Instagram Posts from the Week of July 7, 2019

Headlines and History - July 7, 2019

My Instagram post from July 7^th can be read below if you would like to explore the hyperlinks for more information.

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On Sundays, I connect a current event with the past in a "segment" titled Headlines and History.

It is no secret that immigrant children at the southern border of the United States are being traumatically separated from their parents. The conditions at the border patrol facilities are heartbreaking and dehumanizing. A piece written by Jeremy Raff for The Atlantic, "What a Pediatrician Saw Inside a Border Patrol Warehouse," details the findings of a pediatrician who evaluated sick children.

The mistreatment of and hatred toward immigrants didn't come out of nowhere. The crisis we see now has a long history and can be connected to numerous past events and policies. Since becoming a nation, the United States has been rooted in the idea of white supremacy. This inevitably led to contempt toward immigrants who weren't considered "white." To trace the history of anti-immigrant laws and sentiments, a link is below for an article titled "U.S. Immigration Timeline."

World Relief, Preemptive Love, and Together Rising are just a few organizations that have shared ways people can help. 

What other organizations can we donate to and support?

#immigration #bordercrisis #familiesbelongtogether #loveyourneighbor #closethecamps #worldrelief #preemptivelove #togetherrising #historyandheadlines #broadeningthenarrative 




Monday Musings - July 8, 2019

My Instagram post from July 8th is below if you would like to read it.

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Mondays are for musings. In April, I participated in National Poetry Writing Month for the first time. I joined the Fight Evil with Poetry Facebook group and attempted to daily write a poem corresponding to the prompts that were given. I would like to share this work with you all on Mondays.

My process started as a note in my phone. Then, I transferred the poem to my notebook. In response to the first prompt, I wrote a poem titled "The Dream of Male Superiority." Sexism and patriarchy are evil. Full stop. The words here come from deeply wounded places where I have been robbed of dignity for the past three decades. Also, it's a lonely place as a Christian with proximity to people who are conservative and see no problem with patriarchy. To them, this is just "biblical manhood." (And TBH, it wasn't that long ago I felt the same way.) The dismissals, denials, and defensiveness displayed in conversations bring deep despair.

There are minds much more brilliant than mine covering the topic of patriarchy and so many people I want to thank. The most formative work for me has been the Gender Series done by Almost Heretical. Thank you for sharing it with me Danielle.

"So I will dream, I will aspire, I will live to lift women higher." This is how the last stanza begins. The story isn't over, and I am not left without hope. My dignity has been and is being restored, and I hope to be used to do the same for other women (and men, too). We all suffer under patriarchy.

What do you do to express your inner musings creatively?

#nationalpoetrywritingmonth2019 #napowrimo #fightevilwithpoetry #almostheretical #musings #poetry #poetsofinstagram #thepainofpatriarchy #dignityrestored #hope #healing #broadeningthenarrative



Podcast Rec - July 9, 2019

My Instagram post from July 9th can be read below, and the podcast episode I recommend is hyperlinked.

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On Tuesdays, I will post about a podcast episode.

Current Listen- Pass the Mic: When the President Crashes Your Church Service (released June 5, 2019)

"Justice takes sides." -Jemar Tisby

My friend Danielle shared this episode of Pass the Mic with me after it dropped, and I am listening to it today. I am deeply grateful for the prophetic voices of Jemar Tisby and Tyler Burns, the President and Vice President of The Witness. Subscribe to the PTM podcast and support the work of these men.

What is the podcast you recommend the most to people who want to be actively anti-racist? 

#passthemic #antiracism #podcast #podcastrecommendation #justice #propheticvoices #seekjustice #lovemercy #walkhumbly #broadeningthenarrative



Account to Follow - July 10, 2019

My Instagram post from July 10th is below with hyperlinks if you would like to explore the information shared.

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On Wednesdays, I will highlight an account I follow.

I mentioned the Equal Justice Initiative last Friday. If you aren't already following this organization, follow @eji_org and support the work being done to challenge the narrative that surrounds the history of the United States regarding racial justice.

Last October, I traveled to Montgomery, AL with a few friends for a sobering trip to The Legacy Museum and The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which were created by the Equal Justice Initiative. During our visit, I purchased the reports on segregation and lynching. You can buy these publications and others on the EJI website.

The stories we tell matter. Let us be tellers of the full truth.

#eji #endmassincarceration #endexcessivepunishment #challengeracialinjustice #challengeeconomicinjustice #protectthevulnerable #thelegacymuseum #fromenslavementtomassincarceration #thenationalmemorialforpeaceandjustice #sacredspace #challengethenarrative #tellthetruth #thefulltruth #andnothingbutthetruth #broadeningthenarrative 



Additional Rec - July 11, 2019

My Instagram post from July 11th is below with hyperlinks to explore if you would like to learn more and access the documentary I recommend.

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Thursday will be a day for me to post about something that I have found beneficial on my journey in broadening the narrative.

Yesterday's post was about EJI. Bryan Stevenson is the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, and a documentary titled True Justice: Bryan Stevenson's Fight for Equality has been produced by HBO. This film details the life and career of Bryan Stevenson and the work of EJI. It is available free of charge without a subscription until July 31st. Have your tissues ready. Thank you for sharing this with me Danielle.

Have you watched this documentary? I would love to hear your thoughts. 

#bryanstevenson #eji #documentary  #endmassincarceration #endexcessivepunishment #challengeracialinjustice #challengeeconomicinjustice #protectthevulnerable #challengethenarrative #tellthetruth #thefulltruth #andnothingbutthetruth #broadeningthenarrative 



Book Rec - July 13, 2019

It’s book post day!

Past Read- The Emotionally Healthy Church: A Strategy for Discipleship that Actually Changes Lives by Peter Scazzero

“Despite all the emphasis today on spiritual formation, church leaders rarely address what spiritual maturity looks like as it relates to emotional health. For this reason, our churches are filled with people who remain emotionally unaware and socially immature...The link between emotional health and spiritual maturity is a large, unexplored area of discipleship” (Scazzero, 2010, p. 18).

I have included this book on the Broadening the Narrative account because broadening the narrative requires emotional health, which I have personally neglected, as I think many people do. If we want to heal, we cannot ignore this aspect of our humanity. I gleaned important principles I have been able to put into practice in my life personally and in looking for safe and healthy community. This is a book that I regret not reading sooner.

What are you reading? 

Do you have any book recommendations to address emotional health or a similar topic?

#pastread #theemotionallyhealthychurch #healthycommunity #sevenprinciples #emotionalhealth #bookrecommendation #facethepast #healthefuture #heal #fosterempathy #broadeningthenarrative

Instagram Posts from July 5-6, 2019

Fun Fact Friday - July 5, 2019

My Instagram post from July 5^th can be read below if you would like to explore the hyperlinks for more information.

Since today is Friday, I thought I could share a fun fact about me and will plan to do so every Friday for as long as I have fun things to share.

Fun fact #1: I am a mama to three tiny humans. 

Jemar Tisby, President of The Witness, narrated a video titled "How to Talk to Your Kids about Race." If you spend any time around children, this video has some helpful suggestions. As Jemar said in the video, "Talking to kids about race needs to happen early, often, and honestly."

The Equal Justice Initiative has "A History of Racial Injustice" calendar that can be purchased online. We use the calendar to teach our kids about past and present injustices in the United States.

We have developmentally appropriate conversations with our kids because we desire for them to be better equipped than we were to love, celebrate, and value the diversity and beauty around them.

What's a fun fact about you?

#funfactfriday #thewitnessbbc #conversationsaboutrace #howtotalktokidsaboutrace #racialjustice #eji #calendar #tellthetruth #facethepast #healthefuture




Book Rec - July 6, 2019

My Instagram post from July 6th can be read below, and the book I recommend is hyperlinked if you would like to purchase it.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend! Saturdays will be book post days!

Current Read- Beyond Colorblind: Redeeming Our Ethnic Journey by Sarah Shin 

"In a documentary about racial peace, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Dr. John Hope Franklin discuss the colorblind issue. Franklin says there are people who think 'we don't need to do anything about the problems that we have' and 'just think colorblind and the problems will themselves disappear.' Tutu and Franklin assert that colorblind people have a hard time seeing the existing racial inequality and injustice. Individuals claiming colorblindness cannot address racial issues that they cannot see" (Shin, 2017, p. 5).

I am only a couple of chapters in, but I appreciate the perspective Sarah Shin shares from informed by her Korean American culture.

What are you reading? 

Do you have any book recommendations to address colorblindness or a similar topic?

#currentread #beyondcolorblind #colorblessed #notcolorblind #seeandcelebrate #beautyindiversity #bettertogether #bookrecommendation #broadeningthenarrative 

Reparations before Reconciliation

Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

It’s been months since the last post, but I am hoping to get into a rhythm of publishing once a month moving forward. To kick off, I wanted to write about reparations and share the work of the women and men I have learned from recently.  

Over the past couple of years, I have been privy to and part of discussions about racial reconciliation. Before reconciliation can occur, though, I now know that reparations are required. The words of white people, myself included, mean nothing if not accompanied by actions that repair. The focus of this post, many of the resources below, and H.R. 40 is reparations for African-Americans. I would be remiss to neglect mentioning the absolute necessity of doing more to repair the damage done to indigenous people and communities for centuries. I also realize there will be other groups people will want to discuss when the topic of reparations arises. Those are conversations that should take place but not at the expense of or in an attempt to detail progress in addressing reparations for African-Americans.

To follow the lead of the women of Truth’s Table, I would like to begin with the example of Jesus Christ outlined in the verses below taken from Philippians 2 and Colossians 1.

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death —even to death on a cross. For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow — in heaven and on earth and under the earth — and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:3-11 (CSB)

“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds expressed in your evil actions. But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him.” Colossians 1:19-22 (CSB)

Jesus was not responsible for any of the brokenness around Him. Yet, He set about fixing it by His life and, ultimately, His resurrection. We also see that reparation preceded reconciliation. Jesus emptied Himself first. This was followed by Him reconciling us.

When reparations for African-Americans comes up, one of the first objections given by some white Christians is, “I am not responsible for past or present injustices.” I’m glad Jesus didn’t take this approach. Christian, if you think it is foolish to give up everything, to lay down privileges and “rights,” in order to repair brokenness for which you are not responsible so that we may walk in unity to demonstrate that all people have dignity, then you fail to understand the Gospel. This is precisely what Christ did and accomplished. Here is a poem for us.

June 21^st

Reparations before Reconciliation

Christian

Why are you

Against reparations?

I don't understand

The disconnect

Between your

Orthodoxy and orthopraxy

Minds much more brilliant than mine

Have extensively covered this topic

Listen to the
Truth's Table series 
"Reparations NOW"

Episode one

Roots this discussion

In the gospel of Jesus Christ

Let the words of Ekemini Uwan

Penetrate your heart

As she teaches that the reparations

We are benefiting from

As Christians

Are eternal

Participating in righting

The wrongs around us

Provides us an opportunity

To be obedient in repenting and repairing

Episode two

Features Dr. Ana Lucia Araujo

Delivering global

And historical

Receipts

Episode three

Is U.S. economic receipts

With Dr. Sandy Darity

Episode four

Covers ecclesiastical reparations

With Rev. Duke Kwon

I urge you to not move on

In this conversation

Without learning from

Every one of these people

Read the work of

Ta-Nehisi Coates

"A Case for Reparations"

It can be found on the website

For The Atlantic publication

Or in his book We Were Eight Years in Power

If the experiences of the

Black men and women

Don't cause you to feel angry

About the injustices

In the housing market

I'm not sure we

Read the same piece

The final formative work

I would recommend is

The Color of Compromise

In chapter eleven

Jemar Tisby records

More than simple suggestions

For both the church and state

He explains the form

Ecclesiastical reparations

Could easily take

Do institute and contribute to

A debt forgiveness plan

For black families

Do establish trust funds

For black youth

Do fund church plants

And religious nonprofit organizations

That are led by black men and women

Do partner as Christian churches and schools

To ensure black students can attend

Without having to pay tuition to

Christian colleges and grad schools

Do financially support local public institutes

To guarantee black students have what they need

In order to be educated effectively

If you want to push back

By pridefully disagreeing with me,

Arguing unproductively,

Or defending your pursuit of liberty

While your neighbors suffer

I have neither the time nor the desire

Emulate Jesus

Who gave everything up

Who laid everything down

To love and serve

The people who surrounded Him

No more excuses

Open your wallet,

Unclench your fists,

And go be generous

(Resources are linked below.)

Podcasts (for your listening pleasure and discomfort)

Truth’s Table- Reparations NOW: Repent and Repair

Truth’s Table- Reparations NOW: Global and Historical Receipts with Dr. Ana Lucia Araujo

Truth’s Table- Reparations NOW: U.S. Economic Receipts with Dr. William A. (“Sandy”) Darity Jr.

Truth’s Table- Reparations NOW: Ecclesiastical Reparations with Rev. Duke Kwon

Recommended Reading

Articles

“The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates

“The 2020 Democratic Primary Debate over Reparations, Explained” by P.R. Lockhart

"Honor Native Land: A Guide and Call to Acknowledgement" by the U.S. Dept. of Arts and Culture

Books

The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby

The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward E. Baptist

Videos to View

“Sheila Jackson Lee Says Reparations Commission Would Help ‘Understand the Hurts’ of African-Americans”

“Ta-Nehisi Coates Makes the Case for Reparations”

Music (that may make you uncomfortable)

“Facts” by Lecrae

“Ally Anthem” by Micah Bournes

It Didn't Have to be This Way: Reflections on The Color of Compromise

Estimated Reading Time: 12 minutes

It didn't have to be this way. This is the truth that echoed through the chambers of my mind. In The Color of Compromise, Jemar Tisby provided a haunting historical account of the church’s complicity in racism in this country.

Our past as a nation could be different if those in power had made intentional decisions to honor the image of God in all people. However, the opposite occurred, resulting in the heinous history that is embedded into every square inch of our society.

It didn’t have to be this way, though. As he wrote, Tisby pinpointed numerous occasions when those who cached control could have relinquished it for the flourishing of others.

 “Throughout this journey several themes dot the horizon of history. One notable theme is that white supremacy in the nation and the church was not inevitable" (p. 8).*

“This book says, ‘Don’t look away.’ Don’t look away from Christians using the Bible to justify the inferiority of African people. Don’t look away from the political cowardice Christians displayed when they could have changed the laws of the land” (p. 11).

“To grasp how American Christians constructed and cooperated with racism, one has to realize that nothing about American racism was inevitable. There was a period, from about 1500 to 1700, when race did not predetermine one’s station and worth in society… [This chapter] shows how individuals and groups who had power chose dividends over dignity and made America a place where darker-skinned people occupied a limited and inferior role in society. Through a series of immoral choices, the foundations were laid for race-based stratification” (pp. 19-20).

“Colonists could have, and may have initially, seen Africans in America as laborers just like any other and patterned their economy and politics to allow for their full inclusion. American history could have happened another way. Instead, racist attitudes and the pursuit of wealth increasingly relegated black people to a position of perpetual servitude and exploitations” (p. 30).

“At the outset of the nineteenth century, the United States could have become a worldwide beacon of diversity and equality. Fresh from the Revolutionary War, it could have adopted the noble ideals written in the Declaration of Independence. It could have crafted a truly inclusive Constitution. Instead, white supremacy became more defined as the nation and the church solidified their identities” (pp. 60-61).

“Although the demise of legalized slavery could have led to full citizenship privileges for black people, white supremacists devised new and frighteningly effective ways to enforce the racial hierarchy. They romanticized the antebellum South as an age of earnest religion, honorable gentlemen, delicate southern belles, and happy blacks content in their bondage. They also constructed a new social order, what we refer to as Jim Crow – a system of formal laws and informal customs designed to reinforce the inferiority of black people in America” (p. 103).

“White citizens and leaders had an unprecedented opportunity to craft a country that would truly honor the ‘inalienable rights’ of its residents. Reconstruction could have been the start of a new America where black people enjoyed the full promises of liberty. Racial reforms could have led to the inclusion of other historically marginalized groups, including women, Native Americans, and the poor. While some significant reforms did happen, powerful forces conspired to re-create the former racial hierarchy in a post-emancipation nation” (p. 104).

“The Plessy v. Ferguson decision legalized what soon became the standard practice throughout the country for the next sixty years – the ‘separate but equal’ doctrine. Had the nation’s highest court ruled differently in this case, the color lines of the twentieth century might have been drawn much differently. In Plessy v. Ferguson Americans had a choice – would they treat black people as full humans and fellow citizens. The court’s decision means they chose not to do so and in the years that followed many white Christians upheld racial segregation, defending it as a biblical mandate” (pp. 115-116).

“Owning a home in a neighborhood one chooses has often been seen as a decision based on hard work, individual effort, and free choice. Consequently, patterns of racial segregation appear to be the innocuous and unavoidable coincidence of individual preference, devoid of any major racist component. Views like these belie the deliberate and intentional nature of residential segregation. Through a series of rules and customs, government employees and real estate agents have actively engineered neighborhoods and communities in such a way as to maintain racial segregation” (p. 149).

“While not all moderate Christians were racists or feared integration, enough went along with the Jim Crow consensus for those like Martin Luther King Jr. to abandon the hope that they would find allies among their white brothers and sisters in Christ in their struggle for black freedom. Instead, the American church largely chose to compromise with racism through passive complicity, rejecting yet another opportunity to come alongside black people in the nation’s ‘Second Reconstruction’” (p. 185).

Our past as a nation determined the future we have inherited. This means that conscious and intentional decisions were made by white people to achieve the supremacy of whiteness in the United States. The plan from the conception of this country was for white men to secure and maintain authority. Tisby addressed this when he wrote, “White complicity with racism isn’t a matter of melanin, it’s a matter of power. Other nations have different dynamics. Whether society is stratified according to class, gender, religion, or tribe, communities tend to put power in the hands of a few to the detriment of many. In the United States, power runs along color lines, and white people have the most influence” (p. 6). When we scan the positions of power today, we see that authority is still largely held by white men. From a worldly perspective, the systems are not broken, then; instead, they are operating exactly as they were designed to do as I've seen explained by numerous activists.

Though the leaders who set these lies of white supremacy in place would be proud to see that their plan has prevailed for centuries, God is not pleased, and for this we must repent and repair. Church, it never had to be this way. Multiple missed opportunities of the past do not have to continue determining our future. It doesn't have to be this way.

“Yet if people made deliberate decisions to enact inequality, it is possible that a series of better decisions could begin to change this reality” (p. 20).

“If the church hopes to see meaningful progress in race relations during the twenty-first century, then it must undertake bold, costly actions with an attitude of unprecedented urgency. The solutions are simple though not easy. They are, in many cases, obvious though unpopular. No matter their difficulty or distastefulness, however, they are necessary in order to change the narrative of the American church and race” (p. 238).

“People of faith exercised remarkable ingenuity and energy erecting racial barriers. If the twenty-first century is to be different from the previous four centuries, then the American church must exercise even more creativity and effort in breaking down racial barriers than it took to erect them in the first place” (p. 240).

Christian, ask yourself what you can lay down to effect change in this nation. We are to be “making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). Being eager to maintain the unity of the bond of peace is not an invitation for people to assimilate and adopt the perspectives, gifts, attitudes, or behaviors most highly valued by whiteness. It is a call to every Christian to count others more significant (Phil. 2:3), and many Christians of color have spent centuries being the primary people putting aside their preferences to not appear divisive to those in the majority culture. The time for white people to look to the interests of others (Phil. 2:4) came long ago, but we have yet to take this prescriptive command seriously.

History teaches us that black people were always telling the truth. We can look back and see that they were right. The wisdom and discernment of black Christians must be acknowledged by white Christians. Tisby wrote, “Black Christians in America have always discerned the moral hypocrisy of ‘slave-holder religion’ and have intuitively grasped the liberatory impulse of the gospel” (p. 72). White Christians should be positioning ourselves now to learn from black Christians because they saw, and continue to see, compromised Christianity and devotion to Christ conflated with other values. The syncretism that continues to plague white churches is deadly because this is sin and sin kills. Therefore, we should eagerly seek out black Christians to assist us in identifying our sins so we can mortify the sins in our own lives and in the culture. We should lay down everything we can, holding onto nothing that we think gives us worth, in order to advance the Gospel. The more status, freedoms, power, wealth, or privileges we have should lead to having more to lay down, more to count as rubbish (Phil. 3), for the sake of loving God, loving our neighbor, and counting others more important than ourselves. 

Remember, when you look around at the hostility between races right now, it doesn't have to be this way. Forsake any excuses and get to work to more fully embody the unity achieved by Christ. Look back to the perfect harmony of creation in the beginning and stretch forward with great anticipation of the eschaton. Christians are the people praying for God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, so let us push the culture toward this with great humility.

“In that heavenly congregation, we will finally see the culmination of God’s gathering a diverse people unified by faith in Christ. We will not all be white; we will not all be black. We will surround the throne of the Lamb as a redeemed picture of the ethnic and cultural diversity God created. Our skin color will no longer be a source of pain or arrogant pride but will serve as a multihued reflection of God’s image. We will no longer be alienated by our earthly economic or social position. We will not clamor for power over one another. Our single focus will be worshiping God for eternity in sublime fellowship with each other and our Creator. This picture of perfection has been bequeathed to believers not as a distant reality that we can merely long for. Instead, the revelation of the heavenly congregation provides a blueprint and a motivation to seek unity right now. Jesus taught his disciples to pray, ‘your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven’ (Matt. 6:10). Christians have been mandated to pray that the racial and ethnic unity of the church would be manifest, even if imperfectly, in the present. Christ himself brought down ‘the dividing wall of hostility’ that separated humanity from one another and from God (Eph. 2:14). Indeed, reconciliation across racial and ethnic lines is not something Christians must achieve but a reality we must receive” (pp. 14-15).

Leaders in the Christian community are not to be like the “rulers of the Gentiles” who lord it over them and “act as tyrants.” Instead, “whoever wants to become great… must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first…must be your slave” (Matthew 20:25-28). White Christian, do you bristle or bestow honor when presented with the opportunity to follow the example of Christ in Philippians 2? If we attempt to procure and retain power, this does not put the Gospel on display. Rather, willingly and humbly putting down any perceived rights does. Of course reconciling and repairing is costly. To reconcile and repair our broken fellowship with God and others, Christ gave Himself up, laying down His very life. In order to follow this model, all who claim to know Christ should be ready to give up everything, even their own lives, to reconcile and repair, remembering that Christ fixed what He didn't break. An implication of this is that we should be fixing damaged systems and relationships, even if we didn't break them, or don’t think we contributed to the enmity. 

Through reading The Color of Compromise, I was reminded of Tisby’s A.R.C. of racial reconciliation. In this model, awareness of racial issues for white people should inform intentional and healthy relationships with people of color, which should result in commitment to explicitly antiracist actions. With the A.R.C. in mind, think about these words from Tisby:

“The forty-fifth president did not produce a racial and political divide between black and white Christians, but he exposed and extended longstanding differences while revealing the inadequacy of recent reconciliation efforts” (p. 236).

“The malleability and impermanence of racial categories help explain how the American church’s compromise with racism has become subtler over time. History demonstrates that racism never goes away; it just adapts” (p. 9).

“This book is about revealing racism. It pulls back the curtain on the ways American Christians have collaborated with racism for centuries. By seeing the roots of racism in this country, may the church be moved to immediate and absolute antiracist action” (p. 4).

“Progress is possible, but we must learn to discern the difference between complicit Christianity and courageous Christianity. Complicit Christianity forfeits its integrity by worshiping the idol of whiteness. Such Christianity has lost its moral authority by devaluing the image of God in people of African descent…By contrast, courageous Christianity embraces racial and ethnic diversity. It stands against any person, policy, or practice that would dim the glory of God reflected in the life of every human being. These words are a call to abandon complicit Christianity and move toward courageous Christianity” (pp. 16-17).

I have never regretted listening to and implementing the advice of my friends about how I can better love them and show honor to them. The same applies here for white Christians toward our black siblings.

The release date for The Color of Compromise is Jan 22^nd, and you can pre-order by clicking here to access some amazing bonuses through midnight on January 21^st. The pre-order bonuses are:

•  A sneak peek of the Foreward by Lecrae and Chapters 1 & 2
•  An exclusive podcast episode from Pass The Mic with Tyler Burns and Jemar Tisby discussing the book
• Exclusive videos of Jemar answering questions about the book.

You can listen to the first chapter of the audiobook by clicking here.

* All quotes were taken from an advance reading copy of The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby.