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4.71 AVERAGE
4.71 AVERAGE
Osheta's main thesis is that we should use "grit and grace" to defeat racism. This echoes the Apostle Paul's admonition to "speak the truth in love" and seems to be a key to interpersonal relationships: have high expectations and defend truth and justice, but with love that realizes all people are imperfect, but all have worth to God.
I especially admire Osheta for writing about her mistakes and her personal growth, and how she's responded to racism she's encountered. She notes, "It's pretty difficult to love someone you feel morally superior to." Loving people that do terrible things is the ultimate reflection of Christ.
Learning how terms like "racism" and "white supremacy" have been redefined makes discussion easier. However, equating "American society" with "white supremacy" is an oversimplification. And that framing makes it hard to keep the good aspects of our culture while working to change the bad.
Listening and speaking with "grit and grace" is how we move forward. Yelling hashtags at each other isn't getting the job done.
3.5 stars
I especially admire Osheta for writing about her mistakes and her personal growth, and how she's responded to racism she's encountered. She notes, "It's pretty difficult to love someone you feel morally superior to." Loving people that do terrible things is the ultimate reflection of Christ.
Learning how terms like "racism" and "white supremacy" have been redefined makes discussion easier. However, equating "American society" with "white supremacy" is an oversimplification. And that framing makes it hard to keep the good aspects of our culture while working to change the bad.
Listening and speaking with "grit and grace" is how we move forward. Yelling hashtags at each other isn't getting the job done.
3.5 stars
This was both an appropriately challenging and encouraging read in the space of social justice and anti-racism work. I appreciate Osheta’s unique perspective and care for holding White Peacemakers accountable, challenging me towards new and better ways of being and thinking, and holding space for all that comes up on the journey. She is full of grace and truth and a deep and abiding love for wholeness and reconciliation.
Dear White Peacemakers is the best book that I’ve ever read for white Christians hoping to combat racism. I identify with Osheta Moore’s Anabaptist-activist foundation, and I have found few people who can balance the tension of the Sermon on the Mount and anti-racism quite like her. This book is beautiful, heart wrenching, insightful, and practical. I am so grateful for this gift!
In Dear White Peacemakers: Dismantling Racism with Grit and Grace, Osheta Moore models what it could look like to truly be a peacemaker, to come alongside white people where they are, encourage and nudge them, and motivate them to grow and change.
Moore is quick to affirm and build up, to offer friendship and kindness, and to use that foundation to speak frankly and remind us of our charge as Christians. She speaks how she uses Jesus's relationships as an example of how she herself chooses to live and pulls lessons from the Sermon on the Mount.
Moore pulls frequent stories from her life, some of which she knows show her at her weakest, as she admits the difficult lessons and experiences. Such transparency, though, helps humanize her and offers practical lessons and reveals that we can indeed trust her and her words. Also included is an open letter Moore wrote to/about Rachel Held Evans to commend the impact Rachel had in showing up and modeling to her community how to keep learning and changing.
This exploration requires a fine balance: "I want to be angry at the systems and I want to disrupt those systems in direct action like Jesus, but I never, ever want to weaponize my anger towards others." How do we enact change? How do we ensure it's not just performative but genuine and true?
This contribution is a solid addition to recent antiracist works, particularly to those in faith communities.
(I received a digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.)
Moore is quick to affirm and build up, to offer friendship and kindness, and to use that foundation to speak frankly and remind us of our charge as Christians. She speaks how she uses Jesus's relationships as an example of how she herself chooses to live and pulls lessons from the Sermon on the Mount.
Moore pulls frequent stories from her life, some of which she knows show her at her weakest, as she admits the difficult lessons and experiences. Such transparency, though, helps humanize her and offers practical lessons and reveals that we can indeed trust her and her words. Also included is an open letter Moore wrote to/about Rachel Held Evans to commend the impact Rachel had in showing up and modeling to her community how to keep learning and changing.
This exploration requires a fine balance: "I want to be angry at the systems and I want to disrupt those systems in direct action like Jesus, but I never, ever want to weaponize my anger towards others." How do we enact change? How do we ensure it's not just performative but genuine and true?
This contribution is a solid addition to recent antiracist works, particularly to those in faith communities.
(I received a digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.)
Osheta Moore’s heart is present on every page of Dear White Peacemakers - her heart for Jesus, her heart for shalom, her heart for racial justice, her heart for wholeness for every person, her heart to find the Jesus-third-way between white-shaming and passivity. She roots her anti-racist work in the fact that every single human being is Beloved and follows in the footsteps of others who seek the reality of the Beloved Community. And she also does not shy around from naming white supremacy, but does so with complete compassion and respect for those who have “white” skin. I loved this idea from the beginning of her book: that even before Jesus started his public ministry, he was baptized by John and soaked in his beloved-ness. Our work for racial justice must also come from an identity of knowing that we are beloved by God — and also that everyone else is, too.
I have to confess to being skeptical after the first few chapters that Osheta Moore was being too accommodating or kind or easy toward white people and white Christians. But this book is a slow burn in the best possible way, and the middle section where she addresses exactly that attitude among white people trying to do the work hit me like a gut punch. Moore's call to peacemaking (and her brilliant contrasting of "peacemaking" vs. "peacekeeping") was so timely, necessary and nourishing. She pushes you, challenges you and blends prayer, scripture, personal stories and history effectively. I'm very much still figuring out the role of faith in my life and I think there's a lot of valuable lessons here for people not from a faith background too, so long as you don't mind Jesus being mentioned throughout. I'll be thinking back to this book a lot. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
Learning from Osheta Moore has been pivotal for me in how I relate to others and approach anti-racism work. Her writing is approachable and relatable, and the truths she unpacks are always grounded in grace and love. She doesn't shy away from messy experiences or topics, but offers tools and perspectives that center around the image bearers of God, not just a set of beliefs or theoretical principles. This book filters the complicated layers of racial tension through the foundation of the love of God, for ourselves and for one another. Writing from this framework of valuing the dignity and worth of each person strengthens the trust between reader and author, and anchors her words in a credibility not based on intellect alone, but a whole life lived as a peacemaker.
This book should be required reading for any white person struggling to understand anti-racism work, or wondering how to start "dismantling racism with grit and grace."
This book should be required reading for any white person struggling to understand anti-racism work, or wondering how to start "dismantling racism with grit and grace."
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
I couldn’t put the book down. It opened my eyes to a way of extending grace and love in a practical way that I haven’t seen many talk about. I hope to gather with others who have read this book to discuss ways to take action on the content of this book.