Lucky Severson at Religion and Ethics Newsweekly examines the phenomenon of interracial churches in the U.S. Among his interviewees is Michael Emerson, author of People of the Dream. There is also an extended transcript of their interview available on the Web site that answers among other questions:

Lucky Severson: Will the election of Barack Obama have an impact on interracial churches? Will we see more of them?

Michael Emerson: Oh, yeah. I think with President Obama there’s going to be a discussion, because he himself is multiracial, because we have for the first time a non-white president. There’s going to be talk about what does this mean? What is it? Are we in a new era? And I think it’s going to open up a wider place for a discussion about we ought to come together in our churches, in our neighborhoods, in our work places, in our clubs and our networks. I think it’ll be more acceptable to talk about it. We’ll see what happens. It’ll take some time. But I think it will.