Bias and the Pious: The Relationship Between Prejudice and Religion

The persistence of racial bias in churches and among church people is sometimes greeted with an embarrassed hush by Christians–and brutally advertised by critics of the church. This book deals with that unfortunate reality clearly and firmly. It offers a careful but unflinching analysis of the damage that prejudice inflicts on blacks and whites alike. And, more than this, it makes prejudice understandable by explaining how people come to need the protective barriers that their prejudice provides them. The author, himself a committed Christian, is not embarrassed about finding racial bias within the church. He reminds us that the church is for sinners–not saints. Those whose insecurity motivates them to erect the fences of prejudice between themselves and other Christians may find, in the gospel message, the positive reinforcement that can undo that prejudice.