It was really difficult to schedule an interview with our guest today, Dr. Lerone A. Martin, PhD. We emailed back and forth more times than I care to mention, but when we were finally able to find a time which each of our calendars made possible, it was one of those moments when one says to oneself, “well of course that’s when it needed to be!” …. January 20, 2025, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the second inauguration of Donald J. Trump.

You see, Dr. Martin is the faculty director for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, where he is also an associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies. His books and scholarship provide critical context for the forces of religion, politics, and race that have shaped the contemporary American political and social landscape.

His appointment to the position of Martin Luther King, Jr. Centennial Professor was the result of a national search to succeed the storied King Institute’s founding director after more than 40 years in the role, making Dr. Martin only the second faculty director. Among his responsibilities as the MLK Institute’s director is the ongoing work of editing Dr. King’s significant sermons, speeches, published writings, correspondence and unpublished papers.

It was while researching his award winning first book, Preaching on Wax: The Phonograph and the Making of Modern African American Religion, that his second book had its roots: THE GOSPEL OF J. EDGAR HOOVER: HOW THE FBI AIDED AND ABETTED THE RISE OF WHITE CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM. We spoke with him via Skype.

Articles pertinent to this interview:

‘Contempt is a dangerous way to lead a country’: here is the sermon that enraged Donald Trump https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/24/bishop-mariann-edgar-budde-sermon-that-enraged-donald-trump

Revealed: Trump Pentagon nominee endorsed extremist Christian doctrine on podcast ttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/24/trump-pete-hegseth-extremism

Bulldozers kill man in tent in Atlanta clearing homeless camp near MLK’s church https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/18/atlanta-homeless-encampment-bulldozer-death