Across every medium she works in, Melinda is passionate about telling stories that create empathy, challenge systems, and connect people more deeply to one another.

Pinellas Green.

Margaret Dash, 38, missing since June 14th, 1974, from Clearwater, Florida.

Bertha Hires, 43, missing since December 29th, 1982, from Largo, Florida.

Danielle Johnson, 21, missing since April 4th, 1989, from Pinellas County, Florida.

The days pass by at the corner grocery store, where the sun shimmers on the asphalt, the deep corners of the porch the only shade, and the sweat beating cool on the sides of every soda can the only relief in sight.

Down in Pinellas County, there are no citrus left in the fields, no heady scent of oranges coating the pickers' hands, no deep patches of pine where the summer light flickers through.

Across every medium she works in, Melinda is passionate about telling stories that create empathy, challenge systems, and connect people more deeply to one another.

Pinellas Green Margaret Dash, 38, missing since June 14, 1974, from Clearwater, Florida.

Bertha Hires, 43, missing since December 29, 1982, from Largo, Florida.

Danielle Johnson, 21, missing since April 4, 1989, from Pinellas County, Florida.

The days pass by at the corner grocery store, where the sun shimmers on the asphalt, the deep corners of the porch the only shade, and the sweat beating cool on the sides of every soda can the only relief in sight.

Down in Pinellas County, there are no citrus left in the fields, no heaty scent of oranges coating the picker's hands, no deep patches of pine where the sunlight flickers through.

The lurk and lurch of tractors have gone silent.

Sure.

Well, OK, I'm going to be very, very, I don't know the word that I'm looking for.

I guess empathetic here, because as the more I dive into a lot of like politics and policies and what people are being fed, a lot of people did not know.

and fully believe what was being told to them and they didn't know what he was running on they were told he wasn't running on project 2025 you have pastors that are saying if you are a true christian you have to vote for this man he's protecting babies he's doing all these things and when you're in a vulnerable state and when also you're looking for a community and a place to belong you're going to believe what's being told to you so like i still always will have a little bit of like this is sad kind of feeling towards people that voted for him and felt for this because a lot of them did not get the information that we get.

Also, and I don't mean this to be mean or demeaning, they're not well-read people.

They're not a well-read demographic.

And so they're not searching for information.

to worry if our child's gonna come home just from doing something

Tell everybody about it.

Okay, so Bull Street, we filmed this in the summer in South Carolina, so you already know it was real, real hot.

And it was, well, it's a little bit back story, but even how I got the role, Lynn Dow, who's the writer and director, she's a black woman as well, the story was really written about her family history.

And she reached out to my agent, said, you know, we might be interested in Melinda for this role, sent the script, I read it, and they said Loretta and Amy were attached.

And I was like, I don't even care what it is, if it's Loretta and Amy or Amy, I wanna do it, right? But then I read the script and I was like, oh my God, I feel like I can really do this.

And the reason I was drawn to it was because of the relationship between my character and Loretta Devine's character who plays my grandmother.

So the story really is that my character, she's a small town lawyer, and she finds out that the land that her and her grandmother have been living on is about to get reclaimed because they don't have any actual deeds saying that the land is theirs.

Take the

guilt complexes around any of this stuff, you know? So, yeah, anyway, yeah, this is crazy.

Hey everyone, this is Melinda Hale, the executive director of The New Evangelicals.

Listen, every day we hear from people who feel isolated, disillusioned, and hurt by a version of Christianity that has been hijacked by politics and nationalism.

And yet they still long for a faith that is rooted in love, justice, and compassion.

And that's why The New Evangelicals exists, because we believe there is a better path forward.

We're creating resources, hosting conversations, and we're building communities for people who want to reclaim Christianity and stay rooted in the teachings of Jesus.

But building a movement like this takes time, it takes energy, and it takes financial support.

It is on