Reconciliation Blues

Here is a book review that I did in 2007. You should pick this book up if you have not read it.

Reconciliation Blues book review
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Monday, June 4, 2007 at 10:15am
These past twelve months I have read some fascinating books: Covenant with Black America by Tavis Smiley, Blue like Jazz and Own the Dragon by Donald Miller, and a few more here and there by others were satisfying reads. But none was as captivating to me as Reconciliation Blues: A Black Evangelical’s View inside White Christianity by Ed Gilbreath, an editor for Today’s Christian magazine. If you haven’t read it, you should sell everything you have to get one. Well, maybe not everything: you need to keep your Lazy Boy so you can prop your feet up and read it. It will challenge your heart.

I love the book truly because much of what I have personally felt or stated is found leaping off of these pages. Gilbreath absolutely lassoes and hogties the essence of racialized thinking within evangelical Christianity, yet there is great grace served with this plate of truth. It is a bold, yet unoppressive piece that helps each of us to understand that racial division with in the church is still an issue lurking in the background. Secondly, the book has given me new insight on my own walk with the Lord Jesus outside of the race issue. Finally, I also come away with a better appreciation of how the issue of race affects our brothers who are neither African-American nor Anglo.

The book has 12 chapters in it, along with an epilogue and a discussion guide for those who might actually dig deeper in their hearts. Gilbreath’s conversational tone is more inviting than instructional. Yet, through his story telling instruction is gained. His journalistic background helps to give more credence to personal experiences that he and others face.

The Prologue records the frustrating story of an African-American woman who is fed up with the idea that true reconciliation in the evangelical church is achievable in her lifetime. The following chapters lay the framework for this kind of thinking among black evangelical Christians. Gilbreath posits that the nation is still dealing (or not dealing) with the issue of race in several social aspects. He cites educational imbalances between inner-city schools and more affluent districts, skewed proportions of black men in our American penal system, television network investigations that demonstrate prejudice in our society and other glaring examples. His primary concern, though, is not those secular institutions but the evangelical church.
Gilbreath recognizes that things are better than they were before. He makes a worthy notation to say that there are more “exciting examples of multiracial churches than ever before.” The book however, seeks to express the truth of the racial climate in today’s church.

A focal point of Gilbreath’s thesis is that many blacks have “hung their hats” in evangelical places only to find out that to be in an evangelical setting means more to be in a white-like setting than Christ-like setting. He says white Christians do not understand how much their “whiteness affects their faith”. He adds a quote from an interview source who states that “whites are stunned to find…their cultural, religious, and political reference is not the only one”. This interviewee’s belief which is found in chapter one is more clearly demonstrated as Gilbreath tells the story of a white evangelical denomination who overlooked the concerns of a Korean American pastor. The denomination was promoting potentially offensive VBS material to the Asian culture. Since it was for Jesus and many souls were saved by the material, the offense was not taken seriously even though there were 1500 signatures protesting the material. Gilbreath’s point was that we should not use evangelism to overshadow the concerns of people we are seeking to reach.

In this story though, it was also prevalent that ethnic reconciliation is not just a “black and white” issue anymore. The Korean-American pastor’s story demonstrates that blacks are not the only over-looked minority in evangelicalism. Gilbreath makes this statement, “…evangelicals must be ready to include other ethnic minorities in their vision of a reconciled, multiracial church that reflects the ultimate reality of God’s kingdom-on earth as it is in heaven.”

Reconciliation Blues doesn’t just leave it to white evangelicals to make changes. The book challenges the black Christian not to keep white brothers at arm’s distance and allow them into your circles in order to get to know one another better. He asks the non-white person, “Are you hanging on to unresolved bitterness against whites? Have you been ignoring God’s command to extend grace…and refusing to be a bridge between the races…because bridges must be stepped on?”

He notes for evangelicals the sham of false reconciliation also. Gilbreath states, “As Christians, it’s possible for us to do wonderfully holy things cross culturally without ever experiencing a fundamental change in our thinking about cross-cultural matters”.
Some whites will say, the answer to reconciling is to wait for a new generation. The book answers through Pastor Chris Williamson’s experience when an older white man said that before things change, this generation will just have to die off. Williamson responded by saying that evangelicals are actively fighting against moral issues like abortion, homosexuality, and evolution in school. “But when it comes to social justice and institutional racism, then all of a sudden they just accept it the way it is until a generation dies off.” Williamson professed that idea sickened him.

Ed Gilbreath’s Reconciliation Blues is thought provoking and encouraging. He closes the book by encouraging us to keep pressing at the issue with childlike faith, and keep a kingdom focus. He ends with reference to the lead story of the book saying, “Sometimes I am tempted to throw my hands up and be done with it, like my friend (the African-American woman described at the beginning of the book) who e-mailed me saying she was sick and tired of racial reconciliation. But when I think about the dedication of [certain] men and women…and I think about Jesus prayer for his followers, ‘that all of them may be one , Father, just as you are in me and am in you. May they also be in in us so that the world may believe that you sent me’ (John 17:21).”

One day all God’s people will worship at the throne in eternity. So then, one day racial reconciliation will exist in perfection. I don’t know if we will see it in our earthly days or not but since I know the truth about the future I am inclined to agree with Gilbreath when it comes to agree with racial reconciliation. I am not ready to quit on it just yet.