Producer's Desk — racial reconcilation

Part 2 of Richard’s interview with Ben Stein is now online.

(Originally broadcast on the FaithandFamily.com radio broadcast.)

“I could be wrong, I’m often wrong, but it seems to me we’ve just been fed a lot of horse poopy…” - Ben Stein

Transcript after the break or in PDF (178 KB)

• Baptist Press reports on this interview.

Juan Williams comments on Obama and King.

“But when Barack Obama, arguably the best of this generation of black or white leaders, finds it easy to sit in Rev. Wright’s pews and nod along with wacky and bitterly divisive racial rhetoric, it does call his judgment into question. And it reveals a continuing crisis in racial leadership. What would Jesus do? There is no question he would have left that church.”

Read the rest of Juan William’s commentary…

My latest blog post at Casting Stones:

Excerpt: “…Try as I might, I cannot imagine how we, as a nation, could have navigated through the dangerous shoals of deeply ingrained racism to racial equality under the law for African Americans without much greater bloodshed, without Dr. King’s courageous and inspirational leadership…”

Read the rest of this post…

Richard welcomes special guest Dr. John Yeats of the Louisiana Baptist Convention. They’ll discuss the spiritual revival and racial reconciliations happening in Jena, Louisiana. (You won’t hear about this in the mainstream media.)

Read up before the broadcast:

• Jena embraces ‘whatever God wants’ - Baptist Press
• Jena revival to enter 7th week - Baptist Press

JENA, La. — The revival that began Feb. 17 in Jena, La., is moving into the heart of the black community as it enters its seventh week March 31…

Tune in at 11:06 am Central tomorrow! Listen Live here.

If you miss the live broadcast or want to download it for later listening or sharing, it will be archived online by 3:00pm Central time on Saturday March 29, 2008 and found here.

My most recent post to OnFaith, (a Newsweek/Washington Post blog) responds to this question:

Which “ism” is more entrenched in America, sexism or racism? Which should religion address?

EXCERPT: “…my personal impressions… is that racism is even more entrenched in the American experience than sexism, although both are still alive and well in our society. Globally, I would argue that sexism is more prevalent…”

Read my complete post…

An excerpt of my post to Casting Stones:

“Whenever Americans discuss the issue of race, there are always ghosts in the room with us—the ghosts of racial sins and racial hurts from our shared and tragic past.

Race has always been the serpent in the American Eden, the birth defect in our historic genetic code.

Senator Obama’s speech earlier this week used one of my favorite quotes from William Faulkner: “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past,” to make this point. Living in Mississippi, Faulkner understood the “Ghosts of Mississippi” always present in the room and part of every racial interaction. And that’s true of not just Mississippi, but the entire nation as well.”

Read the rest of this commentary…

Richard’s latest post at Casting Stones