Book Review: Insider Outsider

This book review was included in the January 2019 Meadowcroft Monthly. For an archive of all book reviews, click here.

I’ve read many books in preparation for my upcoming Sunday school class on the Black Church in America, and I was so glad to see this new one, Insider Outsider, from Bryan Loritts. Loritts writes about what it has looked like for him, as a black man, to navigate the corridors of American white evangelicalism. I have handed this book out twice at our Life Together gatherings, and the first person who I handed it to let me know how helpful and thought provoking it was.

Loritts talks about just about everything you don’t talk about in polite company - including the hot-button idea of “privilege.” Loritts points out, however, that “Privilege is never the problem; it’s the stewardship of privilege that’s the issue. Just ask Jesus. No one came into this world more ‘privileged than Jesus…I’m grateful he leveraged his privilege for my good.”

In the midst of all of this, Loritts emphasizes the need for love, not division, on both sides of the fence, saying

In an epoch where, for many, white has become a four-letter word, let it be said that all must value and cherish our white familia. The blood of Jesus Christ has bonded us together, and to allow ourselves to be handcuffed by the armlets of suspicion, bitterness, and unforgiveness is out of step with the gospel.

The book is especially helpful when Loritts applies something called the “communication pyramid” to racial incidents in America (think Ferguson). Loritts points out that there are five levels of communication - cliche, facts, opinions, feelings, and transparency. Then he says “Herein lies the problem. When racial incidents happen, people of color typically rush to feelings (level 4 on the communication pyramid), while many of our white siblings stay at level 2 - appealing to facts.” Loritts’ point is that if white Christians stay at level 2, they will not be able to show empathy and heed the Biblical call to weep with those who weep. He says -

In the Christian community, the commentary has likewise been combustible, as one side has appealed to the ‘facts’ of the case - Michael Brown had just stolen some cigars and could very well have been the aggressor - and the other side has spoken out of a deep well of hurt, dug for more than four hundred years with the shovels of racism and institutionalized segregation, where the value of a black life was on a par with that of a horse.

The book comes with an endorsement from Doug Logan, who spoke at Meadowcroft in 2016 on the topic of ethnicity in our denomination. Not everyone will love everything Loritts says (spoiler: one of his sections is called “Kaepernicked”), and he explains why the phrase “Make America Great Again” is so painful to many of our brothers and sisters in Christ - but that's exactly the reason churches like ours need to hear from him. Loritts lovingly, humbly, and hopefully points out some of our potential blind spots, and that’s something that we all need.