As we continue to “Renew Our Mission” as a church, consider reading the two books highlighted below.  These books may be found on the library book cart.

In The Cross and the Lynching Tree theologian James H. Cone explores these emotionally charged symbols and their interconnection in the history and souls of black folk. Both the cross and the lynching tree represent the worst in human beings and at the same time a thirst for life that refuses to let the worst determine our final meaning. While the lynching tree symbolized white power and black death, the cross symbolizes divine power and black life, God overcoming the power of sin and death. For African Americans, the image of Jesus, hung on a tree to die, powerfully grounded their faith that God was with them, even in the suffering of the lynching era.

Life on the Color Line by Gregory Howard Williams tells how he grew up believing he was white. But when the family business failed and his parents’ marriage fell apart, Williams discovered that his dark-skinned father, who had been passing as Italian-American, was half black. The family split up. Greg, his younger brother, and their father moved to Indiana, where the young boys learned the truth about their heritage. Overnight they became black. His journey along the color line illuminates the contrasts between the black and white worlds: one of privilege, opportunity and comfort, the other of deprivation, repression, and struggle.