Samford University recently issued the following announcement.
Samford University’s Beeson Divinity School and the Institute of Anglican Studies at Beeson in conjunction with The Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) based in Washington D.C. will host the Racial Reconciliation and the National Covenant: A Conference at Samford, Feb. 12-13, 2019, featuring Alveda King and eleven other noted speakers.
The conference will approach the problem of race relations with the conviction that it cannot be solved by politics alone, but only by considering the religious roots of the United States and its sins. Looking at the history of the nation through the lens of a biblical covenant and slavery as a grave violation of the covenant, conference speakers will call attendees to renewed faithfulness to the marriage covenant, the social and generational covenants, and the church covenant in order to facilitate healing and restoration in the United States.
Alveda King, pastoral associate of Priests for Life and director of Civil Rights for the Unborn and of African American Outreach for Gospel of Life, will present a lecture entitled “Little Black Lives Matter.” Daughter of the late civil rights activist Reverend A.D. King and niece of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., King is a former college professor and served in the Georgia State House of Representatives. She is a recipient of the Life Prize Award, the Cardinal John O’Connor Pro-Life Hall of Fame Award, and the Civil Rights Award from the Congress of Racial Equality. Her books include King Rules: Ten Truths for You, Your Family, and Our Nation to Prosper and How Can the Dream Survive if we Murder the Children?.
“This country suffers from continuing racial tension. We are convinced that the tension cannot be resolved by politics alone because our racial divides have vital spiritual, moral and cultural dimensions,” said Gerald McDermott, director of Beeson’s Institute of Anglican Studies and organizer of the event. “This conference will take a fresh approach by exploring the implications of the biblical tradition of national covenant. We think it will open fresh possibilities for our fragmented society.”
Other speakers include Rabbi Joshua Berman of Bar-Ilan University, Rabbi Mitchell Rocklin of the Tikvah Fund, Joshua Mitchell of Georgetown University, Glenn Loury of Brown University, Reverend Eugene Rivers of the National Ten Point Leadership Foundation, Jacqueline C. Rivers of the Seymour Institute on Black Church and Policy Studies, Derryck Green of Project 21, Mark Tooley of the IRD, and Carol Swain of the James Madison Society at Princeton University. Beeson Divinity School’s Dean Timothy George and faculty members Osvaldo Padilla, Robert Smith Jr. and McDermott will also serve as presenters.
“The IRD is honored to collaborate with Beeson on this very needed initiative for racial reconciliation that uniquely rediscovers a venerable tradition of understanding the nation under both divine judgment and mercy,” Tooley said. “This message is unfashionable in much of American Christianity that now rejects or minimizes the providential role of nations. But Christians cannot help our nation heal unless they also understand the nation’s purpose under God.”
All sessions will be held in Samford’s Brock Forum in Dwight Beeson Hall with the exception of community worship in Hodges Chapel at Beeson Divinity School. General admission tickets are $75, with discounted rates for students, clergy and veterans.
More information on the conference and registration information can be found at https://theird.org/racial-reconciliation/.
About Samford University – Samford University is a premier nationally ranked private university deeply rooted in its Christian mission. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th oldest institution of higher education in the United States. U.S. News & World Report ranks Samford 4th among regional universities in the South. Samford enrolls 5,619 students from 44 states, the District of Columbia and 29 other countries in its 10 academic units: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy, and public health. Samford also fields 17 NCAA Division I teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference.
Original source: https://www.samford.edu/news/2018/12/Samford-Beeson-Divinity-School-to-Host-Conference-on-Racial-Reconciliation-with-The-Institute-on-Religion-and-Democracy
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