Michael O. Emerson has spent decades studying the relationship between race and white evangelical Christianity in America.
In our Conversation, Michael explains why the central argument of Divided by Faith, our June It Has to Be Read. offering, has only become more urgent over time.
We discuss segregation inside churches, the rise of Christian nationalism, Trump-era politics, immigration, and the strange contradiction of a movement that claims to defend Christianity while rejecting many of the Christians arriving at America’s borders.
I also reflect on growing up in Francis Schaeffer’s world, living in apartheid South Africa, and why exposure to genuinely integrated communities changes how people see race.
I hope you enjoy this conversation about history, memory, faith, power, and what people choose not to see.
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LINKS
https://www.bakerinstitute.org/expert/michael-o-emerson
Our June It Has to Be Read. offering,
Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America, Second Edition
on Bookshop
Shop the “It Has to Be Read.” Book Club List: https://bookshop.org/shop/frankschaeffer
Michael O. Emerson is the Harry and Hazel Chavanne Fellow and Director of the Religion and Public Policy Program at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. He is the author of The Religion of Whteness: How Racism Distorts Christian Faith, among many other publications, and the winner of several research and teaching awards. He has featured in numerous media outlets, including CBS Evening News, National Public Radio, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, The New York Times, USA Today, podcasts, and SiriusXM radio.
Christian Smith is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. He is well known for his research focused on religion, adolescents and emerging adults, and social theory. For his work on evangelicalism, he developed the subcultural identity theory of religious persistence and strength.