Reconstructing the Gospel: Finding Freedom from Slaveholder Religion

by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Lloyd James (Narrator)

"I am a man torn in two. And the gospel I inherited is divided."
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove grew up in the Bible Belt in the American South as a faithful church-going Christian. But he gradually came to realize that the gospel his Christianity proclaimed was not good news for everybody. The same Christianity that sang, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound" also perpetuated racial injustice and white supremacy in the name of Jesus. His Christianity, he discovered, was the religion of the slaveholder.

Just as Reconstruction after the Civil War worked to repair a desperately broken society, our compromised Christianity requires a spiritual reconstruction that undoes the injustices of the past. Wilson-Hartgrove traces his journey from the religion of the slaveholder to the Christianity of Christ. Reconstructing the gospel requires facing the pain of the past and present, from racial blindness to systemic abuses of power. Grappling seriously with troubling history and theology, Wilson-Hartgrove recovers the subversiveness of the gospel that sustained the church through centuries of slavery and oppression, from the civil rights era to the Black Lives Matter movement and beyond.

When the gospel is reconstructed, freedom rings both for individuals and for society as a whole. Discover how Jesus continues to save us from ourselves and each other, to repair the breach and heal our land.

Genres: Nonfiction, Race, Religion, Theology, Christianity, Christian, Faith

Audiobook

First published January 1, 2018

Reviews

[Adam Shields · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short review: “There is no way to preach the gospel without proclaiming that the unjust systems of this world must give way to the reign of a new King."

Reconstructing the Gospel is an attempt to work through the problem of sin and culture infecting the presentation and living out of the gospel. A gospel that justifies slavery, racism and oppression of the poor and marginalized is not the same gospel that Jesus was presenting. I remember reading John MacArthur's commentary on Luke. MacArthur specifically 'corrected' the reading of Jesus' sermon on the Plains where Jesus says, 'blessed are the poor' to note that Jesus was talking about spiritual poverty and removed the economic implications of Luke's focus. MacArthur never noted (nor have most presentations of Luke that I have read) note that there is a good likelihood that Luke was, or had been, a slave based on his name, background and occupation. Luke's presentation of his gospel as one where Jesus was actually interesting in physically poor and oppressed is often spiritualized by American Christian readings.

It is this type of misreading of scripture and Christianity that Wilson-Hartgrove is trying to point out and correct.

Reconstructing the Gospel is a mix of personal memoir of discovery, history and some proscriptions on how we work on reconstructing the gospel for ourselves (plural). The reconstruction suggestions are not simple. As illustrated by his own story, the primary method of reconstructing the gospel is spending LOTS OF TIME learning from people that are poor or oppressed. There isn't really a short cut to discovering blindspots. Reading a couple of books won't really fix it.

I have a probably too self indulgent review full review on my blog. It is hard not to connect Wilson-Hargrove's book with either the ton of books that have tried to define the gospel or the reading I have been doing on history or the books on race and culture.

But because we can't really read a book apart from the other related books, I spend about 1400 words making connections on the full review on my blog http://bookwi.se/reconstructing-the-g...

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in order to produce an honest review.

This book is a passionate, emotional look at the Southern evangelical Gospel and its inextricable rootedness in racism and slavery. It is charitable, Scriptural, theological, and personal. The author's deep ties to his state (North Carolina, where I also live!) and to the work being done here, particularly the work of the Rev. Dr. William Barber II-- whose books I highly recommend-- drive the feeling that this is not an academic exercise; this is his life. And ours.

Though Part I is a bit muddled, I implore you to push through-- everything afterward is well worth your time.

[CrystalIsReading on StoryGraph · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a small but powerful book that helped me define and understand better the concerns that have been growing inside me about (white) American Christianity. While I have refused to give up my faith, I've struggled for the past several years to find a church that I felt comfortable in, that didn't feel segregated, ignorant, or even racist in major or minor ways. I haven't really attended church since the majority of American Evangelicals elected their latest "Family values" candidate, a thrice married man who has paid porn stars for money and bragged on tape about sexually assaulting women, a man who calls neo-Nazis fine people, but my latinx friends 'drug dealers and rapists', a man who is celebrated by neo-Nazis like David Duke. How can I submit to a church too blind to see the problems with holding him up as 'God's anointed'?
The answer is simple. I don't. But I've been hanging in limbo, trying to figure out what that means for me, my faith, and any chance of fellowship with other believers. Then I came across a mention of this book, written by a man who graduated from the same college as me, a few years after I did, that I knew distantly through my roommate. Our (distantly) personal connection as well as the topic piqued my interest, so I did what I rarely do, and immediately bought a copy.
I am very grateful that I did so. Reconstructing the Gospel isn't a large volume, but it is a powerful, heartfelt one. Jonathan is honest about his own roots, in admittedly racist North Carolina Christian culture, and about his own journey away from that, into what he has become and is becoming, a devout Christian in recovery from "whiteness" and growing in fellowship with what he hails as the true American church, the historically black church. There's much about Jonathan's cultural heritage and upbringing with which I cannot identify, as a northern-born descendant of Anabaptists. But I'm still an heir of the foundational white supremacy of our country and of the white American church. and Jonathan helped me see, more than anyone has before him, how much that mistaken identity of "whiteness" has poisoned not only our systems as a whole, but each individual "white" person who has bought the concepts, who has participated in the lifestyle, who has benefited from the systemic racism all around us. That includes me.
I've read critiques of this book that it's not heavily theological, and that's true, but I'm not sure that the lack thereof deserves criticism. This book examines the big picture of the brokenness of our divided country and church, and the small picture of Jonathan's life, and the lives of those around him who have influenced him and helped (or hindered) him in his walk. It doesn't pretend to be a theological textbook. What it offers to be is a call to change, community, and true holiness for those 'white' Christians who are willing to hear. I'm willing to hear, and therefore much of what Jonathan writes really ministers to me, and I hope that I will continue to follow through on what I've read and learned, as I continue to seek out reconciliation on scales both large and small, and to do the work of justice we are called to, as I recover from the toxic concept of "whiteness", especially white Christianity.

[Shannon Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mandatory reading for all Evangelicals. Timely & relevant, Jonathan cuts to the soul of the significant issues of race & power within the church. I'm going to be reading this over & over to take it all in. I am pretty sure, come the end of 2019, this book will be my "Book of the Year." Thank you for writing it, Jonathan!

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

You Need To Read This

A few months ago, one of my white nieces asked a good black friend of mine what period of history she would choose to live in, if she could pick from any. Her response, so calm and poised, said that she was very content to live as she was today, because people who looked like her couldn’t live with the rights she had today in other decades in history. This moment stuck with me - and exposed the ignorance in my own heart. I didn’t - and don’t - have a worldview or an answer to that question that resembles my friend’s answer at all. And that caused me to pause.

It’s been said that Christianity is an American white man’s religion - and this book challenged, convicted, and spurred me to think and rethink how I view the gospel. I may be left with more questions than answers, but they are questions that need to be asked and wrestled over. May Jesus continue to keep stripping away our prejudice, pride, and ignorance until people experience His kingdom come on earth as in heaven.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

Written by a man filled with guilt from a prejudice he learned at home and fueled by his church, he assumes all view the world through a racial lens and that all white people share his guilt. The book is offensive to anyone who believes all are created by God to be equal. Perhaps this book has more meaning to someone who grew up experiencing Jim Crow laws and didn't see them as wrong. Never having believed they were just I can't assume the authors guilt just because I happen to be white.

[Kari · Rating 3 out of 5]

The content in this book is good but I don’t think it is organized quite well enough. I also think it needed to be fleshed out more - whether that was more of JWH’s story or more historical context (or both).

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been almost two months since I finished this book, and the review is way overdue.

I believe that this is a very important book for the Christian subculture of our day. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove has given us some sobering things to ponder, both as a church and as a society.

When I began reading this, I was intrigued by the subtitle, "Finding Freedom from Slaveholder Religion." Surely, I thought, this is not relevant to me. I have never owned slaves, and as far as I know, no one in my family for at least several generations back has owned slaves.

I was wrong. It is extremely relevant.

You see, we have inherited the concepts of slaveholder religion. It's not our fault, necessarily, but it is our fault that we have not worked harder to fix it.

The book starts off with a bang, in the foreword by the Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II. Oh . . . and before I forget, I should mention, because it matters quite a bit . . . Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is "white." Here's the first part of the foreword:

"So-called white evangelicals, who say so much about what God says so little--and so little about what God says so much--have dominated public discourse about religion in America for my entire public life. They have insisted that faith is not political, except when it comes to prayer in school, abortion, homosexuality, and property rights. They have overlooked the more than 2,500 verses in Scripture that have to do with love, justice, and care for the poor, and they have tried to make Jesus an honorary member of the NRA."

Like I said . . . "bang!"

What, exactly, is "slaveholder religion?" It is, in a sense, what Dr. Barber described in that paragraph in the foreword. It goes all the way back to a time when so-called Christians who thought it was okay to own another human being actually believed that it was a good thing that they owned slaves, because if those people had stayed in Africa, they might never have heard the Gospel.

This is truth; they actually believed that. It is documented in the book from historical writings.

Slaveholder religion comes from horribly misreading Scripture and twisting it to favor "white evangelicals." And in this book, Wilson-Hartgrove tells us about racial blindness, which has led us into a place where the body of Christ is tragically divided, even though we aren't aware of it. Well, of course we aren't aware of it, because we are blind to it, and, for the most part, we don't want to see it.

There are a number of statements in this book that are both quote-worthy and worthy of deep thought.

In the chapter about racial blindness, he says, "white evangelicals can't ignore black and brown sisters and brothers in America who ask why 81 percent of us voted in 2016 for a man who was endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan. At least we can't ignore them if we see them." (p. 45)

Same chapter, p. 54: "If we are honest to God and ourselves, we have not wanted to see. Far too often, we have chosen blindness, even refusing the hands of friends who reached out and tried to lead us to the one who could restore our sight."

P. 61 and 62, chapter 4, "Living in Skin:" "The unique contribution of slavery during the establishment of the American colonies was the employment of skin color to assign a class of people to perpetual servitude. . . .In explicit contrast to the enslavable black flesh of Africans, people of European descent began to imagine themselves as white. By virtue of their whiteness--and for no other reason--the imagined a divine right to own black bodies."

In the course of the book, Wilson-Hartgrove points out a very uncomfortable fact about the Southern Baptist Convention. I grew up Southern Baptist, and I believe that he was, at one point, as well. Turns out the whole reason the SBC exists is because there was a group of Baptists that wanted to keep slaves. So, they split from the rest of the Baptists who had, correctly, determined that owning another human being was a despicable practice.

So, in 1995, the SBC "issued an official apology for its endorsement of slavery." But then, they turned right around and applied the same passage of Scripture that had been used to endorse slavery (Ephesians 5-6) as they forced everyone who worked for the International Mission Board "to sign a statement of faith to which they added an article about female submission."

Racial blindness is in our spiritual DNA, says Jonathan.

In the midst of all this, though, he gives us stories of courageous people such as Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and Sojourner Truth. And he shows us, through the stories of Jesus healing blind men in the Gospels, that, while Jesus does, in fact, heal blindness, "we all have to admit our own blindness--even those of us who have pledged to follow him."

Jonathan found help for his dilemma in an activity known as "porch-sitting." It was a way of coping with what "some in the "African American community calls DOTS (daily ongoing traumatic stress)." He found acceptance on the porch of someone he simply calls "Ms. Carolyn," where "neighbors gossiped and laughed about each other, assessed our surroundings, and argued about what was really going on in the world and what any of us could do about it." It was a place where people didn't act like they "had it all together." Described the way Jonathan described it, it was possibly a more authentic experience of "church" than anything most of us have experienced.

So why does this issue persist? "White supremacy doesn't persist because racists scheme to privilege some while discriminating against others. It continues because, despite the fact that almost everyone believes it is wrong to be racist, the daily habits of our bodily existence continue to repeat the patters of white supremacy at home, at school, at work, and at church. White supremacy is written into our racial habits. In short, it looks like normal live." (p. 77)

Wilson-Hartgrove moves on to part II, "The Christianity of Christ." In this section, he shows us the parts of history where people fought against the evils of slavery and tried to make a difference. He also describes meeting the man who would write the foreword for this book, Dr. Reverend William J. Barber II.

He describes Jesus's meeting with Nicodemus in the New Testament, and how Jesus extends a hand to us, an invitation to "leave your people, your country, and your father's household and come be a part of the beloved community." Too many of us have tried to follow Jesus without doing those other things, and it has presented great problems for us.

He then lets us know that the last thing we need is for a white person to lead the charge. "A man who knows he is blind doesn't pretend he can run on his own, much less pretend that he can lead others. But if someone with vision extends him a hand, he can begin to find his way." (p. 121)

He then speaks of the way of the cross. "For those not blinded by racism, Jesus came to change more than individuals' hearts or the culture of families. Jesus came to change the world. He did it by gathering together a fusion coalition of the poor and the sick, tax collectors and zealots, religious defectors like Nicodemus, and lepers who had been written off as unclean. Preaching the good news that God's politics made room for all of them together in a new social order, Jesus built a popular movement in Galilee and throughout the Judean countryside that ultimately led to a nonviolent uprising in Palm Sunday's Triumphal Entry. The political threat of this popular movement got Jesus arrested and killed."

There are answers. There are things we can do to help ourselves. The first is to "shut up and listen." Listening is an art that has been lost in American culture. We all want to talk. We spend the time we aren't talking not listening, but, rather, thinking about what we are going to say next. We need to stop and listen! Then, we need to do what he calls "staying put." The monastics call this "stabilitas." We are not in control of the world, and we need humility. We cannot solve problems we do not understand. It is not the opposite of action. "It is the necessary counterbalance to faithful action in solidarity with people who are suffering." We tend to believe that our efforts will be more helpful elsewhere. That's why white evangelicals are always taking mission trips . . . to somewhere else! The final thing is to always be reforming our lives. This should be true whether we are speaking of racism or anything else. When I stop growing, I start dying.

Long review, I know. But this book is so very important, and it opened my eyes to some ways of thinking that I was guilty of. I confess that I have not sussed it all out, yet. It will be in my mind for a while. I may read it again, soon. But the truth is, racism/bigotry is alive and well in the USA. Perhaps more then ever. And we can't afford to continue to be blind to it, thinking everything is okay.

Because it's not.

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A personal story of reflection regarding the Christianity in which the author was raised and his reckoning and grappling with its roots in and complicity with slavery, white supremacy, and oppression, and the attempt to "reconstruct" the Gospel to be more consistent with the Good News of Jesus.

The author is white and shares his story of having to acknowledge how churches in the American South perpetuated oppression both in the days of slavery and long afterward, and how it remains embodied in much of what passes for Evangelical political action. He speaks of getting to know black people active in the community and the church in North Carolina and how those experiences transformed him. He writes of the work of justice being done which seeks to relieve oppression.

For those willing to hear, and especially those who already agree with at least most of the author's premises, the book is powerful and compelling. Yet I wonder how it would be viewed by who would be ostensibly the author's desired audience, those who have not yet come to his viewpoint: it may seem strident and overly, to put it nicely, "prophetic" in tone. At times the author becomes guilty of confusing the symptom from the cause: colonialism, and the spread of capitalism as the world's economy, for instance, do not stem from "slaveholder religion," but come from farther upstream, Western cultural and religious chauvinism which defined how it looked at the world, led its people to explore and conquer and enslave, and remains in many forms to this day.

Overall a challenging message to hear for those willing to hear it. Most of the time the author is not wrong. That does not mean that what he has to say is easy to absorb.

**--galley received as part of early review program

[Joel Wentz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book surprised me in a few ways, and it's easy to recommend to people immersed in the American-Evangelical tradition of Christianity.

Overall, the book is much more 'memoir' and personal reflection than I was expecting. While the work is saturated in theological reflection, it is primarily expressed in personal language. Certain chapters feel lifted from a diary, which is absolutely not a bad thing, as long as you don't go into it expecting scriptural exegesis and didactic instruction. Wilson-Hartgrove is more interested in teasing up challenging questions and shining a light on difficult realities than simply prescribing steps to move forward (I'm sure he would say the impulse to prescribe solutions is precisely one sign of 'slaveholder religion'). So, dear reader, know this going in. Also know that, especially if you grew up strictly in white-American-evangelical churches, you will be challenged by this book. I've done a lot of reading and reflecting on the types of issues raised here, and even so, parts of this book stretched me, even disturbed me, and left me longing for a truer Christianity. But perhaps this is exactly what Wilson-Hartgrove was going for.

[Sherrie Kolb · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think Mr. Wilson-Hartgrove had a religious experience culturally about his relationship with white privilege and how he inherited it from generations of his ancestors, many of whom were slaveowners. I thought his autobiographical missive was mostly personal and an oversimplification of the many cultural complexities of race relations.

I was very excited to read about his theory of the gospel being interpreted through slaveholder's eyes and preached as a message of ironclad submissiveness of the slave to his or her master/owner. Thinking in terms of how we need to see the gospel differently was the most novel aspect of the book.

The rest of the book, to me, seemed like a book whose author has taken on the guilt of his ancestors and is trying to assuage his own guilt by association.

There is a sense of urgency in the book. Mr. Wilson-Hartgrove found something that changed his worldview, and his own message is a type of gospel to the masses. It didn't work for me.

[Bethany (Beautifully Bookish Bethany) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 3.5 stars

Reconstructing the Gospel tackles critical issues at the intersection of race and the church, through American history to the present day. It challenges long held beliefs about how American Christians "should" vote and meaningfully deconstructs the (often problematic) role of the church through history in slavery, segregation, and latter forms of injustice.

In a nutshell, this had a lot of amazing nuggets and deeply thought-provoking passages, but a writing style that tends to be meandering, is generally more theoretical than practical, and sometimes lacks clarity. I think it's well worth reading, but it is clear that the author is more of a preacher than a writer. I would have liked to see a more streamlined narrative structure and a stronger emphasis on what readers can practically do, but I still think this is doing very important work.

[Jessi Riel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to place this book directly into the hands of all of my fellow folks who grew up in a White Christian tradition. The author draws the lines so clearly from the ways Christianity was used to justify slavery in America to the current racist policies still at work in our society—and he offers a way back to the Christianity of Christ. He is humble and insightful, incisive toward heretical doctrine and compassionate toward people who grew up blind to what was really going on. He learns from and amplifies Black leaders and enlightens us so that we all can see. This book should be required reading for all of us White believers who belong to the dominant political power structure but are trying to follow the way of Jesus, who Himself was subverting the political and religious power structure of His day.

[writer... · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strong interpretation of our need to reconstruct the Gospel being preached from all too many pulpits and persons to reflect the Good News that is Jesus Christ.
If it is Good News for one, it is Good News for all. Without segregation or discrimination. Without support of one people group over another.
Jonathan Wilson=Hartgrove presents strong examples of what has been and what needs to be.. A thorough representation of his own life experiences of life in America's south; bringing his first hand account to readers' for their own recognition of life experiences they may not have explored til this reading.

Powerful. Convicting. Encouraging.

Recommending as a reliable witness to the beauty on the mountain of the feet of a messenger who brings Good News . . .

[Dustin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A worthwhile companion to the literature of antiracism, through a progressive Christian lens. Wilson-Hartgrove is an excellent writer, but each chapter read like an individual essay. I’m not sure this was his intention. The introduction and first and last chapters are the most important and enjoyable, with the middle seeming to be just as much about William Barber’s work and ministry as his own. While Barber is inspiring (and a must follow on Twitter), the more than occasional focus on him seemed to distract from the thesis. Critique aside, I found the book valuable and am proud to have it reside on my bookcase.

A favorite quote: “Our racial blindness is generational and multilayered, folded in among all that is true and good about our faith. There is no easy way to be freed from it” (54).

[Amanda Samuel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the framework of the second half of the book to be helpful as a way forward and a picture of what church could actually look like, and the contrast he paints between “the Christianity of the slaveholder and the Christianity of a Christ”. I’m particularly interested now in learning more about the Rutba house and the current Poor People’s Campaign because of this book. Jonathan says something at the end about how he’s done his job as a writer well if the reader has come to the end of the book feeling like they must act. I like that criteria a lot and based on that, I’d say he did his job well with this book.

[Chris Schutte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wilson-Hartgrove shares his journey as a Southern Evangelical, demonstrating how white supremacy is deeply engrained in the history of American Christianity. The author has found new life in following Jesus alongside African-American Christians, slowly letting go of "slaveholder religion" for the faith that inspired the Freedom Movement. Thought-provoking and important.

[M · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book which, refreshingly, takes advantage of the insights of social justice movements (and some of the vocabulary) while centering a distinctly theological/religious argument based on those insights. Highly recommended.

[Lori Mcdonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book spoke to me and challenged me in a way I needed. Sometimes I find myself losing hope in the Christian church and the ways the church is tied up in White Supremacy. This reminded me that my hope remains in Jesus. While many of the ideas presented here werent new to me the way the stories were presented both convicted me and gave me hope. I am thankful for this book.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm frequently amazed at how often Christian pastors and speakers can be so eloquent and thoughtful from the pulpit and then write a book and manage to say so much without really saying anything at all.

I was excited to read this book especially after Frederick Douglass, because many of the same themes of slaveholding Christianity carry over here. But I felt like I needed more about Wilson-Hartgrove's background, his decision to move to a majority black neighborhood (which opens complex issues over gentrification) and adopt (?) a black son. There's a lot of pretty allusions and high-concept language here, like being free from racial blindness, the "race goggles" being taken off, being "adopted in a freedom family" etc., without any real personal comment on what that actually means.

I wanted this book to go more into detail, I guess, or present more honest real-world solutions to the issues facing the church today, but I just didn't see that.

[Janet Richards · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book I believe every American Christian should read. I would argue it goes farther than I would on some aspects of political activism. I am loathe to fall into the same trap I feel the Christian Right has done. Ultimately, I follow Jesus not any human leader or political movement. What I found the most valuable is to challenge the gospel I hold on to. While I am black, I did not grow up in the black church. I grew up in a primarily white-led church. I realized I have been taught a handicapped gospel message in many ways. It is through my personal studies and reading that I have discovered and grown to the love the full gospel. I sit in a very strange place. I attend churches where there is little taught and even less appetite for hearing about the gospel to the oppressed. This is a challenge to me. I have yet to figure out what I need to do about it.

[Valerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, so if you have realized how profoundly hollow and rotten much of White evangelicalism is, and if you were brought up in this tradition and have found this realization to be beyond devestating, then this book is for you... for a time.

This book is poorly titled. No reconstrution happens, or it barely gets started in the last chapter or two. This book is a lament on the state of things. As lamentations go, it is repetitive. If you are still in this place and are feeling lonely, this book is probably a great encouragement to let you know you aren't crazy and you aren't the only one. However, if you have more or less completed the process of scraping out most of the rot and are ready to begin rebuilding something stronger and better.... Look elsewhere.

[Regina Chari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jonathon Wilson Hartgrove is brilliant and has his finger on the pulse of our culture. His book paints an accurate picture of where we are for anyone who is interested in social justice and the church.

I enjoyed the stories shared in the book and they left me feeling hopeful and encouraged. I recommend this book to anyone who cares about social justice and anyone wrestling with the state of the church.

The publisher provided an ARC through Netgalley. I have voluntarily decided to read and review, giving my personal opinions and thoughts.

[Maggie Boyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

The unfortunate truth is that racial politics tend to have a Christian identity in America. From the creation of the Southern Baptist Church to support slave holding Christians to the burning of the cross by the KKK to backing candidates making racist statements in exchange for supreme court justices, American Christians live out their faith in a manner that often sends out a quiet, unintended message of what they truly value. To the God who said, "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me"(Matthew 19:21) we say tax cuts. To the Messiah who said "Love the one who is a different nationality, religion and culture than you (Luke 10:25-37) We say borders! Law and Order! Our witness is ridiculed in the public sphere because what we are saying is so often different than our Savior preached. That is never more true than when we speak of race. The author tells us, "Racial politics is about dividing us from people we don't know through fear, then offering a savior to make us feel secure." Of course, the search for a savior should always end at the cross of Christ for Christians but so often that is not the case. This book looks at the painful truth of that fact and highlights how we fall short. It could be depressing but we are reminded there is hope, "Just as the faith of the Pharisees had morphed through the centuries to prop up the Christianity of the slaveholder and fuel the fire of the Klan, so too did the Christianity of Christ find places to flourish." He points us to the Quakers and the underground railroad, and to the way their faith united and inspired the Freedom Fighters of the 50s and 60s.

I found the author's writing style a bit off putting but his message is timely and relevant. It reminded me of the need to get up and do something, even something small, for the oppressed, as the bible commands me to do. (Psalm 82:3, Prov. 16:19, Isaiah 1:17, Isaiah 58:6, Luke 4:18)

[Ginger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve read several JWH lately, and he’s an excellent writer and communicator. My criticism of his books is is that they all stop just sort of helpful.

If you’re not willing to be arrested or join a monastic community, there aren’t many answers here. He rightly levels the criticism that white people feel like they need to solve any problem they encounter and encourages us to shut up and listen. To ask what others see. That’s a great start, but then why write a book at all? What’s the solution? Is there any hope for making this better? How can we? It’s difficult to read a book where the conclusion is there are no conclusions and no answers.

So I guess this is just a book pointing out the problems.

There are a lot of problems pointed out. But I doubt he needs to convince his audience. After all, I’m reading a book with the title “Finding Freedom from Slaveholder Religion.” I’m tracking with you. I’m your audience here, willing to learn. But if you finish the book with me not knowing what to do next, that’s a failure of the author.

He almost answers it once. He brings up the issue of it not simply being a matter of trading white middle class politics for a different political but then he doesn’t answer it. He goes into what one church’s vision started in their neighborhood and then... how they influenced... politics.

So my solution has got to be spiritual, not political. Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar (my vote, my taxes, etc.), but he ignores rendering unto God what is God’s.

He even acknowledges that often the answer of the moral majority is—“if you don’t line up exactly with my politics, you’re not biblical.” But then turns around with the very same answers, just on the other side of politics. For a book written to the church, are the only answers to the problems always governmental, not spiritual?

He has a very clear view of the problem, but I didn’t find many solutions here. Andy Crouch has more practical solutions. I recommend his Playing God for a discussion of institutions and privilege.

[D.J. Lang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't go into reading this book thinking it is a how-to book. Other reviewers stated it well: it is a lament, a personal narrative. I read it at a time when I was personally lamenting and grieving so perhaps the timing was the right time for me.

Also, this book by a white author fell right in the middle of reading after reading Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson (black author), I'm Still Here Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown (black author); Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Boy poetry by Tony Medina (author of color); Under Our Skin by Benjamin Watson (black author) and before finishing The Sellout by Paul Beatty (black author), The Source of Self-Regard by Toni Morrison (black author) and Old in Art School by Nell Painter (black author).

All that to say it was the right place, right time, and right frame of mind for me to hear what this author had to lament.

Even without the book in front of me to remind me (and I'm writing this 3 months after reading it) two stories stand out: the one where as a youth pastor, Wilson-Hartgrove brings a typical evangelical message of "Just Wait" (it was titled something else but that was the message) to a group of young men whose world W-H could not even begin to fathom. They tried to explain to W-H the problem of his message.

Another was of sitting out on the porch, listening to words of wisdom from an older black woman. Actually, there was a third. Shockingly (to me), in his state and childhood faith tradition, if a person died, the services were held within three days no matter what. In his new neighborhood, family waited to have services until everyone could make it there.

To the reviewers who thought the book was a guilt trip, I'd like them to expand their reading to the books up above...maybe not The Sellout, that would be asking a bit too much, but certainly Channing Brown, Watson, Morrison, and Painter. (Woodson and Medina's books are children's books.)

[Ethan West · Rating 2 out of 5]

I agree with the premise of this book. There is an undercurrent of racism that permeates most if not all of society today. I have been and am guilty of this very thing. And in my very recent and very very limited scope of this issue I think that there is a different way that this issue should be and is being addressed. I can't articulate it as well as I would like to but I would highly recommend reading a book called White Awake by Daniel Hill. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/sho.... White Awake takes the same idea of racism and systemic prejudices and expounds upon them but unpacks them in a different way. In Reconstructing the Gospel it felt like the author spent most of the book giving a history of racism and prejudices and then very little (1 chapter basically) on how we can change those deep negative beliefs that we hold on to. Most of us grew up learning racism from our parents and immediate family. Even if that isn't an overt racism it is still there. For these beliefs to change we need a heart change. In White Awake Daniel Hill does an excellent job of describing our condition and ways to walk out of and have our hearts changed from racism to reconciliation. It is basically a reverse of Reconstructing the Gospel where most of the book is about how our hearts can be changed by the Gospel and we can be freed from inherent and inherited racism. Daniel Hill also unpacks the terms white guilt and white fragility in ways that help us to understand where we are and how we can process these feelings in a healthy way.

If you are reading this review before you read the book I would recommend at least reading "White Awake" alongside this book or even before it. It will change you.

[Nick Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is no lack of books out there right now doing the work of showing the symbiotic relationship between American evangelical theology and American white supremacy. That’s why this book is disappointing, especially from a deeply studied and committed activist and Christian like Wilson-Hartgrove. (I loved his *Wisdom of Stability,* and I’ve always found him to be deeply challenging, thoughtful, and admirable in his eclectic sources, and I think this high standard of previous works might be making me overly critical in what follows here.)

The frustration starts very early as Wilson-Hartgrove tells of a powerful awakening experience at a Christmas program at the Durham Performing Arts Center. While he frames it as some new awakening, it was well over a decade into his work of racial justice activism, and this is even his third or fourth book on the Christian call to racial justice. Why not be honest? Why not say he has been involved and still has far to go? If he’s instead trying to say it opened his eyes to the wrong way he had been doing things in the past, he never effectively makes that claim. (This was also after his relationship with Ann Atwater up to her death.)

The next deep problem is his engagement with the New Testament. Since he mentions Clarence Jordan, I find myself wondering if he gets the idea to go hard on the idea of casting the Gospels’ Pharisees and Sadducees as analogous to white Christians in several different exegetical readings. Wherever it came from, Wilson-Hartgrove takes the connection so far that it veers into anti-Semitic stereotyping of first century Jews (and Jews in general, by the extensions that Christians have made historically), literally into talking about religion killing Jesus rather than the Roman cross Roman soldiers nailed him to.

Finally his friendships with Ann Atwater and William Barber III, with whom he actually has partnered in significant work, are framed in a way so impersonal that these contemporary icons are flattened out as thinly as if I were to write about them, having read a book or article by or about them, having heard Barber speak once or twice live and a couple times via video. Wilson-Hartgrove writes of them in the first place because he is trying to get us white Christians to do less talking and more listening, but then he seems to fail his most basic advice.

Go elsewhere, even if you are very much on the same page theologically and politically as Wilson-Hartgrove is.

[Diane Gabriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a hard hitting book! Read this on my flight back to London leaving from the United States, and I couldn’t help but linger in the feeling that Slaveholder Religion (what Hartgrove defines as the Christianity that Whites in America have inherited since the plantation times, and that institutions have spread to everyone else) has been around for 500+ years. That is, that this incredibly impure version of Christs gospel has been driving the nations gears for all of its construction and development. It is so deeply ingrained in our roots, that to bring on a conversation about its lack if understanding Christs imperative feels to some to be an attack on “Americanness” in general. A book every American should read (Cliche! But certainly true) It would make us much wiser to pair this reading with books: Reading While Black, Here are Your Gods, Understanding Power and Abuse on the Church (Diane Langberg), and The Sum of US (to name a few). I felt a bit hopeless realizing the gospel has been abused for centuries and we have not gotten much farther than we’d hope with Trumps America. Hartgrove touches all bases with this book, his upbringing, challenging his comfort, being willing to be led by people of color, and not just believe whites are always the teachers, additionally, he includes many historical notes in this book. He is not overly technical with them, overall a pleasant but critical read.

[Missy · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Many white people would rather do something to address the symptoms we can see than acknowledge our original sin. Racism isn't only a part of who we've been, it is in ways we don't even comprehend, who we are. It has cut us to our very core."

"I prayed for freedom for 20 years," Frederick Douglas would later write, "but received no answer until I prayed with my legs."

"One in three African American boys born after 2000 would experience incarceration."

"In the Greek of the new testament, church is Ekklesia, "the called out ones," to be called out of the patterns and practices of this world's sinful and broken systems into the economy of God's grace is to become church. To participate in an institution called church that nevertheless reinforces this world's broken systems, is something far more cynical."

Luke 4:18 and 19, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." If this was Jesus' first sermon, what does it tell us about the priorities of his earthly ministry and how should it shape our vision of what we are doing as a church?

"Daniel (from the Bible) was arrested for civil disobedience when he defied an unjust law."

"Our hearts grow through daily personal practices...the biggest thing you can do is shut up and listen."