Unlearn Racism
Special to United Methodist Insight
In response to the racial unrest that has been happening in the United States since the beginning of the second quarter of this year, there have been more conversations within the United Methodist Men on this topic than at any other time that I can remember. Many more people are listening empathetically now and are trying to relate and understand.
As a result, the United Methodist Men of the North Georgia Conference are promoting some resources on racial reconciliation that are biblically and theologically informed or based in research about race relations in the church. These resources include videos, audiobooks and books, and can be categorized as historical, cultural and/or practical divinity. I tried not to include philosophical and theological books, as they are not written to the general public, but to the academy instead. Additionally, the aforementioned books are more expensive because they do not sell as many copies.
The goal is to get people in your men's group, church small group, Sunday School class talking about racial reconciliation from a Christian perspective. Personal narratives are encouraged; however, the creation of the Beloved Community that Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke about, is through redemption and reconciliation. The goal is also to get men to the table and to keep them there throughout the reconciliation process.
Video resources:
Beloved Community Talks from The King Center
Launching Conversations about Race: Odell Horne, Jr. interview with The Institute on Religion and Democracy
Audiobook resources:
How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind: Rediscovering the African Seedbed of Western Christianity by Thomas Oden, library audiobook, audiobook
Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America by Michael Emerson and Christian Smith, library audiobook, audiobook
Strength to Love by Martin Luther King, Jr., library audiobook, audiobook
Book resources:
Let's Get To Know Each Other by Tony Evans
Whose Religion Is Christianity? The Gospel Beyond the West by Lamin Sanneh
Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation by Miroslav Volf
Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation by Cain Hope Felder
United by Faith: The Multiracial Congregation as an Answer to the Problem of Race by Curtiss Paul DeYoung, Michael Emerson, George Yancey and Kaern Chai Kim
Building Unity in the Church of the New Millennium by Dwight Perry
Coming Together in the 21st Century: The Bible's Message in an Age of Diversity by Curtiss Paul DeYoung
Beyond Roots II; If Anybody Ask You Who I Am : A Deeper Look at Blacks in the Bible by William Dwight McKissick and Tony Evans
Odell Horne Jr.
Odell Horne Jr.
Odell Horne is the president of the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Men. He has a Master of Arts degree in African American Studies and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Theology degree in Contextual Theology.