The Color of Christ, Inside the Westboro Baptist Church, and More

On this week’s edition of Interfaith Voices:

Jesus, Whiteness and Power

Most Americans imagine Jesus as a pale-skinned man with delicate features and long, flowing hair. That image, which many people have come to think of as a timeless classic, was actually painted in 1941 by Warner Sallman. Edward Blum explains how this and other depictions of a white Jesus have linked whiteness with godliness – and complicated race relations for generations of Americans. From January 2013.

Lauren Drain: Why I Left the Westboro Baptist Church

The Westboro Baptist Church calls itself a “unique picketing ministry,” and that’s certainly one way to think about signs that say “Pray for More Dead Soldiers” and “God Hates Fags.” It makes you wonder, who are these people? One of them used to be Lauren Drain. Eventually she was booted out of the Kansas-based church, leaving behind her family and nearly everyone she cared about. From March 2013.

Featured speakers/guests:

Edward Blum, co-author with Paul Harvey of The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America

Lauren Drain, author of Banished: Surviving My Years in the Westboro Baptist Church

 


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