Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God

by Kelly Brown Douglas

“If Trayvon was of age and armed, could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk?”—President Barack Obama

On the Sunday morning after the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s killer, black preachers across America addressed the questions his death raised for their communities: “Where is the justice of God? What are we to hope for?”

In this timely and compelling book, Kelly Brown Douglas examines the myths and narratives underlying a “stand-your-ground” culture, taking seriously the social as well as the theological questions raised by this and similar events, from Ferguson, Missouri to Staten Island, New York.

But the author also brings another significant interpretative lens to this text: that of a mother. She writes: “ ere has been no story in the news that has troubled me more than that of Trayvon Martin’s slaying. President Obama said that if he had a son his son would look like Trayvon. I do have a son and he does look like Trayvon.”

In the face of tragedy and indi fference, Kelly Brown Douglas a rms the truth of a black mother’s faith in these times of “stand your ground.”
“If Trayvon was of age and armed, could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk?”—President Barack Obama

On the Sunday morning after the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s killer, black preachers across America addressed the questions his death raised for their communities: “Where is the justice of God? What are we to hope for?”

In this timely and compelling book, Kelly Brown Douglas examines the myths and narratives underlying a “stand-your-ground” culture, taking seriously the social as well as the theological questions raised by this and similar events, from Ferguson, Missouri to Staten Island, New York.

But the author also brings another significant interpretative lens to this text: that of a mother. She writes: “ ere has been no story in the news that has troubled me more than that of Trayvon Martin’s slaying. President Obama said that if he had a son his son would look like Trayvon. I do have a son and he does look like Trayvon.”

In the face of tragedy and indi fference, Kelly Brown Douglas a rms the truth of a black mother’s faith in these times of “stand your ground.”

Genres: Theology, Race, Religion, Nonfiction, Social Justice, Christianity, Spirituality

258 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2015

About the author

Kelly Delaine Brown Douglas is an African-American Episcopal priest, womanist theologian, and the inaugural Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary. She is also the Canon Theologian at the Washington National Cathedral.

In 1995 Kelly was awarded Denison’s Grace Lyon Alumnae Award, presented to distinguished female graduates by the Department of Women’s Studies and the Office of Women’s Programs. She was also the recipient of a number of awards and scholarships during her student years. Kelly is an active participant in the Ecumenical Associate of Third World Theologians, the Society for the Study of Black Religion, and the American Academy of Religion.

Reviews

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book with my church's Pastor's Study. Needless to say this book is not for the faint of heart. As an African American women I strongly identified with the author in her search for meaning and a meaningful outcome following the murderers of unarmed black people. While there is no conclusive ending, reading this book has enlightened me to just how deeply white supremacist views are ingrained in our political and economic systems and encourages me to continue to fight for justice knowing that God created all people to be free.

[David Abell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book as a result of reading my alumni magazine from Denison University for December 2015, which had an article about the author, an alumna. She’s a feminist black advocate, with a divinity degree from Union (she’s an Episcopal priest), currently a professor at Goucher College. I had previously read Between the world and me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates, and become familiar with the Reconciliation Project at the Episcopal Cathedral in Providence (and it’s many antecedents), and had become intrigued by h0w our country’s history of slavery permeates our life and culture today. This book grabbed me immediately, as it tries to make sense of the Trayvon Martin killing and the finding of not guilty for his killer George Zimmerman – an event I have always had difficulty understanding and which offended my sense of justice. This book was very illuminating for me and helped me understand how our country still tolerates killings of young black males by whites under circumstances in which, had I been the victim, my killer would have received a death sentence or life imprisonment. The book’s thesis – that this is due to our Anglo-Saxon exceptionalist history – is carried throughout the book, beginning with Tacitus’ Germania from 98 C.E., through the Puritan’s “city on a hill,” through slavery treating blacks as chattel, through Manifest Destiny, Jim Crow, lynchings, and reaching to today’s Stand Your Ground culture. The thesis seems contrived and forced much of the time, as the author clearly cherry-picks history, but I think the point is valid: U. S. culture still elevates white privilege and denigrates the black body. The later parts of the book are much stronger, perhaps because the author is on much firmer ground – her understanding of the role of the black church and its theology and history of non-violence and the role of Martin Luther King. I particularly found inspiring her comments under “Moral Memory” beginning on page 217 and the final section “The Question Answered” beginning at page 223. I was grateful to the author for helping me understand – finally – how Trayvon’s killer could have been found not guilty – and our response to young black males invading our white space.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book in a search for female theologians, and it seemed appropriate to the times we are living in. The first part of the book is a review of history that demonstrates how black men are have become viewed as criminal. It was a pretty detailed review of historical writings. While I disagreed with some of her interpretations of writings, it was thorough and has given me a new perspective on some of those historical events. Even though I wasn't in complete agreement with her historical interpretations, the result that she describes and is seen in our world is true in many respects. She moves on to theology in the second half of the book. I appreciated her discussion on how different people have different emphases in the narrative of scripture. The point of the book is who gives justice for a black teenager murdered on the street when American courts set the confessed killer free? The answer is God. I was greatly moved by this book. I watched 13th in the middle of my reading, and though it did not use as strong of language that Douglas did (the word chattel was frequently used in the book), they both did a fantastic job of explaining the criminalization of black men. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to hear a theological and maternal perspective on race issues in our country. The warning is that it is a difficult read. The language is hard to hear (I listened to the audio book). It is not a quick read. It is detailed and deep. Definitely not fluff. But it has changed me and that is the mark of a good book.

[David Krueger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Listen to my podcast interview with the author at: http://marginalia.lareviewofbooks.org...

[Naomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A moving, educational, and insightful reflection on colonial (stand your ground/white supremacist) culture, Black faith, and the separation between imperial christianity supporting white supremacist culture and liberating christianity and an understanding of God that calls us to freedom and justice. Recommended for individual, small group, and congregational study.

[Rose Schrott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think the one word I would use to describe this book is profound. Starting with the roots and philosophy of our America’s founders (what Douglas calls the Anglo Saxon myth of exceptionalism), this book traces the deep veins of racism throughout the arc of American history to the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012 (and others like him).
This book marries history with theological reflection with personal narrative as Douglas, a priest, mother, and black woman, reads herself into our countries history as she unveils it to others. Her observations are acute and poignant; her writing is easy to read.
I will keep this book on my shelf and turn to it again and again in times when I need to articulate “how we got here” and “where is god.”
I found her reflection on redemptive suffering and the cross-resurrection to be particularly formative.
I’m proud to share an alma mater with Douglas (s/o Denison) and will be reading more of her work.

[McKenzie Watson-Fore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a powerhouse, essential reading for anyone seeking to learn more about American whiteness and the justifications we've created to sustain the centuries-long Manifest Destiny war on Black and Native bodies perceived as 'in the way' of Anglo-Saxon exceptionalism.

Just days before starting this book, I was talking to a friend on the phone and we realized neither of us really knew what 'Anglo-Saxon' meant. It has something to do with whiteness, but what exactly? Kelly Brown Douglas explores that and more, providing extensive historical context to the ancient myth of the Anglo-Saxons, demonstrating the 'sacred canopies' erected to provide religious justification for American exceptionalism, and how 'standing one's ground' has been an evolving process to protect the cherished space of whiteness since the birth of this country.

The book is dense, academic, and highly-researched. At first I was nervous that the strict logical progression of Douglas' prose would make this hard to read; however, once I got the initial terms down, the pacing carried me along.

As the book progresses, the liberating work of God takes the stage more and more. Rooting her arguments in the Bible and anchoring them in African American spirituals, Douglas demonstrates that a faith unconcerned with creating freedom in the world is a false faith. This book contains so much that requires further reflection, and I intend to keep coming back to it for a while.

[Rhidge Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is prophetic, challenging, and full of hope. It is not for the faint of heart, but for the one who is willing to come face to face with the realities of evil in our world, specifically in the United States of America. It will break you, and prompt you to worship. I encourage everyone to read it.

[Philip Yoder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kelly Brown Douglas does an excellent job at laying out the history of violence against African Americans using George Zimmerman's murdering of Trayvon Martin and the "Stand your Ground" ruling that allowed Zimmerman to get away with it. It was very compelling and supplied me with language to talk about systemic racial violence.

[Andee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone should read this book, but ESPECIALLY the privileged white. The perfect mix of academia and personal story.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just as the omnipotence of the Anglo-Saxon myth in the American consciousness distorted the meaning of romanticism, it did the same with natural law. The Anglo-Saxon myth is a corrupting and distorting influence. In the cases of romanticism and natural law, it took a universal ideal and particularized it. It racialized both perspectives. The co-mingling of the Anglo-Saxon myth with natural law theory created a theo-ideology that excluded black people not only from the category of citizens but also from the category of humans. America's exceptionalist version of natural law rendered black people effectively nonhuman, thereby disqualifying them from being holders of "inalienable rights." These presumably God-given rights were essentially declared "wages" of cherished white property.

Kelly Brown Douglas' Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God pivots on responding to black congregations puzzled by the lack of justice when the killers of black teens are exonerated on Stand Your Ground laws: "They asked, 'What is the message from God that we are to hear in the midst of this injustice?' 'What does it mean to be faithful in times such as these?' 'What are we to hope for?'" Douglas does a thorough examination on how the myth of Anglo-Saxon superiority warps American perspectives regarding black people and influences legislation which actively seeks to prevent black people from being equal. She also examines the fundamental components of "black faith" and how each helps black congregations counteract and endure systemic prejudice and injustice.

While certainly thorough, Douglas does have a tendency to repeat her main arguments. Sometimes two consecutive paragraphs provide the same content in slightly different ways. She also has a tendency to generalize the characters and movements she examines, failing to fully account for specificities. She establishes dichotomies, rarely acknowledges gray areas.

For example, Douglas notes Trayvon's character and actions should not have been on trial. He was the victim. His shooter's character and actions should have been on trial. For Douglas, Trayvon was just trying to get home when someone decided Trayvon had no legal right to be where he was--walking down a public street. She does not note that Trayvon was currently suspended from school at the time of the attack; does not mention that the defense had pictures of the shooter's bloody face. These facts in no way change Douglas' argument--Trayvon was seen by the Florida court system as "on trial" and not as he truly was, a victim. I wish Douglas would have deconstructed and showed the hypocrisy of all this so-called "evidence" which proponents of Zimmerman bring up to counter the truth that Trayvon never received justice for his murder.

Overall, I highly recommend Douglas' book. Today, so many believe that the hard-won civil rights of the 1960s means prejudice and racism are no longer a thing. One glance at today's news clearly demonstrates that America has a lot of soul-searching and praying to do in order to live up to truly being a nation founded on Christian principles.

Faith recognizes that God acts first, thus inviting human beings into a relationship. It is important to recognize that this invitation comes in the form of God acting in the world to make real the freedom of God, which is love and life. Thus, God's call to faith is an invitation to become a partner with God in "the mending of creation." That is, God invites human beings to join with God in creating a world where "justice is cherished and where freedom, [life] and love flourish." To have faith is to accept the invitation to be an "active presence in human history."

[Jane Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely one of the most powerful books I've read this year.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most important books I’ve ever read. Should be required reading for Americans.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. This book is that wonderful combination of tightly argued and highly readable. I came to this book hoping for a better, theological understanding of movement for black lives in the US, and Kelly Brown Douglas delivers this in spades. Inspiring and moving. An important book.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION ON THE TRAYVON MARTIN SHOOTING

Kelly Brown Douglas is Professor of Religion at Goucher College, and is also an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church. She formerly taught theology at Brown University. She is also the author of The Black Christ,Sexuality and the Black Church: A Womanist Perspective,Black Bodies and the Black Church: A Blues Slant, and What's Faith Got to Do With It?: Black Bodies/Christian Souls.

She wrote in the Prologue of this 2015 book, “Why is it becoming increasingly acceptable to kill unarmed black children… why are they so easily perceived as a threat? How are we to keep our black children safe? As a mother of a black male child, I find these to be urgent questions. The slaying of Trayvon [Martin] struck a nerve deep within me… I knew that I had to seek answers. This book reflects my search for those answers.” (Pg. ix)

She continues in the Introduction, “This book will explore the social-cultural narratives that have given birth to our stand-your-ground culture and the religious canopies that have legitimated it. This stand-your-ground culture has produced and sustained slavery, Black Codes, Jim Crow, lynching, and other forms of racialized violence against black bodies. This book is an attempt to untangle the web of social, cultural, and theological discourse that contributes to stand-your-ground culture as well as to provide a theological response to the ideological assumptions that undergird this culture.” (Pg. xiii) She adds, “I do not attempt to resolve the many issues of stand-your-ground culture. This book is an invitation to engage in the hard soul searching needed if our country is ever to become a safer place for our black sons and daughters, and if we are to end the stand-your-ground culture war on the Trayvons, Jordans, Renishas, and Jonathans of our world.” (Pg. xv)

In the first chapter, she explains, “The underlying assumption of this book is that the seeds for Stand Your Ground law were planted ell before the founding of America. These seeds produced a myth of racial superiority that both determined America’s founding and defined its identity. This myth then gave way to America’s grand narrative of exceptionalism. This narrative… in turn constructed cherished property and generated a culture to shelter that property, thus insuring that American remain ‘exceptional.’ I identify this culture as ‘stand-your-ground culture.’ This culture is itself generative. It has spawned various social-cultural devices---legal and extralegal, theoretical and ideological, political and theological—to preserve America’s primordial exceptional identity.” (Pg. 4)

She argues, “It is with the construction of whiteness as cherished property that a stand-your-ground culture is finally born. From the Anglo-Saxon myth of America’s exceptionalism to whiteness as cherished property comes a stand-your-ground culture… [which] is nothing other than the enactment of whiteness as cherished property. It is the culture the protects… white supremacy. Stand-your-ground culture spawns its own means, legal and extralegal, to insure that nothing nonwhite intrudes on white space… [It] protects the rights that come with cherished white property. With this understanding, we can now answer the following question: ‘Could Trayvon have stood his ground on that sidewalk?’” (Pg. 44)

She observes, “Today, the Manifest Destiny stand-your-ground culture is fueled by the presence of a black man living in the White House. There is no greater challenge to America’s grand narrative of Anglo-Saxon exceptionalism than a black president. This represent a complete encroachment upon the space reserved for cherished white property… the Stand Your Ground laws, in conjunction with the Conceal and Carry gun laws, have made legal a murderous act that was extralegal, that is, lynching. Our black children are falling victims to the twenty-first century version of stand-your-ground culture lynching, It is in this context that we must determine if going home was a viable option for Trayvon.” (Pg. 130-131)

She says, “The stand-your-ground culture is a story of two faiths. There is the faith of a father whose son was not the ‘collateral damage’ of the war but actually the target. There is also the faith of a nation whose very identity created the war that targeted Trayvon… The faith of a father points to an exodus God who is with a people through a wilderness journey to forge a new life. The faith of a nation signals an exodus God who is with a people through a wilderness journey to bring unexpected death to many others. The faith of a nation gives say to a culture that negates black life. The faith of a father affirms black life in the midst of a culture of death.” (Pg. 137)

She acknowledges, “There is an inherent absurdity to black faith. It speaks of freedom in the midst of bondage. It speaks of life in the midst of death. This, however, is what makes black faith indispensable in the midst of a stand-your-ground culture war. For while black faith cannot change the world, black faithful can… [Trayvon’s mother and father] have brought attention to a stand-your-ground culture war that threatens the lives of all of our children. This is what it means to have an unshattered faith. It means acting as if you really believe in the God of that faith, that is, a God who intends for black bodies to be free… the freedom of God is made manifest in the tears, the strife, and the fight of the black fathers and mothers whose children are casualties of this unholiest of wars. Yes, perhaps black faith is absurd. Christianity itself is absurd. There's nothing more absurd than a religion that has a cross as its central symbol. But it is because of that cross … that we can be sure stand-your-ground culture will not have the last word over their lives.” (Pg. 170)

In the last chapter, she concludes, “In many respects, we have arrived at this particular stand-your-ground moment because of our nation’s inability to be honest with itself and to face the hard truths of its own story. It is a story about the vicissitudes of America’s narrative of Anglo-Saxon exceptionalism and ideology of cherished white property. The nation will certainly continue to be held captive to that narrative until it honestly confronts it and the history it has created. Prophetic black testimony thus calls the nation to a moral memory.” (Pg. 221)

This is a creative and very important perspective on the Trayvon Martin tragedy, and similar tragedies. It will be “must reading” for anyone concerned with the social, moral, and theological issues raised by such events.

[John Richards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not always the biggest KBD fan when it comes to Christology, but the way she walks through the history of Angl0-Saxon exceptionalism and its impact on U.S. culture makes this well worth the read. From Tacitus' Germania to Reagan's War on Drugs, KBD points out the ideology that continues to haunt our nation—a racist ideology of "whiteness" in our political, social, and cultural dealings. Great read in that regard. Would commend it to anyone trying to figure out how we've gotten where we are in American culture.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This work by Reverend Dr. Douglas is exactly what Christianity needs right now. She names the American sin of white supremacy with great accuracy, clarity, and specificity. This books is an excellent analysis of the insidious nature of the myth of racial superiority and the real nature of God and God's vision for the world. A must read for white congregations in the modern, Stand Your Ground culture.

[Maryjulia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book explores the Stand Your Ground culture that exists in the U.S. - how it began and why it continues. But it also delves into black faith and the meaning of God to the African American community in a Stand Your Ground Culture.

It made me take a long hard look at what deep cultural biases I might have and made me vow to change them.

[Margaret D'Anieri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must read, period. While her style is a bit labored and repetitive in places, the scholarship and theology and history provides a crucial understanding of why our post-racial nation is anything but, and her personal reflections are heart-rending. I've heard her speak twice, and if you can find her on a podcast or interview, do that if you don't want to read the book.

[Abby Schwartz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Drawing a line between the doctrine of A Chosen People to the Stand Your Ground Laws, Douglas creates a meaningful case for how non-protestant folks and especially BIPOC folks have been asked to yield space for the elite of society. Why there is a backlash whenever a BIPOC person encroaches into the space of excellence.

[Jessi 📚✨🏊🏼‍♀️🏕️💃🏻 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book about using the black church as a way to combat adversity. Offers great solutions for tacking the problems of white supremacy within Christian theology. Also, I learned so much about the impact that stand your ground culture has on modern day society.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second book by Kelly Brown Douglas that I have read, and she has shot up to become one of my favorite writers. I will use a section of this book in my university class on religions of the world. She does an effective job of showing the connectedness of the racist violence that we see today with the origins of our nation and society.

Additionally, Douglas is a good writer; therefore, even if you are not a scholar the book is not an overly difficult read. Of course, it is a work of history and theology, so it is not like reading a novel, but she combines analysis, difficult history, and stories that keep the reader involved. I would encourage any American Christian to read Stand Your Ground and learn more about the historical and ideological underpinnings of racial difference in our society.

Now for more detail. Douglas locates the origin of racist thought in Tacitus' Germania (sort of an earlier cultural study of the Germanic Tribes), written in the late 1st C. Tacitus is fascinated by the "Saxones", as a pure, "unmixed" people of impeccable natural morality and love for freedom. Later in history, Anglo is added so that these pure, moral, freedom-loving people can become the Anglo-Saxon people of the island, England. All of this is, of course, more about myth and ideology than actual genealogy. Other writers locate the origin of racist thought elsewhere: Kendi locates it with the Portuguese in the late 15th C. and the beginning of colonialism and the slave trade. Willie Jennings and J. Kameron Carter, both locate the origin of racism in Christian anti-Semitism, albeit at different time periods.

I say this, not to contradict Douglas, but because the origin story of racism is most likely complex and multiple.

Douglas does show that the concept of a pure, moral, freedom-loving Anglo-Saxon people was influential on the development of American identity. It begins in the colonial period, and it finds a special place in the thinking of people like Thomas Jefferson, influencing the manner in which early American documents, such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were written. The WASP concept (Douglas never uses this term.) remains important and recurs at different points throughout American history. (WASP = White Anglo-Saxon Protestant)

The important idea to realize is: the Anglo-Saxon ideology as understood in America has meant that pure, moral, freedom-loving people (people who can be considered white) best represent America, and their bodies must be defended against any perceived threats to this purity by black, Native American, Hispanic, Asian, etc., bodies. That constitutes Stand Your Ground (or A Man's Home is His Castle, an older meme).

The main weakness of Douglas' book is that she cannot show how the Anglo-Saxon concept is continuous throughout American history. Sometimes, she needs to reach in order to do that. Don't get me wrong - racism and white supremacist ideology have been continuous. The difficulty is attaching this ideology to one image and one background.

[Adam Shields · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: A theological exploration of the culture led to Stand Your Ground laws. 

Stand Your Ground by Kelly Brown Douglas is on several lists for best book of theology for the 2010s. In addition, it is regularly cited in books I have read that were published since Stand Your Ground came out in 2015. As many contemporary theology books do, part one is a historical and cultural framing of the issue, with part two concentrating on the constructive theological response.

Part one is much more straightforward to discuss. Kelly Brown Douglas charts the development of the Anglo-Saxon myth of exceptionalism from the 1st century Roman Historian Tacitus's book Germania. The book was not cited much until the Renaissance, when it was common to root ideology in older Roman or Greek ideas. Germany did not solidify into a single ideological, cultural or political identity until fairly late, but Germania was used in the myth-making (as well as with Nazi ideals.) But Germania was also important to the development of Anglo-Saxon identity because early Anglo-Saxons pointed to Germania as the ideal of what Anglo-Saxons came from and could become. The narrative of Anglo-Saxon identity was important to the American founders. This extended quote of Benjamin Franklin that Kelly Brown Douglas quotes is representative of other over Anglo-Saxon exceptionalism.

Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our Language or Customs, any more than they can acquire our Complexion.

Which leads me to add one Remark: That the Number of purely white People in the World is proportionably very small. All Africa is black or tawny. Asia chiefly tawny. America (exclusive of the new Comers) wholly so. And in Europe, the Spaniards, Italians,   French, Russians and Swedes, are generally of what we call a swarthy Complexion; as are the Germans also, the Saxons only excepted, who with the English, make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth. I could wish their Numbers were increased. And while we are, as I may call it, Scouring our Planet, by clearing America of Woods, and so making this Side of our Globe reflect a brighter Light to the Eyes of Inhabitants in Mars or Venus, why should we in the Sight of Superior Beings, darken its People? why increase the Sons of Africa, by Planting them in America, where we have so fair an Opportunity, by excluding all Blacks and Tawneys, of increasing the lovely White and Red? But perhaps I am partial to the Complexion of my Country, for such Kind of Partiality is natural to Mankind.

But current ideas of Stand Your Ground require more than just Anglo-Saxon exceptionalism; it also requires the degradation of the Black body. Certainly, racial superiority is present in Franklin's quote. Still, the development of the Black body into chattel continues after Franklin. After the Civil War, the ideology of white supremacy continued to morph to perpetuate the Black body as particularly dangerous, sexual, and criminal. Each of these ideas is developed at length, and I will not detail them here, but a third aspect completes Brown Douglas' ideological history, Manifest Destiny War. The concept of Manifest Destiny has been developed by many for its theological history and influence, particularly Unsettling Truths. The most important aspect to Stand Your Ground is the idea that war becomes just through the understanding of Anglo-Saxon exceptionalism and racial superiority. If land and resources were not being used in ways that were considered best (and best was in part simply about being Anglo-Saxon desire), then just war concepts were met to take the land or resources violently.

One of the more important but not explicit points that Kelly Brown Douglas makes in this section is primarily quoting justification for Manifest Destiny from people who were known as outspoken abolitionists. Rejection of slavery did not mean (and rarely meant) belief in equality or integration across racial groups. Many abolitionists wanted an end to slavery not because of the cruelty of owning another human or the violation of the concept of Imago Dei, but because the slave system was competitive with jobs and employment for White people. Before it legalized slavery, Georgia was intended to be a White only state. Oregon did not allow slavery but also did not allow any Black residents. Texas made free Black residents illegal and broke away from Mexico partly because of Manifest Destiny (desire for land that was not being used according to Anglo-Saxon ideals) and because Mexico made slavery illegal.

Part Two is harder to talk about because it is less linear in its development. The counter to Stand Your Ground, a concept that is inherently violent, rooted in exceptionalism, and only a concept that is applied to Anglo-Saxons (or those adopted into whiteness), is God's identification with the marginalized. I listened to Stand Your Ground and give it adequate credit, and I need to re-read the last 100 pages of constructive theology in print. Kelly Brown Douglas was a student of James Cone and interacted with his concept of the Cross and the Lynching Tree. She also calls for the church to find a new moral memory, identity, and imagination to counter the historically distorted and sinful Anglo-Saxon exceptionalism, which has harmed not just the church or Black society broadly but also the white people. As noted several times, Womanist theology is not seeking to reconfigure a hierarchy but to alter the theological and ethical systems to eradicate hierarchies fundamentally. However, many, primarily White conservative Christians, believe that hierarchies were put in place by God and that bringing about liberation violates God's created order. Protests against Womanist theology often misread it because their theological categories require hierarchy, whether rooted in gender, sexuality, race, class, ethnic or political structures, or something else. The vision of real liberation is beautiful but requires openness to it as a possibility in this world, not just the next.

[K Kriesel · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to understand:
- why white Christians* support the Trump administration;
- why white Christians support the NRA, corrupt police and military, and militias;
- why white Christians deny climate change and environmental preservation efforts altogether;
- why white Christians pay lip service to Martin Luther King Jr. on his day while denigrating Black people year-round;
- why white Christians denigrate refugees, people who don't speak English, and immigrants of color;
- why white Christians claim that criminalizing abortion while also opposing welfare, charity, healthcare, anti-discrimination laws, and education is "pro-life;"
- why white Christians have colonizing missions to both foreign countries and historically Catholic and mainline Protestant parts of the U.S. that don't actually help these communities;
- why white Christians denigrate anyone who doesn't fit into strict complementarianism, even to the point of kicking their own children out of their homes;
- why white Christians aggressively treat their religion, the United States, and Donald Trump as one idol;
then read this book.

* not all white Christians do these things, and the vast majority of people who do these things are white Christians.

[Reid Belew · Rating 5 out of 5]

In both loosely-defined book genres this book falls into: race and theology—I can’t think of many examples of either genre that are better than this book, and even with my limited reading of race-specific theology, I’d go so far as to say no book I’ve read is better than this one.

Kelly Brown Douglas has done what few can: perfectly woven history, theology, and social justice together where the reader cannot discern where one begins and the other begins, which I believe is how real life should be. Our view of history, spiritual convictions, and our belief that no man is greater than another ought to all be indiscernible. They each should inform, shape, and mold the other until they coalesce into one worldview.

This is an exemplary reading on racism, and it’s a potent, refreshing, and urgent theology for the day.

I cannot recommend this book enough. It will especially affect those raised in any version of a Christian home (or still in one), but I’d even recommend it to those without any particular affinity to a religion.

KBD is clearly a gifted thinker, and I don’t think I’ve read many that could touch her clarity and precision, her knowledge, or her ability to fluidly move between academia and the pulpit. I wish I could rate this book higher.

[Brady Kronmiller · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Jesus repudiated the narratives and constructs of power. During his ministry, he effectively becomes one of the crucified class. His crucifixion is, therefore, inevitable”

“Religion can provide, and has in fact provided, sacred legitimation for inequitable social relationships.”

“There is a long history of churches, particularly white churches, being on the wrong side of crucifying realities in their own time.”

“It bears repeating that in the very beginning, Americans ‘made a liturgy out of their history.’”

“Cheryl Harris puts it this way: ‘Whiteness and property share a common premise— a conceptual nucleus— of a right to exclude.’”

“In America, the principal conception of the black body is as chattel… first and foremost, to be chattel meant that black people did not have the rights to possess their bodies.”

“History shows us that the Anglo-Saxon mission of Manifest Destiny considered Native Americans unworthy candidates for assimilation. They, therefore, became targets for extinction.”

“Renisha, Jonathan, and Trayvon were victims of stand-your- ground culture. They were in neighborhoods where they were not meant to be…Their lives had meaning apart from the crucifying deaths they endured.”

[Jens Hieber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having listened to a number of her sermons, I looked forward to reading this book. Part 2 was excellent and crafted a strong call through weaving together the history of the black church and the hope of divine justice on earth. Part 1 felt incomplete. It was not so much flimsy as just not entirely solid in its construction. I could fill in some of the missing elements from having read Michelle Alexander's 'The New Jim Crow', Ibram X. Kendi's 'Stamped from the Beginning', and Willie James Jennings 'The Christian Imagination'. The writing in part 1 was also too repetitive, as though Douglas was afraid her audience wouldn't be able to follow her line of thought. That said, it does help set the groundwork for part 2 of the book, which does not exhibit the same issues and is where the heart of her book really sits. I particularly liked the personal anecdotes.

[Kevin Harrington-Bain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book for my MDiv work and I don't know that I'll read a more formative or significant book in the rest of my program. Douglas's approach in outlining the historical factors and contributors to American exceptionalism and the Anglo-Saxon myth as they built up a stand-your-ground culture, followed by theological responses as informed by black Christian traditions accomplishes not only an impressive and thought-provoking profile of racism in America and Christianity, but also a sense of urgent hope to improve and revise our theologies from oppressive to liberating. Going on my shelf of favorites and must reads, there's so much content covered in only 230 pages, it will be well worth revisiting several more times.

[Meepspeeps · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an intense book. It takes readers inside the mind of a Black theologian reflecting on God’s justice from research and from the perspective of being the mother of a Black boy, now man. While analyzing “Stand Your Ground” laws after Trayvon Martin’s killing, she explains “a free black body is tantamount to a wild animal on the loose.” She goes on to say that Stand Your Ground extended the Castle Doctrine to “whatever space white bodes inhabit. The white body becomes essentially a mobile castle.” Her arguments are interesting, and there is some Christian hope despite the state of race relations in the USA. I recommend it to anyone who wants a different perspective on Jesus’ crucifixion, lynching, and the killing of Black teenagers and (mostly) men in 21st Century USA.

[Logan Carrigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book tells the stories and histories of a nation that continues to exclaim of its exceptionality and a people who have lived in the harsh reality that it is exceptional only if you have the right skin color. This is an eye-opening read into the founding of America's Anglo-Saxon exceptionalism and how we got to where we are today. Kelly Brown Douglas gives an excellent picture of the way forward which is to embrace God's picture of justice, flourishing and freedom found in Christ and working alongside him on bringing these realities to earth. This is a worthwhile read.