🙏 From Pulpit to Politics: Episcopal Priest Drops Truth Bombs About Gaza and Discipleship | BUCKMASTER
St. Phillips rector connects local immigrant dehumanization to international hospital bombings
Based on the Buckmaster Show for 6/25/25, a daily radio show in Tucson, AZ, interviewing local newsmakers. Analysis and opinions are my own.
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
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📻🌵 A radio show in Tucson featured two smart guests discussing ☁️⛈️ weather and ✝️ religion.
The weather scientist 🧑🔬 explained how desert rainstorms work and why some years are much drier than others, affecting everything from 🔥 wildfires to people crossing the border 🌊🚶♂️.
The pastor ⛪️ spoke about how religious people should treat everyone with dignity 🤝 and help their communities, not just go to church on Sundays 🙏.
Both guests highlighted how local problems connect to bigger world issues—like how the way we talk about immigrants in Arizona 🗣️ relates to how people treat each other in wars overseas 🌍⚔️. Despite serious problems with climate change 🌡️ and global conflicts, both guests offered hope 🌟 that individuals can make positive changes in their own communities 🌱🤗.
🗝️ Takeaways
🌦️ Tucson's monsoon typically starts July 3rd, but climate change is making patterns increasingly unpredictable
🔥 2020's late monsoon season created a perfect storm of drought, wildfire, and pandemic suffering
⛪ Episcopal leadership is evolving beyond Sunday services toward comprehensive social justice
🌍 Local language about immigrants directly connects to international dehumanization patterns
💧 Fantasy weather forecasting proves community wisdom often beats expert predictions
🕊️ Religious leaders are grappling with impossible moral tensions between security and humanitarian concerns
Monsoons, Morality, and Moving Forward: A Progressive Take on Tucson's Climate Reality
From the June 25th, 2025, Buckmaster Show
The Sonoran Desert's parched throat received a tantalizing 90-second taste of relief yesterday afternoon, just enough to dirty your car but not nearly enough to ease our collective climate anxiety.
While corporate media continues to peddle feel-good stories about "innovation" solving our environmental crisis, Bill Buckmaster's Wednesday weather watch on KVOI delivered the unvarnished truth we desperately need, along with some spiritual sustenance for navigating these increasingly turbulent times.
The Science of Survival: Dr. Zach Guido Breaks Down Our Climate Reality
Dr. Zach Guido, assistant research professor at the University of Arizona's Institute for Resilience, graced Buckmaster's airwaves with the kind of climate reality check that sends fossil fuel executives scrambling for their lawyers.
Unlike the petroleum-funded propaganda proliferating through conservative talk radio, Guido grounded listeners in genuine scientific data about our approaching monsoon season, assuming Mother Nature still feels like cooperating with our colonial calendar.
"The monsoon has begun. The monsoon storms have begun for most of New Mexico," Guido explained, describing how moisture patterns are already shifting across the Southwest. For those unfamiliar with monsoon mechanics, this isn't just about rain—it's about survival in a region where water scarcity intersects with environmental racism, disproportionately affecting Indigenous communities and working-class neighborhoods.
The professor's historical breakdown proved particularly illuminating: "The date on which most onsets occur is actually July 3rd... 10 out of the 78” years on record. However, here's where things become concerning for those of us who have been paying attention to climate patterns—2020's catastrophically late July 22nd start serves as a sobering reminder of how rapidly our environmental systems are shifting.
Oh, 2020—the year that gift-wrapped every possible catastrophe in one neat little package, from COVID's carnage to climate chaos.
That disastrous year delivered a triple-threat of suffering: minimal rainfall, the devastating Bighorn Fire that choked Tucson's skies, and a pandemic that exposed every crack in our healthcare system. "2020 was terrible. It was historically dry. When you look across the Southwest, it's in the top three, if not the driest," Guido noted, his scientific understatement barely concealing the magnitude of environmental destruction.
Breaking Down the Monsoon's Mechanics
For our readers who might not understand why these weather patterns matter so much, let's break down what Guido calls the three essential ingredients for monsoon formation:
Moisture availability - driven by high-pressure systems positioning
Atmospheric instability - allowing that moisture to rise and condense
Wind patterns - blowing storms from mountains into valleys
"Obviously, there has to be moisture around... that is largely driven by this position of this four corners high," Guido explained, describing how atmospheric pressure systems determine whether we get life-giving rain or another season of drought-induced desperation.
The National Weather Service's shift from dewpoint-based definitions to calendar-based classifications reflects bureaucratic attempts to simplify the complexity of Mother Nature.
Previously, monsoon season officially began when dewpoints exceeded 54 degrees for three consecutive days—a measurement that actually captured atmospheric moisture levels rather than arbitrary dates.
The Fantasy of Democratic Forecasting
Perhaps most encouraging was Guido's mention of the "fantasy monsoon forecast game," where amateur meteorologists consistently outperform professionals. "Yeah, I claim no privileged information about predicting the monsoon. And that's the beauty of this," he admitted with refreshing humility.
This democratization of weather prediction offers a delightful metaphor for knowledge accessibility—expertise doesn't always trump intuition, and community wisdom often surpasses institutional authority.
You can still join the competition by searching for "monsoon fantasy forecast" before June 30th, though unfortunately, university budget cuts eliminated the prize money.
Spiritual Sustenance in Struggle: Father Hendrickson's Holy Transition
Father Robert Hendrickson's appearance provided philosophical fuel for our fractured times. However, his transition from St. Phillips in the Hills Episcopal Church to Forward Movement's "Chief of Discipleship Initiatives" raises interesting questions about the relevance of institutional religion in our current crisis.
After ten years shepherding Arizona's largest Episcopal congregation, Hendrickson is moving into what he describes as helping people "see the whole of their life as being part of a kind of a mission field where we're always at the work of Christ."
This holistic approach challenges capitalism's compartmentalization of spirituality from social responsibility—a refreshing departure from the prosperity gospel.
Defining Discipleship for Modern Times
Hendrickson's definition of discipleship transcended traditional theological territory: "How do you live the Christian life day to day in every aspect of your life? So, how do you represent the image of Christ in your work, in your relationships at home, even in your leisure time?"
This comprehensive approach recognizes that authentic faith requires more than Sunday services and tithing—it demands workplace integrity, family devotion, and community care. For those of us advocating for systemic change, this represents a potentially powerful ally-building across religious lines.
Finally, a religious leader who understands that Jesus was basically a Middle Eastern socialist organizing against imperial occupation.
The rector emphasized community over individualism: "Generally, the Christian virtue has lived out in community, right? These places become the crucible where our Christian virtue is formed and forged."
This communal emphasis runs counter to American evangelicalism's toxic individualism and prosperity theology.
Wrestling with War and Peace
Hendrickson's most profound moments came when discussing peace amid perpetual warfare. When Buckmaster raised concerns about potential U.S.-Iran conflict, the priest navigated moral complexity with nuanced thoughtfulness rarely heard in political discourse.
"You completely understand Israel's right to defend itself. But you also know the reality on the ground and for people on the ground is just a horror," he reflected, acknowledging the impossible tensions between security and humanitarian concerns.
The Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, which runs al-Ahli Hospital, condemned the attack, saying it occurred on “Palm Sunday, the start of the Holy Week, the most sacred week of the Christian year.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it targeted the hospital because it contained a "command and control centre used by Hamas". No casualties were reported, according to Gaza's civil emergency service.
However, one child, who previously suffered a head injury, died as a result of "the rushed evacuation process", according to a statement from the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, part of the Anglican Church, which runs the hospital.
Surrounding buildings, including St Philip's church, were also damaged, the diocese said.
It added that it was "appalled" at the bombing of the hospital "on the morning of Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week".
—Israeli air strike destroys part of last fully functional hospital in Gaza City
The rector revealed personal connections to Gaza's suffering: "I know there's a hospital in Gaza, Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, which is run by the Anglican Church. I know the family who runs the hospital... It's been hit six times in this war. It's not a terrorist site... It's rubble, mostly rubble at this point."
Because apparently, targeting hospitals run by Christian churches is now considered acceptable collateral damage in our endless war on terror.
This personal testimony cuts through abstract political rhetoric, reminding us that real families suffer while politicians debate strategy. Hendrickson's acknowledgment that "the answers are not clean nor easy" reflects the kind of intellectual honesty desperately needed in our polarized discourse.
Local Lessons in Human Dignity
Perhaps most importantly for our community, Hendrickson connected global conflicts to local treatment of immigrants: "When you just talk about people as illegals, there's a dehumanization factor there, right?" This observation strikes at the heart of how language shapes policy and perception.
In a region where immigration enforcement devastates families daily, this theological perspective offers moral grounding for resistance work. The priest's emphasis on "respect the dignity of every person" provides religious legitimacy for sanctuary city advocacy and immigrant rights organizing.
Climate Justice in the Crosshairs
Both guests embodied expertise over ideology, offering evidence-based insights instead of partisan platitudes.
But let's be clear about what's really happening here—climate change isn't some distant threat requiring future action. It's already devastating our communities, and its impacts fall heaviest on Indigenous peoples, communities of color, and working families who can't afford air conditioning or flood insurance.
Dr. Guido's research, conducted through the University of Arizona's Institute for Resilience, directly connects to environmental justice work happening across the Southwest.
When monsoon patterns shift, it's not just about inconvenient weather—it affects agricultural workers, increases urban heat island effects in redlined neighborhoods, and strains water resources already depleted by decades of corporate extraction.
While tech bros fantasize about Mars colonies, actual humans are trying to survive on an increasingly hostile Earth.
The 2020 drought Guido described coincided with increased border militarization, creating deadly conditions for migrants crossing through desert regions. Climate change and immigration intersect in ways mainstream media rarely explores—people don't just migrate for economic opportunity, they flee environmental destruction often caused by U.S. corporate exploitation.
Questions for Revolutionary Reflection
As monsoon moisture creeps northward and moral questions multiply globally, we're reminded that local action and personal accountability remain our most powerful tools for systemic change. Whether we're conserving water, supporting immigrant families, or challenging military spending, individual choices create collective consequences.
How might climate change's local impacts motivate broader environmental activism in your community? And given our region's history of displacement and resistance, how can we honor Indigenous knowledge while building multi-racial coalitions for climate justice?
Building the Resistance, One Storm at a Time
Despite our desert's dryness and our democracy's dysfunction, hope persists like hardy desert plants awaiting rain. Change comes gradually, then suddenly—much like monsoon storms that transform our landscape overnight, or grassroots movements that seem impossible until they become inevitable.
The work continues: supporting Indigenous water rights, organizing against deportations, demanding renewable energy transitions that prioritize worker justice, and building community resilience against both climate disasters and political repression.
Stay informed and support independent journalism by subscribing to Three Sonorans Substack—because corporate media won't tell these stories, and our communities deserve better than propaganda masquerading as news.
What Do You Think?
The conversations on Buckmaster's show reveal the interconnected nature of our climate and social justice challenges. How do you see environmental issues affecting your community, and what role should faith communities play in climate activism? Additionally, with monsoon patterns becoming increasingly unpredictable, what adaptation strategies should our region prioritize to protect our most vulnerable residents?
Leave your thoughts in the comments below—whether you're tracking storm systems, organizing for immigrant rights, or seeking spiritual sustenance in struggle, your perspective matters in our collective resistance.
Have a scoop or a story you want us to follow up on? Send us a message!
I’m going to miss Father Robert. We started attending services 8 years ago, but only on Christmas Eve. We were drawn in by his nuanced and thoughtful sermons. In 2023, we started attending as regular parishioners and discovered a like-minded community that encourages deeper thought and living in a way that is compatible with Christ’s teachings.
I look forward to the next phase for Saint Philip’s.