Dream with Me: Race, Love, and the Struggle We Must Win

by John M. Perkins

He was taken to a treatment room at the hospital and some time later officially declared dead. My big brother, a heroic survivor of World War II, was defeated by the unspoken war at home. I was devastated. I was the youngest sibling and looked up to him more than my other siblings (Clifton, Mary, and Emma Jean).

on prestigious boards and panels. I am tremendously grateful for these opportunities and for the wonderful people I’ve met along the way. But deep down inside, I’m still the kid who grew up in a family of sharecroppers and bootleggers in a small town in the Deep South. I’m still most comfortable picking greens with my childhood friend Ed, chatting with a single mother while waiting in line at Popeyes, or sitting on the steps of a row-house porch in Philadelphia with my friend Shane and some of his young neighbors as we enjoy a sunny afternoon together and wipe ice cream from the kids’ faces. While I appreciate the attention I’ve gotten for my work and the kind words people have said about me, the look you see on my face most often is not so much one of accomplishment but, rather, one of astonishment. How in the world did I get here? The only answer I know to give is that these things can happen when you walk with God.

So how did someone who has experienced the anguish of poverty, racism, and oppression end up wanting to write a book about love as his climactic message? Good question. For decades I’ve tried to meet people where they hurt. I’ve preached and desired to see “justice for all,” and I still fervently believe in it. God loves justice and wants His people to seek justice (see Ps. 11 and Mic. 6:8).

That’s it! God’s love and justice come together in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, and we can’t be about one and not the other.