dispatches, July 16, 2020.
• George Whitefield: Evangelist for God and Empire (Eerdmans, 2018).
• “The City’s Grace,” in Urban Ministry Reconsidered: Contexts and Considerations (Westminster John Knox Press, 2018).
• “Whitefield, Georgia, and the Quest for Bethesda College,” in George Whitefield: Life, Context, and Legacy (Oxford University Press, 2016).
• “Revival Preacher, Pop Idol, and Revolutionary, Too?” Books & Culture 21.1 (January/February 2014): 17.