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A Conversation on Religion, Politics, and the U.S. Election

Hosted by Drew University’s Center on Religion, Culture, and Conflict

November 2024 – Drew University’s Center on Religion, Culture, and Conflict hosted a timely conversation entitled Religion, Politics, and the U.S. Election.

The conversation featured panelists Chelsea Ebin, assistant professor of political science and international relations, and Traci West, James W. Pearsall Professor of Christian Ethics and African American Studies.

The event was organized and moderated by Jonathan Golden, associate teaching professor in religious studies and director of the Center of Religion, Culture, & Conflict.

The panelists opened the conversation with brief statements on their research and perspectives surrounding the Presidential Election. Ebin, who recently published The Radical Mind: The Origins of Right-Wing Catholic and Protestant Coalition Building, shared insights from her work, which explores how conservative Catholic and Evangelical Protestant groups have come together to shape the radical Christian right in modern U.S. politics.

“Conservative Catholics and Protestants have rather different views of the future they are working toward,” she said. 

Through the lens of religion, religion infused values, and faith and spirituality, West invited attendees to explore the question of the role religion should play in political elections.  

West reminded attendees of the civil rights movement that took place on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama—a movement that led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. “For me, part of what feeds the soil of my spirit is history like the moment in 1965,” she said. “I have to vote, my ancestors sacrificed so I can.”

The hybrid audience, filled with students, faculty, and staff, engaged in an open conversation on religion and politics, sharing ideologies, concerns, hopes, and post election strategies.

“Start from the ground up,” suggested Ebin in response to a question on post election discourse. “Get involved in local politics, build organizations to transform the political culture. There is more work that needs to be done. None of the revolutions that have been undertaken have been complete, but they have been transformative. We need to carve out spaces of joy and liberation. To do the work, we need to first have resilience in ourselves.”

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