dr. deforest, senior pastor of the first baptist church of lincoln gardens.nd the chair of african-american studies at princeton university. gentlemen, thank you for being here. there's been so much talk over the last year or two that the black church is dead. you wrote a piece called the black church is dead. is that true? have we lost our way? has the church lost its purpose. >> we need to understand the church as the institution. the myth of black churches, black churches differentiated landscape. they are human beings, conservative, progressive, in the middle theologically. the idea it has a center of political politics has to be decentered so we can understand exactly what black religious folks are doing. in trying political times, it needs a closer inspection. i was trying to spark conversation. >> he did that. >> i have a slightly different take having been away from the church for a number of years and then returning to the church. i found that the church certainly was not the church of my youth. there were all kinds of models when i returned to the c