[Partner Event] When Race Becomes Our Faith

Let's join our friends at the Humanist Association of Orange County.

Why won’t racism and racial injustice go away? In this talk, I will argue that race has become entangled with religion, taking on transcendent qualities. The result is the emergence of a religion called the Religion of Whiteness, a powerful influence on the lives of millions of people, and harming both Christianity and human communities. This presentation will help us better understand why people become so invested in protecting whiteness, why they are often so passionately committed to maintaining racial inequality, and how to make positive change.

Zoom Reg HERE

Michael O. Emerson is the Director of the Religion and Public Policy Program and the Harry and Hazel Chavanne Fellow in Religion and Public Policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, the nation’s top-rated academic think tank (https://www.bakerinstitute.org/program/religion-and-public-policy).

Emerson’s work focuses primarily on the intersection of religion, race, and politics. Increasingly, his work focuses on religion and its public policy implications. He has co-authored 16 books, most recently The Religion of Whiteness: How Racism Distorts Christianity (Oxford, 2024), Kingdom Racial Change: Moving from Inequality, Injustice, and Indifference (Eerdmans, 2025), and the 25th Anniversary Edition of Divided by Faith (Oxford, Nov. 17, 2025).

Questions? PM me on Meetup or find me on LinkedIn