Please read this book. active defense of racism that the reader is challenged to become a “courageous” particularly of Christian religious institutions. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published I am thankful that the author took the time and effort and risk to share this, and I echo the w. I wish I could make every white christian person I know of US nationality read this book!!! with changes they might adopt for themselves (here Tisby offers eminently While he and I would not agree on every point of our culture's recent social arguments, I admire how Tisby combines a Christian sensibility with concern for issues of race. “Reasonableness,” for him, is a failure to recognize urgency (p. 137). Tisby is a PhD student in history at the University of Mississippi, studying race and religion in the 20th century, and he has spoken to thousands at colleges, conferences, and churches across the country on such topics as “Understanding the Heart Cry of Black Lives Matter,” “The Historical Politics of Race in America,” and “The Image of God and the Minority Experience.” In 2017, the Religion News Association recognized him for excellence in student religion reporting for his articles on the police-related killings of unarmed black citizens. states, industry interests, and Christian denominations. Surveying over 350 years of American styles of racism and inequality, readers can see how the church has (as he put it) “chosen comfort over constructive conflict”, often creating but always maintaining a … Africans notes the way the worship and teaching of enslaved Africans preserved Finally, the author took time at the conclusion of the historical survey, to provide suggestions for how the church can collectively work together to heal the legacy created by the church's complicity with racism in our country. I anticipate using it with my own children to help them understand (and lament) the church’s history … In sum, The Color of Compromise offers an accessible, thoughtful, and explicitly Christian resource to readers who wish to understand the history of American Christianity’s relationship to racism, and who desire a guide as they move from understanding that history … This is a sad reality to learn about but it has shifted my worldview and I'm thankful for that. There are a great many possibilities open to us, and our present time functions If few white Christians today would repeat 19th-century Southern Presbyterian theologian Robert … another strategic choice. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in how the realms of social justice and faith interact within the history of the US, as well as for those questioning where the American church goes from here in pursuing racial reconciliation and reparations. action” (16), for “if racism can be made, it can be unmade” (39). internal audits within our institutions, or decide that being a part of the Body Drawing from his expertise in navigating and facilitating such understanding of racism among Christians, Tisby chooses to name, describe, and narrate for his readers a way around a number of barriers they may be facing. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. known that American Christianity is tangled up with white supremacy. Jemar Tisby is president and co-founder of The Witness: A Black Christian Collective. "As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting." #ColorofCompro, Five stars is not enough...y'all should see the amount of underlining and highlighting and tabbing I did throughout this book! prospects of a pet charity and willing to regard the presence of Black Americans He offers this that to accommodate such horrors is to wrong the Gospel. Learn from 1,869 book reviews of The Color of Compromise, by Jemar Tisby and Lecrae Moore. Yet King included another powerful word, one that is often overlooked. For example, Tisby has Harriet Jacobs speak in her own voice to describe the cruel dilemma of her “choice” between rape by a White slave owner or sexual relations with a free White man, in hopes that the latter would provide relative levels of protection for her and any children she might then bear. A helpful contribution to an ongoing and important conversation about the church and racism. Tisby is a PhD student in history at the University o. Jemar Tisby is president and co-founder of The Witness: A Black Christian Collective. names of the Christians who were exceptions to prevailing acceptance and move from understanding that history to participating in ongoing redemptive the method of the work. #ColorofCompromise. From Jonathan Edwards’s slaveholdingto Billy Graham’s support for President Richard Nixon’s racially charged policy of “law and order,” participation in racial oppression has tainted the legacies of many of the most gifted preachers and theologians in the white evangelical church, Tisby argues. Mr. Tisby is a talented writer 1 who often captures his thoughts in poetic turns of phrase. It is challenging, convicting, and at times, hard to read, but it’s impossible not to be moved to feel SOMETHING when reading this book. Tisby contends that one clear through line of It looks like Christians consistently supporting a president whose racism has been on display for decades. How the white church responds will say a lot about us. forborne to grapple with the ways whole denominations have at times chosen The charity exhibited here is humbling. Warning against the "tranquilizing drug of gradualism," King emphasized the fierce urgency of now, the need to resist the status quo and take immediate action. No one whose history education provided them with grotesquely sanitized vision offered in the penultimate section is invigorating. It looks conversations on race that focus on individual relationships and are unwilling to discuss systemic solutions. We could study it, conduct Knowing this, Tisby opens He also claims that “Christian complicity with racism remains [in the present], even as it has taken on subtler forms” (190). From this opening account to the last page, readers are presented with the idea part and parcel of the work. especially considering the way their worldview (as American Christians) is The content is sure to draw sharp criticism, but Tisby addresses the topic with courage and eloquence. A Critical Review of Jemar Tisby’s The Color of Compromise Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. The book is well paced, neither too long nor too short, and organized well. The historical survey is fair and heartbreaking, which is why I rated the book a three instead of a one. This book went above and beyond my expectations. Jemar Tisby’s The Color of Compromise is a difficult book to read. He has written about race, religion, and culture for The Washington Post, CNN, Vox, Christianity Today and The New York Times. Written By Katherine Spearing. As a Southerner, I was pleased to see that throughout the book, the author addressed racism by Christians from all over the country. readers with opportunities to practice the intellectual habit of discernment is leaders to change the designation of Georgia’s founding as a free territory in Because the book is written not only to those who are defensive when Readers might be Throughout, Jemar Tisby writes as a faithful friend, a true brother, in bringing to light an embarrassing and shameful past. Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2019. historical “survey” is, and explaining his preference for representational rather Yet King included another powerful word, one that is often overlooked. Truly, he has understood and loved his audience. Tisby’s expressed goal is that the church would “[see] the January 22nd 2019 The energy of the creative "The refusal to act in the midst of injustice is itself an act of injustice. And largely, you just about had me. for the reader to escape the realization that the Christian faith was intimately This book might wound us, but it is trustworthy and necessary. I had not previously read a good overview of how and when the church addressed whether Christians should support chattel slavery. order to facilitate his ability to buy more slaves and thereby ensure continued How shall American Christians understand our relationship to racism? I wish I could make every white christian person I know of US nationality read this book!!! It looks like Christians telling black people and their allies that their attempts to bring up racial concerns are 'divisive.' This is perhaps one of the most accessible, clear, and gentle book you might read about the history of, and acceptance of, white supremacy and black abasement of the American nation and in the American church. Indifference to oppression perpetuates oppression.”, “Christian complicity with racism in the twenty-first century looks different than complicity with racism in the past. audience is a repeated call to action, to action motivated by and directed to a from, for example, an introduction to Rev. I review books for different reasons. versions of the slave trade and associated horrors will easily forget either Tisby’s Readers who are already persuaded So heartbreaking, gut punching, enlightening, and helpful while maintaining a positive voice that it is not too late for change and that we can hope for AND TAKE STEPS TOWARDS a better and healthier future. The Color of Compromise: The Truth About the American Church’s Complicity in Racism (Zondervan, 2019) is his first book. By The Color of Compromise is not an easy book to read, but not due to a lack of quality. : Moral and Epidemiologic Observations, Scripture and the English Poetic Imagination—An Extended Review, Subversive Christian Allegory in In the Heat of the Night (1967), Disembodied Souls Without Dualism: Thomas Aquinas on Why You Won’t Go to Heaven When You Die (but Your Soul Just Might), Are We Underthinking Underemployment? As someone who lived overseas for a number of years and who completed graduate work in intercultural studies, I like to consider myself someone who is an advocate for the vulnerable in other cultures. Book Review: The Color of Compromise Jemar Tisby’s first book does a masterful job describing how White Christians in America compromised on slavery and segregation against Black Americans. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. Jemar Tisby is a prophetic voice for the church, and he writes in a way that is both accessible and brutally honest. Jemar Tisby’s first book does a masterful job describing how White Christians in America compromised … lens, invoking “cultural Marxism,” characterizing social justice as antithetical to Baptist Church in Birmingham. Melissa Rovig Vanden Bout, “The Color of Compromise— An Extended Review”, Guest Post: Expanding the Christian Imagination – A Response to Perry Glanzer, Why we Cannot Ignore Institutional Racism. I learned so much. classroom or church book group, this may be it. After reading, digesting, and reflecting on this historical survey, the church should collectively be grieved into repenting. Lots of what white Christians including myself might be tempted to write off as “not that bad” is pretty atrocious when looked at closely. The verse that keeps popping into my head is Proverbs 27:6 - “Wounds from a friend can be trusted”. Readers might have benefitted If you to explore additional resources. Are the Wages of Sin Really Death? Make no mistake, some of the suggestions are controversial and substantial. Tisby’s book explicitly shares his decision processes with the reader: for example, defining what a “The Color of Compromise: The Truth About the American Church’s Complicity in Racism” by Jemar Tisby / Zondervan, 2019. And finally, because this book is written to all American The Color of Compromise undoes the tendency to skip the hard parts of history and directs the reader’s attention to the realities that have been under examined because they challenge the triumphalist view of American Christianity. paradigms. The application is quite troublesome and overshadows, for me personally, almost everything good that Tisby has done in this work. So heartbreaking, gut punching, enlightening, and helpful while maintaining a positive voice that it is not too late for change and that we can hope for AND TAKE STEPS TOWARDS a better and healthier future. Tisby’s survey of the history of American Christian accommodation to racism than exceptional examples (the text hints wryly that the reason we know the A Long Review of Tisby’s Color of Compromise. leaders responded to slave owners’ fears regarding whether baptism would of Dr. King among White Christians, an analysis of the Black Power movement, historically Black church traditions in our modern context. It is up to the reader to determine whether the weight of historical evidence proves that the American church has been complicit with racism. Learn your history. It is a historical survey of how the American church in general, especially white Christians, have largely not only failed to oppose racism but have also been culpable in creating it and preserving it. Among them are the usual suspects: importing a simplistic partisan political Hope College Throughout, Jemar Tisby writes as a faithful friend, a true brother, in bringing to light an embarrassing and shameful past. William Barber’s work in the I appreciated the practical steps to move forward that he addresses at the conclusion, and would love to attend his vision of a new seminary. In a disarming move, Tisby offers the historical record Christian vision of the good. through its various iterations. and broader justice efforts is comparatively thin. steen@hope.edu, © 2021 Christian Scholar’s Review. Every white evangelical church congregation should dig into this book. Learning from history is important for understanding the mistakes of the past, and avoiding them in the future. 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