2024 has been a bumper year for democracy, with over 60 countries - representing more than half of the world’s population, and two billion eligible voters - going to the polls. What better time could there be for a deep dive into the intermingling of race, religion, and politics, as promised by Reverend Professor Keith Magee in this lecture? His talk, “Are Race and Religion on the (USA) Ballot in 2024?”, proposed an in-depth discussion on the historical context of American democracy, and how the concepts of race and religion influence the American public as they cast their votes.
Keith, a theologian, social justice scholar, and public intellectual, is a senior fellow and professor of practice at UCL, a senior fellow in culture and justice at Newcastle University, a pastor, and the author of the book “Prophetic Justice: Essays and Reflections on Race, Religion, and Politics”. He began his talk by suggesting that religion may be closer to the heart of USA public policy than we may have expected, noting that the US founding fathers’ clear stance on the separation of church and state was perhaps undermined by the unofficial motto of the USA, “In God we trust”. This insight would turn out to be the first of many throughout the evening that hinted at hidden depths in the question raised by his talk title.
Keith’s talk shed a great deal of light on how Americans, especially those deeply embedded in Christian culture in America, see the world. It covered a broad range of apparently disparate topics, from the concept of race in America and the role that Christianity has played in the construction of race, to the civil rights movement and the overturning of Roe vs Wade. For a non-American, it may not be initially obvious that recent debates in American politics - from state-by-state abortion bans to gay marriage - are actually driven by religious beliefs. By the end of the talk I was certainly persuaded of Keith’s final conclusion, that it might just be possible that the religious beliefs of individual voters and politicians could very well determine the way that they vote this week.
One of the key aspects of the Tuesday Talks is the opportunity for Reuben students and guests to report back to the room on the fascinating conversations that take place following the talk. This week, the American students in the room with “skin in the game” as voters took their turn as rapporteurs, allowing Tuesday Talks to provide a vital platform to find out what Americans think about religion. Our rapporteurs covered the full gamut of American states, with speakers hailing from everywhere from Kansas to Missouri to Tennessee. As usual, our rapporteurs gave an excellent account of the deep questions wrestled with on each table over the magnificent food, and it’s safe to say that by the end of the evening the general consensus in the room was one of companionable agreement. Our rapporteurs broadly agreed that religion and race played an important role in American public life, but there were some hints of disagreement over to what extent this was a positive or negative - perhaps the founding fathers felt just the same way.
Did you miss out?
A recording of this talk is now available on youtube.
