Segments
This week marks the start of Black History Month. As people of faith and of convictions, each of us has a moral responsibility to listen to and show up for Black Americans — because without racial equity, religious freedom is an incomplete process.
Though the struggle for racial justice has always been a critical part of our country’s movement toward a more perfect nation, last year brought a national reckoning with the systemic racism that permeates so many of our systems. Black History Month is a time to reflect on our history, and determine a better path forward toward true equality. Dr. E. Ethelbert Miller, a literary activist and poet, joins Rev. Welton Gaddy, host of State of Belief, for an honest discussion on race, religion, and privilege in the United States.
Though Christian nationalism has long been a potent force in our political system, the Trump administration unleashed it by courting its adherents in the highest halls of power. Understanding the role of religious extremism in our recent history is critical to understanding how the assault on our Capitol just last month came to be. Few journalists have as intimate an understanding with this movement as Sarah Posner, author and investigative journalist with Type Investigations. She is back with Welton to discuss her Rolling Stone article, How the Christian Right Helped Foment Insurrection.
Later on in the show, Welton will continue the conversation on religious extremism and insurrection with Dr. Chrissy Stroop, a writer and expert on the Religious Right. Chrissy’s Religion Dispatches piece, Stop trying to save Jesus: ‘fandamentalism’ reinforces the problem of Christian supremacism, analyzes political religious right devotion to a dangerous vision of Redeemer.
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