“an important evening which I encourage everyone to attend”—The Rt. Rev. William H. Stokes, Bishop of New Jersey
On March 14, 2023 our Antiracism Commission is sponsoring a Zoom event featuring author, historian and speaker Jemar Tisby. Mr. Tisby’s landmark book The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism[3] is a must read for every faithful Christian. It tells the truth. It tells the truth in love. Mr. Tisby loves the church. He wants to see the church live into the tenets and values it teaches and proclaims. Tisby makes this clear, writing:
This study is not about discrediting the church or Christians. I love the church. My concern for the church and for the well-being of its people motivates my exploration of Christian complicity in racism. The goal is to build up the body of Christ by ‘speaking the truth in love,’ even if that truth comes at the cost of pain.
Tisby adds
The church has not always and uniformly been complicit with racism. The same Bible that racists misused to support slavery and segregation is the one abolitionists and civil rights activists rightly used to animate their resistance. Whenever there has been racial injustice, there have been Christians who fought against it in the name of Jesus Christ. Christianity has an inspiring history of working for racial equity and the dignity of all people, a history that should never be overlooked.
Jemar Tisby’s The Color of Compromise is a challenging, convicting, inspiring part of Black History, of White History, of American History, of Colonial History. It is part of our history.
