Race, Economics, and Apologetics: Is There A Connection?

by Luke Bobo, Luke Bobo, Gail Dudley (Consultant Editor)

Deacon Ralph Johnson moves slowly and laboriously, shuffling as he walks. But ask him about his wife Connie and her ordeal at work, and he beams with pride. Everyone at the General Services Administration Building in Kansas City,
Missouri knew Connie was a Christian because of the Bible on her desk and the Christian trinkets adorning her work area. One co-worker constantly harassed and ridiculed Connie as he passed her desk. He would often say, "How can you believe that rubbish?" Connie believed the implications of Genesis 1:26-28 and treated this co-worker with dignity and respect, just as she treated the rest of her co-workers. With the Spirit's enablement, Connie regularly produced the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), living a beautifully attractive life at her workplace. The scattered church, I believe, is missing an opportunity for an embodied apologetic to address some of these racial
economic disparities and inequalities. The church is divinely and uniquely equipped and empowered to attack and eradicate our racialized economy. But what is a racialized economy?

52 pages, Paperback

Published March 21, 2019

Reviews

[Samuel Kassing]

This book is a primer on the intersections of race, economics, and apologetics. Dr. Bobo shows historically how these things have been woven together and three modern iterations (housing covenants, mass criminalization, and hiring practices).

This is one of those books that you could give a friend and sit down and talk about over coffee. It will only take you 40 mins to read. From there you can follow the footnotes to dig into the rest of these realities.

This is a good book and a helpful one.

His conclusion is that we need an embodied apologetic if the scattered church is going to make a difference in these areas in our current cultural moment.

[Jake Griess]

This book was very disappointing, especially in its reliance on citing news articles that talk about research findings instead of going directly to the research itself. The author was either lazy or intentionally trying to mislead readers in doing this.

The author built his argument on journalists’ interpretation of different research even though those journalists have little credibility in the fields they reported on.

Poor citations aside, the author also made a couple big leaps in logic throughout the book.

[Ahn, Hang San]

a must read for everyone

Everyone living in the US should read this book whether they are Christian or non-Christian. I really appreciate the author writing this book.