Unfinished Prophets: Elijah, Jonah, and John the Baptizer
Unfinished Prophets: Elijah, Jonah, and John the Baptizer  
Podcast: Everything Belongs: Living the Teachings of Richard Rohr Forward
Published On: Fri Aug 08 2025
Description: How do we learn from imperfect spiritual teachers and embrace our own incompleteness? In this episode, we're exploring Chapter 6 of Richard Rohr's final book, The Tears of Things, titled "Unfinished Prophets: Elijah, Jonah, and John the Baptizer." In an extended conversation at Richard's hermitage, hosts Mike Petrow and Paul Swanson dive deep into three biblical figures who never quite completed their prophetic journey from anger to sadness to love. Later, Carmen Acevedo Butcher joins to discuss what it means to love our own imperfection and learn from flawed teachers without idealizing them. Mike and Carmen explore how perfectionism serves oppressive systems, why self-compassion is essential for spiritual growth, and address the significant absence of women's voices in prophetic literature.