Undivided: The Quest for Racial Solidarity in an American Church

(Hardback)

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In one of the largest evangelical megachurches in America, thousands of congregants have participated in a remarkable experiment- Undivided, a six-week program developed by church leaders, designed to cultivate meaningful relationships across race, and to foster antiracism grounded in action. The designers of Undivided recognized that any effort to combat racial injustice had to move beyond addressing only individual prejudice. Change, therefore, would have to be radical-from the very roots-tracing both individual prejudices and the structures that perpetuate them. Hahrie Han, a political science professor at Johns Hopkins University, was given complete and open access to tell the story of their work. In Undivided, she details the program's development, its participants' efforts to navigate the complexities of race and faith during the Trump era, and its effects. Han also addresses the history of the white evangelical movement, including the ongoing contestation over its historic ties to white supremacy and exclusion. Han's narrative weaves together the accounts of four congregants-two men, one Black and one white; two women, one Black and one white-who participated in Undivided and dedicated themselves to carrying forward the work of constructing racial solidarity. Their journeys were courageous, eye-opening, at times painful, always complex and uncertain-and unfinished. None of them came away unchanged. The story of evangelical leaders in Cincinnati struggling to bridge racial divides in their own church, their community, and across the nation In one of the largest evangelical megachurches in America, thousands of congregants have participated in a remarkable experiment- Undivided, a six-week program developed by church leaders, designed to cultivate meaningful relationships across race, and to foster antiracism grounded in action. The designers of Undivided recognized that any effort to combat racial injustice had to move beyond addressing only individual prejudice. Change, therefore, would have to be radical-from the very roots-tracing both individual prejudices and the structures that perpetuate them. Hahrie Han, a political science professor at Johns Hopkins University, was given complete and open access to tell the story of their work. In Undivided, she details the program's development, its participants' efforts to navigate the complexities of race and faith during the Trump era, and its effects. Han also addresses the history of the white evangelical movement, including the ongoing contestation over its historic ties to white supremacy and exclusion. Han's narrative weaves together the accounts of four congregants-two men, one Black and one white; two women, one Black and one white-who participated in Undivided and dedicated themselves to carrying forward the work of constructing racial solidarity. Their journeys were courageous, eye-opening, at times painful, always complex and uncertain-and unfinished. None of them came away unchanged.

Author Bio

HAHRIE HAN is a professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University, as well as the inaugural director of SNF Agora, an institute dedicated to strengthening global democracy. She writes for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New Republic and is the author of four scholarly books. The daughter of Korean immigrants, she lives in Baltimore.