And the Bridge to a New America - White Privilege

Jim Wallis is himself a powerful force for change, not just because he talks the talk so well, but because he has put himself and his family out there. He has lived a life of love and compassion, living and working and listening and talking with the poor and the marginalized. He understands what he writes about because he's lived it.

A fairly good read for those beginning the journey to learn more about racism in America as it is not as challenging and "in your face" as some others. Hopefully those who read this will feel prompted to go deeper and learn more.

This is an amazing work that really exposes the dark underbelly of ignorance that allows racial injustice to continue and to be used as a tool of fear and division. Should be required reading at the high school level.

This is a terrific book, particularly for white Christians. Jim Wallis does an excellent job of drawing from many sources to bring a balanced analysis to many current events, while being clear that the sin of slavery and racism has been embedded in the United States culture and society since the founding of our country.

Found this a readable resource to equip us for entering into discussion. We came to the end yearning for more tangible opportunities to not only expand the arena for discussion but to move on to the next level of advocating for building this bridge. Statistics and cites were up to date and presented in a way that multiple levels of application and understanding were facilitated. Good bibliography for future studies and consciousness raising. As always, thank Jim Wallis

This book is about Racism and White Privilege. Not everyone will want to know the truth about America. Everybody person in America should be made to read this book. "You will know the truth and the truth shall set you free,"......is an understatement!

An altogether thorough look at racism, America's oldest sin. Jim Wallis does an amazing job of naming the problem, explaining how we got there, and outlining the way out of it to true community. Required reading for anyone that wants to follow Jesus in loving their neighbor.

Until we address this issue we will never move toward reconciliation. Wallis's book stands with the Truth and Reconciliation commission of Tutu and Mandela as a clarion call to fully embrace the Gospel.

Impeccably researched and thoughtfully written, Jim Wallis's "America's Original Sin" is a call to white people of conscience, particularly white Christians, to engage in reconciliation for our nation's past and present sins against our brothers and sisters of color. He stresses throughout that reconciliation for our nation's mistreatment of people of color is not simply saying "sorry" but taking constructive action to right the wrongs of racial injustice on all levels: underfunded public schools, the school-to-prison pipeline, voting rights, immigration rights, and the disproportionate number of African and Latino Americans in prison, including harsh sentences for nonviolent crimes. Wallis invokes the message of Christ as a command to use to fulfill His mission of social justice and lovingkindness toward all people, no matter which race, religion, or social status. Wallis finally calls upon us to be "more Christian than white" and to really ask ourselves, "what would Jesus do?" when it comes to righting the wrongs of racism and white privilege in our country. A must-read for anyone of conscience who wants to make a positive change toward ending racism in America.

I purchased this book after the author, Jim Wallis, appeared on the Roland Martin morning show. During that appearance I found it interesting how this totally white man referred to racism, unequivocally, as America’s ‘original sin’ and how it is the responsibility of the owners of that sin (white people) to acknowledge it and begin to atone/repent. I must admit too that my thoughts were selfish because I also thought about how maybe this book would give me some language/ideas for when my white friends would look at me and ask ‘well, what can we do?’ putting the onus on me. The author even cites “What white responsibility means, in the face of these benefits, is a central theme of my book”. The ‘benefits’ referring to white privilege.

BTW, I am not a particularly religious person, even though I was raised Catholic, but I do consider myself extremely spiritual. One could say that this book is framed within Christianity and the bible; but I totally agreed with how the author deciphers and analyzes organized religions and their lopsided/hypocritical doctrines. He uses Dr. King’s ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’ to illuminate the hypocrisy/duplicity and how most clergy just play their role as part of the white power structure. His analysis of how the hypocrisy of religion in general really caught my attention because I’ve always felt like the reverends/ministers were talking out the side of their mouths (so to speak) not really standing up and striking down racism. The author goes on to share that the church must be the ‘forefront of racial consideration’.

I found it so interesting how the author refers to being white as a ‘false identity’ and how racism is still rooted in the identity of “whiteness” and only after ‘morally dying’ to this false identity will American democracy be real. (This talk of “whiteness” and ‘...those Americans who believe that they are white’ is expounded on classily by Ta-Nehisi Coates in his last book (the author also refers to this point)). I totally appreciated Jim Wallis acknowledging and validating what I have often been criticized for expounding on and that is that ONLY white people can be racists due to the fact that racism is ‘prejudice plus power – the power that white people have and people of color don’t’. He goes on: “That approach that ‘we are all racists and all need to repent’ is neither good theology or honest history”.

Finally, I must admit that I did not read in detail all the bible verses, and do not view from a bible lense yet I still found this book very informative, interesting and enlightening in reference to a white person admitting ‘the sin’ and taking ownership. Not to mention the interesting discussions I’ll have with my white buddies. I now have a freakin’ resource to refer them to …. LOL

“Dying to Whiteness”

A very important book that speaks sadly to the reality of our day. Racism continues to oppressive and devastating in our country and our world and so many sisters and brothers suffer as a result. This book would be most valuable for discussion groups...I think those in positions of authority in our government should read this and work to change this terrible and pervasive sin that affects us all.

From the beginning to the end this book will open up dark secrets that you wouldn't thought existed. It really shows a clear view of the United States Of America that we really dont know. Enough said just read this great book and you will not be disappointed.

This book is a concise and focused primer for all Christians, but especially for white evangelicals who are reading the signs of the times and struggling to discern how to respond. In the age of Obama, Ferguson, Charleston, and the fifty-year anniversaries of so many of the key battles of the Civil Rights Movement we need efforts like this and the conversations that will emerge from them.

This book’s title originates from a November 1987 article in Sojourners which began with the sentence: “The United States of America was established as a white society, founded upon the genocide of another race and then the enslavement of yet another.” Such an assertion contradicts the central lie of America’s founding narrative. American Christianity has been tangled up in that lie. “It’s time,” Wallis writes, “for white Christians to be more Christian than white.”

The legacy of white supremacy disables white evangelicals from addressing contemporary incidents of racialized violence against African-Americans with any degree of sympathy, insight, or relevance. Unfortunately, this has not rendered them mute on the topic even as it has exposed them as part of the problem rather part of the solution. Jim Wallis is trying to keep evangelicals in conversation with concerns outside their parochial worldview.

In this book he presents a strong, uncompromising view of race and racism. He connects central biblical concepts with incisive contemporary anti-racist analysis and then offers some of the best available mainstream progressive recommendations. There is little here that is original or has not been said before. His strength is in bringing it all together in a manner and tone that (some) evangelicals might be able to hear at a moment when we all need to hear it.

The argument of the book’s ten chapters can be outlined in five recognizable movements. First, Wallis demonstrates his narrative public theology style by connecting his own personal story with the national story on race (chapters 1-2). Some of the anecdotes here (and throughout the book) have been told before in Wallis’s other books. He is a preacher and that’s what preachers do; however, the stories are good and bear repeating.

In the second move (chapters 3-4) Wallis teases out the classic Christian themes of sin and repentance and relates them to the national conversation on race and racism. I find this part of Wallis’s presentation to be the most compelling. The popular misunderstanding of these terms as private and rarely public is a major obstacle to evangelical reform.

In a third move (chapter 5-6) Wallis confronts the inherent racism of contemporary American society. Wallis succeeds where many well-intentioned evangelical churches err in that he gets the analysis of racism right. It is not primarily or exclusively about personal prejudice, but about “prejudice plus power”. Furthermore, Wallis goes where few evangelicals tread in explicitly naming white supremacy and white privilege as powerful idols that must be repented of, renounced, resisted, and even exorcized. Christians must in theologian James Cone’s words “die to whiteness.”

Wallis underlines the contradiction that segregation presents to the central reconciling work of the cross. He urges the formation of multiracial congregations which can demonstrate the reality of reconciliation.

In a fourth move (chapter 7, 8, and 9) he offers pragmatic recommendations for addressing prison reform, policing, and immigration. That very few of these proposals differ from those of progressive Democrats may prove problematic to Wallis’s conservative Republican readers. However, Wallis is offering specifics and therefore giving his readers a clearer idea of what an alternative might look like.

In a final chapter (10) Wallis seeks to honor one of his mentors the late Dr Vincent Harding by inviting white evangelicals into an extended conversation about race with their African-American neighbors. In this chapter he presents his central metaphor and the subtitle of this book: “the bridge to a new America” based upon the image of the Edmund Pettis Bridge that the freedom movement had to cross in Selma in 1965.

Jim Wallis’s new book addresses topics that have been central to his life and work for the past forty years. These same issues of race and racism are also central to our contemporary national story. That combination makes this one of Wallis’s best efforts for some time.

Can the white church awaken? Can evangelicals reclaim a different evangelicalism that doesn’t celebrate exclusion and oppression? Wallis thinks so. I am not as optimistic as Jim Wallis. Perhaps that is why I need him. Perhaps that’s why we need this book. Lord have mercy on us all.

[This review appeared in the Advent 2015 print issue of The Englewood Review of Books based upon a pre-publication copy]

America’s Original Sin is a very eye-opening book and one that is needed in our time. In this book Jim Wallis — author, political activist, and founder of Sojourners magazine offers his contribution to the discussion of this culturally sensitive issue in America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America.

Wallis makes an assertion that Racism is America’s original sin. While that is a very theological assertion, it is an accurate one. It is a sin that has festered in our midst from the earliest days of European exploration and settlement to the present. It is a sin that has been passed down from generation to generation. It is deeply embedded in the American psyche, and even today many of us live in denial of this sin. Yet, the evidence suggests otherwise.

Jim Wallis is a Christian activist who has attempted to address this reality throughout his adult life and ministry aware that his own reality is affected by his own ethnicity. He has been involved in this work through Sojourners, a Christian social justice ministry. Jim comes at this conversation from an interesting perspective. That being his roots in Detroit. Metro-Detroit, which is my home at this time, has experienced deep racial divides that even today are difficult to bridge. He witnessed this growing up and it has influenced his own vision of ministry and engagement in public life.

One of the statements that have stuck with me throughout the reading of this book is “you can’t continue to say you are not racist when you continue to accept and support systems that are.”

A challenge I have with the book however, is how ambiguous some of the terms are. Wallis frequently refers to “white privilege” without clearly defining it as if the reader should know the implications of this clearly. I can make some assumptions about what this means but it would be good to hear from the author on this point. Also the book is VERY political in places. Wallis makes a statement that he left a church who wouldn’t talk about racism because they saw it as merely a political issue and then unpacks the issue as sin in this book and not political but after setting this stage Wallis takes the conversation to a political level. I believe greater impact could have come from the book without all the political underpinnings. Yet still, there is much that can be gained from reading this book to expand your own view of racism and important issues for our day.

The book begins with the story of Wallis’ own encounter with race and his developing vision. From there we go to Ferguson and Baltimore. Wallis develops the premise of original sin and its legacy. Being theological, there is also a call to repentance, which is more than saying you are sorry. An important chapter takes us into the church, which remains largely segregated. He asks us to consider what a truly multi-racial church would look like. Getting there requires intentionality, and the acknowledgement that diversity isn’t an end in itself. It requires the development of a spirit of inclusion and an empowerment of leadership that is truly multi-racial. This all requires a great deal of adaptability, especially on the part of those who have traditionally held power! It also requires interaction, getting to know people who might not be just like you. Wallis writes of the fact that 75% of Americans have a completely white social network:

I believe that is a very important statistic to explain where we are today, especially with the nation’s deep history of racism and the clear data about the implicit racial biases discussed in this book. The lack of direct, regular, and personal connection makes it very difficult to get beyond racial biases and stereotypes that are still so very strong in white American Society. (p. 199).

Wallis unpacks some of the history of racism in America that has brought us to today and then points toward a future reality that will need to be faced. Wallis devotes an entire chapter or two on immigration and the need for immigration reform. He then closes by pointing toward the future and where we go from here and also points toward the challenge of the “geography of race”. This is a very strong point of the book. Just pull up “The Racial Dot Map” which plots demographic info from 2010 to show this challenge clearly.

It is the geography of race that continues to separate us, keeping us in different neighborhoods, schools, and churches and keeping us from talking more deeply together and developing the empathy and relationships that bring understanding, friendships, common citizenship, and even spiritual fellowship. (Kindle Location 3930)

If you can get beyond the politics spread throughout this book, all in all this book is an impactful book to read that I would recommend to others.
America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America

Here he goes again. Pretending to be God. Rewriting history. Rewriting Scripture. Arrogantly assuming the right hand of the Father. Pontificating his made up nonsense. What else would one expect from Jim Wallis? He wouldn't be Jim Wallis if it were any other way. Is it situational irony? This old white man asserting that America's original sin is different than the original sin of all the rest of humanity throughout all the rest of human history? As if there were no racism anywhere else in humanity. As if humanity's fallenness weren't the same everywhere. As if relatively speaking America weren't a far far better civilization than most. Some kind of irony for sure. I just can't take Wallis seriously but apparently lots of leftists in America do these days. Go figure. (Two stars because his lies are so beautifully packaged.)

Jim Wallis is probably my favorite theologian. His book very clearly defines America's original sin of racism, which is perhaps more subtle than in earlier times but still very much with us today.

He is a theologian dedicated to social justice and doesn't deal with in this book the finer points of theology. He is my kind of minister.

Both authors are exceptional men of integrity and profess a deep senses of spirituality...haven't even read this book, but know its message is important give the integrity and passion of both authors.

This book is amazing. Jim Wallis wrote honestly in a way that our country needs to heal, grow and be the place to be ONE America.
I also love his call to all Christian's to stand up for what's write over race and turning the cheek to injustice on our watch.
Great job Mr. Wallis great job!

Do white Christians play a role in perpetuating racism in America and, if so, what can be done about it? These are the questions Jim Wallis explores in his latest book, America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America. In it, he explains why racism is incompatible with Christianity and that it’s time for white Christians to work to end racism in America. It’s clear in the first few pages that this is not a book about a post-racial society because we don’t live in a post-racial society - it is the story of racism in America, how Christianity plays its part in perpetuating it, and why “it’s time for white Christians to be more Christian than white.”

America’s Original Sin is thought-provoking and is organized around Wallis’ own thoughts but his uses of Bible verses and statistics raises it above the level of pure opinion. Where Wallis really excels is in his ability to write about such a heavy topic in an approachable way, which is great because it makes a complicated topic accessible to both churchgoers and non-churchgoers.

If you're worried that this is a book about criticizing Christianity, rest assured that this is not the case. Rather, it's a criticism of how the Bible is sometimes used to exclude and divide, whether explicitly or implicitly, when it should be used to include and unite. It offers a sweeping commentary on everything from Wallis’ own experiences to those of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown to immigration issues. Religious readers will likely be more impacted by the Bible verses than the non-religious, but Wallis’ calls to action can resonate with anyone and the result is a must-read.