'Healing the Divides' - A Review. # 78. 07/06/2022

Out of Many, One People.

Welcome to the review of a book that is brief, readable and inexpensive (I assume, I got a free copy for writing a commendation). I am not sure of the publication date.

Healing the Divides’ by Jason Roach and Jessamin Birdsall – a Review.

This is a short book sub-titled ‘How Every Christian can Advance God’s Vision for Racial Unity and Justice’, published by The Good Book Company. Jason Roach is black, an ordained Anglican, and Director of Ministries for London City Mission and founding pastor of The Bridge church in Battersea. Jessamin Birdsall is a sociologist and American, now based in Britain. Hopefully her fascinating Princeton PhD on ‘Racial Diversity in British Evangelicalism: Frames, Barriers and Practices’ will find a publisher. The book therefore brings together biblical, pastoral and sociological awareness, as well as experience coming from both black and white perspectives. Though overall written jointly, it was particularly valuable that the two final chapters were written separately on ‘What change looks like for (the majority culture/ minority-ethnic people’).

It is particularly intended to get evangelicals on board to ‘advance God’s Vision for Racial Unity and Justice’, but the book deserves to be read by a much wider constituency, albeit its concern to disallay fears of learning from secular sources may shows particular awareness of evangelical anxieties. I was particularly struck by commenting on David Bebbington’s now classic definition of evangelicals as focussed on Bible, Cross, Conversion and Activism, that they note critically that ‘the distinctive priorities that define evangelicalism don’t require’ an emphasis on community; surely highlighting a serious weakness in how we have read scripture.

In reading the book I was particularly impressed by the following qualities.

1. It is non-adversarial.

The book is marked by a generosity of outlook. It is aware of the big political and sociological issues, such as Black Lives Matter or structural racism, but always from a standpoint of understanding and respect rather seeking to win victories or score points. Being jointly written by black and white, and male and female authors it seeks to deal fairly with the inevitably limited perspectives that are brought from specific racial and ethnic backgrounds, whilst paying particular attention to the voices of marginalised and minority communities.

Its evangelical standpoint is marked by its generous and Christ-centred spirituality, but not by seeking to score points against other Christian outlooks. Black British theologians such as Robert Beckford and Anthony Reddie are recognised as important voices to be heard. Indeed, it is fellow evangelicals who are most critiqued, in various places warned of the dangers of an individualised and overly cerebral faith.

2. Its spirituality.

As one would expect the book is thorough in its use of scripture, and does so in a way that is fresh and wide-ranging, the main topic of chapter 2. I was struck by the comment on Acts 17:26 (‘From one man he made all the nations’) that Paul is saying ‘every member of the human race is both fundamentally the same and stunningly different at the same time’ (p 34). I was often struck by the illuminating use of passages that I had not previously noted as being of special relevance to scripture, for example confessing and dealing with unintentional sin (Numbers 15:22-31) as being important for our response to institutional racism.

The strong emphasis on prayer comes across not as a routine nod to what Christians ought to be saying, but rather from a worked through conviction that prayer really is central. The three pages on ‘Pray’ as the first instance of ‘What Individuals can do’ are full of specific pointers of how and for what we might pray (pp 118-121). Lament is stressed as an antidote to evangelicals being ‘future-orientated and activist’ and optimistic.

More deeply, the book reflects an attitude of heart and mind that has been shaped by a relationship with Jesus, for example in the stress on cultural humility, that ‘emphasises that we will never be fully competent at understanding the many cultures present in our communities and churches, but we can recognise our own limitations and listen to those who are culturally different to us’ (p 86). Jason humbly recognises that when preaching on Ruth he has not noted her ethnicity (p 33) because ‘some strands of the church have been conditioned to see these details as less relevant to the grand narrative of salvation’.

The need for a gospel-centred response comes through in such emphases as on sacrifice – members of the majority culture ‘need to be willing to sacrifice our cultural comfort as we learn from and respect others’ (p 85); and particularly on personal and loving relationships – ‘Our challenge is to recognise the complexity of people. To do this we must enter into genuine relationships with love and curiosity, rather than reduce people to stereotypes’ (p 94).

3. It is specific.

In introducing herself as having grown up in a missionary context Jessamin Birdsall notes the issues she had observed of different leadership styles and managing multiple languages in a church service (p 13) – issues that may be familiar to leaders of multi-ethnic congregations and yet often not noted in the grand overviews of churches and racism. Here is a book that recognises innovative changes in how you organise your lesson reading rota (p 59) can actually aid progress to being an ethnically inclusive church (just as the apostles innovated a better way of distributing food to widows in Acts 6). I found the first part of the book informative and helpful, but from chapter 5 onwards, dealing with the actualities of multi-ethnic church life, I found it exceptionally illuminating, focusing on the barriers to racial justice as ‘our limited understanding of sin’ and ‘our individualistic approach to discipleship’, in each case leading to ‘Practical Implications’. The observation that passing the bread along a pew might facilitate greater unity was just one example of the book’s alertness to congregational issues.

Overall the book illustrates how an internalised awareness of cultural diversity and racialised injustice generates appropriate and improvised responses.

4. Its social awareness.

Early on the book notes ‘Complexity’ (p 14) as a key characteristic of multi-ethnic Britain. The reality of many different cultures in Britain, shaped both by specific ethnicities but also by generation is recognised (p 77), and the particular significance of classis given full treatment in chapter 4. The stories of two boys, Michael and Chidozie, both experiencing the problems that come from being black, and yet both having very different ethnic and class backgrounds effectively draws attention to the cross-cutting distinctions that can be hidden behind the expression ‘multi-racial’.

Chapter 3 pays attention to Black Lives Matter and Critical Race Theory, being careful to assuage conservative fears that this is dangerous ground, and seeking to give a brief but fair account of their loose connection of ideas. The schema of understanding, assessment and response in terms Cry, Concept and Creed (p 71) I found illuminating. (A fourth category of ‘Consequences’ would be interesting. Bereaved mothers in high crime areas in the USA are asking for – contrary to BLMs call to defund the police – to actually have greater police presence).

Conclusion.

The commendations that begin books are often too brief and too bland (like mine) to be that informative. However, the long commendation from Richard Coekin, CEO of the Co-Mission Church-Planting Network, which in its humility and specificity echoes the book, includes an appropriate conclusion to this review:

“I found it extremely sobering (so much I’ve got wrong), constructively illuminating (so much I didn’t realise), graciously measured (so much gospel wisdom), and painfully challenging (so much I need to change about the way I think and do ministry). I will be urgently commending this book to our church leadership and family.”

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Add Ons

Windrush Day is being celebrated on Wednesday June 22nd, as an occasion to mark the contribution of the ‘Windrush Generation’ to British Society. Government grants are available for special events (google Windrush). Could appropriately be marked in church services on Sunday 19th June.

Alec Ryrie’s excellent on-line Gresham lecture series on the early history of Protestant missions concludes tomorrow 8thJune at 6pm with the vital topic of ‘Protestant Missions and European Empires: Allies or Adversaries’.

Reading the Gospels while Black is a 2+ hour presentation and discussion with N T Wright and Esau McCaulley (asst. professor of New Testament at Wheaton College, & past doctoral student of Wright) covering both biblical and contemporary issues. They also offer a course at N T Wright on-line on ‘Ethnicity, Justice and the People of God’, price $59.99. (Could anyone who has seen it please send in a comment).