recent years have seen many books published about the intersection of evangelicalism and white nationalism. "Undivided" offers a counterpoint of hope, highlighting one community that harnessed their faith and vision for a brighter future to foster real change.
I really enjoyed this—it was approachable and a quick read, but it will stick with me for a long time. I was torn between wanting it to widen its scope (as I often demand of my favorite nonfictions) and appreciating how it highlighted how small-scale efforts and people can make an impact. I also would've loved for the author to have inserted herself a little more... Hahrie Han reflects on the books journey a little bit at the beginning and end, but I'm always fascinated how authors are changed/how they experience the communities they explore.

This review will be coming out in Today's American Catholic Magazine in the coming weeks. Here is the website to see past reviews...keep watch.

https://www.todaysamericancatholic.org/2024/08/place-your-hope-in-the-healer/

Best,
DOUG

When Undivided was offered to me by the publisher I thought I would check it out but was uncertain about it. I found it fascinating, inspiring, and frustrating.

The book’s start was in an academic project by Hahrie Han, who was studying grassroots organizing campaigns. She was struck by the idea of a Protestant evangelical megachurch, predominately white in “numbers and culture,” had become involved with promoting a policy that added the Black community. Issue 44 addressed racial disparities and universal preschool in Cincinnati. “Thousands of voters who supported Trump must have also supported Issue 44,” she knew. She traced the movement to a group of volunteers from the Crossroads church, all of whom had participated in a racial justice program called Undivided. Not only had the participants talked about race, they were impelled to put what they had learned into action.

This book, based on seven years of reporting, is a history of how Undivided came to be, the people whose lives it impacted, and its legacy. We learn about the transformative power of communicating and befriending people across the color line, and about the limits of any organization–or church–to change.

It began when an African American pastor knew it was time to stop avoiding the hard conversations, and in a Sunday morning sermon shared his anger and frustration. He was supported to create a small group experience that brought together black and white members of the parish. The book takes us into the lives of some of these people, showing how they transformed because of Undivided.

She originally thought the goal of the si-week program was to inspire people’s journey toward antiracism. But Jess realized that the true impact of Undivided was not as a prejudice reduction program, but rather as a learning experience that lit the tinder. from Undivided by Hahrie Han

The success stories are inspiring. But the book also shows how hard it is for any institution to change. The lack of their church’s action to take a stance against police violence against black men and to support the Black Lives Matter movement angered some of the Undivided members. The church leaders were trying to keep to the middle ground so as to not alienate anyone.

The program, Han writes, didn’t work by converting committed white supremacists, but by equipping “the other evangelicals” to understand “the interpersonal and systemic dimensions of racial injustice and offered them tools to have difficult conversations around race.”

I was interested to learn that other Evangelical church adopted the Undivided program, include one a few miles away from where I live.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.

Changing social injustice and addressing racial injustice begins with awareness that they exist.
The people who have been hurt by social injustice and racism are very much awareness of the existence of injustices. Addressing the powerful institutions that foment racist policies and injustice has always required voices willing to speak truth to power, voices within organizations committed to the eradication of racism and social injustice. Many of these organizations are grassroots groups. Some, like the Industrial Areas Foundation, are allied with unions and faith-based organizations and, OIC, Opportunities Industrialization Center, founded in Philadelphia by Reverend Louis Sullivan, as an outreach program of a Black church that rose as part of the activism of Black churches during the Civil Right Movement. Highly recommended reading is Lessons Learned: Stories from a Lifetime of Organizing by Arnie Graf who worked as an organizer for IAF for forty years.

Crossroads in Cincinnati is a mega-church with a predominantly white congregation. The white parishioners had little motivation to personally engage in organizing against racism and social injustice or, more soberly, interacting with black parishioners on a social level, opening them up to first hand experiences of racism and social injustice by their brother and sister worshipers. Perceptions and attitudes of several members of the congregation changed when Pastor Chuck Mingo, a product of a Black church, preached a sermon calling on the congregation to become engaged in addressed racial injustice. The result of his sermon was the development of Undivided, an in-church program based on awareness of social injustice and racism. The success of this program caught the attention of Hahrie Han, inspiring her to write this book. The approach she takes is to focus on psychological interactions between four members from different races, their consciousness raising and ensuing friendships toward understanding and, helping to address, racism and social injustice within their community.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced readers copy.