What do you think?
Rate this book
The Anti-Greed Gospel: Why the Love of Money Is the Root of Racism and How the Church Can Create a New Way Forward
"A forceful call to recognize the roots of American inequality and a solid starting point for Christians who want to help fix them."--
Publishers Weekly
Racism is not about hate and ignorance. It's about greed. And it always has been.
Black Christian historian Malcolm Foley explores this idea in The Anti-Greed Gospel, showing how the desire for power and money--what some call "racial capitalism"--causes violence and exploitation.
Foley reviews the history of racial violence in the United States and connects the killings of modern-day Black Americans to the history of lynching in America. He helps the contemporary church wrestle with the questions racial violence brings How can we become communities that show generosity and resist greed? What is the next step in the journey for racial justice?
Readers will walk away with a better understanding of how they can resist greed that exploits others, love their neighbor more completely, and build communities of deep solidarity, anti-violence, and truth telling.
Racism is not about hate and ignorance. It's about greed. And it always has been.
Black Christian historian Malcolm Foley explores this idea in The Anti-Greed Gospel, showing how the desire for power and money--what some call "racial capitalism"--causes violence and exploitation.
Foley reviews the history of racial violence in the United States and connects the killings of modern-day Black Americans to the history of lynching in America. He helps the contemporary church wrestle with the questions racial violence brings How can we become communities that show generosity and resist greed? What is the next step in the journey for racial justice?
Readers will walk away with a better understanding of how they can resist greed that exploits others, love their neighbor more completely, and build communities of deep solidarity, anti-violence, and truth telling.
Kindle Edition
Published February 11, 2025
96 people are currently reading
2409 people want to read
About the author
Malcolm Foley
6 books20 followersMalcolm Foley (PhD, Baylor University) is a pastor, historian, and speaker who serves as special adviser to the president for equity and campus engagement at Baylor University. He has written for Christianity Today, The Anxious Bench, and Mere Orthodoxy. Foley copastors Mosaic Waco, a multicultural church in Waco, Texas, where he lives with his wife, Desire.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 93 reviews
December 31, 2025
"The Anti-Greed Gospel: Why the Love of Money is the Root of Racism and How the Church Can Create a New Way Forward" by Malcolm Foley isn't an easy read.
In fact, at times it's a pretty horrific read. At times, I can't even lie, I wanted to stop reading it.
Stopping wasn't an option.
Pastor at Mosaic Waco and Special Advisor to the President for Equity and Campus Engagement at Baylor University (I love the idea of Foley and Beth Allison Barr on the same campus), Foley has crafted what Publishers Weekly calls "A Forceful call to recognize the roots of American inequality and a solid starting point for Christians who want to help fix them."
The assertion is quite simple really. Racism is not about hate and ignorance, though this is often the lens that we use. It's about greed. According to Foley, it always has been.
Note by note and scripture by scripture, Foley sets out to show how how "racial capitalism" causes violence and exploitation. For anyone who cares, and all Christians should, "The Anti-Greed Gospel" is an often difficult read as Foley takes us through the history of racial violence in the United States including paying absolutely necessary to the history of lynching.
"The Anti-Greed Gospel" begins boldly as Foley establishes that we're in for a different sort of discussion. While acknowledging traditional views of racism, Foley makes it clear that what we're about to read is about Mammon, which Christians will know is preached against throughout Scripture. Foley dives in quickly to explain how race/racism has been created to justify exploitation and domination. To a painful extent, and for those particularly sensitive I'll note somewhat graphic one, Foley repeatedly visits the history of lynching as a post-slavery means by which control over African-Americans was inflicted.
Much of the first half of "The Anti-Greed Gospel" deals specifically with the history of greed, race, and racial capitalism. The second half, is a necessary and pointed call to action. Foley introduces us to key figures throughout, from Francis Grimke to Atticus Haygood to James B. Cone to the vastly underappreciated Ida B. Wells.
"The Anti-Greed Gospel" accomplished many things for me.
First, of course, Foley powerfully captures the truth that greed is at the very root of racism and without addressing it we are failing to not just eliminate racism but actually replace it.
Secondly, Foley brings forth an effective argument about the necessity of anti-violence rather than non-violence or any number of other familiar phrases or terms.
Thirdly, Foley constructs more convincingly than nearly any writer I've read an argument against violence. As someone who spent several years within the Anabaptist tradition, my leanings have often been toward peace but with those usual red flag discussions. Foley addresses the vast majority of those discussions with precision, discipline, Scripture, and remarkable insight.
Finally, I must acknowledge that even before I was done with reading "The Anti-Greed Gospel" I could feel Foley's words becoming actionable. As a longtime activist, I could feel Foley's words influencing my giving, my philanthropy, and my desire to ensure my giving is devoid of "superior/inferior" in favor of equity and community. I may have cried (Okay, I did) as I thought about this last year as I traveled in my wheelchair 160 miles to eliminate medical debt for Hoosiers.
If anything, I wish I'd read this book before that effort.
As an adult with disabilities, I saw kernels of truth that I could also apply to my own existence and to the way I live in my world and the world around me.
In short, I didn't just learn a lot from Malcolm Foley's "The Anti-Greed Gospel." I learned how I could apply it all to my own life.
Weaving together powerful theological truths and insights with historical evidence and lived realities, "The Anti-Greed Gospel" refuses to accept the path we've been living far too often as Christians but then, with stunning compassion, points toward a Christ-like path forward.
In fact, at times it's a pretty horrific read. At times, I can't even lie, I wanted to stop reading it.
Stopping wasn't an option.
Pastor at Mosaic Waco and Special Advisor to the President for Equity and Campus Engagement at Baylor University (I love the idea of Foley and Beth Allison Barr on the same campus), Foley has crafted what Publishers Weekly calls "A Forceful call to recognize the roots of American inequality and a solid starting point for Christians who want to help fix them."
The assertion is quite simple really. Racism is not about hate and ignorance, though this is often the lens that we use. It's about greed. According to Foley, it always has been.
Note by note and scripture by scripture, Foley sets out to show how how "racial capitalism" causes violence and exploitation. For anyone who cares, and all Christians should, "The Anti-Greed Gospel" is an often difficult read as Foley takes us through the history of racial violence in the United States including paying absolutely necessary to the history of lynching.
"The Anti-Greed Gospel" begins boldly as Foley establishes that we're in for a different sort of discussion. While acknowledging traditional views of racism, Foley makes it clear that what we're about to read is about Mammon, which Christians will know is preached against throughout Scripture. Foley dives in quickly to explain how race/racism has been created to justify exploitation and domination. To a painful extent, and for those particularly sensitive I'll note somewhat graphic one, Foley repeatedly visits the history of lynching as a post-slavery means by which control over African-Americans was inflicted.
Much of the first half of "The Anti-Greed Gospel" deals specifically with the history of greed, race, and racial capitalism. The second half, is a necessary and pointed call to action. Foley introduces us to key figures throughout, from Francis Grimke to Atticus Haygood to James B. Cone to the vastly underappreciated Ida B. Wells.
"The Anti-Greed Gospel" accomplished many things for me.
First, of course, Foley powerfully captures the truth that greed is at the very root of racism and without addressing it we are failing to not just eliminate racism but actually replace it.
Secondly, Foley brings forth an effective argument about the necessity of anti-violence rather than non-violence or any number of other familiar phrases or terms.
Thirdly, Foley constructs more convincingly than nearly any writer I've read an argument against violence. As someone who spent several years within the Anabaptist tradition, my leanings have often been toward peace but with those usual red flag discussions. Foley addresses the vast majority of those discussions with precision, discipline, Scripture, and remarkable insight.
Finally, I must acknowledge that even before I was done with reading "The Anti-Greed Gospel" I could feel Foley's words becoming actionable. As a longtime activist, I could feel Foley's words influencing my giving, my philanthropy, and my desire to ensure my giving is devoid of "superior/inferior" in favor of equity and community. I may have cried (Okay, I did) as I thought about this last year as I traveled in my wheelchair 160 miles to eliminate medical debt for Hoosiers.
If anything, I wish I'd read this book before that effort.
As an adult with disabilities, I saw kernels of truth that I could also apply to my own existence and to the way I live in my world and the world around me.
In short, I didn't just learn a lot from Malcolm Foley's "The Anti-Greed Gospel." I learned how I could apply it all to my own life.
Weaving together powerful theological truths and insights with historical evidence and lived realities, "The Anti-Greed Gospel" refuses to accept the path we've been living far too often as Christians but then, with stunning compassion, points toward a Christ-like path forward.
December 24, 2024
I am a minister in a denomination that seeks to be anti-racist. We have regular trainings designed to help clergy and other leaders of the church examine themselves and commit themselves to being anti-racist. We learn in these trainings what racism means and involves. We're not alone, though there is considerable pushback against such efforts that are connected to DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion). These programs, we're told, are designed to make white people, especially straight white males, feel bad about themselves. It seems that for some, if we ignore race then racism doesn't exist. So, let's just be "color-blind." The problem is, that racism does exist, and it involves more than prejudice with power (the common definition). In fact, it goes much deeper.
Malcolm Foley has written a powerful book that takes us deeper into the question of race and racism, rooting it in greed. Thus, he offers us this book "The Anti-Greed Gospel." While Foley acknowledges the traditional definitions of racism that involve prejudice and power. He argues that racism is not "primarily about hate and ignorance." It is, about greed. That is, race and racism are, he argues, the "children of Mammon." He uses the word Mammon, capitalizing it, because it involves idolatry. According to Jesus, we cannot serve God and Mammon. Thus, the roots of racism can be found, he argues, in covetousness, the desire to accumulate, which is understood in Scripture to be the root of evil. In this case, greed leads to the desire of some (primarily white males) to gain economic domination through exploitation. Race/racism is a social construct created to justify the exploitation of some by others for economic gain (pp. 2-3). With this in mind, as he develops his view of racism, Foley points to the use of lynching to control African Americans for economic gain after the demise of slavery. Race and racism, rooted not just in prejudice plus power, but in greed, break seven of the Ten Commandments, and thus are evil. Thus, the goal here is to enlighten Christians about the danger of racism to the Christian faith.
Foley divides the book into two parts. Part 1 is titled: "Our History of Greed, Race, and Racial Capitalism." He divides this section into four chapters. He begins in Chapter 1 by showing "How Greed Gave Birth to Race." Central to Foley's argument is the problem of capitalism, which requires workers, and one way to provide that is through slavery or similar realities. Historically, white (Europeans/Euro-Americans), used race as a means of dominating for economic exploitation. in his view, economics precedes race/racism. After defining his terms, Foley goes deeper in Chapter 2 to explore "The Talons and Tendrils of Racial Capitalism." It is in this chapter that Foley brings into the conversation the use of lynchings to control African Americans so as to exploit them for economic reasons. After the end of slavery, lynchings became a tool of labor control. He points out that lynchings came to an end once they were deemed bad for business. He follows up in Chapter 3 by focusing on the "Lessons of Despair from Francis Grimke and Atticus Haygood." Grimke was a well-known Black minister who addressed lynchings and sought to bring them to an end. Unfortunately, according to Foley, out of desperation, turned to advocate violence as a response. On the other hand, Haygood was a white Methodist minister and president of Emory University, who seemed to oppose some forms of racism as well as lynchings, but in the end offered defenses of lynching as an expression of law and order, since Blacks were understood to be lawless. Finally, in Chapter 4, Foley focuses on "Lessons of Resistance by Ida B. Wells, a woman who is not as well known among civil rights leaders, but devoted her life as a journalist and activist to ending lynching. Foley writes "She saw clearly what was obscured for many, that lynching was a tool of an oppressive political economy. Once this was clear, she set her face like flint" fighting until her death against the violence perpetrated against persons of color (pp. 79-80). I found this chapter to be quite valuable since I about Wells, I didn't know her full story, including her life-long efforts to end lynching. Key to her efforts was opening people's eyes to the realities of lynching, especially its usage as a tool of economic exploitation.
If Part 1 sets out the foundations of the argument that economic exploitation/greed is the foundation of race/racism, in Part 2, Foley asks "Where Do We Go from Here?" This is where things get challenging and even personal as Foley asks the reader to consider how we will respond. Part 1 lays out the problem, while Part 2 asks how we will become part of the solution. So, in Chapter 5 he asks the question: "Solidarity or Greed?" This starts with having meaningful conversations about money and our relationship to it. So, will we embrace greed or show economic solidarity with those affected most by greed? This involves more than generosity, it involves participation in uplift. While what he advocates here might seem to many as Marxism, what he argues for is deeply rooted in Christian theology, especially the call to love our neighbors. The next question (Chapter 6) involves "Love or Violence?" In this chapter, Foley develops his vision not of non-violence but anti-violence, which he believes is a core value of Christian faith. This too will prove challenging, especially since it challenges our propensity to support militarism. But, the basis of anti-violence is love. He follows this up in Chapter 7 with the question of "Truth or Lies?" Again he points to Ida B. Wells, who was a truth teller. He writes "We cannot fight racism well if we think that it isn't just about power or hate or ignorance. To only see or speak of those things is to operate with clouded sight and bound hands and feet. We must see the other material element of race and racism: money. This truth is uncomfortable but we will not rid ourselves or face racism without loudly proclaiming it" (pp. 139-140). So, will we attend to the truth of race/racism or embrace the lies we like to tell ourselves so that nothing is demanded of us? The final chapter (Chapter 8) is titled "The Creative Kingdom." In this chapter Foley, who is pastor of Mosaic Church of Waco, Texas, and advisor to the President of Baylor University on diversity matters, invites us to envision the Kingdom of God and how that vision calls for resistance to the greed that undergirds race and racism. He writes that "the message of the kingdom of God is that the King has finally come. To accept that message is to recognize Christ as king, which is precisely what Paul means when he says that to be saved, one must 'declare with [their] mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in [their] heart that God raised him from the dead' (Ro. 10:9). To believe Jesu was raised is to believe that everything he said about life and himself was true, for his resurrection was his vindication." (pp. 157-158). If this is true then one cannot embrace Mammon as one's lord. This is the foundation of a Kingdom ethic that undergirds a political economy that rejects greed and exploitation, which is the root of racism and the violence that is attendant to it. Ultimately, this requires community, which involves solidarity.
In his epilogue, Foley reprises his primary message. That is, the concept of race arose "to fulfill a particular economic and political purpose: to justify domination and to continue exploration. This phenomenon explains not all but much of the racialized violence that we have witnessed and continue to witness." (p. 163). The targets are not just African Americans, but also others who have been exploited, from Chinese to Italians. Of course, we must not forget Native Americans who suffered other forms of racialized oppression. This occurs when we "seek to be priests and prophets of Mammon rather than of the kingdom of God." (p. 163). The message that Foley offers is more challenging than usual anti-racism messages that speak of education and friendship. Abandoning greed/materialism will require much more of us, but this is, he believes the reality of embracing the message of the Kingdom of God.
Malcolm Foley has written a powerful book that takes us deeper into the question of race and racism, rooting it in greed. Thus, he offers us this book "The Anti-Greed Gospel." While Foley acknowledges the traditional definitions of racism that involve prejudice and power. He argues that racism is not "primarily about hate and ignorance." It is, about greed. That is, race and racism are, he argues, the "children of Mammon." He uses the word Mammon, capitalizing it, because it involves idolatry. According to Jesus, we cannot serve God and Mammon. Thus, the roots of racism can be found, he argues, in covetousness, the desire to accumulate, which is understood in Scripture to be the root of evil. In this case, greed leads to the desire of some (primarily white males) to gain economic domination through exploitation. Race/racism is a social construct created to justify the exploitation of some by others for economic gain (pp. 2-3). With this in mind, as he develops his view of racism, Foley points to the use of lynching to control African Americans for economic gain after the demise of slavery. Race and racism, rooted not just in prejudice plus power, but in greed, break seven of the Ten Commandments, and thus are evil. Thus, the goal here is to enlighten Christians about the danger of racism to the Christian faith.
Foley divides the book into two parts. Part 1 is titled: "Our History of Greed, Race, and Racial Capitalism." He divides this section into four chapters. He begins in Chapter 1 by showing "How Greed Gave Birth to Race." Central to Foley's argument is the problem of capitalism, which requires workers, and one way to provide that is through slavery or similar realities. Historically, white (Europeans/Euro-Americans), used race as a means of dominating for economic exploitation. in his view, economics precedes race/racism. After defining his terms, Foley goes deeper in Chapter 2 to explore "The Talons and Tendrils of Racial Capitalism." It is in this chapter that Foley brings into the conversation the use of lynchings to control African Americans so as to exploit them for economic reasons. After the end of slavery, lynchings became a tool of labor control. He points out that lynchings came to an end once they were deemed bad for business. He follows up in Chapter 3 by focusing on the "Lessons of Despair from Francis Grimke and Atticus Haygood." Grimke was a well-known Black minister who addressed lynchings and sought to bring them to an end. Unfortunately, according to Foley, out of desperation, turned to advocate violence as a response. On the other hand, Haygood was a white Methodist minister and president of Emory University, who seemed to oppose some forms of racism as well as lynchings, but in the end offered defenses of lynching as an expression of law and order, since Blacks were understood to be lawless. Finally, in Chapter 4, Foley focuses on "Lessons of Resistance by Ida B. Wells, a woman who is not as well known among civil rights leaders, but devoted her life as a journalist and activist to ending lynching. Foley writes "She saw clearly what was obscured for many, that lynching was a tool of an oppressive political economy. Once this was clear, she set her face like flint" fighting until her death against the violence perpetrated against persons of color (pp. 79-80). I found this chapter to be quite valuable since I about Wells, I didn't know her full story, including her life-long efforts to end lynching. Key to her efforts was opening people's eyes to the realities of lynching, especially its usage as a tool of economic exploitation.
If Part 1 sets out the foundations of the argument that economic exploitation/greed is the foundation of race/racism, in Part 2, Foley asks "Where Do We Go from Here?" This is where things get challenging and even personal as Foley asks the reader to consider how we will respond. Part 1 lays out the problem, while Part 2 asks how we will become part of the solution. So, in Chapter 5 he asks the question: "Solidarity or Greed?" This starts with having meaningful conversations about money and our relationship to it. So, will we embrace greed or show economic solidarity with those affected most by greed? This involves more than generosity, it involves participation in uplift. While what he advocates here might seem to many as Marxism, what he argues for is deeply rooted in Christian theology, especially the call to love our neighbors. The next question (Chapter 6) involves "Love or Violence?" In this chapter, Foley develops his vision not of non-violence but anti-violence, which he believes is a core value of Christian faith. This too will prove challenging, especially since it challenges our propensity to support militarism. But, the basis of anti-violence is love. He follows this up in Chapter 7 with the question of "Truth or Lies?" Again he points to Ida B. Wells, who was a truth teller. He writes "We cannot fight racism well if we think that it isn't just about power or hate or ignorance. To only see or speak of those things is to operate with clouded sight and bound hands and feet. We must see the other material element of race and racism: money. This truth is uncomfortable but we will not rid ourselves or face racism without loudly proclaiming it" (pp. 139-140). So, will we attend to the truth of race/racism or embrace the lies we like to tell ourselves so that nothing is demanded of us? The final chapter (Chapter 8) is titled "The Creative Kingdom." In this chapter Foley, who is pastor of Mosaic Church of Waco, Texas, and advisor to the President of Baylor University on diversity matters, invites us to envision the Kingdom of God and how that vision calls for resistance to the greed that undergirds race and racism. He writes that "the message of the kingdom of God is that the King has finally come. To accept that message is to recognize Christ as king, which is precisely what Paul means when he says that to be saved, one must 'declare with [their] mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in [their] heart that God raised him from the dead' (Ro. 10:9). To believe Jesu was raised is to believe that everything he said about life and himself was true, for his resurrection was his vindication." (pp. 157-158). If this is true then one cannot embrace Mammon as one's lord. This is the foundation of a Kingdom ethic that undergirds a political economy that rejects greed and exploitation, which is the root of racism and the violence that is attendant to it. Ultimately, this requires community, which involves solidarity.
In his epilogue, Foley reprises his primary message. That is, the concept of race arose "to fulfill a particular economic and political purpose: to justify domination and to continue exploration. This phenomenon explains not all but much of the racialized violence that we have witnessed and continue to witness." (p. 163). The targets are not just African Americans, but also others who have been exploited, from Chinese to Italians. Of course, we must not forget Native Americans who suffered other forms of racialized oppression. This occurs when we "seek to be priests and prophets of Mammon rather than of the kingdom of God." (p. 163). The message that Foley offers is more challenging than usual anti-racism messages that speak of education and friendship. Abandoning greed/materialism will require much more of us, but this is, he believes the reality of embracing the message of the Kingdom of God.
April 22, 2025
this book rightly points out the powers and principalities at play behind where this country finds ourselves today, and what it will take to get beyond that. to say that Mammon has its hold on us is an understatement. To paraphrase the author's words, "money is not a gift to steward but an enemy to resist". To be honest I have no idea how to live out what this book is suggesting, especially as someone who lives in a relatively lower class, and I don't think the author wants to prescribe a specific set of responses. I do think, however, what the church needs is not a kick in the pants in terms of conviction but rather to be enveloped by the radical love of God which will in turn render our wealth unnecessary. Any other approach will be fear-based, which is not a marker of the love of God.
February 12, 2025
This is the resource I have been waiting for. I will be recommending it to many.
July 30, 2025
In The Anti-Greed Gospel, Malcolm Foley has written the book that some of us wanted and all of us, even if we were not yet aware of it, needed. It is a book that takes seriously the commands of Jesus while carefully calling the Church into obedience. That I find it necessary to qualify calling the church to obey the commands of Jesus for fear that I (or Foley for that matter) would be dismissed as some kind of heartless fundamentalist is certainly a topic for discussion another time. One of the remarkable things about Foley’s writing is the tone that comes through. Foley’s ability to tell the truth without flinching, while never being overbearing or paternalistic, is a gift much needed in the church. Unlike other books I share with people, this one requires zero qualifiers to excuse the tune with which it is written.
I said this is the book we need (even if we do not know it yet) because Foley has skillfully assembled from the work of Christian theology, social sciences, history, and economics to offer a three-part framework for the church to disrupt racial capitalism at its root: greed. If ever there was an issue that the church has failed to adequately appropriate the beauty of being a witness to the kingdom of God, racial capital is certainly one of those issues.
Listen, if this one quote does not convince you that you need to read this book, I’m not sure you need to read this review:
“Race is not primarily about hate and ignorance. It’s about greed. It always has been. And the purpose of this book is that you might understand the unholy relationship between race and greed, best understood not as a marriage but in terms of parentage: race and racism are children of Mammon.”(2)
Can Foley get an amen?
The next 164 pages not only demonstrate the roots of race and racism in Mammon through historical examples, Foley also roots this problem within the powers and principalities so easily dismissed in this world, even by Christians.
Thankfully, Foley does not offer some cookie cutter approach or six-step process to being less racists as a church. Instead, using the commands of Jesus and the historic witness of the church, calls us into building communities of deep economic solidarity, creative anti-violence, and prophetic truth telling. By the time you finish this book you will have the tools needed to follow the Spirit along with a community of brothers and sisters into the way of Jesus and not Mammon.
For the sake of our neighbors and our witness to the world, I encourage you to read this book. Hear the words of Jesus through the words of Foley. And then do them.
The violent and destructive systems of this world have been created. Therefore, they can be recreated. From the ground up. The Anti-Greed Gospel is one of those books that can help us live into a different reality. One based in the revolution Jesus completed many years ago.
I said this is the book we need (even if we do not know it yet) because Foley has skillfully assembled from the work of Christian theology, social sciences, history, and economics to offer a three-part framework for the church to disrupt racial capitalism at its root: greed. If ever there was an issue that the church has failed to adequately appropriate the beauty of being a witness to the kingdom of God, racial capital is certainly one of those issues.
Listen, if this one quote does not convince you that you need to read this book, I’m not sure you need to read this review:
“Race is not primarily about hate and ignorance. It’s about greed. It always has been. And the purpose of this book is that you might understand the unholy relationship between race and greed, best understood not as a marriage but in terms of parentage: race and racism are children of Mammon.”(2)
Can Foley get an amen?
The next 164 pages not only demonstrate the roots of race and racism in Mammon through historical examples, Foley also roots this problem within the powers and principalities so easily dismissed in this world, even by Christians.
Thankfully, Foley does not offer some cookie cutter approach or six-step process to being less racists as a church. Instead, using the commands of Jesus and the historic witness of the church, calls us into building communities of deep economic solidarity, creative anti-violence, and prophetic truth telling. By the time you finish this book you will have the tools needed to follow the Spirit along with a community of brothers and sisters into the way of Jesus and not Mammon.
For the sake of our neighbors and our witness to the world, I encourage you to read this book. Hear the words of Jesus through the words of Foley. And then do them.
The violent and destructive systems of this world have been created. Therefore, they can be recreated. From the ground up. The Anti-Greed Gospel is one of those books that can help us live into a different reality. One based in the revolution Jesus completed many years ago.
March 8, 2025
I finished this today. Wow. This book confronts our greed and the ways we've over-spiritualized and shrunk the Gospel. Foley is the prophetic voice we need today, pastoral and convicting as he compels us to take the words of Jesus seriously. This is a must-read for everyone!
July 25, 2025
Foley’s ideas and arguments are extremely important and compelling, and I agreed with and was convicted by many of them. I was hoping for more “how”—any of his suggestions for practical application and ways to put these ideas into motion in day-to-day life. For me this was just missing the transition from the theoretical/ideological to the tangible.
March 27, 2025
Dr. Foley has challenged a ton of my thinking. Right now this is sitting at a 3.5 for me due to some moments throughout the book where I need some more convincing, and yet I am willing to be persuaded. Overall, I agree with many of his key ideas. A more full review to come!
October 6, 2025
I really appreciated the views presented in this book and further appreciated the deep conversations I've had with my friends about the content of this book. I highly recommend it!
September 17, 2025
I love this book, really excellent, 5 / 5 stars. The fact that this book moves the discussion further back than "reconciliation" or trying to defend "social justice" to actually critically examining the foundations of our societal system, is a great sign of progress. If only "racial capitalism" had made it into the subtitle!!
My one disagreement is with what appears to be an inconsistency in the application of Foley's Christian anti-violence (more robust than "non-violence") to historical figures, namely Francis Grimké and Ida B. Wells. Foley argues that we should actually try to obey what Jesus commanded when he commanded non-, or anti-violence. I heartily agree, and I have held this for some time, even to the point of being mocked and disputed in seminary over my anti-war, anti-violence, "pacificist" views. Through this lens, Foley critiques the call to violent, if necessary, self-defence, as called for by Malcolm X, early James Cone, and ... Francis Grimké. Grimké said, after one particular mob lynching, that perhaps the only way to deal with a mob "and that is to shoot it to death; to meet it in the same spirit of violence in which it comes." This for Foley is a case of a Christian minister succumbing to an anti-Christian approach, a capitulation to the powers, and a compromise of the Christian witness.
So far, so good--if we are holding unflinchingly to anti-violence, than no one is above critique.
But why, then, does Ida B. Wells get a pass? And not only a pass, but unqualified praise, though she called for almost the exact same thing? Foley also acknowledges that Wells "also advocated for self-defence--specifically, for the notion that "a Winchester rifle ought to have a place of honor in every black home" (84). But this is simply an example of "fervor," and the fact that lynching "must be stopped by whatever means necessary." Wells is "fierce," and "indefatigable" and Foley claims that she "exemplified an alternative way to think about and respond to violence" --an alternative to Grimké and others. But this claim fell flat to me, because Grimké's "bullets" were likely fired from Wells's "Winchester."
Foley repeatedly holds Grimké up as an example of compromise, and Wells as an example to follow. I would argue that the two stand or fall together.
Just to sketch a direction here, I think that when you take Francis Grimké's full life and ministry and sermons and letters and advocacy into account, he exemplifies everything that Foley praises in Wells: calling for the truth; prophetically calling out the powers, even at the highest levels of congress and the white house itself; defending those accused of lynching (look up the Brownsville affair); condemned for sympathizing with Bolshevists; and calling out greed in just the ways I think Foley would wish.
In fact, if we are being robust in our critiques, and we have to critique Wells's Winchester, I wonder who we have left as a historical example of Christian anti-violence from the lynching period?
I would love to find some examples!!!
So anyway, I loved the book, and the level of engagement on a particular point of disagreement is actually a sign of how good the book is, and the kind of discussion it should provoke.
My one disagreement is with what appears to be an inconsistency in the application of Foley's Christian anti-violence (more robust than "non-violence") to historical figures, namely Francis Grimké and Ida B. Wells. Foley argues that we should actually try to obey what Jesus commanded when he commanded non-, or anti-violence. I heartily agree, and I have held this for some time, even to the point of being mocked and disputed in seminary over my anti-war, anti-violence, "pacificist" views. Through this lens, Foley critiques the call to violent, if necessary, self-defence, as called for by Malcolm X, early James Cone, and ... Francis Grimké. Grimké said, after one particular mob lynching, that perhaps the only way to deal with a mob "and that is to shoot it to death; to meet it in the same spirit of violence in which it comes." This for Foley is a case of a Christian minister succumbing to an anti-Christian approach, a capitulation to the powers, and a compromise of the Christian witness.
So far, so good--if we are holding unflinchingly to anti-violence, than no one is above critique.
But why, then, does Ida B. Wells get a pass? And not only a pass, but unqualified praise, though she called for almost the exact same thing? Foley also acknowledges that Wells "also advocated for self-defence--specifically, for the notion that "a Winchester rifle ought to have a place of honor in every black home" (84). But this is simply an example of "fervor," and the fact that lynching "must be stopped by whatever means necessary." Wells is "fierce," and "indefatigable" and Foley claims that she "exemplified an alternative way to think about and respond to violence" --an alternative to Grimké and others. But this claim fell flat to me, because Grimké's "bullets" were likely fired from Wells's "Winchester."
Foley repeatedly holds Grimké up as an example of compromise, and Wells as an example to follow. I would argue that the two stand or fall together.
Just to sketch a direction here, I think that when you take Francis Grimké's full life and ministry and sermons and letters and advocacy into account, he exemplifies everything that Foley praises in Wells: calling for the truth; prophetically calling out the powers, even at the highest levels of congress and the white house itself; defending those accused of lynching (look up the Brownsville affair); condemned for sympathizing with Bolshevists; and calling out greed in just the ways I think Foley would wish.
In fact, if we are being robust in our critiques, and we have to critique Wells's Winchester, I wonder who we have left as a historical example of Christian anti-violence from the lynching period?
I would love to find some examples!!!
So anyway, I loved the book, and the level of engagement on a particular point of disagreement is actually a sign of how good the book is, and the kind of discussion it should provoke.
January 11, 2026
Foley makes a very compelling case for why we must wage war against racism; he advocates that greed is the real enemy. As he is writing, he keeps the spiritual reality in view that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. This book is heavy and exposes the gory events that were results of racism and greed. Foley explores how the church is the solution. The church's love must be accompanied by action, or it will never defang the beast of mammon.
Don't believe me, go read it and find out.
Don't believe me, go read it and find out.
October 10, 2025
This is a good word to the church that we should all heed. Thank you Dr. Foley for this book.
Read
August 14, 2025I maintain a bit of skepticism that all violence comes from greed, HOWEVER I don't think that Christians talk about greed enough and this is an important addition to the dialogue around economic solidarity and racism and all the rest. Some truly haunting ideas like that violent systems (slavery, lynching, etc) were not created and perpetuated by white people because they saw their Black neighbors as less human, but because they cared more about their desire to accumulate and keep wealth than they cared about their neighbor's humanity.
Also wish there would have been a bit more discussion on how to create the new way forward besides relying on phrases like "creative community" and "economic solidarity." But maybe it's just problematic white american of me to think I'm entitled to a solution every time I hear about a problem and that it is within my power to fix it.
Just started reading Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler and I already know that book is about to interact with this one and the whole slew of american christianity complications in a fascinating way..
Also wish there would have been a bit more discussion on how to create the new way forward besides relying on phrases like "creative community" and "economic solidarity." But maybe it's just problematic white american of me to think I'm entitled to a solution every time I hear about a problem and that it is within my power to fix it.
Just started reading Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler and I already know that book is about to interact with this one and the whole slew of american christianity complications in a fascinating way..
April 7, 2025
This is a radical and challenging book, in a good way. The central thesis is that we Christians cannot serve both God and Mammon. All of our resources are to be shared, not hoarded, in order for us truly to love our neighbors as ourselves. The first half explains how lynching was the outgrowth of racial capitalism and the second half elaborates on how we can live radically. I do not agree with everything; as a former soldier I believe that some wars can be just. Foley is an extreme pacifist, but he does not spend too much time on that topic. I recommend this book if you want to be challenged about the way you use your wealth.
April 24, 2025
In this work of historical and theological reflection, Foley shows how racism grew out of greed. But he goes beyond locating the historical roots of racism, he also sketches out what Christian communities can begin to do about it. I appreciated his call to submit our imaginations to the Holy Spirit. I need to figure out in which class I can use this book. Recommended.
December 18, 2025
There is so much I learned and appreciated about this book. First, I think the general thesis of the book is correct: “Greed is racism’s fuel. Only when this history is understood can the proper theological and ethical interventions take place" (7). I think that this is a profound insight. If racism is mainly ignorance, then education will fix it. If racism is primarily hatred, love should fix it. But if captivity to Mammon (greed) lies at the heart, we need to be set free by Christ (in addition to learning love and education). Second, the way Foley writes and does theology is best of what the retrieval movement seeks to do. He masterfully weaves together Scriptural exegesis (applied in a local church context) in conversation with the present global church, the black tradition, and the best of the orthodox father from across the the centuries. Third, I love the way he challenges generosity which is actually paternalism. I need to think more on this point, but I am reconsidering what solidarity could look like as a way forward. Fourth, I really appreciate Foley's courage to blaze new paths at a few points (though I don't always agree). Two examples: he seems to challenge a bit of the black pride movement at one point: "“We don’t need to be post-racial or even primarily anti-racist; we need to be anti-racial. Racism itself has to be consciously evacuated of its power" (39). Another is his disagreement with Grimke and his application of a form of a just war theory. At these points I think Foley is expanding my thinking, though I don't know if I agree fully with him therein.
July 27, 2025
I don’t remember the last time I underlined a book so much.
How refreshing it is to see an unapologetically Christian voice calling the Church to higher, more beautiful ways of loving our neighbor while dismantling the deeply rooted lies/violence of racialized capitalism. Using both historical and biblical foundations, Foley’s debut novel casts such a powerful vision for a counterculture Kingdom that actively quells the sin of greed and steps into the material, economic realities of what it means to truly obey Christ, individually and communally.
I’m of the view that the greatest act of solidarity in human history is the Incarnation. And I think what Foley’s done here is show us how the gospel transforms everything, including our relationship to wealth and labor as we seek to follow Him. I didn’t expect a book about race and greed to help me fall deeper in love with the Father, but it did, and that was my favorite part.
Let His will be done on earth as it is in heaven!
How refreshing it is to see an unapologetically Christian voice calling the Church to higher, more beautiful ways of loving our neighbor while dismantling the deeply rooted lies/violence of racialized capitalism. Using both historical and biblical foundations, Foley’s debut novel casts such a powerful vision for a counterculture Kingdom that actively quells the sin of greed and steps into the material, economic realities of what it means to truly obey Christ, individually and communally.
I’m of the view that the greatest act of solidarity in human history is the Incarnation. And I think what Foley’s done here is show us how the gospel transforms everything, including our relationship to wealth and labor as we seek to follow Him. I didn’t expect a book about race and greed to help me fall deeper in love with the Father, but it did, and that was my favorite part.
Let His will be done on earth as it is in heaven!
May 10, 2025
This book is a bold and necessary. Foley’s message—challenging the grip of greed on American Christianity—is radical, timely, and deeply rooted in truth. Five stars for the content.
However, the writing felt a bit scattered and needed a better editor. With his radical message, he needed to drive his point home more clearly and directly.
However, the writing felt a bit scattered and needed a better editor. With his radical message, he needed to drive his point home more clearly and directly.
March 8, 2025
Rev. Dr. Foley has written a compelling argument that that the root of racism is not hatred but greed. The implications are significant. You’ll want to read this book, particularly if you want to think through what it means for the church.
March 25, 2025
A sobering look at a perspective on the root of racism in the United States and how Christians can react. Would recommend to anyone seeking to understand more and keep learning from others.
September 23, 2025
Wow! Such a needed perspective and recourse for the Church and the work of anti racism.
February 11, 2025
Summary: A reframing of the concept of racism, not as hatred on the basis of skin color, but as greed.
Racial capitalism is a concept that I have been aware of, but not dived deeply into. I read part of Asian Americans and the Spirit of Racial Capitalism by Jonathan Tran but put it aside when I had some other pressing things and never came back to it. I think, in part, I set it aside because I needed to grapple with some other things first. I have followed Malcolm Foley on social media (and his podcast) for a while. I have observed him from a distance coming across the concept of racial capitalism and how that shifted some of his language around racism. I pre-ordered The Anti-Greed Gospel a while ago precisely because I thought he could introduce the topic in a way that I could understand.
About a week before the book was released, Netgalley emailed and offered me an advance digital copy for review. The Anti-Greed Gospel fairly short. I read a chapter or so before bed and finished it in five days. (There are 8 chapters and the main text is about 165 pages. I had 55 highlights in my copy which you can see here.)
As I was reading I kept thinking that in some ways Critical Race Theory is centering how legal structures were the primary tool of racism while Racial Capitalism centered out greed and capitalism were the primary tool of racism. But that is both too simple and not nuanced enough. It is pretty well known that legal structures were essential to creating the concept of race. Race as we understand the modern category did not exist before the enlightenment when categorization became a mainstream tool of not just science, but also of economics and other areas of academics and culture. That is, of course, not to say that no one recognized that there were different skin colors, but to say that phenotypical skin color was not determinative of worth, value or identity in the way that scientific racism developed from the 18th to the 20th century.
Racial Capitalism and Critical Race Theory (CRT) both agree that legal structures were essential to creating a racial caste system in the US. And CRT and Racial Capitalism both agree that racial categories are a social reality, not a biological reality. There are other overlaps, but one of the common objections to CRT is that it believes that racism doesn't go away, it shifts. I think there are some nuances in how I (in my very non-expert way) see how some of the nuances of Racial Capitalism agree with that point, but shifts the view in a way that can be more helpful than CRT is broadly.
If racism is primarily an issue of greed and the oppression or subjugation of others for the purpose of wealth creation, then that approach is different from looking at legal structures that CRT does. Both of my introductions to Racial Capitalism were from Christians, so I do need to read a secular presentation to balance that out. But Foley and Tran are willing to talk about greed and the underlying capitalist system with a spiritual lens. (Similar to how some Christian presentations of CRT also can do that.) In spite of using a Christian lens, I think you can see that part of what racial capitalism is pointing out is that culture and systemic structures (law, capitalism, eduction, etc) work together to maintain the structures of racism so that neither interpersonal attacks not systemic attacks apart from one another get at the core problems of racism. Foley draws on the MLK and the civil rights movement for descriptive language.
The early chapters are likely where most people will be doing the most highlighting. It is where the very nature of what racism is doing is being challenged. This is not a 100% change in approach, but I think a helpful refocus. Because it is an explicitly Christian presentation, it brings into play the role of distorted thinking and ethics brings into our larger societal systems. For Foley, the fact that slave owners must dehumanize to justify slavery or segregation means that other areas of ethical thinking are also distorted. Personal ethnics matters, but also so does systemic reasoning. The very nature of "efficiency" can be about minimizing waste, but once your ethics have been distorted, efficiency can use the loss of the concept of all being made in the image of God to justify profit over people.
There are other books that lay out some of the history of how Christianity and business interests intersected in unhelpful ways. Kevin Kruse points out that business interests used Christian rhetoric and institutions to mobilize Christians politically. Jesse Curtis talks about how business principle snuck into church planting and church growth models to maintain segregated churches. Sean McGever talks about how evangelism and mission of the church blinded the 17th and 18th century church to slavery’s evil. There are a lot of other books I have not gotten to about how extractive industries, particularly oil interests influenced modern evangelicalism. The development of capitalism has definitely impacted Christianity's understanding of the role of economics.
Foley's PhD dissertation was about lynching and his background in the historical study of lynching is central to The Anti-Greed Gospel. After the introduction and two chapters laying how the idea of racial capitalism and how it is engrained in our society, Foley lays out three examples of how we tend to respond to racism in the case of lynching. Two of those are mostly inadequate examples and one is a more positive examples. Francis Grimké and Atticus Haygood are the two negative examples. Grimke sees the problem of lynching as domination and exploitation. But his response as a pastor starts with black self improvement and white education. “Grimké falls into the same trap that many of us do: we see the material effects of racism, yet we address only the spiritual and mental remedies.” (p62) Later Grimké shifts to accepting violence when he sees that racial uplift and white education are not stopping lynching. (Grimké came to understand what many have learned, that information alone will not stop racism.)
Atticus Haygood also is opposed to lynching and, as the president of Emory University, was viewed as a racial progressive. But as with many white progressives before and after the civil war, he opposed the structures of slavery or Jim Crow, but not the underlying cultural assumption of racial hierarchy.
Foley's third figure, Ida B Wells, understands the structural nature of lynching and probably most importantly, that the surface level blame on black men raping white women was almost never the actual precipitating factor. In most cases, lynching was primarily about terrorism for the purpose of maintaining economic superiority. Whether it was individuals or communities, lynching was more likely to happen in communities where there was increasing Black economic self sufficiency. The KKK is one factor but at the time of most of Wells' work, the larger KKK movement had been pushed underground. The KKK from the 1880s until the 1920 less important structurally than it was before or after that period. Foley is pointing out here that Wells saw that economic independence was the center of lynching and how she maintained her Christian faith, about repentance and grace, while also drawing attention to how the lies of lynching worked to hide its actual reality.
Lynching no longer worked as a wide spread reality when economic systems changed and federal and state officials were no longer allowed to just look away from the problems. One of the point of her writing was that racial hierarchy placed the blame of lynching on the black victim's "crime." But the actual "burden was on white communities not to lynch but rather to be faithful to the faith that they claimed because, rather simply, one could not lynch and be Christian at the same time. As simple as that declaration may sound to us, it yielded death threats for Ida." (p 85)
After the end of the introduction of the concept of racial capitalism and the exploration of the idea in history through the model of lynching, Foley spends the last third of the book grappling with how Christianity understands the problem of greed and how solidarity is a solution to that problem. A full chapter is spent on how Christianity grapples with violence as a response to oppression before moving onto another chapter about the role of truth in opposing sin. The final chapter call on the reader to look at a new vision of the kingdom of God to inspire creative thinking about how we can oppose racism (and greed) in a church that values truth and love and lives out that truth and love in solidarity with the vulnerable.
I think there are a number of reasons why at least on this initial introduction to racial capitalism, the concept of racism as primarily a problem of greed is more convicting than racism as a problem of individual hatred. First, basically no one self identifies as racist at this point. Even George Wallace after his overtly segregationist run for president in 1968 denied that he was a racist. But it is pretty hard to deny that greed does not have influence in our lives.
Second, I think that what I find most helpful about CRT is that it thinks about the problems of race in systemic terms not individual terms. For the purposes of CRT it does matter if you have racial animus as an individual, CRT is really only looking at systems. Racial capitalism maintains that systems oriented view, while having space for personal introspection. David French (I am paraphrasing from memory) says something like, "many non-racist people uphold racist policies for non-racist reasons." What French is pointing out is that systems do not fix themselves and once in place there are many reasons why those systems perpetuate themselves without individual motivations. Racial capitalism makes sense of school boundaries maintaining segregation for economics reasons. The impact is still segregation and still needs to be opposed. But I think a lot of white moderates or progressives are far more interested in maintaining their economic position than they are in addressing racism.
I think a third potential for racial capitalism is the history of Christian thinking about wealth. There are a number of other illustrations in The Anti-Greed Gospel, but this quote talking about Basil hints at the larger tools of Christianity to deal with greed.
This was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/anti-greed-gospel/
Racial capitalism is a concept that I have been aware of, but not dived deeply into. I read part of Asian Americans and the Spirit of Racial Capitalism by Jonathan Tran but put it aside when I had some other pressing things and never came back to it. I think, in part, I set it aside because I needed to grapple with some other things first. I have followed Malcolm Foley on social media (and his podcast) for a while. I have observed him from a distance coming across the concept of racial capitalism and how that shifted some of his language around racism. I pre-ordered The Anti-Greed Gospel a while ago precisely because I thought he could introduce the topic in a way that I could understand.
About a week before the book was released, Netgalley emailed and offered me an advance digital copy for review. The Anti-Greed Gospel fairly short. I read a chapter or so before bed and finished it in five days. (There are 8 chapters and the main text is about 165 pages. I had 55 highlights in my copy which you can see here.)
As I was reading I kept thinking that in some ways Critical Race Theory is centering how legal structures were the primary tool of racism while Racial Capitalism centered out greed and capitalism were the primary tool of racism. But that is both too simple and not nuanced enough. It is pretty well known that legal structures were essential to creating the concept of race. Race as we understand the modern category did not exist before the enlightenment when categorization became a mainstream tool of not just science, but also of economics and other areas of academics and culture. That is, of course, not to say that no one recognized that there were different skin colors, but to say that phenotypical skin color was not determinative of worth, value or identity in the way that scientific racism developed from the 18th to the 20th century.
Racial Capitalism and Critical Race Theory (CRT) both agree that legal structures were essential to creating a racial caste system in the US. And CRT and Racial Capitalism both agree that racial categories are a social reality, not a biological reality. There are other overlaps, but one of the common objections to CRT is that it believes that racism doesn't go away, it shifts. I think there are some nuances in how I (in my very non-expert way) see how some of the nuances of Racial Capitalism agree with that point, but shifts the view in a way that can be more helpful than CRT is broadly.
If racism is primarily an issue of greed and the oppression or subjugation of others for the purpose of wealth creation, then that approach is different from looking at legal structures that CRT does. Both of my introductions to Racial Capitalism were from Christians, so I do need to read a secular presentation to balance that out. But Foley and Tran are willing to talk about greed and the underlying capitalist system with a spiritual lens. (Similar to how some Christian presentations of CRT also can do that.) In spite of using a Christian lens, I think you can see that part of what racial capitalism is pointing out is that culture and systemic structures (law, capitalism, eduction, etc) work together to maintain the structures of racism so that neither interpersonal attacks not systemic attacks apart from one another get at the core problems of racism. Foley draws on the MLK and the civil rights movement for descriptive language.
"Race is not about hate and ignorance. It’s about greed. It always has been. And the purpose of this book is that you might understand the unholy relationship between race and greed, best understood not as a marriage but in terms of parentage: race and racism are children of Mammon....At its center is the claim that hate and ignorance are not at the root of race; rather, that root is greed. Notably, King, especially in the last few years of his life, drew attention to the three-headed evil that has plagued Western civilization: racism, materialism, and militarism. More pointedly, however, he drew attention to them in their most violent and common instantiations: white supremacy, capitalism, and war. These have been the inextricable evils of our day; we cannot address one of them apart from the two others. After revisiting King’s framework, I realized that self-interest binds these three evils together. This led me to recognize the three evils for what they really are: a demonic feedback loop of self-interest." (p1 and 6)
The early chapters are likely where most people will be doing the most highlighting. It is where the very nature of what racism is doing is being challenged. This is not a 100% change in approach, but I think a helpful refocus. Because it is an explicitly Christian presentation, it brings into play the role of distorted thinking and ethics brings into our larger societal systems. For Foley, the fact that slave owners must dehumanize to justify slavery or segregation means that other areas of ethical thinking are also distorted. Personal ethnics matters, but also so does systemic reasoning. The very nature of "efficiency" can be about minimizing waste, but once your ethics have been distorted, efficiency can use the loss of the concept of all being made in the image of God to justify profit over people.
There are other books that lay out some of the history of how Christianity and business interests intersected in unhelpful ways. Kevin Kruse points out that business interests used Christian rhetoric and institutions to mobilize Christians politically. Jesse Curtis talks about how business principle snuck into church planting and church growth models to maintain segregated churches. Sean McGever talks about how evangelism and mission of the church blinded the 17th and 18th century church to slavery’s evil. There are a lot of other books I have not gotten to about how extractive industries, particularly oil interests influenced modern evangelicalism. The development of capitalism has definitely impacted Christianity's understanding of the role of economics.
Foley's PhD dissertation was about lynching and his background in the historical study of lynching is central to The Anti-Greed Gospel. After the introduction and two chapters laying how the idea of racial capitalism and how it is engrained in our society, Foley lays out three examples of how we tend to respond to racism in the case of lynching. Two of those are mostly inadequate examples and one is a more positive examples. Francis Grimké and Atticus Haygood are the two negative examples. Grimke sees the problem of lynching as domination and exploitation. But his response as a pastor starts with black self improvement and white education. “Grimké falls into the same trap that many of us do: we see the material effects of racism, yet we address only the spiritual and mental remedies.” (p62) Later Grimké shifts to accepting violence when he sees that racial uplift and white education are not stopping lynching. (Grimké came to understand what many have learned, that information alone will not stop racism.)
Atticus Haygood also is opposed to lynching and, as the president of Emory University, was viewed as a racial progressive. But as with many white progressives before and after the civil war, he opposed the structures of slavery or Jim Crow, but not the underlying cultural assumption of racial hierarchy.
"Haygood’s theological and ethical imagination had atrophied to the point that he could claim that Black Americans were “brothers and sisters” and yet deny racial equality in every sense of the word. As much as he called for Black education and so-called brotherhood, Haygood still categorized Black people as a “national problem.” The point at which people themselves become a problem rather than the injustices that they are subjected to is the point at which ethical thought dies." (p72)
Foley's third figure, Ida B Wells, understands the structural nature of lynching and probably most importantly, that the surface level blame on black men raping white women was almost never the actual precipitating factor. In most cases, lynching was primarily about terrorism for the purpose of maintaining economic superiority. Whether it was individuals or communities, lynching was more likely to happen in communities where there was increasing Black economic self sufficiency. The KKK is one factor but at the time of most of Wells' work, the larger KKK movement had been pushed underground. The KKK from the 1880s until the 1920 less important structurally than it was before or after that period. Foley is pointing out here that Wells saw that economic independence was the center of lynching and how she maintained her Christian faith, about repentance and grace, while also drawing attention to how the lies of lynching worked to hide its actual reality.
Lynching no longer worked as a wide spread reality when economic systems changed and federal and state officials were no longer allowed to just look away from the problems. One of the point of her writing was that racial hierarchy placed the blame of lynching on the black victim's "crime." But the actual "burden was on white communities not to lynch but rather to be faithful to the faith that they claimed because, rather simply, one could not lynch and be Christian at the same time. As simple as that declaration may sound to us, it yielded death threats for Ida." (p 85)
"When lynching was conceived of as punishment, the only question that some asked was whether victims did something to deserve it. The proper moral imagination saw the brutality of lynching and concluded that no human being was worthy of it. Wells not only readjudicated every lynching but also indicted the very system that made lynchings appear reasonable." (p 87)
After the end of the introduction of the concept of racial capitalism and the exploration of the idea in history through the model of lynching, Foley spends the last third of the book grappling with how Christianity understands the problem of greed and how solidarity is a solution to that problem. A full chapter is spent on how Christianity grapples with violence as a response to oppression before moving onto another chapter about the role of truth in opposing sin. The final chapter call on the reader to look at a new vision of the kingdom of God to inspire creative thinking about how we can oppose racism (and greed) in a church that values truth and love and lives out that truth and love in solidarity with the vulnerable.
I think there are a number of reasons why at least on this initial introduction to racial capitalism, the concept of racism as primarily a problem of greed is more convicting than racism as a problem of individual hatred. First, basically no one self identifies as racist at this point. Even George Wallace after his overtly segregationist run for president in 1968 denied that he was a racist. But it is pretty hard to deny that greed does not have influence in our lives.
Second, I think that what I find most helpful about CRT is that it thinks about the problems of race in systemic terms not individual terms. For the purposes of CRT it does matter if you have racial animus as an individual, CRT is really only looking at systems. Racial capitalism maintains that systems oriented view, while having space for personal introspection. David French (I am paraphrasing from memory) says something like, "many non-racist people uphold racist policies for non-racist reasons." What French is pointing out is that systems do not fix themselves and once in place there are many reasons why those systems perpetuate themselves without individual motivations. Racial capitalism makes sense of school boundaries maintaining segregation for economics reasons. The impact is still segregation and still needs to be opposed. But I think a lot of white moderates or progressives are far more interested in maintaining their economic position than they are in addressing racism.
I think a third potential for racial capitalism is the history of Christian thinking about wealth. There are a number of other illustrations in The Anti-Greed Gospel, but this quote talking about Basil hints at the larger tools of Christianity to deal with greed.
"Basil utters a heart-stopping line in his sermon, aptly titled To the Rich: “The more you abound in wealth, the more you lack in love.” Basil, in his particular context, sees that the Scriptures frame a world in which accumulation almost always happens at someone else’s expense, and that person is often needy. Thus, the more you have and hold, the less you love your neighbor.
Basil here gives the reason for Christian generosity: it is not an extra nice-to-have element of the Christian life; rather, it is a fundamental act of obedience to the Great Commandments and, particularly, to the eighth and tenth commandments. It is difficult to steal and covet when your primary relationship with goods is thinking of how they can be redistributed to meet needs. None of this denies familial obligation, but it does remind us that love of neighbor requires redistribution, not just a different attitude about money." (p 20)
This was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/anti-greed-gospel/
March 5, 2025
I’ve been saying for years that the evils in American society, especially in regard to racial injustice, can be traced back to greed. Dr. Foley takes that statement and backs it up more succinctly and factually than I have ever managed. A quick and informative read, “The Anti-Greed Gospel” is an essential addition to the library of every activist fighting for social and racial justice.
April 15, 2025
a theological look on race and its existence as a socially constructed tool of exploitation and domination.
i’m not sure i agree with his main premise, that greed is the origin of race. in places, he suggests that it is pride and greed, not just greed. i could probably agree with that (greed is always pride, but pride takes different forms, not just greed). i’ve seen how people react simply by being in the presence of people that don’t look like them or come from another culture than their own and i think that there is a pride of one’s culture, a pride of one’s physical characteristics/beauty that can and does devolve into racism, ethnic hatred without needing greed as its genesis.
i do believe that greed and race are inextricably intertwined, that greed feeds racism, is a—probably the—primary motivator and sustenance of racism and racialization, but i think we would still have racialization if greed somehow did not exist. i’m open to being wrong, i just don’t know that dr. foley proves his premise here.
i think we can exploit and dominate others simply because we want to hurt those who make us uncomfortable by their very existence (i think nazi germany and the jews fit this paradigm). greed is along for the ride and a significant/major motivation, but nevertheless secondary to simple, pure, cultural/ethnic/racial hatred.
so i’m not sure that the portuguese start trafficking africans if they didn’t already see them as unworthy of being treated as persons made in god’s image. it’s entirely possible that greed taught them to see africans as less than human, but isn’t it also possible that the portuguese saw them as less than human and therefore saw africans as a commodity they could exploit in service to their greed?
less than human — greed — slaves
greed — less than human — slaves
i’m not sure it matters that much, either, in our analysis, as long as we recognize how big greed is in race and racialization. how greed encourages dehumanization and exploitation and domination.
(i also don’t think i agree with dr. foley on his anti-violence stance as it relates to national defense.)
he proposes we address racialization/racism through three pillars: economic solidarity with all, commitment to anti-violent resistance (both in our resistance but also against violence in all its forms), and truth-telling. he adds a chapter on our need to foster ethical and moral imaginations, to challenge our thinking and seek imaginative responses to evil. that could really be a fourth pillar, imo.
finally, his focus is on the church and the kingdom of god, that our work against racism, racialization, racial hierarchies must be done in community and must make/reach its fullest expression in the church as a manifestation of kingdom work, of the kingdom of god.
this is not a sufficient summary of dr. foley’s book. i cannot do it justice in summary, it is worthy of being read and digested, especially for the work that needs to be done.
*as an aside, i think he takes the common view that love is primarily action and not emotion, but i think this is a poorly thought out or under-thought response to the common notion that love is primarily an emotion. emotion and action go together, i do not believe we can separate them, it is always, imo, a tragic mistake to elevate one over the other. from the heart, the tongue speaks. so, from the emotion/the spirit, the person acts. we should want to cultivate both action and emotion, because they go together. just as the person who gives all they have away to the poor, but does not have love, so the person who says they love, but does not give to the poor. let’s do both, love and give to the poor, let our love express itself, let our expression be from love.
i’m not sure i agree with his main premise, that greed is the origin of race. in places, he suggests that it is pride and greed, not just greed. i could probably agree with that (greed is always pride, but pride takes different forms, not just greed). i’ve seen how people react simply by being in the presence of people that don’t look like them or come from another culture than their own and i think that there is a pride of one’s culture, a pride of one’s physical characteristics/beauty that can and does devolve into racism, ethnic hatred without needing greed as its genesis.
i do believe that greed and race are inextricably intertwined, that greed feeds racism, is a—probably the—primary motivator and sustenance of racism and racialization, but i think we would still have racialization if greed somehow did not exist. i’m open to being wrong, i just don’t know that dr. foley proves his premise here.
i think we can exploit and dominate others simply because we want to hurt those who make us uncomfortable by their very existence (i think nazi germany and the jews fit this paradigm). greed is along for the ride and a significant/major motivation, but nevertheless secondary to simple, pure, cultural/ethnic/racial hatred.
so i’m not sure that the portuguese start trafficking africans if they didn’t already see them as unworthy of being treated as persons made in god’s image. it’s entirely possible that greed taught them to see africans as less than human, but isn’t it also possible that the portuguese saw them as less than human and therefore saw africans as a commodity they could exploit in service to their greed?
less than human — greed — slaves
greed — less than human — slaves
i’m not sure it matters that much, either, in our analysis, as long as we recognize how big greed is in race and racialization. how greed encourages dehumanization and exploitation and domination.
(i also don’t think i agree with dr. foley on his anti-violence stance as it relates to national defense.)
he proposes we address racialization/racism through three pillars: economic solidarity with all, commitment to anti-violent resistance (both in our resistance but also against violence in all its forms), and truth-telling. he adds a chapter on our need to foster ethical and moral imaginations, to challenge our thinking and seek imaginative responses to evil. that could really be a fourth pillar, imo.
finally, his focus is on the church and the kingdom of god, that our work against racism, racialization, racial hierarchies must be done in community and must make/reach its fullest expression in the church as a manifestation of kingdom work, of the kingdom of god.
this is not a sufficient summary of dr. foley’s book. i cannot do it justice in summary, it is worthy of being read and digested, especially for the work that needs to be done.
*as an aside, i think he takes the common view that love is primarily action and not emotion, but i think this is a poorly thought out or under-thought response to the common notion that love is primarily an emotion. emotion and action go together, i do not believe we can separate them, it is always, imo, a tragic mistake to elevate one over the other. from the heart, the tongue speaks. so, from the emotion/the spirit, the person acts. we should want to cultivate both action and emotion, because they go together. just as the person who gives all they have away to the poor, but does not have love, so the person who says they love, but does not give to the poor. let’s do both, love and give to the poor, let our love express itself, let our expression be from love.
December 12, 2025
First off, I appreciate the author's effort to address racism and to do so from a Christian worldview. The book is at its strongest toward the end when it brings home the point that the kingdom of God, brought through Jesus, was not the kind of kingdom the Jewish people were looking for. They wanted a king that would give them political power. That temptation is still there today for people on both sides of the political spectrum (if there are only two). Jesus has a lot to say about greed. It's sinful. It's a rejection of God as king.
And greed is the sole cause of racism? According to the book, racism can't be explained by individual animus towards others. It can only be explained by coming up with a system that profits from it.
That system is racial capitalism. Here's where the biblical part fades to more of a political ideology. Capitalism is a dirty word in much of academia. Marxism is fashionable. In academia, separated from reality, this may sound like a serious solution to a system that doesn't come close to working perfectly. But I've heard from immigrants who have escaped countries where there isn't capitalism--private property and the ability to decide for yourself what you want to produce and buy. The problem was either their country had a system that didn't allow wealth-building or excluded them from it. They are nervous when they hear people in our country demonize the rich and desire a system that enforces equal outcomes.
The book says that having wealth is evil--not love of wealth, like the Bible says--just having wealth. Mr. Foley says wealth in capitalism comes about by stealing from people. This is where I was tempted to just put down the book as having lost all credibility. So people who work and use their God-given minds and strength to create wealth are evil? The book commends sharing with the poor, but how do you share if you haven't built wealth?
Exploited labor is the only example given of how capitalism works. Is there corruption in capitalism? Of course! And in every other system. A biblical understanding of people's fallen nature makes it logical to assume that any system that has people in it will be corrupt.
Does capitalism make people greedy? According to this book, yes. But a system that acknowledges greed and selfishness doesn't mean it causes greed and selfishness. That's inherent in our nature and doesn't go away with other systems. Capitalism acknowledges our selfishness and counteracts it by providing an incentive to produce something that others find valuable. Corruption, exploitation, or theft in capitalism (or any other system) is corruption, exploitation, or theft. They are not defining features of capitalism.
And then, according to the book, since slavery in the Americas began at roughly the same time as capitalism (actually it began under mercantilism) they must be linked. And the term "racial capitalism" is used thereafter. It's assumed that most are on board with this system and profit from it. Who are these people? I sense a straw man.
According to "The Anti-Greed Gospel," greed is the sin at the root of all the others. C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, says it's pride. Isn't at least part of the insidiousness of racism caused by our thinking we're all a little better than others? Is it only greed? Is the only response to give away all wealth, change our economic system, and stand with the poor?
I stand united with the author in declaring Jesus as king and deploring racism. The descriptions of lynchings and the brave resistance against it remind us how ugly racism has been in our country. But the mischaracterization of an economic system comes more from a political left viewpoint than a biblical viewpoint.
And greed is the sole cause of racism? According to the book, racism can't be explained by individual animus towards others. It can only be explained by coming up with a system that profits from it.
That system is racial capitalism. Here's where the biblical part fades to more of a political ideology. Capitalism is a dirty word in much of academia. Marxism is fashionable. In academia, separated from reality, this may sound like a serious solution to a system that doesn't come close to working perfectly. But I've heard from immigrants who have escaped countries where there isn't capitalism--private property and the ability to decide for yourself what you want to produce and buy. The problem was either their country had a system that didn't allow wealth-building or excluded them from it. They are nervous when they hear people in our country demonize the rich and desire a system that enforces equal outcomes.
The book says that having wealth is evil--not love of wealth, like the Bible says--just having wealth. Mr. Foley says wealth in capitalism comes about by stealing from people. This is where I was tempted to just put down the book as having lost all credibility. So people who work and use their God-given minds and strength to create wealth are evil? The book commends sharing with the poor, but how do you share if you haven't built wealth?
Exploited labor is the only example given of how capitalism works. Is there corruption in capitalism? Of course! And in every other system. A biblical understanding of people's fallen nature makes it logical to assume that any system that has people in it will be corrupt.
Does capitalism make people greedy? According to this book, yes. But a system that acknowledges greed and selfishness doesn't mean it causes greed and selfishness. That's inherent in our nature and doesn't go away with other systems. Capitalism acknowledges our selfishness and counteracts it by providing an incentive to produce something that others find valuable. Corruption, exploitation, or theft in capitalism (or any other system) is corruption, exploitation, or theft. They are not defining features of capitalism.
And then, according to the book, since slavery in the Americas began at roughly the same time as capitalism (actually it began under mercantilism) they must be linked. And the term "racial capitalism" is used thereafter. It's assumed that most are on board with this system and profit from it. Who are these people? I sense a straw man.
According to "The Anti-Greed Gospel," greed is the sin at the root of all the others. C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, says it's pride. Isn't at least part of the insidiousness of racism caused by our thinking we're all a little better than others? Is it only greed? Is the only response to give away all wealth, change our economic system, and stand with the poor?
I stand united with the author in declaring Jesus as king and deploring racism. The descriptions of lynchings and the brave resistance against it remind us how ugly racism has been in our country. But the mischaracterization of an economic system comes more from a political left viewpoint than a biblical viewpoint.
July 7, 2025
Malcolm Foley makes clear in this book that the foundation of racism and its resultant economic suffering emanates from the effective worship of power and money by the wealthy class. Foley skillfully dissects the origins of racial hate as a path that leads directly from the desire and perceived need for economic dominance—and he demonstrates in a uniquely effective way how (as others have shown) that the concept of race itself was artificially constructed for economic exploitation and domination reasons.
Foley addresses the multiple angles of racial capitalism, and skewers the myopia of the distorted individualism advanced by neoliberal economic and social theory—none of us lives in isolation, no matter how remote one's circumstances are, and it has been demonstrated anthropologically that humans advanced vis-à-vis the other species due to our ability to cooperate with each other. In doing so, Foley frees the reader from the neoliberal (and racist) nonsense that government structures helping people to have secure economic and socially enjoyable lives is some type of authoritarian oppression akin to Stalin's Soviet Union—the liberal consensus of the New Deal built a foundation for widespread prosperity, and would have extended further to African Americans were it not for the racists in Congress during that era. It is this potential for universal application that amplifies the significance of this book as a guide for proper reparations to Black Americans, and in doing so further resisting fascism worldwide.
The solution to the current neoliberal and racist flood of disinformation (and the false societal norms it has established) is nuanced and challenging. Foley reviews in depth the struggles of anti-lynching advocates during their era with the temptation to resort to violence as a means to counter the brutal violence being perpetrated against them—and he rejects a violent approach in favor of the model of the 1st Century Christian communities consisting at that time significantly of Messianic Jews and some fellow Gentile believers. It is painfully apparent that some churches today are compromised institutions by their dependence on and integration with wealthy patrons, to the extent that their advocacy is watered down where it needs to be its strongest—as also with much of the Democratic Party, all of their emphasis on named disadvantaged groups will do little for those groups or anyone else until they call out the inhuman degree of wealth inequality that is baked into the current economic system. The existing kleptocracy is the root of the problem, and the dehumanizing aspects of capitalism must be mitigated if people are to live in dignity and security with fulfilling lives.
Foley's Christianity is the closest thing I've seen to the actual Gospel of Christ, and his arguments are fully capable to stand toe to toe with any institutional expressions of the Christian faith. There are practical applications in the approach to possessions described in the early chapters of the Acts of the Apostles—basically that of common property managed for the benefit of all (and not just the privileged as in autocracies). It is nonsense that any of that would snuff out business enterprise creativity or any other technology that has given humanity the freedom we now enjoy from disease and discomfort. Foley points to the engine of common humanity with common cause to enable communities to overcome oligarchic dominance, and the Rev William Barber's Poor People’s Campaign is an excellent practical example—let's engage that engine at every opportunity for the just prosperity of all humanity worldwide.
Foley addresses the multiple angles of racial capitalism, and skewers the myopia of the distorted individualism advanced by neoliberal economic and social theory—none of us lives in isolation, no matter how remote one's circumstances are, and it has been demonstrated anthropologically that humans advanced vis-à-vis the other species due to our ability to cooperate with each other. In doing so, Foley frees the reader from the neoliberal (and racist) nonsense that government structures helping people to have secure economic and socially enjoyable lives is some type of authoritarian oppression akin to Stalin's Soviet Union—the liberal consensus of the New Deal built a foundation for widespread prosperity, and would have extended further to African Americans were it not for the racists in Congress during that era. It is this potential for universal application that amplifies the significance of this book as a guide for proper reparations to Black Americans, and in doing so further resisting fascism worldwide.
The solution to the current neoliberal and racist flood of disinformation (and the false societal norms it has established) is nuanced and challenging. Foley reviews in depth the struggles of anti-lynching advocates during their era with the temptation to resort to violence as a means to counter the brutal violence being perpetrated against them—and he rejects a violent approach in favor of the model of the 1st Century Christian communities consisting at that time significantly of Messianic Jews and some fellow Gentile believers. It is painfully apparent that some churches today are compromised institutions by their dependence on and integration with wealthy patrons, to the extent that their advocacy is watered down where it needs to be its strongest—as also with much of the Democratic Party, all of their emphasis on named disadvantaged groups will do little for those groups or anyone else until they call out the inhuman degree of wealth inequality that is baked into the current economic system. The existing kleptocracy is the root of the problem, and the dehumanizing aspects of capitalism must be mitigated if people are to live in dignity and security with fulfilling lives.
Foley's Christianity is the closest thing I've seen to the actual Gospel of Christ, and his arguments are fully capable to stand toe to toe with any institutional expressions of the Christian faith. There are practical applications in the approach to possessions described in the early chapters of the Acts of the Apostles—basically that of common property managed for the benefit of all (and not just the privileged as in autocracies). It is nonsense that any of that would snuff out business enterprise creativity or any other technology that has given humanity the freedom we now enjoy from disease and discomfort. Foley points to the engine of common humanity with common cause to enable communities to overcome oligarchic dominance, and the Rev William Barber's Poor People’s Campaign is an excellent practical example—let's engage that engine at every opportunity for the just prosperity of all humanity worldwide.
September 1, 2025
Summary: Argues that greed is the root of racism and calls the church to economic solidarity, anti-violence, and truth-telling.
We often think that hate and ignorance are at the root of racism. And certainly we can come up with examples of hate and ignorance. But Malcolm Foley argues in The Anti-Greed Gospel that the love of money is the root of the evil of racism. He shows how racism both arose and persisted after the abolition of slavery for economic reasons. The effort to subject one people by another was first and foremost about economic advantage.
Foley introduces his argument through showing that economic reasons (coveting) led to breaking other commands of God including bearing false witness, theft, and murder. He shows how unfettered capitalism and racism are intertwined in the economic growth of our nation through slavery. Then in post-reconstruction America, he traces the rise of lynching as a tool of economic subjugation. He argues that the tendrils of greed that eventuate in lynching undermined the witness of Christians like Francis Grimke and Atticus Haygood. The former eventually embraced violent resistance; the latter a kind of cynical paternalism. By contrast, he offers the example of Ida B. Wells, whose truth-telling exposed the roots of racialized greed and whose resistance sought justice through legal means.
The example of Wells provides the transition to the second part of Foley’s argument. He explores what the church can do. First, he argues for economic solidarity between Christians across racial lines such that we strive toward the Acts ideal of “no needy among us.” Then he contends for love rather than violence as we seek remedies for greed. For example, love resists practices like property appraisals that keep people in poverty. Love also opposes wars, which often rely upon minorities disproportionately to fight the battles while draining resources from domestic programs. Thirdly, he argues for prophetic truth-telling amid the culture of racial lies. Finally, he stresses the importance of creativity as we cast vision for a kingdom that is not of this world.
First for one criticism. Indisputably, in the American context, greed found expression through a form of racist capitalism. But I would argue that greed is an evil that finds expression in every economic system. In every economic system we can see classes or racial groups who are exploited for the economic gain of others. What this demonstrates is that Foley’s thesis that racism is rooted in greed has cross-cultural validity. I wonder if the association of “racialized capitalism” throughout the book weakens the focus on the root cause of greed.
That said, Foley’s thesis helps explain the persistence of racism. It also clarifies both the danger to the church of the “tendrils” of greed upon its life and the way it addresses racism. It is more than just relationships across racial lines. Whether society follows or not, finding ways to express economic solidarity, practice loving resistance, and engage in prophetic truth telling are more substantive alternatives than saying “let’s be friends.” It also seems to me that the challenge of creativity is to transcend our polarities and political binaries while not losing contact with earthly realities. We need to cast alternative visions people understand and find compelling.
Malcolm Foley is a young leader who is a scholar-pastor, and well-positioned to implement the recommendations he makes in this book. I look forward to hearing more from him!
____________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
We often think that hate and ignorance are at the root of racism. And certainly we can come up with examples of hate and ignorance. But Malcolm Foley argues in The Anti-Greed Gospel that the love of money is the root of the evil of racism. He shows how racism both arose and persisted after the abolition of slavery for economic reasons. The effort to subject one people by another was first and foremost about economic advantage.
Foley introduces his argument through showing that economic reasons (coveting) led to breaking other commands of God including bearing false witness, theft, and murder. He shows how unfettered capitalism and racism are intertwined in the economic growth of our nation through slavery. Then in post-reconstruction America, he traces the rise of lynching as a tool of economic subjugation. He argues that the tendrils of greed that eventuate in lynching undermined the witness of Christians like Francis Grimke and Atticus Haygood. The former eventually embraced violent resistance; the latter a kind of cynical paternalism. By contrast, he offers the example of Ida B. Wells, whose truth-telling exposed the roots of racialized greed and whose resistance sought justice through legal means.
The example of Wells provides the transition to the second part of Foley’s argument. He explores what the church can do. First, he argues for economic solidarity between Christians across racial lines such that we strive toward the Acts ideal of “no needy among us.” Then he contends for love rather than violence as we seek remedies for greed. For example, love resists practices like property appraisals that keep people in poverty. Love also opposes wars, which often rely upon minorities disproportionately to fight the battles while draining resources from domestic programs. Thirdly, he argues for prophetic truth-telling amid the culture of racial lies. Finally, he stresses the importance of creativity as we cast vision for a kingdom that is not of this world.
First for one criticism. Indisputably, in the American context, greed found expression through a form of racist capitalism. But I would argue that greed is an evil that finds expression in every economic system. In every economic system we can see classes or racial groups who are exploited for the economic gain of others. What this demonstrates is that Foley’s thesis that racism is rooted in greed has cross-cultural validity. I wonder if the association of “racialized capitalism” throughout the book weakens the focus on the root cause of greed.
That said, Foley’s thesis helps explain the persistence of racism. It also clarifies both the danger to the church of the “tendrils” of greed upon its life and the way it addresses racism. It is more than just relationships across racial lines. Whether society follows or not, finding ways to express economic solidarity, practice loving resistance, and engage in prophetic truth telling are more substantive alternatives than saying “let’s be friends.” It also seems to me that the challenge of creativity is to transcend our polarities and political binaries while not losing contact with earthly realities. We need to cast alternative visions people understand and find compelling.
Malcolm Foley is a young leader who is a scholar-pastor, and well-positioned to implement the recommendations he makes in this book. I look forward to hearing more from him!
____________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
April 5, 2025
Thank you to Brazos Press and NetGalley for the eGalley to reveiw!
Malcolm Foley does an excellent, timely job of making the astute argument that race is not about hate and ignorance--it is about greed and always has been.
Accumulation of wealth requires exploitation, which requires a society and laws that uphold racialized capitalism, which in turn requires murder. Any time that accumulated wealth is threatened, we see things like the series of horrifically brutal lynchings that followed the equal brutality of the enslavement of people of color--especially Black people--and the genocide of Indigenous peoples. Foley draws on contemporary and classic activists, most notably Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Martin Luther King Jr. Wells was the first to call a spade a spade about lynching in particular: "an excuse to get rid of Negroes who were acquiring wealth and property and thus keep the race terrorized and keep [them] down." She had encouraged Black readers of her work to flee lynching communities and ultimately economically cripple them. Du Bois emphasized that slavery had fueled the Industrial Revolution. King said a three-headed evil plagued Western civilization: racism, materialism, and militarism. Race and racism were created to justify domination and exploitation.
Foley uses their collective works to highlight how greed is indeed the most dangerous of all the sins and that an anti-racist community is an anti-greed community, especially if you are Christian. As the scriptures and theologians tell us, the only reason God allows any of us to have more is to distribute that wealth to those in need. Any person who is a servant of "Mammon" (money) is directly and explicitly incompatible with serving God.
Knowing more about racism won't end it; as long as it benefits anyone (especially those in power), it will persevere. Therefore, we must remove self-interest from our lives and create communities based in charity/economic solidarity, anti-violence, and prophetic truth telling. Instead of asking oneself, "Does this person deserve my love?" we must instead ask, "How can I love this person?" Foley reminds us that the scriptures call us to be apostles of equality and that one of our most profound failures, especially in Western theology, is to over-spiritualize things that Jesus plainly tells us are material. To misconstrue God's word and claim the Christian is "meant to be rich" is simply a manner of justifying greed, as we are told repeatedly throughout scripture that earthly wealth and luxury is to be distributive to the needy because the rich are not allowed into God's heavenly kingdom. To worship money is to cast aside God--it is a false idol.
Even non-Christians can adhere to these philosophies and disciplines. If we would just erase greed from our communities and create stable and safe communities, we would eventually rid ourselves of racism and race as a social construct. This book is one of the best places to start and I will certainly be recommending it as long as we are in need of it.
Malcolm Foley does an excellent, timely job of making the astute argument that race is not about hate and ignorance--it is about greed and always has been.
Accumulation of wealth requires exploitation, which requires a society and laws that uphold racialized capitalism, which in turn requires murder. Any time that accumulated wealth is threatened, we see things like the series of horrifically brutal lynchings that followed the equal brutality of the enslavement of people of color--especially Black people--and the genocide of Indigenous peoples. Foley draws on contemporary and classic activists, most notably Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Martin Luther King Jr. Wells was the first to call a spade a spade about lynching in particular: "an excuse to get rid of Negroes who were acquiring wealth and property and thus keep the race terrorized and keep [them] down." She had encouraged Black readers of her work to flee lynching communities and ultimately economically cripple them. Du Bois emphasized that slavery had fueled the Industrial Revolution. King said a three-headed evil plagued Western civilization: racism, materialism, and militarism. Race and racism were created to justify domination and exploitation.
Foley uses their collective works to highlight how greed is indeed the most dangerous of all the sins and that an anti-racist community is an anti-greed community, especially if you are Christian. As the scriptures and theologians tell us, the only reason God allows any of us to have more is to distribute that wealth to those in need. Any person who is a servant of "Mammon" (money) is directly and explicitly incompatible with serving God.
Knowing more about racism won't end it; as long as it benefits anyone (especially those in power), it will persevere. Therefore, we must remove self-interest from our lives and create communities based in charity/economic solidarity, anti-violence, and prophetic truth telling. Instead of asking oneself, "Does this person deserve my love?" we must instead ask, "How can I love this person?" Foley reminds us that the scriptures call us to be apostles of equality and that one of our most profound failures, especially in Western theology, is to over-spiritualize things that Jesus plainly tells us are material. To misconstrue God's word and claim the Christian is "meant to be rich" is simply a manner of justifying greed, as we are told repeatedly throughout scripture that earthly wealth and luxury is to be distributive to the needy because the rich are not allowed into God's heavenly kingdom. To worship money is to cast aside God--it is a false idol.
Even non-Christians can adhere to these philosophies and disciplines. If we would just erase greed from our communities and create stable and safe communities, we would eventually rid ourselves of racism and race as a social construct. This book is one of the best places to start and I will certainly be recommending it as long as we are in need of it.
March 14, 2025
This book is a quick read and perfect for any Christian who is interested in creating TRUE multiethnic community. Race is a social construct, which is another discussion, but Foley makes the claim that racism exists due to greed, not just hatred.
He follows this up with evidence from history and our current economic set up. MLK was a big proponent of not just racial justice but economic justice given America’s beginnings.
Foley gives examples of how racial violence (lynching) resulted from exploitation and racial capitalism. It was profitable, until it wasn’t.
The second half of the book explains actionable steps including changing our mindset about charitable giving as Christians. If we feel superior financially and others inferior, that’s paternalism and just as harmful as exploitation.
Ready to discuss in my next book club meeting.
TW lynching is explicitly described in many passages
Some of the most impactful quotes for me:
“Even during the civil rights movement, people who were exposed to the brutality of Jim Crow saw integration as the answer-rather than economically and politically restructuring the whole of American society, as Martin Luther King Jr. would argue in favor of in 1967. It was easier to view justice as the presence of nice multicolored faces rather than something requiring material sacrifice and solidarity.”
“Slavery, however, justified the creation of race as we think of it rather than resulted from it.”
“Race and racism were created because some people wanted more resources, wanted them cheaply, and were willing to do whatever it took to accumulate
those resources.”
“None of this denies familial obligation, but it does remind us that love of neighbor requires redistribution, not just a different attitude about money.”
“The transatlantic slave trade enabled
Europe and the United States (economies) to become the powerhouses they are today.”
“But as time went on, prolonged enslavement of Native Americans became impractical, as these natives knew the land much better than their captors and resisted subjugation. So Portugal, Spain, and other European nations essentially designated Africa as a new source of labor.”
“The answer is simple: lynching faded as opportunities and reasons to lynch became fewer. Our racist society did not get better. It just got smarter.”
“During the Great Migration (1910-70), about six million Afro-Americans left the South and fled to the North. It was the single most important factor in the fading of lynching. When the South was hit in its pockets and when lynching became a regional embarrassment, practices changed.”
He follows this up with evidence from history and our current economic set up. MLK was a big proponent of not just racial justice but economic justice given America’s beginnings.
Foley gives examples of how racial violence (lynching) resulted from exploitation and racial capitalism. It was profitable, until it wasn’t.
The second half of the book explains actionable steps including changing our mindset about charitable giving as Christians. If we feel superior financially and others inferior, that’s paternalism and just as harmful as exploitation.
Ready to discuss in my next book club meeting.
TW lynching is explicitly described in many passages
Some of the most impactful quotes for me:
“Even during the civil rights movement, people who were exposed to the brutality of Jim Crow saw integration as the answer-rather than economically and politically restructuring the whole of American society, as Martin Luther King Jr. would argue in favor of in 1967. It was easier to view justice as the presence of nice multicolored faces rather than something requiring material sacrifice and solidarity.”
“Slavery, however, justified the creation of race as we think of it rather than resulted from it.”
“Race and racism were created because some people wanted more resources, wanted them cheaply, and were willing to do whatever it took to accumulate
those resources.”
“None of this denies familial obligation, but it does remind us that love of neighbor requires redistribution, not just a different attitude about money.”
“The transatlantic slave trade enabled
Europe and the United States (economies) to become the powerhouses they are today.”
“But as time went on, prolonged enslavement of Native Americans became impractical, as these natives knew the land much better than their captors and resisted subjugation. So Portugal, Spain, and other European nations essentially designated Africa as a new source of labor.”
“The answer is simple: lynching faded as opportunities and reasons to lynch became fewer. Our racist society did not get better. It just got smarter.”
“During the Great Migration (1910-70), about six million Afro-Americans left the South and fled to the North. It was the single most important factor in the fading of lynching. When the South was hit in its pockets and when lynching became a regional embarrassment, practices changed.”
August 3, 2025
While this book touches on the idea that racism and slavery had economic roots, the author doesn't spend much time on this so it helps if the reader already accepts it as true. He spends the rest of the book defining the current state of affairs (mostly geared at an American audience) and what Christians should be doing to change things.
This is where he lost me a bit. A lot of the book is based on the idea that poverty is "violence" because it can result in harm. But I believe calling it violence delutes the word and makes actual violence less taboo. To be clear, the author makes it clear that he does not think violence is acceptable in any context and goes off on a tangent that only takes into account one thing Jesus said and ignores the entire history of God's people being instructed to kill. Similarly the idea that we should never work within the government to improve things seemed bizarre given that he acknowledged examples of times when God's people worked within governments to accomplish incredible things.
The last part was a radical (his word) call to give to those who have need. At one point he implies that we should put aside our house and health insurance to help others. And he says we shouldn't contribute to college savings accounts or retirement because some people don't have those things. Our goal should be to suffer as Christ suffered so we should not just be willing, but actually give up all of our possessions. He posits that if we do this then other people will give to us and everyone will have enough. Something like this may work in a small Christian community where everyone contributes to the whole, but that's not the world we live in. Not everyone is Christian and therefore are not going to hold the same value of giving to those who have need. So impoverishing oneself has the dual effects of not being able to take care of oneself or family and making oneself a burden on others or the government.
By all means, I think there is room for most people to give more to meet the physical needs of those who are suffering. And we should all do that. But we should also invest in the future so that we aren't living on the edge of a knife hoping not to get cut so that we can continue to meet people's needs, both physical and spiritual, in the future. Foley's diagnosis is accurate, but his prescription is off the mark.
This is where he lost me a bit. A lot of the book is based on the idea that poverty is "violence" because it can result in harm. But I believe calling it violence delutes the word and makes actual violence less taboo. To be clear, the author makes it clear that he does not think violence is acceptable in any context and goes off on a tangent that only takes into account one thing Jesus said and ignores the entire history of God's people being instructed to kill. Similarly the idea that we should never work within the government to improve things seemed bizarre given that he acknowledged examples of times when God's people worked within governments to accomplish incredible things.
The last part was a radical (his word) call to give to those who have need. At one point he implies that we should put aside our house and health insurance to help others. And he says we shouldn't contribute to college savings accounts or retirement because some people don't have those things. Our goal should be to suffer as Christ suffered so we should not just be willing, but actually give up all of our possessions. He posits that if we do this then other people will give to us and everyone will have enough. Something like this may work in a small Christian community where everyone contributes to the whole, but that's not the world we live in. Not everyone is Christian and therefore are not going to hold the same value of giving to those who have need. So impoverishing oneself has the dual effects of not being able to take care of oneself or family and making oneself a burden on others or the government.
By all means, I think there is room for most people to give more to meet the physical needs of those who are suffering. And we should all do that. But we should also invest in the future so that we aren't living on the edge of a knife hoping not to get cut so that we can continue to meet people's needs, both physical and spiritual, in the future. Foley's diagnosis is accurate, but his prescription is off the mark.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 93 reviews