What We Learn from the Black Church About the Culture War

Here in Birmingham, Alabama, I often teach about the civil-rights movement as the most effective faith-based movement for social change in American history. We have a bitter heritage of violent segregation. But the same city produced the heroes of the struggle, the ordinary men and women (especially children) who stared down the police dogs and fire hoses in the march for their freedom. Justin Giboney honors such heroes as pastor Fred Shuttlesworth and commends their example for today in an informative, provocative book, Don’t Let Nobody Turn You Around: How the Black Church’s Public Witness Leads Us Out of the Culture War , published by IVP. Justin is the cofounder and president of the AND Campaign. The endorsement of this book by Bob Roberts calls Justin a “strange mix of Tim Keller and Martin Luther King Jr. wrapped up in his own personality and voice.” High praise! In This Episode 00:00 – Jesus, truth, and critiquing our own side 00:33 – Birmingham, civil rights, and faith-based social change 01:00 – Introducing Don’t Let Nobody Turn You Around 01:40 – The burden behind writing the book 03:07 – Family history and the Black church tradition 04:05 – Why Fred Shuttlesworth matters 05:14 – “Biblicist and actionist”: faith and public courage 06:05 – Nonviolence, moral discipline, and leadership 07:11 – Shuttlesworth and King: contrasts and complements 09:23 – Why moral progress isn’t inevitable 12:10 – Moral imagination and Christian hope 15:57 – What is the culture war? 18:44 – Humility, self-critique, and redeemable opponents 21:29 – Justice, moral order, and refusing false binaries 22:51 – King, the late 1960s, and the cost of a “third way” 25:26 – Militancy, frustration, and historical context 28:01 – Why Christians can’t abandon character 31:12 – Tyranny, violence, and ending debate by force 33:18 – Advice for young activists 35:19 – Frederick Douglass and critiquing your own movement 38:37 – Accountability, power, and political humility 43:36 – Christian nationalism and historical amnesia 47:24 – Final encouragement: civility, faithfulness, and hope Resources Mentioned Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around: How the Black Church's Public Witness Leads Us out of the Culture War by Justin Giboney — — — 📫 SIGN UP for my newsletter, Unseen Things: 🎁 Help The Gospel Coalition build up a renewed church for tomorrow. Let's Build Together: Donate Today at 🎧 Don’t miss an episode of Gospelbound with Collin Hansen ▫ Apple Podcasts: ▫ Spotify: ✅

You can listen to What We Learn from the Black Church About the Culture War online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

What We Learn from the Black Church About the Culture War is an episode from Gospelbound by The Gospel Coalition.

This episode is 00:49:11 long.

This episode was published on Jan 13, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Gospelbound when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.