Yesterday I finished reading The Color of Compromise, by Jemar Tisby. This libary book took me two check-out periods to read, because it had a lot of big words. I am okay with big words, but I do struggle with processing information, so it made for very slow reading. However, it was definitely worth the read. This book was about the history of racism in America and how the church has been complicit in prolonging its presence in our culture. A lot of the chapters were painful to read, heartbreaking in their detail, but I think it is all necessary to learn about. While I’m still processing everything I read, I thought it would be good to jot down the pros and cons I gleaned from the book.

As I mentioned, it had a lot of big words. While I don’t mind big words here and there, many portions of the book were just saturated with three syllable words and super long sentences, and that made it very difficult to follow along with the ideas. I did, however, appreciate that it wasn’t just a bashing of Christians. With every example of our compromise or complicity with racism over the course of history, it offered words of hope and examples of things we had done in order to better the lives of and help bring justice for people of color. There’s always more work that can and should be done, however.

The book closed with some really great suggestions of practical ways we can take action against racism now and in the future. I appreciated that the writer also acknowledged the reality that there will always be some level of racism in society, because of the presence of sin in the world. We can have hope that Christ will return and make all things new.

One thing I felt challenged to do while reading this book was to make more connections with the black people around me. I tend to get really shy at my church and Bible study, and I often avoid introducing myself to new people. Part of this timidity stems from my difficulty seeing and hearing, but that’s only part of it. For too long I mistakenly feared that many of the black women wouldn’t be receptive to me because I am white, and I therefore couldn’t possibly understand them. How wrong I was! I have been a part of BSF for 8 years and in most of those years my assigned discussion group has been mostly white, with some years one or two black women. This year my discussion group was right around 50/50 black and white. I can’t even tell you how refreshing it was to be in such a diverse group. We spent nine months studying the book of Revelation together, discussing that and lots of other facets of life and you know what? We had a lot in common after all. Sure, we had different perspectives on a million different things, but we were all there to learn and share and we respected one another’s views. It was an incredible year making new friends, and I truly look forward to getting to know them better in the years and studies to come.

The bottom line: I recommend the book, if you have the stomach for it. It’s not an easy read, but it’s a necessary one.