Lisa Sharon Harper

God once declared everything in the world "very good." Can you imagine it' A Vision of Hope for a Broken World Shalom is what God declared. Shalom is what the Kingdom of God looks like. Shalom is when all people have enough. It's when families are healed. It's when churches, schools, and public policies protect human dignity. Shalom is when the image of God is recognized in every single human. Shalom is our calling as followers of Jesus's gospel. It is the vision God set forth in the Garden and the restoration God desires for every relationship. What can we do to bring shalom to our nations, our communities, and our souls' Through a careful exploration of biblical text, particularly the first three chapters of Genesis, Lisa Sharon Harper shows us what "very good" can look like today, even after the Fall. Because despite our anxious minds, despite division and threats of violence, God's vision remains: Wholeness for a hurting world. Peace for a fearful soul. Shalom.

How Everything Wrong Can Be Made Right

The Very Good Gospel

Otis Moss

How Race Broke My Family and the World--And How to Repair It All

Fortune

D.C. Innes

Why do people have a common faith but different political loyalties? How does the Christian faith shape how we should vote and participate in the political process? In Left, Right, and Christ, authors D.C. Innes and Lisa Sharon Harper discuss and explore how the Christian faith speaks directly to American politics today, but with different understanding and applications. Addressing questions like: Does God care about politics? Should we? Is it the government's role to take care of the sick? Do legalized abortions increase the number of abortions? Should we support people's freedom to choose a definition of marriage, even if we disagree with their choice? Does a free country mean that everyone is free to come here? Is the earth so fragile that the government should step in to protect it? Harper and Innes craft thought-provoking chapters on each issue that will have America talking for a long time.

Evangelical Faith in Politics

Left Right & Christ

How can two people have a common faith but different political loyalties? How does the Christian faith shape how we should vote and participate in the political process? In this updated edition of Left, Right, and Christ, authors D.C. Innes and Lisa Sharon Harper discuss and explore how the Christian faith speaks directly to American politics today, but with different understanding and applications. They address questions like: Does God care about politics? Should we? Is it the government's role to take care of the sick? Do legalized abortions increase the number of abortions? Should we support people's freedom to choose a definition of marriage, even if we disagree with their choice? Does a free country mean that everyone is free to come here? Is the earth so fragile that the government should step in to protect it? Harper and Innes craft compelling chapters on hot issue that will keep Christian Americans thinking about how to navigate the intersection of faith and politics.

Left, Right & Christ

"Extraordinary. . . . Let this story of family, race, and resistance create anger in your spirit and ultimately inspire your heart to join the work to heal our nation and eventually our world."--Otis Moss III (from the foreword) Drawing on her lifelong journey to know her family's history, leading Christian activist Lisa Sharon Harper recovers the beauty of her heritage, exposes the brokenness that race has wrought in America, and casts a vision for collective repair. Harper has spent three decades researching ten generations of her family history through DNA research, oral histories, interviews, and genealogy. Fortune, the name of Harper's first nonindigenous ancestor born on American soil, bore the brunt of the nation's first race, gender, and citizenship laws. As Harper traces her family's story through succeeding generations, she shows how American ideas, customs, and laws robbed her ancestors--and the ancestors of so many others--of their humanity and flourishing. Fortune helps readers understand how America was built upon systems and structures that blessed some and cursed others, allowing Americans of European descent to benefit from the colonization, genocide, enslavement, rape, and exploitation of people of color. As Harper lights a path through national and religious history, she clarifies exactly how and when the world broke and shows the way to redemption for us all. The book culminates with a powerful and compelling vision of truth telling, reparation, and forgiveness that leads to Beloved Community. It includes a foreword by Otis Moss III, illustrations, and a glossy eight-page black-and-white insert featuring photos of Harper's family.

How Race Broke My Family and the World--and How to Repair It All

Soong-Chan Rah

Troy Jackson

Mae Elise Cannon

Many people have become angry and frustrated with organized religion and evangelical Christianity, in particular. Too often the church has proven to be a source of pain rather than a place of hope. Forgive Us acknowledges the legitimacy of much of the anger toward the church. In truth, Christianity in America has significant brokenness in its history that demands recognition and repentance. Only by this path can the church move forward with its message of forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace. Forgive Us is thus a call to confession. From Psalm 51 to the teachings of Jesus to the prayers of Nehemiah, confession is the proper biblical response when God’s people have injured others and turned their backs on God’s ways. In the book of Nehemiah, the author confesses not only his own sins, but also the sins of his ancestors. The history of the American church demands a Nehemiah-style confession both for our deeds and the deeds of those who came before us. In each chapter of Forgive Us two pastors who are also academically trained historians provide accurate and compelling histories of some of the American church’s greatest shortcomings. Theologian Soong-Chan Rah and justice leader Lisa Sharon Harper then share theological reflections along with appropriate words of confession and repentance. Passionate and purposeful, Forgive Us will challenge evangelical readers and issue a heart-felt request to the surrounding culture for forgiveness and a new beginning.

Confessions of a Compromised Faith

Forgive Us

Four leading voices in Christian reconciliation and justice movements co-author a volume which promotes corporate confession for past grievances committed by Christians. It will appeal to thoughtful readers, and those interested in reading about cultural intelligence, social justice, and cultural critique. Evangelical Christianity in America has a reputation for political self-interest and hurtful attitudes toward homosexuals, women, minorities, followers of different religions, and others outside its fold. Though sometimes unfair, sadly, this reputation is too often deserved. In Forgive Us, four evangelical leaders in the reconciliation and justice movements confess the church's public failings and call on fellow believers to reengage the surrounding culture in a new and better way. Using biblical examples from Psalm 51 to the teachings of Jesus to the prayers of Nehemiah, Forgive Us reveals that confession is the proper biblical response when God's people have injured others and turned their backs on God's ways. Each chapter of Forgive Us provides accurate and compelling histories of some of the American church's greatest shortcomings followed by theological reflections and appropriate words of confession and repentance. Passionate and purposeful, Forgive Us will challenge evangelical readers and issue a heart-felt request to the surrounding culture for forgiveness and a new beginning.

Lisa Sharon Harper

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