LIBRARY

Shurden Lectures

The annual Walter B. and Kay W. Shurden Lectures on Religious Liberty and Separation of Church and State travel to campuses across the country, bringing a speaker to engage with the community and inspire students to stand up for religious freedom for all people.

The 2025 Shurden Lectures will be Oct. 21-23 in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minn., focusing on sanctuary and migrant justice. Scroll down for details, as well as information on previous events.

Designed to enhance the ministry and programs of BJC, the Walter B. and Kay W. Shurden Lectures are held at Mercer University in Georgia every three years and at another seminary, college or university in the intermediate years.

2025 Shurden Lectures

Criminalizing Mercy: Sanctuary and Government Repression of Migrant Justice

The Walter B. and Kay W. Shurden Lectures on Religious Liberty and Separation of Church and State are headed to St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minn., on Oct. 21-23, 2025, featuring Dr. Sergio M. González.

A historian of U.S. immigration, labor and religion, Dr. González teaches at Marquette University and is a co-founder and former organizer for the Dane Sanctuary Coalition. He is the author of Strangers No Longer: Latino Belonging and Faith in Twentieth-Century Wisconsin (University of Illinois Press) and Mexicans in Wisconsin (Wisconsin Historical Society Press).

There will be three separate events, and advance registration is required for each. If you can’t join us in person, you can register to recieve a recording of the lecture.

 

  • Tuesday, October 21, at 7 p.m. in Minneapolis: A conversation with Dr. Sergio González and community members about how faith communities can engage in sanctuary in this moment.
  • Wednesday, October 22, at 7 p.m. at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn.: Dr. Sergio González presents “Criminalizing Mercy: Sanctuary and Government Repression of Migrant Justice.” This lecture will be recorded.
  • Thursday, October 23, at 12:30 p.m. in St. Paul: A lunch conversation co-sponsored by the Murphy Institute about the North Star Act at the University of St. Thomas School of Law.

Q&A with Dr. González

Is our country criminalizing mercy?
A conversation with 2025 Shurden Lecturer Sergio M. González

Focusing on sanctuary in an era of government repression of migrant justice, Dr. Sergio M. González will deliver BJC’s annual Walter B. and Kay W. Shurden Lectures on Religious Liberty and Separation of Church and State. 

A historian of U.S. immigration, labor and religion, Dr. González teaches at Marquette University and is a co-founder and former organizer for the Dane Sanctuary Coalition. He spoke with BJC to preview some of his topics.

You’ve spent years studying the sanctuary movement. When you look at what’s happening now — mass deportations, renewed attention on sanctuary spaces, people being sent to third countries — what connections do you see to the past?
The current immigration landscape echoes many concerns that sanctuary movements, both in the 1980s and across the 21st century, have confronted.

In the original movement of the 1980s, Christian and Jewish faith communities provided safe harbor to Central American asylum seekers fleeing U.S.-backed violence, as the federal government failed to grant them refuge as mandated by national and international laws. In the 2010s, meanwhile, houses of worship revived the concept of faith-based sanctuary to provide shelter to undocumented residents, many of whom had called this country their home for years.

Today, we see similar dynamics — mass and what feel like indiscriminate detention and deportations, often targeting the most vulnerable, as well as the outsourcing of asylum responsibilities to third countries. This reflects a continued attempt to externalize borders and criminalize migration, all of which is built upon over a century of U.S. military and economic intervention abroad and resurgent nativism at home. What’s different now is the scope and visibility of these attacks on undocumented residents as well as asylum seekers and refugees; deportations today affect a broader range of nationalities, and technology has amplified federal surveillance while making the threats and arrests against migrants ever more present on social media.

Across each of these eras however, grassroots responses have emerged in defiance, with sanctuary spaces once again today becoming vital sites of resistance and protection. The movement’s moral framework — emphasizing human dignity and solidarity — remains as relevant as ever. The enduring struggle, what sanctuary activists have continually referred to as a form of “sacred resistance,” highlights how sanctuary is not just a place but a political and ethical stance against unjust state policies.

Lecture Archives

Shurden Lecture speaker Eboo Patel

20th Annual Shurden Lectures: Nov. 13-14, 2024

Lecturer: Dr. John Compton, a professor of political science and chair of the political science department at Chapman University in Orange, Calif.

Location: Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, and Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta

Click here to read a recap of the lectures.

Watch the lectures online:

Lecture 1: Democratic Values in a Secular Age

Lecture 2: Secularization and the Rise of Political Extremism

Lecture 3: Secularization and the Fracturing of the American Left, featuring responses from the Rev. Dr. David Gushee and the Rev. Dr. Angela Parker
Lecture 3 and the reponses are also available as a podcast

Shurden Lecture speaker Eboo Patel

2024, April 2

Symposium Panelists: Rev. Dr. Joseph Evans, J. Alfred Smith, Sr. Endowed Professor and Chair of Theology in the Public Square and Director of the Center for Truth, Racial Healing and Restorative Justice Center at the Berkeley School of Theology; and Rev. Dr. Christopher The, director of student research and initiative management for the Association of Theological Schools

Moderator: Rev. Dr. Najuma Smith-Pollard, assistant director of community and public engagement with the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture

LocationUniversity of Southern California in Los Angeles, Calif.

Recap from Baptist News Global: MAGA equals authoritarianism, professor says in Shurden Lectures

Podcast: Race, religion and citizenship

Shurden Lecture speaker Eboo Patel

2023, May 31

Lecturer: Dr. Catherine Brekus, the Charles Warren Professor of the History of Religion in America at Harvard Divinity School

Location: Old North Church in Boston

The myth of American ‘chosenness’ (Article in BJC magazine)
Watch the presentation on YouTube
Listen to the lecture as a podcast
Listen to the panel discussion as a podcast