Interfaith Alliance and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) are collaborating this week to host the Interfaith Summit on Countering Hate in Montgomery.
The summit will bring together a diverse group of over 50 influential faith and community leaders from the Deep South and across the country for discussions, workshops and strategy sessions focused on community-based interfaith responses to the rise of hate and the growing threat of white supremacy and Christian nationalism, according to event organizers.
The leaders have been invited to come together to build on the historic role of faith communities in countering hate and fighting for civil rights and prepare for the mobilization of voters ahead of the upcoming election.
The attendees will hear a keynote address from academic, author and minister Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, whose work on race, religion and justice has helped shape national conversations on equity and civil rights.
“Across the country and particularly in the South, faith communities have long been on the frontlines of the struggle against white supremacy and all forms of hate,” said Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, President & CEO of Interfaith Alliance, in a press release. “We’re excited to partner with SPLC on a summit that will bring together some of the country’s most inspiring and capable leaders to help understand and defeat the growing threat of Christian nationalism.”
The SPLC’s Intelligence Project has documented, Christian supremacy and dominionism are animating features of antigovernment conspiracies and movement organizing, with the goal of transforming U.S. culture and politics into an authoritarian state.
Annual data released by the FBI found that 2023 had the highest number of hate crimes ever recorded, with significant increases in anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim hate crimes.
Organizers say the summit is meant to bring communities together as part of a broader commitment to combating these threats. This includes antisemitism, anti-Muslim bigotry, anti-Black racism, anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination and all forms of bigotry.
Sessions over the course of the summit will focus on topics including the New Apostolic Reformation, combating antisemitism, interfaith organizing and election preparedness as well as the past, present and future of Black civil rights organizing.
