RACIAL JUSTICE AND RECONCILATION

Resources for Conversation and Learning

The following resources are opportunities to learn and ponder issues related to justice, racism, and reconciliation.  They are offered as an invitation to learn and listen; to be humble and vulnerable.  This list is by no means exhaustive or complete; nor do you need to agree or endorse everything stated or written. These are, however, relevant to current conversations that are not easy to have.  May we choose to be open to God and one another, and invite the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in whatever way is needed in our own hearts and minds.  We will be adding to this list from week to week.  Please email the church if there are other resources which have been helpful to you.


* The most recently added resources are in green.

Books

  • The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity by Soong-Chan Rah

  • I'm Still Here by Austin Channing Brown
    Memoir of a Christian, black woman sharing her experience in life and in the Church.  

  • How To Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi (hard to find in print, but available on Kindle) 
    Stories are woven throughout historical analysis, data and research, ideas and inequities that perpetuate racism and how anti-racism can actually bring the changes needed today. [Kendi's previous book entitled Stamped has been re-written for young adult readers by Kendi and Jason Reynolds.]

  • Roadmap to Reconciliation: Moving Communities into Unity, Wholeness and Justice by Brenda Salter McNeil
    This book is practical and deeply theological, drawing from qualitative data as well as practical experience.  McNeil, more pastor and theologian than social scientist, offers a step by step process for reconciliation that is profoundly useful.   

  • The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby
    Follows our nation's historical journey related to slavery and race, while also telling the story of the American Church’s complicity in much that still plagues us.   

  • White Fragility by Robin J. DiAngelo (hard to find in print, but available on Kindle) 
    Why it's so hard for white people to talk about racism.

Movies, Documentaries, Podcasts, Videos