Perkins, S & Rice, C. (1993). More Than Equals: Racial Healing for the Sake of the Gospel. Downer's Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

OVERVIEW

 

(Download More Than Equals overview as a PDF)

Spencer, an African American, and Chris, an Anglo American, write about their lives and work together in an interracial Mississippi Christian community.

Spencer Perkins, the son of John Perkins, was born and raised in rural Mississippi, where his parents spent their lives working for racial reconciliation. Spencer's background and his own faith and work have solidified him as a leader in the area of racial reconciliation. Chris Rice, the son of missionaries to Korea, was also raised in a cross cultural setting overseas, but found that experience to be very different from the racial tension in America. The two met through Voice of Calvary, an interracial church and ministry in West Jackson, Mississippi. They became kindred spirits after many years of working together and working through their racial differences. They wrote this book to show that blacks and whites can get along, and can, in fact, be best of friends; but they have also written that others might be persuaded to action: "So as you read these pages we hope to do more than heighten your insight into our country's racial problems...Analysis might be interesting, but what is most important is that we live out solutions that show the world another way." (p. 17)

The book is divided into three sections, which are the three critical steps in the reconciliation process: admit, submit, commit: "First, admit. Both white and black Christians must admit that a separation exists, that our relationship is uneasy and that it misrepresents what God intended for his people. Second, submit. We must hand ourselves over to God, falling on our races before him for help, recognizing that we can't be healed apart from him. And we must submit to one another, black and white, by building loving relationships across racial barriers. Finally, commit. Deep and lasting reconciliation will be realized only as we commit ourselves to an intentional lifestyle of loving our racially different neighbors as ourselves." (pp. 18-19)

Why reconciliation? "Chris and I believe that the first step in the reconciliation process is admitting that the race problem exists and that our inability to deal with race has weakened the credibility of our gospel." (p. 23). Christians have had as hard a time (if not harder) as secular society in conquering the racial barriers, even though Christ and Paul emphasize over and over the "body" of believers and our unity in Christ. If Christians cannot overcome skin color, they display a faulty witness to the world.

 

This book is wonderful because its directives for overcoming racial barriers are supported by real examples from the authors' lives. Their stories are personal, and they share both the pains and joys of their ministry. This is the first source I have read dealing with specific situations of racism in scripture, and it makes the call to reconciliation for Christians all the more compelling.