Resources on Race for White Evangelicals
In 2019 I put together a list of resources for a Christian man who’s white to help understand God’s heart for racial reconciliation. These are all resources that I shared with him that have been helpful to me on my journey since 2006 that I shared for a One Race blog, Wired for Diversity. Please feel free to provide feedback and any other resources that you’ve found helpful as we follow Jesus into His New Humanity!
The first step is to capture God’s heart for reconciliation across race, culture, and class. Dive into Jesus’ prayer in John 17, read the book of Acts through the lens of horizontal reconciliation, meditated upon Ephesians 2, Colossians 3 and capture the vision of Revelation 7, “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” A blog I wrote for the OneRace Movement is, God’s Story of Reconciliation.
Matt Chandler’s talk on racism.
Lecrae on leaving White Evangelicalism.
John Piper responds to Lecrae’s leaving White Evangelicalism.
Tim Keller on Racism and Corporate Evil.
Tom Skinner was speaking about these issues from a wholistic Biblical perspective in the 60s and 70s and does so at this message at Urbana 1970.
Pastor David Platt preaches on Amos 5 at Together for the Gospel on, “Let Justice Roll On Like A River.”
Dr. Korie Edwards, a sociology at Ohio State has been studying the church, race, and power for many years. Her podcast, The Elusive Dream, based on her book is worth the listen.
Howard Thurman was a pastor and mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his theology helped shaped the Civil Right’s Movement. His book, Jesus and the Disinherited deeply transformed my understanding in seminary of a gospel that was both spiritual and physical.
Anything the pioneer of the Biblical Justice movement, John Perkins writes or speaks on is beautiful. His latest work is One Blood: Parting Words to the Church on Race and Love and a recent interview is here on One Blood. The trailer for his book and story of his life is One Blood by John Perkins. Dr. Perkins helped launch the Christian Community Development Association.
Latasha Morrison’s work with Be the Bridge and helping to understand what white culture is in Whiteness 101.
A group of all men journeyed through Latasha’s curriculum in 2018, culminating in a trip to Montgomery, AL to visit the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. The blog, This Is In My DNA, came out of our time together.
Pastor Pete Scazzero of New Life Fellowship in Queens, NY has many years of bridging racial and cultural barriers. He developed a podcast on Breaking Racial and Cultural Barriers in the Church.
Pastor Richard Villodas, who took over for Pete wrote a great book on the Spiritual Formation practices of reconciliation, The Deeply Formed Life.
The work of Josh Clemons and the One Race Movement here in Atlanta calling the body of Christ to “Know the Story, own the story, and to change the story.”
Pastor Sebastian Holley gets to the motives of our heart for true racial reconciliation to occur in his books, Motive Matters, Faith Identity, and To Be Real: Healthy Multiculturalism.
Dignity Serves addresses how to work through racial, cultural, and socio-economic differences through dignified interdependent relationships.
Pastor Daryl Ford at Ikon Community Church in Decatur talks about White Supremacy and the Gospel:
Jade Lee‘s work is crucial as she wrote, The Ferguson Dilemma.
Pastor Brian Lorritts on Being a Stranger in White Evangelicalism and his book, Insider, Outsider.
Jemar Tisby wrote The Color of Compromise The Truth about the American’s Church Complicity in Racism and How to Fight Racism.
Divided by Faith by Emerson and Smith is a seminal book in this discussion.
A theological perspective on how white Evangelical Theology has been inadequate to address race; Atonement in Scripture: Why Trump and Cruz Are the Direct, Logical Result of American Evangelical Theology
A presentation from a PHD student at Georgia State on the Whitewashing of US History: (emphasis on the Dunning School started in the north)
My presentation on my journey into racial reconciliation and how Christ has changed me through those that are different from me in a Boy from Bumpville.
A sociological understanding of where the idea of “whiteness” came from.
Bryan Stevenson’s work at the Equal Justice Initiative is very important to understand the systemic effects of slavery, lynching, and Jim Crow. He wrote a detailed report on Lynching in America.
A seventeen minute long video documenting how segregated housing was created in America based on race called, Segregated by Design.
But, most importantly this is about reconciled relationships in Christ. He has tore down the divided wall of hostility between us and because of this work, we can now walk into reconciled relationships with those that have been oppressed by white supremacy.