Book Review: Reparations — A Christian Call for Repentance and Repair
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
A much-needed conversation to determine what reparations look like in the 21st century and beyond. And this book is written primarily for the Christian conscience because the adherent and reader have a written framework by which to guide them on the path of restitution and reconciliation. Now, this is not to say that other religions or worldviews, even, say, secular efforts cannot venture into the topic of reparations and come up with wholesome resolutions. What the authors intend to promote is the idea that the Christian conscience produced a society within the American west or perhaps the Americas in general that favored one race over all others. This conflation of faith or perhaps the misuse and distortion of faith with a supremacist ideology spawned the centuries of genocide we are still attempting to reconcile to this very day.
What is troubling and also new to me is that reparation is not a monetary issue alone. We cannot give a monetary value that can reduce the amount of suffering experienced in the past nor can we pay people a one-time amount to do away with the compounding consequence and legacy of centuries of white supremacy.
The authors identify the cultural, communal, personal, financial, emotional, and spiritual life-long commitment Christians must make to not only better our racial relations but also stand for the just cause of restitution.
If we limit reparation or the repair of a dilapidated society to an economic layer alone we miss the point altogether.
Reparation is not a hush-money payout. They’re not giveaways. This effort is a conscious commitment to continual relationship repair and restoration between several communities who have for centuries been at odds and whose disparities must be amended by the very people who claim to hold the words of the Divine Creator.
If the Christian conscience will not take on this task with a clean heart and a clear conscience, without bitterness or ill will, then someone else will with the aim of returning harm-for-harm and economic distress for the same.
Mind you, this is also a call for the federal government to take on as well. It is not new nor is it impossible for the government to pay out reparations to the families of former slaves, native Americans, or the poor within the land because this same government paid reparations to former slaveowners through Abraham Lincoln’s District of Columbia Emancipation Act.
Reparations are doable but their success and fruition depend upon the tenderheartedness and gracefulness of regenerate minds and souls.
Push for them, in Christ’s name. Push.
Contents
- Introduction: Generations without Recompense
- The Call to See
- Seeing the Reality of White Supremacy
- Seeing the Effect of White Supremacy
- The Call to Own
- Owning the Ethic of Restitution
- Owning the Ethic of Restoration
- The Call to Repair
- Epilogue
RSDB (Read, Share, Dismiss, or Burn) Verdict:
Read and share.
If you misunderstand the meaning, the true and lasting meaning of reparations you will dismiss it as a contrite and bitter intent to ‘get back’ at white people for things they did not commit. Things their ancestors committed ages ago.
This book opens the readers mind and plagues the Christian conscience toward action, toward restitution, toward restoration, toward reconciliation, without which our witness is tainted.
Please revisit this topic with grace and humility, and yes, an open mind and compassionate heart.
What hope do we have of racial reconciliation unless we right the wrongs of our past? Latasha Morrison
Originally published at http://olivettheory.com on May 6, 2021.
