Sharing Our Stories: Reading books and addressing racism in the stories and real life

How to Read Books from Different Eras
A guest post by Roseanna M. White

As a writer, I believe in the power of story. But before I was a writer, I was a reader who loved nothing more than being taken to a different time or place through the pages of a book. Books are powerful things—they have an amazing ability to create empathy in the heart of the reader, helping us to see things from new perspectives. Throughout history, books have moved culture and helped create change that we still see the effects of today.

Here’s the thing though—even books that were cutting edge for their time, that changed the world, are going to appear dated or even awful when we read them today. Why? Because the change has already happened. We’ve progressed, society as a whole has come to conclusions and taught those conclusions to the next generations. These are things that may not have happened if not for particular books…but the growth continued.

This is as it should be. But sometimes readers pick up a book written 20, 50, 80, 100+ years ago, and instead of seeing how this moved the culture, we simple gasp and are horrified. Sometimes people cry out against these books. Or sometimes they do the opposite—they say that because this book was world-changing, nothing within it could possibly be objectionable.

But how should we be reading these titles?

I believe this is a question worth asking. But more, we also have to judge not only the words on the page, but the intention of the writer. Mark Twain, for example, is famous for writing satirical passages that show the reader one thing, and then state another through the eyes of the main character, in such a way that the reader has little choice but to recognize the racism so common to a time period. I’m thinking specifically of the end of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, where Huck recognizes within Jim something far more than what he was taught a Black man should have. He doesn’t know how to reconcile his experience with what had been hammered into his head—but his struggle to do that invites the reader to examine his or her own biases and question what we’ve been taught. On the other hand, there are books like those written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in a similar time period, in England rather than America, where the narrator simply assumes that people with darker complexions must have darker hearts—an assumption never challenged within the pages. Ugliness equates with evil in these literary pages too.

Readers today obviously know this isn’t so—but we also choose not to toss out the entirety of Conan Doyle’s works, because we recognize good things within them too. This, my friends, is the beauty of the human mind and the beauty of literature. We can evaluate. We can argue. We can defend. We don’t need to censor—because we can think for ourselves and decide what is right and what is wrong. I’d argue that, in fact, we should and must do this with every book.

We stand on the shoulders of those who came before. I believe it’s critical to understand what that means, what they believed, where they were right, and where they were wrong. This is how we grow, and how our understanding grows with us.

But there are exceptions, and those exceptions are for when the reader does not have the ability to discern and judge for themselves. I’m speaking especially of children and children’s literature. I homeschool my kids, and we read primarily classics that have won Newbury Awards throughout the years. Stellar literature, to be sure—but even in these pages one can see evidence of prejudice, stereotyping, and racism. A fine example is Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink. 

It’s a wonderful book, and it’s a book in which the title character actually goes out of her way and risks her life to protect the American Indians in her area. She’s battling the assumptions of her entire family and settlement in that moment—this is worth reading about. Even so, the author chooses phrases that we today would never choose. She makes assumptions about the nature of the indigenous people that we shake our head over. Should we still read this? Yes…if. If we also engage our kids in conversations about it. If we talk about the beliefs of the time and how we’ve grown. If we show how loving, fair-minded Caddie still had room for growth, and how we do today too.

Then there are books aimed at kids too young to even participate in a conversation like that—picture books. Picture books are, in my opinion, a category all their own when it comes to what care we should take. Because these are the books that shape our worldview and show our kids visually what is normal, what is acceptable, what is fun, what is serious. The images in those pages are going to help form their minds, one way or another. And those minds aren’t capable of reason yet. You can’t show your kids racist images on the page and then just say, “But…” and explain it away.

A great example of this is with Dr. Seuss’s books—a major hot topic conversation as of the writing of this. Dr. Seuss was a pretty amazing man. He was writing political cartoons that called for racial equality even before WW2, at a time when it was far from fashionable or accepted to do so. Even so, he gave in to fear when Pearl Harbor was bombed and drew cartoons impugning Japanese Americans…which he came to regret. After the war, he traveled to Japan, made friends, and wrote Horton Hears a Who as a result of his journey. His ideas, like all of our ideas, grew and changed over the course of his life. He came to new understandings as the years went by. And he is quoted by his relatives as deeply regretting the work he did that was racist in his earlier days. So it’s not surprising that the foundation that runs his estate conducted a study in 2019 to evaluate each of his books. They came to the conclusion that six of his sixty works contained offensive imagery or language. So after much consideration, they announced in March 2021 that they were pulling those six books from publication.

The media on both sides went crazy. You probably saw some of the fallout. Each side began looking for a villain to blame. Some people wanted to censor all Seuss. Other people wanted to go buy every Seuss book they could get their hands on and accused the left of “banning” Seuss when it was really his estate that made the call. But it seems to me both sides were missing the point—that the estate recognized, as Seuss did himself, that each work, each image matters. They made a decision to keep in print only those titles that wouldn’t risk teaching young children that one person is worth any less than another—a lesson many of Seuss’s stories teach so beautifully. They did what we all do when we’re reading for ourselves, and what we as parents or grandparents must do when reading to our kids: they asked questions, they evaluated, they used their discernment, and they made a judgment call.

Too often we get so entrenched in our ideas that we either throw out the good with the bad, or refuse to entertain the notion that there could be any bad in what we’ve called good. But nothing in life or in literature is so simple. And so, I invite you to read widely…but also to read deeply. 

Read with a willingness to learn but also to question. Read knowing that your perspective comes from standing on the shoulders of those who came before, those who wrote before…and know that your journey isn’t over, and neither is literature’s.

Keep reading. Keep talking about what you read. And keep encouraging others to evaluate the words and pictures in the pages thoughtfully. Let’s not just read and judge—let’s engage.

~*~
Author Bio:

Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award nominated author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes.

When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing for WhiteFire Publishing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself.

Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books … to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.

You can learn more about her and her stories at www.RoseannaMWhite.com.

~*~
Connect with Roseanna:
Blog: https://roseannamwhite.com/blog/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RoseannaMWhite/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/roseannamwhite/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roseannamwhite/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RoseannaMWhite
Website: https://www.roseannamwhite.com

Sharing Our Stories: The Beloved Community

Beloved Community
A guest post by Dr. Angelle M. Jones

“He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” 

– Luke 10:27 (NIV)

As we approach the celebration of MLK Day, your thoughts may turn to Dr. King’s dream of a Beloved Community. His was a narrative of a collective community. A community committed to embracing the philosophy of nonviolence. A community where its inhabitants share the wealth of the earth and where the coexistence of racism and poverty are no longer. A community where by engaging the principles of nonviolence, conflict or international disputes are resolved peacefully. It has been said that to Dr. King, the enactment of Beloved Community was as realistic as the racist world in which he lived.

My personal vision of Beloved Community developed as the result of years of longing for an authentic multiracial and multiethnic worshipping community. I envisioned a sacred space where Christians embraced and lived reconciled with one another the way the Kingdom of God is portrayed in Scripture. I saw a sacred space where in spite of what took place outside, inside, loving God also meant loving your Black or White neighbor as yourself. When I think about the many communal experiences I’ve personally encountered, I realize it was the authenticity of loving relationships developed in those spaces that brought me joy. On the other hand, the effects of racism in that same space have affected not only the way I see and experience community, but at times it caused me to fear the possibility of believing genuine relationships between Blacks and Whites could ever exist.

Today, intentional racial reconciliation happens as I do the work of loving my White neighbor as I love me. As I reflect back to my first experience of allowing a White person to enter into my relational space, I am almost embarrassed at the level of resistance extended. My dear friend of now thirty some years, approached me in Bible college after hearing I was having car trouble. She offered her help in getting me to class.

As a new Christian who had recently spent five years of college studying African-American studies, finding myself in a multiracial/multicultural church was the last place I thought I would worship or find authentic White folk for that matter. After only a short time, because of some of my initial encounters at the church when Whites turned away after the pastor asked everyone to reach out and touch or hug their neighbor, I immediately distrusted my friend’s motive. The more I resisted, the more she insisted she could pick me up for class. We laugh about it today because in reality neither of us was intentionally trying to befriend or hurt the other. She was just being her naturally giving self; I on the other hand, was naturally protecting myself from further discrimination, which had become a normal way of life, now in and outside the church. Her intentionally reaching across the invisible color line to offer help, was all it took for me to risk letting my guard down to finally accept her invitation.

It has been theorized that since slavery in America, social categorization of race construct, and superiority and inferiority complex theories have been used by Whites to subjugate Blacks and other minorities. As a result, this social construct has through the years caused Blacks and others since slavery to continue to be looked upon as inferior to the majority race in this country. For this reason, years after the physical and emotional traumatization of Blacks, many African-Americans still carry the scars from slavery, while trying to deconstruct the myth of being inferior.

This trauma has affected how Blacks often respond when approached by Whites. Even when Whites may have good intentions, Blacks subconsciously may be wondering, “What is your real motive?” or asking themselves, “Is the person just trying to relieve themselves of guilt by doing something nice for a Black person?”

Even against the resistance posed, this White woman who is now one of my dearest friends, pressed to make a difference in someone’s life. More importantly she did it without allowing color to be a barrier. Although our relationship may have been divinely orchestrated by the Holy Spirit, we did have to obey the promptings to allow this organic friendship to develop between us. What may have started as an unplanned relationship, at some point we had to become intentional for it to flourish authentically.

In light of my personal journey with my friend, I learned that the opportunity for genuine fellowship between Blacks and Whites will only reach its maximum potential when the participants are intentional about loving the other as they love themselves. By allowing this sister in Christ to be the authentic and genuine person that she was and remains to be after years of friendship, I am a better person and I believe she would agree, so is she. We have had countless discussions about race, how we grew up, our parents, and how all these factors have made a difference in how we view one another.

Even though we are both Christians, we found having a lot in common still did not keep us from running into challenges as we grew to learn about one another. I am sure we would both admit that our friendship has weathered the racial storms of the decades since our first encounter. Through political debates, church traditions, ministry, life and other major differences that we faced as we were becoming the women we are today, we are both better because of the other. More importantly, we have modeled authentic Beloved Community for our friends and families.

As we celebrate this upcoming MLK Day, there is only one way to capitulate the seemingly shrinking imagery caste by Dr. King. If nourished, the sixty-year-old vision will remain alive to never die. As we strive to authentically love one another, one life, one church at a time, may Beloved Community prevail. 

~*~
Author Bio:

“Inspiring and Motivating With the Power of Words” 

Angelle M. Jones believes that the power of words inspires, and motivate to bring about transformative change individually and collectively. 

Angelle originally hails from Cleveland, Ohio. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in African-American studies from the University of Cincinnati. Angelle has a master’s degree in Theological Studies from Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia and an earned Doctorate in Ministry on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, and his philosophy of The Beloved Community from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio.

Her ministry career began as a staff member of the Northeastern Ohio Billy Graham Crusade in 1994. For twenty years, as founder and director of In The Spirit Ministries, Inc. she led teams on mission outreaches throughout the world. From 2007-2012 Angelle served as Missions Director of New Salem Missionary Baptist Church in Columbus, Ohio where she currently resides. Angelle is founder and director of GlobaLife Coaching and Consulting serving as a Life and Transformation Coach and Church Consultant.

In 2016 Angelle authored and self-published her first book, Happily Never After. Along with sharing words of hope by sharing her writings on her social media platforms, she has been published in Vantage Magazine which is a literary source for faculty, students and alumni of Columbia Theological Seminary, and Ready which is a cutting-edge online magazine addressing current events and trending socially relevant topics for women.

Angelle is the mother of an adult daughter. She is a grandmother and great-grandmother.

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Connect with Dr. Angelle:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/angelle.m.jones.5
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abundantgrace1/
Website: www.globalifetransforms.com
Email: globalifeconsultants@gmail.com

Happy New Year 2021!

 

Merry Christmas! God bless you!

 

Sharing Our Stories: Rearrange the Room

At the Table of Racial Reconciliation
A guest post by Sherrinda Ketchersid

It’s three days after Thanksgiving, and you may still be wearing your elastic waistband pants after indulging in the traditional feast of turkey and dressing—not to mention all the pies.

With COVID-19 still running rampant, your Thanksgiving may have looked a little different. Some may have been able to sit together around a table to feast, while others may have had to eat together through a Zoom call or eat outside, weather permitting. We have had to rearrange our traditions in order to accommodate safety for one other.

This got me thinking about a study I just finished by Kristi McLelland called Jesus and Women - Bible Study Book: In the First Century and Now, and how it relates to racial reconciliation and social justice. During one lesson, we focused on the story of Jesus being anointed by a sinful woman in Luke 7:36-50. A Pharisee named Simon invited Jesus to his house for a meal, and Jesus ended up rearranging the room.

To give a little background from biblical times, hospitality was important. People honored others by having them in their home for a meal. Being a generous person was important as well. Therefore, people would allow the poor, the outcasts, and marginalized to sit along the wall and partake of the food. The guests of honor would recline at the table, leaning on their left side so that their right hand (the hand of blessing) would be free to eat with. Their feet would point to the wall. This gave easy access to the woman who had heard Jesus was going to be at the Pharisee’s house, and she came to bless him with her jar of perfume.

This woman came with her hair unbound, which indicated she was an immoral woman. But she came to honor Jesus, and washed his feet with her tears, drying them with her hair, and anointed his feet with her jar of perfume. Her actions must have caused quite a stir, and Simon was indignant. Though he did not outwardly speak against her actions, he thought them … and Jesus addressed his inward thoughts. Let’s read about it in Luke 7:44-47 (NIV):

Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”

Jesus turned toward the woman. He saw her. He saw her plight. He saw her tears. He saw her heart of love for him. He saw Simon and his own condescending thoughts and feelings. By comparing the woman and Simon, Jesus rearranged the room. No longer was the woman assigned to the wall. Jesus lifted her up and brought her honor. She had a seat of honor at his table, figuratively speaking. And Simon…well, Simon was removed from his seat of honor and relegated to the wall, so to speak.

I think the beauty of Jesus Christ’s mission on earth is that He is room designer. He lifts up those who are neglected and hidden from view to a place of prominence in his kingdom. He finds a place of importance in the room for the marginalized. He believes all of his creation—all of humankind—should be given honor and respect, not relegated to the back wall.

We should all be looking for ways to bring Black, Indigenous, and People Of Color (BIPOC) to the forefront and promote them to a place of honor and prominence in a white-centered world.

So often, BIPOC are overlooked because we Americans as a nation are so white-focused. There are more movies, TV shows, and books with more White leads than with BIPOC. Most politicians are White. Most CEOs are White. BIPOC shop in stores catered to White people and often cannot find products like makeup or hair care that will work for them. It is harder for BIPOC to get business loans because of racism and discrimination. I could go on and on with these types of issues.

Not only are we White-centered in our consumerism and leadership roles, we are also White-centered in the way we deal with the hurt of BIPOC in their ongoing oppression—and yes, they are still oppressed because racism is systemic and ingrained in everyday life. We’ve seen this when discussions get heated and Whites try to “tone police” a BIPOC’s emotional response. We see it when Whites get defensive when called about their White-centered words or actions. Anything that puts a White person’s feelings over that of BIPOC is White-centering, and this practice should be dismantled.

As Jesus Christ came to turn an upside-down world to an upright position, we, too, should look for ways to make things right for BIPOC and others who are marginalized by the world. Whether we shop BIPOC stores, read BIPOC authors, give money to BIPOC causes, and truly listen to BIPOC voices, we need to be seeking opportunities to make a difference in the journey of racial reconciliation. We need to follow the footsteps of Jesus and rearrange the room for all those who need justice.

~*~
Author Bio:

Sherrinda Ketchersid is an author of historical romance and a minister’s wife who loves to paint in her Bible.

She loves to read, spend time in her flower garden, and try her hand at new crafts. She likes to blog and is part of a group called The Writers Alley.

Sherrinda lives in north-central Texas with her husband of 35 years. With four grown children, three guys and a gal, she has more time and energy to spin tales of faith, fun, and forever love.

~*~
Connect with Sherrinda:
Website: www.sherrinda.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SherrindaKetchersidAuthor/
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/sherrinda
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sherrinda
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/sherrinda/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19022507.Sherrinda_Ketchersid
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/sherrinda-ketchersid
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Sherrinda-Ketchersid/e/B07Q5Y8QHF/

Sharing Our Stories: Empathy is an Art

The Art of Empathy
A guest post by Marie W. Watts

Being the change we seek requires us to practice empathy. 

Simply put, empathy is trying to understand another person’s feelings.  

According to Merriam-Webster, sympathy implies sharing (or having the capacity to share) the feelings of another, while empathy tends to be used to mean imagining, or having the capacity to imagine, feelings that we do not actually have.   

If I have had a divorce, for instance, it is easy to imagine the feelings of another who is going through marital issues (sympathy). However, if I’ve never been in that situation, conjuring up that emotional state may not be so simple (empathy).

Matthew 9:35-38 (NIV) describes how Jesus Christ practiced compassion. Compassion refers to both having empathy and the desire to mitigate the pain:

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”  

As our journey in the footsteps of Jesus Christ unfolds, how do we develop empathy for those who are different from us, so we can move to compassion? A few suggestions follow …

    When we are in a one-on-one situation:

·      Suspend judgment. Don’t judge until you know the person better.

·      Listen.    

·      Ask questions if you think something is wrong.    

·      Ask about feelings.

·      Show concern.

·      Pay attention to the needs of others.

 

When listening, follow these tips:

 

·      Reflect the speaker’s feelings. Example: That must have been a terrible experience.      

·      Ask for clarification using “I” phrases. Example: I’m not sure I understand. Not You’re not making any sense.

·      Use eye contact.

·      Show interest through body language.

·      Don't plan rebuttals.

·      Don't jump to conclusions.

·      Give the person your undivided attention.

·      Don’t interrupt or impose your solutions.

·      Summarize what you believe the person is saying.

Often, we are not in a position to speak with individuals who are different from us. We can still develop empathy by reading or watching programs about their experiences. My next novel involves a character whose mother is mixed race African American and Korean. Until I read an anthology of stories by these individuals, I never realized the pain and suffering they endured.      

Lastly, if you are in a position to ease someone’s pain, do so. There’s quite a bit of hurt in the world right now, and we can all use some tender loving care.

~*~

Author Bio:

Marie W. Watts is a former employment discrimination investigator and human resource consultant with over twenty-five years of experience. In pursuit of justice in the workplace, she’s been from jails to corporate boardrooms seeing the good, the bad, and the ugly of humans at work.  

Her on-the-job observations came in handy when she co-authored a textbook about how to behave at work, Human Relations 4th ed. Additionally, her work has been published in the Texas Bar Journal and the Houston Business Journal as well as featured on Issues Today syndicated to 119 radio stations, NBC San Antonio, Texas, and TAMU-TV in College Station, Texas. 

A popular diversity and employment discrimination trainer, Marie has trained thousands of employees to recognize their own biases and prejudices and avoid discriminating against others in the workplace. She has brought her experiences to life in the trilogy Warriors For Equal Rights about the struggles of ordinary people who work at the little-known federal agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

She and her husband live on a ranch in central Texas. In her spare time, she supports a historic house and hangs out with her grandsons. For more information about Marie and her stories about life, visit www.mariewatts.com. 

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Connect with Marie:
Bookbub - https://www.bookbub.com/profile/marie-w-watts
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/mariewattsbooks
Twitter - https://twitter.com/MarieWattsBooks
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mariewattswriter/
Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marie-w-watts-5b2a2b/

Sharing Our Stories: Saying "Yes" to God

When I Am Weak, God is Strong
A guest post by Kristen Rimer Terrette

I’m scared, y’all.

Have you ever committed to doing something you feel God desires from you, then as this very commitment approaches, you find yourself wanting to renege? That’s where I am.

I’m sitting in that tension, screaming inside, and with a racing heart, thinking, “God, what did I say yes too?! I’m not equipped! I’m not knowledgeable! I’m not enough!”

You see, not only have I agreed to participate in this Sharing Our Stories blog, but I’m beginning a church small group about racial reconciliation.

Me. A white girl in a predominantly white suburb (though changing more every day) of Georgia and, true to these statistics, one who attends a predominantly white church.

What can I do? Honestly, I’m part of the problem. Or at least I was, without a doubt, before I worked through the topics of the study I’m facilitating. Topics like awareness, lamentation, confession, forgiveness, and repentance. And even still, having done some internal work in my heart and having conversations with close friends and my husband over the years, I don’t know how to help people along on their journey toward acknowledgement, confession, healing, and growth—the very things that must happen for reconciliation to be realized. So many other are more qualified, even in my own church!

This was glaringly evident last Sunday when I was asked by a church member what made me want to start a group around racial unity. My first instinct was to cringe, because knowing a bit about this church member meant that, most assuredly, he’s further along in his journey toward correcting any previously held biases and prejudices. I felt inadequate immediately, not because of anything he did, but because of my own insecurities.

But after my initial recoil, words flowed easily. Something like (though probably not as eloquent as I’m remembering), “There are people of color my life who I care deeply for. These relationships have lasted for many, many years. They are family. They come to Thanksgiving and Christmas at my home. They celebrate and grieve with me. They love me, and I love them. And once my eyes were unveiled to the injustices and pain they’ve been through, I felt sheer sadness over their oppression and sorrow.”

Knowing my loved ones had dealt personally with racism and hatred, meant I could no longer live in oblivion. My heart aches for them and that heartache makes me want to face my own part in their pain and work toward learning, listening, and doing something to help tend to their wounds.

But is it enough? Is this my own ambition? And what difference could a group or a blog post make in this chaotic world? I’m so small. So weak.

In my quiet time, as I prayed over this, God reminded me of 2nd Corinthians, chapter 12. Here, Paul describes a vision from God where he pleads three times for the Lord to take away the “thorn of his flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7 NIV). In verse nine, we read God’s response to Paul’s cries, “‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’” The verse continues with Paul’s acceptance of his challenges, “Therefore I (Paul) will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

It was like God bonked me on the head and added a playful eye roll. My role in these commitments didn’t matter. My insufficiencies only release God’s power as I walk along His path for me. I cried (recently) for Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and my loved ones who I worry about facing brutality. But, also for Eric Garner, Tamir Rice … and the list goes on … I’d told God in these moments I would say yes to whatever He asked me of me.

And that was the only step He needed.

He wants my obedience, because my weaknesses aren’t a problem for Him. They only make His power shine perfectly. He’ll do the work. He’ll bring the people to the small group. He’ll bring the words for our blog posts. He’ll bring readers who are ready to go out and “do” good for Him in the world. His power is all we need to spark change.

I love that Paul adds in 2 Corinthians 12:10,“That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

What step are you afraid to take but feel God asking of you? One where you feel ill-equipped for, but a passion for the cause has been stirred in your heart that you can’t deny? 

Guess what? God put that passion there. He’s ready to come in power. In fact, that’s the only way He can come. So, take the step of obedience and delight in that feeling of weakness, because when you are weak, God says, because of Him and His Holy Spirit, you are strong.

With all our obedient steps combined and with God by our side in power, we can make a difference and inspire a change of heart.

~*~
Author Bio:

Kristen's passionate about storytelling and helping people take their next steps in their relationship with Jesus. 

She lives forty-five minutes outside of Atlanta, GA. where she served as a Children's Ministry Director for many years. With the support of her husband and two children, she now stays home writing fiction and non-fiction.

She also serves on the women’s leadership team at her local church and writes for Crosswalk and Wholly Loved Ministries. You can check out her articles and novels at www.kristenterrette.com.

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Connect with Kristen:
Website - www.kristenterrette.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/authorkristenterrette/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/KTerrette
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kterrette/
Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16252020.Kristen_Terrette
Bookbub - https://www.bookbub.com/profile/kristen-terrette
Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/kterrette2/

Sharing Our Stories: Introducing the writers

Introducing Kristen Rimer Terrette, in her words:

I’m a white woman living in the suburbs of Atlanta. 

I’ve spent my whole life in the south, and I truly love southern traditions like big Sunday dinners and back porch swinging, sweet tea and everything fried, Chick-fil-A and farmhouse-style anything. 

Down here, we boast about having all four seasons show off in vivid color (though summer seems to last at least six months!) and our gigantic love of college football (like really, it’s insane). And I’ll admit, my husband and I entertained the biggest southern cliché of all… Our son’s name is my grandmother’s maiden name. I know…you don’t get more southern, and cliché, than that.

But this culture, the one that has seeped into my everyday life, is also soaked in racial injustice, the sting of oppression, and blindness (through ignorance or a purposeful turning away) to disunity going on right before our eyes. My awakening journey to this problem started years ago. I looked around my children’s ministry, as its director, and at my own personal life, and noticed it wasn’t as diverse as it should be. And since heaven will be filled with “every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9 NIV), my life needed to be this way also. A passion for unity and diversity was birthed then. And as I learned, listened, and repented, my desire to be of use to God as a reconciler grew stronger.

But who am I? My voice is small compared to the loud one of the enemy, who’s plan is “to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10 NIV) by carving out more dissention in God’s people, and causing more anger and pain to the oppressed.

Thankfully, God knows combined voices get loud. Together, we can drown out and drive away the enemy in Jesus’ name. So, I hope to my use my meager influence, one that has benefitted from white privilege and led a life of white fragility, to share my perspective, to help open veiled eyes to past atrocities, systematic racism, prejudices, and complicit behavior.

I want to share my own stories, as well as those in my circle and community, to challenge our culture, especially here in the South, and impact my generation, which will be a source of change for the next generation.

If you’re reading this, it’s likely we want the same thing. A unified church body. The enemy has conquered our land and people far too long. He has lied to us, blinded us, and kept us separated. Through this blog’s platform, let’s share our viewpoints and ongoing journey to reconciliation. Let’s open up conversations that help change hearts, biases, and prejudices. 

I believe if we do the hard work needed to break the enemy’s stronghold over our minds and our society, and as we strive to forgive, lament, and move forward, our children will see this unification happen.

~*~
Author Bio:

Kristen's passionate about storytelling and helping people take their next steps in their relationship with Jesus.

She lives forty-five minutes outside of Atlanta, GA. where she served as a Children's Ministry Director for many years. With the support of her husband and two children, she now stays home writing fiction and non-fiction. 

She also serves on the women’s leadership team at her local church and writes for Crosswalk and Wholly Loved Ministries. You can check out her articles and novels at www.kristenterrette.com.

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Connect with Kristen:
Website - www.kristenterrette.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/authorkristenterrette/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/KTerrette
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kterrette/
Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16252020.Kristen_Terrette
Bookbub - https://www.bookbub.com/profile/kristen-terrette
Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/kterrette2/

Merry Christmas 2019: An e-card for you! :)

Interview with NEW author Cara Meredith

Hello, blogging friends! 

Today, I'd like to introduce you to a new author friend of mine, Cara Meredith. She's a writer, wife and mother with a passion for helping people look past the superficial and love each other because we're all made in the image of God.

Allow me to officially introduce Cara Meredith via words from a press release by her book publisher, Zondervan: 

When writer Cara Meredith, who is white, married James Meredith, the son of civil rights icon James Howard Meredith, she learned that the idea of a “colorblind” or “post-racial” society was a naive myth. 

Loving James meant coming face to face with the pain of injustice in his life, and in the lives of other people with black and brown skin, she writes in her new memoir, The Color of Life: A Journey toward Love and Racial Justice (Zondervan, February 5, 2019). It’s a story of love, history, and justice that illuminates the path from white privilege toward racial healing, from ignorance toward seeing the image of God in every person.

Growing up in suburban Oregon, Cara’s family “didn’t engage with problems of race because it wasn’t our battle to fight,” she recalls. “Those of us who identify as white can choose not to notice.” Now she has to be willing to hold the pain of her husband’s experience. She began to listen to the stories of others in a new way.

In The Color of Life, she asks, how do we navigate desperately-needed conversations about race? How do we teach our children a theology of reconciliation and love?

Read on for my interview with Cara Meredith about her debut book that releases today! Wish her a "Happy Book Birthday" in the comments section toward the end of this interview.

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Interview with Cara Meredith about her book,

The Color of Life: A Journey toward Love and Racial Justice

Alexis: What or who inspired you to write this book?

Cara: Honestly, this is the book I never thought I would write. I left the traditional work force six years ago to care for our oldest son and pursue a long-held dream of writing and speaking full-time. During those first couple years of dipping my toes into the water of writing, I wrote another book – a memoir about being a woman in ministry, leaving ministry (and having a crisis of faith) and becoming a mother. I tried to sell the book to agents and publishers alike, and I don’t even think “crickets” could accurately describe the lack of response from the publishing industry. But then, three years ago a long form essay ran and went viral – and that story eventually became this story expanded in The Color of Life.

I wish I could say that there was a profound moment of discovery and of realizing that this was the story I needed to write, but after such a (mostly) positive response from readers and from those in the industry, I realized that people were hungry to hear more. I suppose it served both as a wake-up call and as inspiration to tell the story of my journey toward love and racial justice.

Alexis: What do you mean when you say that you “grew up in a colorless world?” 

Cara: As a child of the eighties, I grew up in a mostly white, suburban environment; partially in reaction to seeing “too much” color at the height of our country’s history of slavery and Jim Crow segregation (among other movements against the African American community in particular), many school districts and churches swung to the other side of the pendulum and taught a colorblind rhetoric. I was taught not to see color – not in school, not at church, not in the world around me. The heart mattered more than anything else, so I was taught not to see racial and ethnic differences in the world around me.

Alexis: What do you want readers to remember most about The Color of Life? 

Cara: I want readers to know that not only are conversations of justice, race and privilege for every single one of us, but redemption and wholeness is for every single one of us – and when wholeness takes hold of our lives, it changes us. It makes us want to then see wholeness for everyone around us, including those who have been marginalized and oppressed, over and over again.

Alexis: Would you say that being “colorblind” is a good or bad way to view people of color? Explain. 

Cara: Adopting a colorblind mindset is not helpful for any of us – not for people of color, nor for those who identify as white. When it comes to my religious tradition, I can’t help but think about how Jesus honored and celebrated the particularities of everyone he interacted with, and those particularities included a profound dignity toward gender, ethnicity and race, to name a few. Regardless of individual beliefs, I think we humans are then invited to do the same and honor the particularities of one another, which includes our racial, ethnic and cultural identities.

Alexis: In what ways do you think that the Christian church can help people of color when it comes to their daily struggles that are caused by various forms of racism, injustice and systematic oppression? 

Cara: First, I think the Church can help by starting to listen to the voices of those we haven’t always listened to in the past – and hopefully in the midst of listening, learning and listening some more, the Church will come to recognize that various forms of racism, injustice and systemic oppression is not just a thing of the past, but a reality of today. As my friend Roy Garanton of The Rooted Collective says, perhaps this means the Church will then move beyond mere diversity and inclusion to full equity, when there is shared power of people of color in leadership.   

Alexis: Tell us about your father-in-law and his iconic role in the Civil Rights Movement. In what ways has his work been an inspiration to you? 

Cara: Sure! My father-in-law is a man named James Meredith, and he was the first black man to integrate into the University of Mississippi in 1962. That is probably what he is most well known for, but the event he would say he is most proud of was the Meredith March Against Fear, which happened four years later in 1966. Of the latter, he was shot on the second day of the march, but as a result, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Stokely Carmichael and other key leaders of the movement came to his aid, and continued to march for and alongside him, in an effort to eradicate fear amongst black voters in the state of Mississippi. His work is an inspiration to me because he is the epitome of courage – I doubt myself far too often, but he continues to march on, fearless as to what other people might think of him. 

Alexis: When you first started dating your husband, were you concerned about how people would view you as an interracial couple? Why or why not? 

Cara: I think I would describe myself as blissfully unaware when we first started dating, perhaps more in love with what we looked like on the outside than who we were together. I did wonder whether both of our families would accept us as an interracial couple, but even that wondering was erased as soon as we traveled to our respective home states and met each other’s people. Otherwise, on our own turf, we lived in a more progressive area of the country – so because I (at that time) believed we lived in a post-racial environment, I wasn’t concerned about how friends or strangers in the San Francisco Bay Area would view us.

Alexis: Now that you’re married and have children who are biracial, what do you and your husband teach them about their identity as biracial children living in America? 

Cara: I write about this a fair amount in the book, but we try and help them understand their fully black and fully white selves. We also understand that how they choose to identify someday as teenagers and adults might be different from how society chooses to identify (or label) them. In the meantime, we don’t shy away from conversations of race or racial identity, so oftentimes the dinner hour or those precious moments before bedtime are filled with the weightiest and most beautiful of dialogue.

Alexis: How did falling in love with a Black man affect or change your views on people of color and their experiences in America? Explain. 

Cara: I can only hope to give credence to this question, but is not an “us” and “them” anymore, in the sense that “they” are not “the other.” I realize that I just used a whole lot of quotation marks to emphasize a point, but the truth is this: his pain has become my pain, and the pain of his people my people. I weep at the myriad of injustice and oppression my husband has had to fight against everyday of his life, and I realize that his is not the exception but the norm. I can only hope to move forward with eyes and ears open to seeing, hearing, absorbing and being changed by the reality of these experiences. 

Alexis: Why do you think that conversations about race in America are “desperately-needed?” 

Cara: The answer is simple: Until we no longer have to have these conversations, we have to have these conversations. And given the current political climate and overwhelming sense of division in America today, it’s high time every single one of us stepped into conversations of race.

Alexis: Thanks for the interview, Cara! Would you like to share closing thoughts? 

Cara: Nope, I’m good! Thanks again for reading. I hope our conversation today sparks necessary conversation amongst each one of your readers.

~*~

Author Bio:

Cara Meredith is a writer and speaker whose work has appeared in numerous print and online publications, including Christianity Today, iBelieve, and For Every Mom. 

She writes the Coloring Outside the Lines blog for Patheos.com. 

A former high school English teacher and outreach ministry director, she holds a Masters of Theology from Fuller Seminary. 

Cara lives in the Bay Area with her husband and two sons.

~*~

Book details for The Color of Life: A Journey toward Love and Racial Justice 

by Cara Meredith

Cara Meredith grew up in a colorless world. From childhood, she didn't think issues of race had anything to do with her. A colorblind rhetoric had been stamped across her education, world view, and Christian theology.

Then as an adult, Cara's life took on new, colorful hues. She realized that her generation, seeking to move beyond ancestral racism, had swung so far that they tried to act as if they didn't see race at all. But that picture neglected the unique cultural identity God gives each person. When Cara met and fell in love with the son of black icon, James Meredith, she began to listen to the stories and experiences of others in a new way, taking note of the cultures, sounds and shades of life already present around her. After she married and their little family grew to include two mixed-race sons, Cara knew she would never see the world through a colorless lens again. 

A writer and speaker in an interracial marriage and mixed-race family, Cara finds herself more and more in the middle of discussions about racial justice. In The Color of Life, she asks how do we navigate ongoing and desperately-needed conversations about race? How do we teach our children a theology of reconciliation and love? And what does it mean to live a life that makes space for seeing the imago Dei in everyone? Cara's illuminating memoir paints a beautiful path from white privilege toward racial healing, from ignorance toward seeing the image of God in everyone she meets.

~*~

Buy Cara's book on Amazon or Barnes and Noble

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Connect with Cara:

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/carameredithwrites

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/carameredithwrites/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/caramac54

Merry Christmas! :)

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