I had the chance to write this review for Christianity Today of Jim Wallis' new book, America's Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America (Brazos, Jan 2016). Read the full review here.
Due to cities like Ferguson and Baltimore, activist movements like #BlackLivesMatter and #ICantBreathe, and tragedies like last year’s massacre of nine black Christians by a white supremacist in a South Carolina church, conversations about race are once again in the national spotlight.
As a pastor whose church has moved to broaden its ethnic diversity, and as a Hispanic man whose heart breaks over systemic injustice, I’m pleased to see so much attention devoted to healing some of our country’s deepest wounds. Thus, I was excited to learn that Jim Wallis, the founding editor of Sojournersmagazine, has weighed in with America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America (Brazos).
For many reasons, the book offers a welcome contribution. First, it’s an excellent resource for getting “up to speed” on contemporary race relations in the United States. Wallis provides a solid overview of troubling social realities like mass incarceration, the “school-to-prison” pipeline, racialized policing, immigration, and America’s shifting demographic makeup.
Second, it highlights systemic injustice, connecting the dots between historical legacies and present-day realities…