The Heart of Racial Justice

Racial and ethnic hostility is one of the most pervasive problems the church faces. It hinders our effectiveness as one body of believers. It damages our witness. Why won't this problem just go away?Because it is a spiritual battle.In response, we must employ spiritual weapons—prayer, repentance, forgiveness. In this book Brenda Salter McNeil and Rick Richardson provide a model of racial reconciliation, social justice, and spiritual healing that creates both individual and communal transformation. Read this book if you want to learn how to



- use your faith as a force for change, not as a smoke screen for self-protection

- embrace your true self and renounce false racial identities

- receive and extend forgiveness as an act of racial reconciliation

- experience personal transformation through the healing of painful racial memories

- engage in social action by developing ongoing crosscultural partnershipsThis classic is now part of the IVP Signature Collection, which features special editions of iconic books in celebration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of InterVarsity Press. It includes a list of definitions and a discussion and activity guide for groups. A new companion Bible study is also available.



Rick Richardson is director of the Billy Graham Center Institute and its Church Evangelism Initiative and professor of evangelism and leadership at Wheaton College Graduate School. His books include You Found Me, Reimagining Evangelism, and Evangelism Outside the Box.



John Perkins, the son of a sharecropper, grew up in Mississippi amid dire poverty and rampant racism only to become a recognized civil rights leader as an adult. He is the founder of Voice of Calvary Ministries in Mendenhall, Mississippi, Harambee Ministries in Pasadena, California, and the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA). His books include Let Justice Roll Down, With Justice for All, and Making Neighborhoods Whole.



Brenda Salter McNeil is a dynamic speaker, an author, and a trailblazer with over thirty years of experience in the ministry of racial, ethnic, and gender reconciliation. She is an associate professor of reconciliation studies in the School of Theology at Seattle Pacific University and is also the author of Roadmap to Reconciliation 2.0 and A Credible Witness.

Foreword by John M. Perkins


Preface to the Signature Edition


Acknowledgments


Introduction


1. Is There Still a Race Problem?


2. Mission Impossible?


3. A Better Way


4. A New Model


5. How Worship Builds Bridges


6. Embracing Our True Selves


7. Receiving and Extending Forgiveness


8. Denouncing the Powers and Principalities


9. Ongoing Partnerships


10. The Trumpet Call


Appendix 1: Definitions


Appendix 2: The Principalities and Powers


Appendix 3: Exploring the Heart of Racial Justice: A Strategic Tool for Leaders


Notes


Bibliography


Recommended Resources