Nonfiction – Social Science – Race & Ethnic Relations – Sociology of Religion

RELEASE DATE: 9/24/2024 (WILL SHIP DIRECTLY FROM OUR SUPPLIER’S WAREHOUSE )

The inspiring story of evangelicals in Cincinnati struggling to bridge racial divides in their own church, their community, and across the nation

In 2016, even as Ohio helped deliver victory to presidential candidate Donald Trump, Cincinnati voters also passed a ballot initiative for universal preschool. The margin was so large that many who elected Trump must haveparadoxicallyalso voted for the initiative: how could the same citizens support such philosophically disparate aims? What had convinced residents of this Midwestern, Rust Belt community to raise their own taxes to provide early childhood education focused on the poorestand mostly Blackcommunities?

When political scientist Hahrie Han set out to answer that question, her investigations led straight to an unlikely origin: the white-dominant evangelical megachurch Crossroads, where Pastor Chuck Mingo had delivered a sermon the prior year that set in motion a chain of surprising events. Raised in the Black church, Mingo felt called by God, he told Crossroads parishioners, to combat racial injustice, and to do it through the very church in which they were gathered.

The result was Undivided, a faith-based program designed to foster antiracism and systemic change. The creators of Undivided recognized that any effort to combat racial injustice must move beyond recognizing and overcoming individual prejudices. Real change would have to be radicalfrom the very roots.

In Undivided, Han chronicles the story of four participantstwo men, one Black and one white, and two women, one Black and one whitewhose lives were fundamentally altered by the program. As each of their journeys unfolded, in unpredictable and sometimes painful ways, they came to better understand one another, and to believe in the transformative possibilities for racial solidarity in a moment of deep divisiveness in America. The lessons they learned have the power to teach us all what an undivided society might look likeand how we can help achieve it.

AUTHOR BIO:

HAHRIE HAN is a professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University, as well as the inaugural director of SNF Agora, an institute dedicated to strengthening global democracy. She writes forThe New York Times,The Washington Post, andThe New Republicand is the author of four scholarly books. The daughter of Korean immigrants, she lives in Baltimore. www.hahriehan.com

“Perceptive . . . Rigorously researched and richly nuanced, this deserves wide readership.”
–Publishers Weekly

“[Undivided] ably charts that course even as it illustrates the Christian concept of grace in action. Inspiring: a key text for any reader seeking strategies for racial reconciliation–or at least beginning to talk about it.”
–Kirkus Reviews

“A masterful feat of elegant storytelling and rigorous research, Undivided invigorates readers with an astonishing example of what it takes to make real change, even in the context of deep polarization and racialized subjugation.”
–Jennifer Parker, editorHammer and Hope

“Building a truly multiracial democracy is the great political challenge of our time. The last half century has taught us that changing national laws and policies is the easy part; multiracial democracy won’t take root, however, until society itself transforms. In this beautifully-written book, Hahrie Han offers us a glimpse into how that might be done. Drawing on deep research into the experience of a single church community,Undividedoffers a powerful lesson: building sustainable racial solidarity is slow, hard work, filled with uncertainty. There is no playbook or formula–only trial and error. And it is done from the bottom up, though relationships. Any American concerned with the future of our democracy should read this book.”
–Steven Levitsky, co-author ofHow Democracies Die

“Hahrie Han has put heart and soul into telling the inspiring story of a beacon of racial progress that may seem unlikely: a program for working-class people at a Midwestern evangelical megachurch. With wisdom, humanity, and great narrative skill, Han persuades us that there is a way forward in the struggle against racism, if we are willing to be patient, to trust one another, and to operate from shared faith.”
–Nicholas Lemann, author ofTransaction Man

“A compellingly written, meticulously researched, on the ground examination of the relationship between the Evangelicalism and racism. Driven by stories of ordinary people struggling for racial justice, this book opens up a landscape beyond the headlines and social media feeds, offering hope and insight about how to address America’s original sin. In doing so, it offers pastoral wisdom for church and social movement leaders to understand better the dynamics of organizing for real change.”
–Luke Bretherton, Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology, Oxford University