Dr. David Anderson, founder and President of the BridgeLeader Network (BLN), is one of the world’s leading authorities on building bridges across the deep divides of race, faith, culture and wealth. His global work has brought hope and healing to communities, families and people in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America.
Wherever there is a divide, Anderson seeks to build a bridge through relevant and intelligent conversation. His insight, vision, and passion have made him a widely sought speaker, writer, and consultant for major national and international events and policy initiatives. He has appeared on ABC, FOX, BET, TBN and CSPAN television networks and has been interviewed on more than 2,000 radio stations worldwide.
Anderson is a bridge-building voice in the Nation's Capital as host of the daily radio talk show RealTalk with Dr. David Anderson on WAVA (105.1 FM) - the most listened to Christian Talk Station on the East Coast and the 2nd most listened to Christian Talk station in the nation. Dr. Anderson takes his RealTalk with Dr. David Anderson to ABC2 Baltimore in Maryland each week on Sunday mornings.
David Anderson earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 2001 from Oxford Graduate School's American Centre for Religion and Society Studies in the US, while studying and defending his essays at Oxford University in England.
As the founder and senior pastor of Bridgeway Community Church, Dr. Anderson reaches a dynamic, multicultural congregation of over 4,000 weekly attendees, from more than 52 different nations, located in Columbia, Maryland, and is viewed online in over 100 countries.
Dr. Anderson is the author of several books on race and diversity, including Letters Across the Divide (Baker, 2001) and Multicultural Ministry (Zondervan, 2004) and the award-winning Gracism: The Art of Inclusion (IVP, 2007). In 2010 Dr. Anderson edited and co-authored the acclaimed Multicultural Ministry Handbook: Creatively Connecting to a Diverse World (IVP, 2010). His newest book, I Forgrace You: Doing Good to Those Who Have Hurt You (IVP, 2011) is now available at AndersonSpeaks.com.
Dr. Anderson and his wife, Amber, reside in Ellicott City, Maryland, with their three children, Isaiah, Luke, and Asia.
Posts By This Author
America’s Love Over Hate: Houston Over Charlottesville, What’s Next?
Image via Shutterstock.com/arindambanerjee
Please, America! Do not revert back from unbelievable acts of love shown throughout Hurricane Harvey-ravaged Houston, to the hate-filled spirit of violence in Charlottesville.
Feisty Civil Rights Activist Will Campbell Dies at 88
Will Campbell died Monday at the age of 88.
The Rev. Will D. Campbell, a Baptist minister and early white civil rights activist, as well as best-selling writer and folksy raconteur, died Monday in Nashville, Tenn. He was 88.
With a fiercely independent streak and sometimes prickly personality, Campbell used his powerful way with words to explore American racism, especially the contradiction inherent in Christian support for segregation across the South.
And he had his own contradictions, as well. A Southern Baptist who drank moonshine with the Catholic nuns he counted as his friends, Campbell was an equal-opportunity critic, castigating liberals as well as conservatives in his writing and preaching and storytelling.
The Sacred Ran Through Jazz Legend Dave Brubeck’s Music
Dave Brubeck, 1972, by Heinrich Klaffs
"I approached the composition as a prayer," jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck said of his "To Hope! A Celebration," a contemporary setting for the Roman Catholic Mass, "concentrating upon the phrases, trying to probe beneath the surface, hoping to translate into music the powerful words which have grown through the centuries."
Probing beneath the surface marked all of Brubeck’s music, from the revolutionary 1959 polyrhythmic album "Time Out," to his oratorio, "A Light in the Wilderness," and his setting of Thomas Aquinas’ hymn, "Pange Lingua."
Brubeck died on Wednesday of heart failure, a day before his 92nd birthday.
Brubeck is best known in the secular jazz world for his startling compositions using different time signatures, such as 5/4 time in the classic "Take Five," or the mixture of 9/8 time and the more traditional 4/4 rhythm of "Blue Rondo a la Turk." Both pieces are on the "Time Out" album, the first jazz album to sell 1 million copies and still one of the best-selling.
Religious faith, however, was never far from Brubeck’s creative mind.
Provocative Art Put Catholic Nun in the Middle of 1960s Maelstrom
Print about John F. Kennedy and Pope John XXIII incorporates the Sunkist company logo. RNS photo by Patti Jette Hanley
Combining images and words from advertising, pop culture, and religion, the bold graphic art of Sister Mary Corita was as deeply representative of the spirit of the 1960s as it was ubiquitous in church basements, dorm rooms. and urban communes of people involved in the struggle for civil rights and the campaign to end the Vietnam War.
In today's visual and graphically dominant popular culture, Corita's work — her bold typography, vivid colors, the use of ad logos and slogans — resonates with a new generation, attracted by what has been called "her festive involvement in the world'' and her interest in "blurring the lines between art and life.''
"Corita's art from the 1960s, which is based in advertising, has this great pop appeal to us today in our media-saturated culture,'' said Kathryn Wat of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington.
Keep Asking Questions
Your magazine just brought me to tears. I was standing in front of the magazine display in the library of Montrose, Colorado, when I happened to see your latest issue.
Religious Literacy
FINALLY! DUANE SHANK'S article "A Path Between the Extremes," (March-April 2000) says what I've been saying for years. You can teach about religion without proselytizing.