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Book Reviews aim to provide succinct, thoughtful summaries of books I have read. They contain quotes from the book, thoughts from others, and also some thoughts of my own. Typically they will be structured in the following order: author, introduction, message and purpose, remarkable chapter, and conclusion. This review will cover The Color of Compromise, a book that reveals the truth about the American church's complicity in racism.

Author

Jemar Tisby

Introduction

Since its inception the United States has unfortunately, but undeniably, displayed its deep roots in sustained racism and injustice within the American church. In The Color of Compromise, Jemar Tisby takes the reader down memory lane and much further, illustrating American history in a way that is unlike any other. Highlighting many famous and notable religious leaders of the past several centuries, Tisby outlines the truth about the American church's complicity in racism and, ultimately, how we can bring about progress.

Message and Purpose

It's been said that there can be no justice without truth. Thus in order to realistically approach justice we need absolute transparency and truth, and this book is one of the most transparent and truthful books one can read. Because truth sometimes hurts, learning about the painstakingly horrendous stories of racial injustice within American Christianity is not an easy topic to read about.

Tisby starts the reader's journey in the Colonial Era, leading through the Antebellum Era, on to the Civil War and Jim Crow Eras, and ultimately finishing with the Age of Black Lives Matter. Filled with firsthand accounts and powerful stories of famed Christian ministers such as Jonathan Edwards, Martin Luther King Jr., and Billy Graham, The Color of Compromise demonstrates the obvious ways people of faith have actively worked against racial injustice, as well as the complicit silence of racial moderates.

Tisby finishes the book with an in-depth diagnosis of racial divisiveness and concrete ways in which Christians can be more inclusive and equitable. Racial injustice and acts of racism have long lived throughout America's storied past, and if true change is coming, then cultural and institutional tables need to be flipped in order to bring forth progress.

Remarkable Chapter

As the book takes the reader on an unabashed and transparent historical journey, the underlying question that eventually pops into each reader's mind is "so what do we do now?" The book culminates with a chapter called The Fierce Urgency of Now which is specifically designed to offer up ideas to facilitate change.

Among the ideas mentioned are to take down Confederate monuments, learn from the black church, start a new seminary, host freedom schools and pilgrimages, make Juneteenth a national holiday, participate in the modern-day Civil Rights Movement, publicly denounce racism, and start a Civil Rights Movement toward to the church. Tisby concludes that it's up to us to take action and bring about the change we wish to see:

"The injustices of the past continue to affect the present, and it is up to the current generation to interrupt the cycle of racial compromise and confront it with courage."

He later adds:

"Change must come to the American church. It is up to Christians who comprise the church to end compromise with racism within the church. To look at this history and then refuse to act only perpetuates racist patterns. It is time for the church to stand against racism and compromise no longer."

Conclusion

The Color of Compromise allowed me to understand that inaction is an action; not fighting for change means being okay with how things are, and things are not okay. This book provides incredible historical insight and sheds immense light on a problem that hasn't been resolved since the beginning of America. The Color of Compromise acts as a significant catalyst for change and is one that every Bible-believing Christian and American should read.