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A review by vanreads
Weep with Me: How Lament Opens a Door for Racial Reconciliation by Mark Vroegop
5.0
I have to start this book review with a disclaimer. As an Asian Canadian who has both attended and worked at a predominantly white church and experienced racial microaggressions and had my concerns over race dismissed, I was very ready to judge this book, a book on racial reconciliation by a white male author. However, upon further thought, I also realize that in the wider western Christian community, I don’t think such a topic would even get taken seriously if it weren’t written by a white male author. A sad reality, but in the end, I am very thankful that Mark Vroegop has used his privilege to write about a topic that is close to heart for so many non-white Christians. I just hope that Crossway doesn’t stop publishing Christian books on race and considers both more books on race and Christian books of all genres by non-white Christian authors, because representation really matters. Now onward to the book review.
Weep with Me is a Christian book that addresses racial reconciliation through the lens of lament. To start, Mark Vroegop makes it very clear that this book is only the start of the reconciliation journey, and he addresses his privilege in writing this and how learning about racism is still a work in progress for him, so I hope this book is being read through the same lens.
I wasn’t sure what to expect in Christian book on race relations and I’ve found myself genuinely surprised that it was written so well. In the first section, Vroegop explains the process of lament. By grounding it through the lens of lament I found that it really centers us in humility when addressing race.
In the second section, he addresses white Christians, who in the book, he uses the term “majority.” In this section he addresses white privilege and how to put yourself in a position to listen to your POC peers at church (and in your everyday), process the information, and understand where your POC peers are coming from. In the third section, he addresses non-white Christians (in it he uses the term “minority”), and how to process the grief of their experiences, and lead them through a reliance on Christ when their experiences are too painful and exhausting, and hope and active steps to reconcile with white Christians.
My summary is brief and doesn’t do the book enough justice. What was fantastic about this book is how Vroegop uses scripture and personal stories (from him and others) to create a full picture of what it takes to restore relationships and develop understanding between both white and non-white Christians. He speaks to both the vulnerable tendencies of both white Christians (such as their denial of holding systemic racist beliefs) and non-white Christians (such as their pain and anger towards injustices). It is both a very biblical look at reconciliation and realistic in that he pushes the reader to continue learning, make active steps to change, and reconcile. I enjoyed his personal stories of his growth. It shows that growth in understanding in racial tensions is something that is never too late to learn and its okay to make mistakes and keep trying. In a secular world where anger and fights for justice divide the nation, Weep with Me is a very biblical take on racial justice that is still rooted in the grief, anger, and suffering that non-white people face, but it also centers the narrative around biblical love, which I feel like is a missing piece to reconciling racial tensions.
One thing I want to reiterate, that Vroegop also mentions in Weep with Me, is that this book is a first step. It’s an excellent first step (particularly for Christians!) and I hope every Christian reads this book, but it’s not the end of unlearning systemic racism. I would actually highly recommend reading this book along with another book that digs into the roots of systemic racism and how we should address it (ie. White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo or Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge), and I hope this is a lifelong learning process for whoever is reading this.
I will definitely want to keep a physical copy of this for my collection of books on race and in my Christian library.
Thank you NetGalley for letting me read and review this book.
Weep with Me is a Christian book that addresses racial reconciliation through the lens of lament. To start, Mark Vroegop makes it very clear that this book is only the start of the reconciliation journey, and he addresses his privilege in writing this and how learning about racism is still a work in progress for him, so I hope this book is being read through the same lens.
I wasn’t sure what to expect in Christian book on race relations and I’ve found myself genuinely surprised that it was written so well. In the first section, Vroegop explains the process of lament. By grounding it through the lens of lament I found that it really centers us in humility when addressing race.
In the second section, he addresses white Christians, who in the book, he uses the term “majority.” In this section he addresses white privilege and how to put yourself in a position to listen to your POC peers at church (and in your everyday), process the information, and understand where your POC peers are coming from. In the third section, he addresses non-white Christians (in it he uses the term “minority”), and how to process the grief of their experiences, and lead them through a reliance on Christ when their experiences are too painful and exhausting, and hope and active steps to reconcile with white Christians.
My summary is brief and doesn’t do the book enough justice. What was fantastic about this book is how Vroegop uses scripture and personal stories (from him and others) to create a full picture of what it takes to restore relationships and develop understanding between both white and non-white Christians. He speaks to both the vulnerable tendencies of both white Christians (such as their denial of holding systemic racist beliefs) and non-white Christians (such as their pain and anger towards injustices). It is both a very biblical look at reconciliation and realistic in that he pushes the reader to continue learning, make active steps to change, and reconcile. I enjoyed his personal stories of his growth. It shows that growth in understanding in racial tensions is something that is never too late to learn and its okay to make mistakes and keep trying. In a secular world where anger and fights for justice divide the nation, Weep with Me is a very biblical take on racial justice that is still rooted in the grief, anger, and suffering that non-white people face, but it also centers the narrative around biblical love, which I feel like is a missing piece to reconciling racial tensions.
One thing I want to reiterate, that Vroegop also mentions in Weep with Me, is that this book is a first step. It’s an excellent first step (particularly for Christians!) and I hope every Christian reads this book, but it’s not the end of unlearning systemic racism. I would actually highly recommend reading this book along with another book that digs into the roots of systemic racism and how we should address it (ie. White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo or Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge), and I hope this is a lifelong learning process for whoever is reading this.
I will definitely want to keep a physical copy of this for my collection of books on race and in my Christian library.
Thank you NetGalley for letting me read and review this book.