More recently, he said, Black church leaders from a range of denominations have banded together to support voting rights initiatives and the proposed Fairness for All Act, which would provide broad protections for LGBTQ people and simultaneously provide exemptions for religious institutions that uphold traditional beliefs about marriage and sexuality.
The AND Campaign affirms traditional marriage between a man and a woman and considers families with a mother and father as “the traditional family ethic,” Giboney said.
The documentary features longtime Black church leaders such as Bishop Claude Alexander, senior pastor of The Park Church in Charlotte, North Carolina; and the Rev. Cynthia Hale, senior pastor of Ray of Hope Christian Church, a Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) congregation outside Atlanta. But Giboney, an executive producer (along with Rhodes) of the series, said they intentionally included younger voices speaking about Black religious history.
The series emphasizes speakers such as Nona Jones, founder of Faith & Prejudice, who describes once-enslaved Richard Allen’s decision to start the African Methodist Episcopal Church; and Isaiah Robertson, founder of Black Church Empowered, who recounts how Nannie Helen Burroughs started the influential National Baptist Women’s Convention.
It also includes interviews with leaders such as Barbara Williams-Skinner, a public policy strategist and co-convener of the National African American Clergy Network, and former longtime Philadelphia Mayor W. Wilson Goode Sr., who link their civic work with their commitment to the Bible.
“I intended not to be a politician,” said Goode in the second episode. “I intended to be seen as someone who was a Christian who believed in Christian principles, who carried out what I carried out with Christian principles.”
Documentary producers plan to release the second episode on Feb. 27 and three others in March and April, all of which will be available on the AND Campaign’s website after their premieres.
This article originally appeared here.
