Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
IVP Books, 216 pages
2020 has been a year of tumult. (Perhaps the understatement of the year.) A global pandemic. Renewed protests over the killing of Black men and women going about their daily lives. Federal troops dispatched to American cities allegedly in response to said protests in numbers unprecedented in this century. A presidential election rife with racist claims, partisan bickering and finger-pointing, misinformation about voter fraud and even more fake news. How do mainline Protestants navigate this world in a faith-filled way?
In his new book, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove explores the religious culture wars that have paved the way for 2020 to be so… 2020. His primary argument: The religious right taught America to misread the Bible. Since the late 1970s, Wilson-Hartgrove posits, political operatives have worked to frame the cultural concerns of conservative white Christians as the moral issues in public life. Having grown up in the Southern Baptist tradition in the 1990s, Wilson-Hartgrove was trained as a foot soldier in the culture wars. “The true aim of social justice warriors,” he was warned, “is a squishy tolerance that, in the end, can stand anything but a true Christian.”
But that was only the beginning of Wilson-Hartgrove’s story. Throughout much of this book, he brings his experience and understanding of the religious right alongside stories and experiences of the people conservative white Christianity often rejects — the poor, the oppressed, the outcasts. Each of the chapters begins with the story of a person or group of people who have been harmed by the policy agendas of politicians standing for “biblical” and traditional values. Many of these individuals are people of color, and at times I wasn’t sure how I felt about a white author telling their stories for his book. And yet, the approach reminded me of the Poor People’s Campaign recent digital march on Washington, where faith-filled people bravely reveal their experience and pain so that others – often moderate white Christians – might hear and be moved to action.
Unlike many of us in pastoral ministry, Wilson-Hartgrove makes no attempt to share a nonpartisan worldview. As the title suggests, Wilson-Hartgrove calls for a “revolution of values” that reduces the disproportionate influence of white Christian nationalists in American public life and heightens the perspectives, stories and dignity of all – especially those who have been marginalized by American culture and Christianity for centuries. Such a revolution requires the white moderate to get up and act. This is not a new message, but one that still needs saying.
If you are less interested in a particular presidency and more interested, like Jesus, in the long-term work of reclaiming social policy for the oppressed, this book will energize you for the work. It will help you reframe the gospel, especially if you live or work in a place where evangelical Christianity is a powerful cultural force. And it would be a great tool for those interested in a non-evangelical perspective on God’s vision for faith in public life.
Linda Kurtz is the associate pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Lexington, Kentucky.
