How Martin Luther King, Jr., Changed American Christianity

Notes from America with Kai Wright

WNYC Studios

News Commentary, Politics, History, News

4.4 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 18 January 2021

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

And what MLK’s uniquely Black theology can teach us about the relationship between faith and politics in 2021. Rev. Dr. Yolanda Pierce, dean of the Howard University School of Divinity and author of the forthcoming book “In My Grandmother's House: Black Women, Faith, and the Stories We Inherit,” walks Kai through the history of the Black Church and Dr. King’s place in its evolution. And Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, senior minister of Middle Collegiate Church, explains how her own ministry -- centered on love and inspired by King’s message -- attempts to build a new and diverse progressive movement. Her new podcast, Love.Period, debuts on Valentine’s Day. A special thanks to the New York City Municipal Archives and WNYC’s archivist Andy Lanset for audio recordings of Dr. King. COMPANION LISTENING: “In Jesus’s Name...We Legislate” (6/13/17) A court battle over LGBTQ rights in Mississippi reveals the segregationist history of the religious right’s effort to avoid anti-discrimination laws. “Dissent, Dissent, Dissent” (9/20/20) We reflect on the life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, including her political roots in a progressive, Jewish tradition. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the United States of Anxiety, a show about the unfinished business of our history and its grip on our future.
0:08.0	We come together in the name of Jesus in agreement for our president.
0:13.0	Lord, you chose him for such a time as him.
0:16.0	I have historically identified the church with politics.
0:19.0	I think in the white community throughout this country,
0:22.0	there's a real separation, but there's never been the same kind of separation in the black community.
0:27.0	God bless you keep the faith.
0:32.0	The black church and the black community has been a spiritual barometer for this
0:36.7	country whether it's from abolition to the civil rights movement.
0:39.8	Dr King represents I believe best an example of the importance of the intersection
0:45.9	between our theology and our politics, between our faith and our advocacy.
1:00.0	Welcome to the show, I'm Kai Wright. I grew up in the black church.
1:02.0	And when I say that, I don't just mean we went to
1:04.4	worship on Sundays though we did like all day every Sunday I mean that so much of my
1:10.6	life orbited around the church.
1:12.8	Black people all over town knew me because they went to either my mother's church
1:17.4	or my grandmother's church.
1:19.4	And that fact, it saved me over and over again despite all of the imperfections of church leadership
1:26.2	despite all the damage that religion can do to some of us and did to me as someone
1:31.1	trying to figure out my own sexuality, the black church nonetheless
1:34.7	saved me by its actions by the community of individuals who looked out for me, who
1:40.7	caught me when I stumbled, who stood up for me when I needed help.
	...

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