The Myth of Equality, by Ken Wytsma

Ken Wytsma is the son of immigrants to the U.S., but he is a white American, with all the privilege that brings.  In grappling with the meaning and implications of that privilege, Wytsma has expounded on race relations in America in The Myth of Equality: Uncovering the Roots of Injustice and Privilege.  He makes some astute observations and gives some important historical foundations for his perspective, but ends up in the familiar position of white guilt.

First of all, as he writes about race, Wytsma brings some clarification and definition to the topic.  These points aren't necessarily original with him, but are worth repeating.  In response to people who talk about reverse racism, or racism against white people, Wytsma writes, "Racism is the diminishment of worth in men and women in and through bias, systems, and power structures that disadvantage them in tangible ways based on skin color."  Since white people have not been systematically discriminated against in the U.S., prejudice against whites isn't, by this definition, racism.

A more important point is that, historically, racism as we experience it today is a relatively modern concept.  Wytsma joins the school of thought that ties it to colonialism.  "In order to justify colonialism, an idea like white supremacy was needed.  The concept that whites were chosen by God and superior to people of color, who were less intelligent, less deserving, and savage, was born out of this need."  Whether or not you agree with Wytsma's definitions and explanations, it's important to understand that many thinkers and activists hold these views as central to their perspective on race.

White Christians (or anyone else, for that matter) are on shaky ground if they try to defend racism.  Sure, there are examples of it, but they are few and far between today, especially as compared to notable examples in the antebellum South.  It's worth considering the role race plays in the positions and status you hold.  One need not be a racist to benefit from long-held societal beliefs and structures that give an advantage to white people.

That said, I felt like Wytsma wanted me to feel guilty for being white.  He wants me to go ahead and admit that I am a racist.  I just don't buy it.  I owe my neighbors and fellow citizens a great deal: common courtesy, respect, kindness, even brotherly love.  I don't owe that because I'm white and they are black.  I own them because I want to do unto others as I would have them do unto me.  As Wytsma points out, "the golden rule demands action" while "the silver rule allows for passivity: do not do to others."  This often means that we must "intervene in injustice."  It demands generosity and demands that we pursue reconciliation.

Wytsma provides some strong biblical teaching on justice and living right, such as the above distinction between the golden rule and the "silver rule."  But in his white guilt, I felt like he too extensively and unquestioningly embraces racial movements of the left.  From the perspective of white guilt, black justice movements must be embraced wholly, overlooking ideological, financial, theological foundations that are counter to American values.  (Yes, in a sense American values are synonymous with white values, because minorities were not part of the intellectual, educated, powerful class at the time of the founding.  But I still believe values can be evaluated on their merits, without regard to the color of the skin of the writer, speaker, scholar, or artist.)  White people need to be OK critiqeuing movements on their intellectual conclusions, not on the race of the proponents, without then receiving accusations of racism.

The Myth of Equality is a good resource.  Christians of any race will appreciate Wytsma's laying out the issues of race and the thoughts and resources he provides.  But I can't buy his presumption of white guilt and pass he gives to leftist racial political movements.  Take his positions with a grain of salt.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

The Future of Humanity, by Michio Kaku

In the best science fiction stories, the author takes real science of today and extrapolates it in realistic ways so that the reader can believe that the world the author describes could be an actual future.  Michio Kaku is a fan of sci-fi.  In The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality, and Our Future Beyond Earth Kaku writes realistic scientific projections and about actual research and development in a variety of fields.  He fires readers' imaginations with possibilities and potential.

Kaku, a theoretical physicist, college professor, and all around interesting guy, starts with a challenge.  He writes, "If we scan all the life-forms that have ever existed on the Earth . . . we find that more than 99.9 percent of them eventually become extinct.  This means that extinction is the norm, that the odds are already stacked heavily against us."  In other words, the odds are that humans will become extinct.  But we have options: "Either me must leave the Earth or we will perish.  There is no other way."

The first chapters are most immediate and easiest to grasp.  What will it take to establish colonies on the Moon and on Mars?  How close are we to mining resources on asteroids?  How about the moons of the outer planets?  These are a relatively short step from current technology.  Given sufficient funding and national and international commitment, a more permanent human presence away from Earth could be a reality.

Kaku raises many of the questions that sci-fi writers conveniently avoid.  Is there a practical means of travel to other planetary systems?  Are multi-generation space journeys realistic?  Is it possible to put astronauts in suspended animation?  What about the time frames of terraforming, the physiological effects on humans of life in space or on other planets, or the prospects for downloading our consciousness to electronic storage?

As the book progresses and Kaku stretches his ideas further and further beyond current reality.  But even the wildly speculative portions have a basis in believable premises.  The Future of Humanity has lots of ideas familiar to sci-fi fans.  He includes copious references from movies and novels to illustrate his ideas.  Kaku makes science and the future very exciting and builds anticipation for what may be around the corner for us.  Hopefully The Future of Humanity will inspire a new generation of scientists to take humanity into a more hopeful future.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

The Marvelous Mustard Seed, by Amy-Jill Levine and Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, illustrated by Margaux Meganck

Jesus talked several times about the mustard seed, the smallest seed that grows into a tree.  Many kids The Marvelous Mustard Seed, by Amy-Jill Levine and Sandy Eisenberg, with illustrations by Margaux Meganck, follows a seed from planting to full growth.
have no idea about seeds and plants and surely don't see mustard trees or plants. 

When kids plant the seed in their garden, they can't see what's happening underground.  Soon a sprout comes up.  It becomes a bush, then a tree!  Birds live in it, it provides shade, we get spices and medicines from it.

The authors follow Jesus' parable, showing how something we never could see grows into something we can't miss, that is live-giving and wonderful.  The Marvelous Mustard Seed is a lovely, colorful book that will get kids thinking about potential and the promise of the kingdom of God.



Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

The Gospel Comes With a House Key, by Rosaria Butterfield

I love the title of this book and the imagery it invokes: The Gospel Comes With a House Key: Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World.  Rosaria Butterfield writes about her lifestyle of hospitality, setting an example that Christians can emulate.  Butterfield, who is married to a pastor, goes far beyond traditional pastor's wife hostess duties.  She hosts a large dinner in her home every Sunday night for friends and neighbors.  Her model is not fine china and carefully placed table settings.  Her model is what she calls radically ordinary hospitality: "using your Christian home in a daily way that seeks to make strangers neighbors, and neighbors family of God."

The Gospel Comes With a House Key is full of stories of her life as a neighbor and hostess.  She plans ahead while keeping the meals simple and plentiful.  She writes about adopting foster children, befriending the drug addict across the street (and maintaining that friendship after he goes to prison), dealing with the burglary and vandalism of their home, hosting a home worship service for the neighbors when the churches close because of snow, and providing a haven for the sick and wandering.

One miraculously odd part of Butterfield's story is her background.  While she was a liberal college professor, living with her lesbian lover, a pastor invited her to his home fellowship.  Over time, this family and their circle loved her into the kingdom.  She was radically saved.  Ironically, some of her model of fellowship is based on her experiences in the lesbian community, as they banded together in a hostile world.  But just as lesbians like to fellowship with their own kind, so do Christians tend to fellowship with like-minded people.  Radically ordinary hospitality reaches out, giving our "post-Christian neighbors" a chance to "hear and see and taste and feel authentic Christianity, hospitality spreading from every Christian home that includes neighbors in prayer, food, friendship, childcare, dog walking, and all the daily matters upon which friendships are based."

Butterfield's stories and example inspire and challenge me to open the doors of my home and pass out some house keys.  She doesn't provide a lot of "how-tos" but, like a true disciple maker, models hospitality for us.  In doing so, she never loses sight of the goal: bringing people close to God. It's not without cost or hardship, but worth the effort.  Making the "transition from stranger to neighbor to family does not happen naturally but only with intent and grit and sacrifice and God's blessing."  May our homes become places of radically ordinary hospitality for the glory of God and the growth of his kingdom.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Flags Across America, by by Karen S. Robbins and Dale Baskin

Dale Baskin and Karen Robbins have compiled an inspiring collection of photographs, essays, and anecdotes about the flag of the United States in Flags Across America.  If you love our flag, or if you need a boost to remind you to love our flag, you will love this book.

The photographs range from inspiring and noble, to kitschy and cute.  The stories, anecdotes, and essays lean toward the tear-jerking and inspiring.  The flag is objectively beautiful, with its bold colors and simple design.  But in certain settings--on the battlefield, on foreign soil, draped over the coffin of a fallen soldier--the sight of the flag is moving, even heart-rending.

At the same time, the flag has inspired a wide range of folk-art and more casual use, including quilts, murals, fine art and more unconventional art, even a giant flag-shaped hot air balloon.  These unofficial representations may not pass muster on a flag pole at a veterans' cemetery or government building, but they reflect adoration and admiration for the stars and stripes.

This is a beautiful book that would make a great gift for you patriotic friends and family.  It's a grand old flag, long may she wave.


Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

A More Beautiful and Terrible History, by Jeanne Theoharis

Jeanne Theoharis opens her book A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History with a quote from James Baldwin: "American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it." Theoharis expands on the popular view of civil rights history in the U.S.  As the civil rights generation begins dying, their memory become fable and legend, often whitewashed or, at the very least, oversimplified.

As one writer observed, "much of Black History Month takes place in the passive voice."  Theoharis concurs: "Our popular history of the movement largely sidesteps how and by whom racial inequality was perpetrated and maintained."  I found the most revealing and powerful portions of the book to be those that focused on the "de facto" racism of the North.  As a Texas, I have directly and indirectly endured the scorn of northerners who think that they have a moral upper hand on race issues by virtue of geography.

As Theoharis points out, though, while northern states may not have established de jure racism with the enforcement of Jim Crow laws, racist, segregationist policies created de facto racism in schools, housing, and employment.  We remember the kids being spat upon and their buses being pelted with rocks in Alabama.  We don't remember the same things happening in Boston.  We remember people marching in Selma.  We don't remember marches in New York and Detroit.

Theoharis fills in a lot of these gaps, but she also gives a more complete picture of leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks.  The popular imagination things of MLK as the preacher who followed Ghandi's model, and Rosa Parks as the meek and mild seamstress who just wanted to sit down on the bus after a long day.  These images are not false, but they are far from complete.  Theoharis fleshes out their activism, and details the long months and years of advocacy that preceded the iconic moments of the civil rights movement.

While the body of A More Beautiful and Terrible History was enlightening and solidly researched and documented, as one might expect from someone with a Ph.D., the partisanship of her opening chapter almost made me stop reading.  Her disdain for President Trump, her asserting that his election was illegitimate, and her embrace of the now-discredited Russian "collusion," and her questionable statement that "voter ID laws . . . enabled Trump's victory" reveal a lack of historical perspective and objectivity.  Thankfully, the rest of the book doesn't continue in this vein.  Hopefully, despite his caustic language, the results of Trump's policies will continue to benefit minorities in the U.S.

I appreciate Theoharis's more complete picture of the civil rights movement.  As she points out, the book is not closed on the struggle for equal rights.  While de jure racism may be gone, de facto racism thrives.  Just yesterday I read an article about parents in New York protesting integration of their all-white schools.  It's the same story Theoharis tells; same arguments, same denials of racism, new decade. 


Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

80s Redux, by Mike Hipple

Do you ever think about some of those flash-in-the-pan, one-hit-wonder bands you listened to in the 80s (or, likely, saw on MTV) and wonder what ever happened to them? Mike Hipple has tracked down a bunch of musicians from the 80s and features them in 80s Redux: Your Favorite Musicians Today.

Hipple's choices reflect tastes that lean away from top-40 or mainstream rock, and more towards alternative and punk.  Some of the musicians features are genre-defining and well known, like The Cure, The B-52s, Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark, and The English Beat.  Others were only vaguely familiar or completely unknown to me.

Each artist is featured in a page or two of text with some well-done portraits.  It's interesting to read about some of their post-80s lives.  Hipple's goal is not to air gossip or dirty laundry but to portray them as the regular people they are.  Many have taken time off from touring to raise a family but are back in the studio or on stage.  Others work in the arts but not as musicians.  Some are plugging away in jobs completely unrelated to music.  Most of these middle-aged musicians, despite their varying degrees of former fame, would blend right in at a PTA meeting, shopping in the local grocery story, or hanging out in the neighborhood.

80s Redux may not be full of great stories, but it's neat to see the personal side of these iconic artists.  At the very least, it will inspire you to pull out some old LPs or cassettes and remember the great music from this era.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!