The Myth of Equality

Starred review from April 10, 2017
Wytsma (Pursuing Justice), lead pastor of Antioch Church in Bend, Ore., and president of Kilns College, has a gift for persuasive argument, well displayed in his deployment of history, biblical theology, and current affairs to demonstrate the subtle and unsubtle ways that white dominance shapes American culture and conversations about race. He does so from the perspective of a passionately committed evangelical Christian calling prophetically for justice for those who have been consistently disadvantaged by a system and culture built on what “a white normative standard” that shapes perceptions and judgments. Wytsma makes his points without accusation, the better to address an audience of white readers who may be unaccustomed to looking beneath the surface of attitudes about race or unaware of the history of Jim Crow laws and other forces that drove racial segregation. He is especially good at giving a quick tour of the post-Reconstruction history of race. Slavery was formally ended, but disenfranchisement, “Black Codes” in the South, redlining in housing, and other forms of social control perpetuated inequality. This book should be a wake-up call to Christian communities nationwide.