Religion, Politics and the Black Church

from Left of Black

Host and Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal is joined via Skype© by Professor Obery M. Hendricks, author of The Universe Bends Towards Justice (Orbis Books) and visiting scholar at The Institute of Research and African American Studies in the department of Religion at Columbia University. Hendricks shares his recent experience at singer Whitney Houston’s home going ceremony, and explains how it gave people access to traditions in the Black church. Neal and Hendricks discuss why gospel music does not get the same kind of criticism as contemporary R&B; and hip-hop for not being conscious and engaged in the world. Lastly, Hendricks discusses the biblical vision of economic society.

Later, Neal is joined via Skype© by Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou who is a documentary filmmaker, public intellectual, organizer, pastor, theologian, and author of the book Gods, Gays, and Guns: Essays on Religion and the Future of Democracy (Campbell & Cannon Press). Rev. Sekou shares about his relationship with the late Manning Marable and discusses the breakthrough religious concepts in Marable’s last book Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention (Penguin Group). Rev. Sekou highlights the importance of holding President Barack Obama accountable, and discusses homosexuality and hip-hop in the context of the Black church.

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