By Andy Hale

As if it wasn’t obvious, we are not exactly in the most unified time in America’s existence. And when you zoom out, the entire globe isn’t exactly at peace with one another.

We have factioned ourselves into divisive categories over political allegiance and cultural perspectives. There are very clear and alienated worldviews that vary on immigration, healthcare, racial equality, gender equality, sexual equality and human rights.

The pandemic has amplified the religious and racial disparity in the world.

“The story of this pandemic is the story of this country. It is a story of the many populations that are struggling within their reality and manifestation of what it looks like to seek justice advocated for and denied,” said Dr. Najeeba Syeed on the CBF Podcast.

“I think the story of religion and race, as it is playing out in this pandemic, is not new. This isn’t a sudden awakening nor a new condition. This pandemic has simply brought forth the capacity of larger systems to be agents of deep discrimination that leads to violence.”

Syeed is the Associate Professor of Muslim and Interreligious Studies at Chicago Theological Seminary. We sat down with the scholar and author to talk about her work on a multidimensional pluralistic society. 

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Andy Hale is the creator and host of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Podcast. Hale is the senior pastor of University Baptist Church of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, following eight years as the founding pastor of Mosaic Church of Clayton and five years as CBF’s church start specialist. Follow on Twitter @haleandy