November 15-17, 2000

Tapes and CD's from the conference are available for purchase:

Tapes are $35 (including shipping)
CD's are $75 (including shipping)

Please send a check or money order to:

Ray Edwards
Needle Eye Productions
515 Tall Trees Lane
Nashville, TN    37209

You can contact Ray at 615-353-9643 or email raymond.g.edwards@vanderbilt.edu

To view material from the conference, click on the highlighted event you wish to see. 

Where and When

Worship Service (PDF)
November 15, 2000
6:30 p.m. at
The Jefferson Street Missionary Baptist Church

Thursday, November 16, 2000

8:00 AM Registration
Scarritt-Bennett Center, Fondren Hall
Scarritt-Bennett Center
1008 19th Ave. South
Nashville, TN  37212

9:00 AM Panel Discussion: Deconstructing Sexuality
Scarritt-Bennett, Harambee Auditorium
Panelists: Dr. Alton Pollard, Dr. Kelly Brown-Douglas, Dr. Victor Anderson, Rev.Neely Williams, Rev. Monica Coleman.  Rev. Edwin C. Sanders, moderator

1:30 PM  Panel Discussion:  What Does the Bible Say about Sexuality?
Scarritt-Bennett, Harambee Auditorium
Panelists:  Dr. Randall Bailey, Rev. Alberta Ware, Rev. Herbert Marbury.  Dr. Renita Weems, moderator.

Friday, November 17, 2000

9:00 AM Panel Discussion:  Preaching and Teaching On Sexuality
Scarritt-Bennett, Harambee Auditorium
Panelists:  Dr. Alton Pollard, Dr. Victor Anderson, Dwayne Jenkins, Rev. Clifford Smith. Rev. Herbert Marbury, moderator.

Student Response Papers (PDF)

The conference, sponsored by the Kelly Miller Smith Institute and the Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender, and Sexuality is free and open to the public.  However, space is limited, please call to make reservations, 615/343-3981 or email kitty.a.norton@vanderbilt.edu

From the director

For the past several years, Vanderbilt Divinity School's Kelly Miller Smith Institute on African-American Studies (KMSI) has sponsored conferences and seminars to address, through the combined voices of the academy and the church, the social crises that confront Black churches and the communities they serve. The central question, "What does it mean to be Black and Christian?," underlines all KMSI concerns.

This conference on the Black Church and Human Sexuality continues the Kelly Miller Smith Institute's efforts to identify theological resources for the church's ministry, and it provides the occasion once again for collaboration with Vanderbilt Divinity School's Carpenter Program on Gender, Religion and Sexuality. The Kelly Miller Smith Institute and the Carpenter Program will bring together scholars and leaders in the Black Church to discuss vital issues facing the Black community including the nature and gift of human sexuality, marriage and the family, sexual violence, sexual orientation, sexually transmitted diseases.