Embrace

<i>Embrace</i> is a timely book that addresses questions of racial tensions and divisions, particularly in the American setting. The author, Leroy Barber, has dedicated over two decades of his life to the issues of race, justice, and reconciliation in the Christian context.

The most important takeaway is that the Bible speaks to justice as a core aspect of God. Theology matters, and how Christians interpret the Bible matters. Is the Bible primary about me and my comfort, about me “getting saved”? Or is there a larger picture that modern American Christianity has often missed? Is there something far more important that God wants to wake the church to?

Barber weaves the story of Israel’s exile in Babylon as an illustration and metaphor for how God’s people throughout the ages should engage the world and culture around them. Barber, in particularly, employs Jeremiah’s message to the exiles as God’s intention of engagement with and in the communities that we find ourselves in, especially when they seem different, foreign, and sometimes, even hostile.

Barber is emphatic that Christians are not to simply sit around and wait for God to save us from this world. Christians are to become reconcilers — confronting injustice, advocating for justice, and actively bringing peace between groups that are suspicious and hostile. To not confront is to be complicit in injustice. To seek to quietly dismiss injustices is to perpetuate the message that the oppressor has privilege, while the oppressed must simply accept the way things are.

The final chapter is an excellent discussion of the Black Lives Matter movement. Barber lists ten myths and misunderstandings about BLM and explains the facts to counter each of them. He admits that not all Christians may agree with every point, but he contends that BLM is still an important movement that Christians ought to get behind and involved in. He writes that he believes that BLM is something that God is using to expose systemic and institutionalized evils of race and class in American society.

Anyone who wants to understand the issues rising up today in terms of race and class, and the hate and divisions that threaten to wreck the world, should read this book. Anyone who wants suggestions on how to increase harmony and reduce strife among peoples should read this book. This book is about finding ways to build authentic relationships in which all are accepted and respected as equals, and where differences are celebrated as valuable and necessary components.

Embrace

God's Radical Shalom for a Divided World



by Leroy Barber

InterVarsity Press

IVP Books



Christian, Religion & Spirituality

Pub Date 12 Sep 2016

I was given a copy of embrace through the publisher and their partnership with Netgalley in exchange for my honest review which is as follows:

In this book the author reminds us that it is often in Babylon that God's hand is most evident as well as reminding us that when we say we will never go to a certain place that is often when God puts us in that place.

This book deals with everything from loving the unlovable to living in the hard places. It reminds us that God gets us through those tough places in live and it is often through the unlovable he teaches us love.

I give Embrace five out of five stars.

Happy Reading