Minorities Prep to Teach Theology

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Byline: Julia Duin, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

When President Obama began appointing a host of former outsiders to serve on his faith advisory council, religion writers had to scramble to expand their Rolodex to include these new black and Hispanic voices.

For instance, I had never heard of Miguel Diaz, the Cuban-born college professor who is the president's pick for ambassador to the Vatican.

So I was interested to hear that 45 black doctoral candidates who hope to follow in Martin Luther King's footsteps were having a conference at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. One evening, they sat at the feet of the Rev. James Lawson, a peace activist and philosopher …