I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

McRay has written a timely book that is incredibly hard to read by the sensitivity of the subject, but also very hopeful. It's through these sobering stories that I was able to be reminded that there is good worth fighting for, there is good happening, there is peace available to us. Would definitely recommend to a friend, or for group discussion.

While the internet has allowed us to easily to communicate with other people around the world. The fear of those who are different is still prevelant. Micheal T. McRay tells the stories of people who are changing the world with peace. The chapter with Robi Damelin hit me in the heart as she discusses why she refuses to be filled with vengence after her son's death.

Michael T. McRay is a skilled storyteller. He knows how to craft a narrative, to populate it with interesting three-dimensional characters, and lead the reader to a satisfying conclusion that affirms his thesis. He clearly enjoys listening and learning from people's stories and has a deep desire to share what he's learned for the good of the world. He writes that he "wanted to help stretch my own imagination to be more generous and creative by meeting stories of people doing what so often seems impossible: choosing hope in the midst of despair."

But his approach is problematic. Clearly, well-off, white Americans need the waking-up that can come from encountering people around the world (and in our neighborhoods) who are living with trauma and its aftereffects. Hearing the stories through McRay's voice and well-crafted narratives, though, distances the reader from the complicated realities the subjects are living with. This book could have been very powerful, had McRay invited the people to co-write or simply write their own stories. Yes, he quotes them extensively. But he determined the questions he asked, the quotes he included, and the placement of them in his book. This reader is left doubting the neatness of the stories he tells. Even when he brings in the lessons he's learned, showing himself to be a co-learner with the reader, it felt too packaged to be trusted.

There is a market for this book among white evangelical and post-evangelical Christians. But I wish those readers would get to truly encounter the people through their own voices. That would have promised greater heart change.

On my faith deconstruction/reconstruction journey, the kindest and most life changing voices outside of my counselor have been the authors that have been brave to go before me. Michael T. McRay is one of those authors.

I Am Not Your Enemy looks at what it means to not just be a peacekeeper but a peacemaker. What does it look like to live out/take note of Immanuel with our neighbor? He writes out of his work in Northern Ireland, Palestine, and South Africa. The book is mainly made up of conversations and reflections as all beautiful books usually are. He, as a Christian white male, treads so cautiously and respectfully as he acknowledges the way he benefits from the systems of oppression he wants to see come down.

His conversations in Palestine were particularly precious to me as they mirrored so closely my own experience with my neighbors there.

I loved this book. And I plan to press it into the hands of so many friends. I don’t take it lightly that authors and publishers trust me with their work while it’s still being birthed Into the world. I’m grateful I get to help usher this one in.

*Also grateful for Herald Press for telling the stories that a lot of publishers refuse to tell.

“To risk conversion is to risk the unmaking of these worlds. And sometimes it’s easier to believe a lie than to chance being unraveled by a truth”.