Episode 14: Faith and activism

Rev. Bryson White is the last of six children to the union of Paul and Sheila White of Fresno, California, and is the husband to the wonderful Jennifer White of Richmond, California, and the father of Kairos White. He is a Ph.D. candidate in Theology and Ethics at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and is currently writing his dissertation. Rev. White’s dissertation, titled Racial Rapture: Mass Incarceration as Distorted Realized Eschatology, explores the theological underpinnings of the mass incarceration of Black people in the United States.

 Bryson is a twice-selected Forum for Theological Exploration (FTE) dissertation fellow and has published work in Black Theology: An International Journal and has presented his research at the annual American Academy of Religion conference. White holds master’s degrees in Theology and Intercultural Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary and a Bachelors of Arts in Political Science from California State University at Northridge.

 Additionally, Rev. White is a kidney transplant recipient, receiving his transplant on February 13th, 2002 at UC Davis hospital in Sacramento, California, and now serves as a board member of California Donor Transplant Network West (CTDN), an organ procurement organization that serves Central and Northern California.

 Currently, Rev. White is the Regional Faith Leadership Coordinator for Faith In the Valley (FIV). Faith In the Valley is a faith-based non-profit which organizes congregations for reimagining our public life together through building power to ameliorate structural inequalities such as; mass incarceration, housing inequality, urban gun violence, and the need for immigration reform.