(RNS) — A native Oklahoman, the Rev. Shannon Fleck is a big fan of college football, especially the Sooners, and the University of Oklahoma softball team, which won the 2024 Women’s College World Series.
But when her staff wants to talk baseball, she’s in trouble.
“I’ve got nothing,” said Fleck, laughing at herself in an interview from her home near Oklahoma City.
For the past seven years, Fleck, a pastor and former probation officer, has been the executive director of the Oklahoma Faith Network, helping transform what had been a council of congregations into a network whose goal is to “empower the witness of faith communities and individuals throughout Oklahoma on issues of faith, care and social justice.”
That has meant running programs to strengthen families, helping faith communities respond to the opioid crisis and organizing churches to address issues of race, climate change and the rise of Christian nationalism in the Sooner State.
And starting this week, she’ll enter the activism big leagues: Fleck is the new executive director of Faithful America, a national organization that describes itself as “the largest online community of grassroots Christians putting faith into action for social justice.”
Faithful America, originally founded in 2004 as a project of the National Council of Churches, emerged in the 2010s as …