Healing America's Wounds

How connected is the concept of national repentance to any meaningful social and spiritual change? How should the cultural plurality of our country be viewed by a generally white European majority? These are questions that Dawson's book helped me begin to address. I picked this book up after the O.J. Simpson trial, which for me clearly illustrated a culturally based difference in how races view each other and issues such as justice and equality. That moment troubled me deeply moving me to a time of historical study and contemplation. John Dawson's book came out around the same period offering a spiritual perspective on something every person claiming to follow Christ should consider.You will not find a comprehensive volume of research on race and racism here (if you want that, try D'Souza's "The End of Racism"), but what you do find is a spiritual message of confession and reconciliation presented by one of America's leading Christian voices. It is supplemented by some excellent portrayals of little known events surrounding key moments in the past centuries such as the Los Angeles Azusa Street Revival. He emphasizes the chacteristic breaking down of racial barriers in that revival that occured-- only to be reconstructed as two distinct Pentecostal groups were formed, one black and the other white.Dawson calls us to fulfill our "redemptive purpose" that God has placed in every culture, people and nation. That redemptive purpose is best approached through facing the walls or divisions, identifying with sins-- present and past, confessing them before God and men and then changing how we live. A major sin he deals with is our need to confess the endorsement and support for slavery over America's history.He concludes the book with a list of common questions and responses such as: Do white people have to ask every black person they see for forgiveness? Aren't all people really the same-- equal? Aren't people responsible for their own actions-- why should we face punishment for something our ancestors did?I strongly recommend this book as one of several for anyone considering issues of race and racism.