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The New York Times best-selling author Stephen Mansfield and Vanderbilt Divinity School Dean James Hudnut-Beumler bring a discussion, "Race, Religion and Politics: Evangelicals, Conservatives and Liberals Look for Common Ground," to Vanderbilt University Wednesday, Oct. 1, at 6 p.m.
The event is free and open to the public and will be held at The Commons Center located on the southeast part of Vanderbilt’s campus near the Peabody College of education and human development. The Commons Center is part of Vanderbilt’s new living-learning community for first-year students known as The Commons.
"Our purpose for The Commons is to bring together students, faculty and the community in our effort to ‘live and learn’," said Dean of The Commons Frank Wcislo.
"There is nothing more dynamic than the current conversation about the role that religion and race will play in the presidential election and we want to invite the community to share the conversation with us."
Mansfield’s most recent work, The Faith of Barack Obama, has placed him in the national media spotlight as have his previous books on the faith of the Pope, the American soldier and George W. Bush. Hudnut-Beumler, author of In Pursuit of the Almighty’s Dollar: A History of Money and American Protestantism, has published widely in the areas of church history, ethics and philanthropy.
For the Oct. 1 event, Hudnut-Beumler will frame the historical aspects of the discussion and highlight issues from a liberal viewpoint and Mansfield will present the current religious aspects of the McCain-Palin and Obama-Biden tickets as well as trends and issues for conservative evangelicals. A question and answer session with the speakers and reception will follow the discussion.
"Race and religion are sometimes difficult topics to be open about but topics we need to discuss," said Frank Dobson, director of Vanderbilt’s Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center and faculty head of house for Gillette House in The Commons. "Next Wednesday, we will start a dialog that we hope continues past the election."
Four of The Commons’ residence halls – Crawford, East, Gillette and Murray Houses – are sponsoring the discussion.
For more news about Vanderbilt, visit VUCast – Vanderbilt’s News Network at www.vanderbilt.edu/news.
Media contact: Princine Lewis, 615-322-NEWS
princine.lewis@vanderbilt.edu