Becoming Brave

Finding the Courage to Pursue Racial Justice Now

By: Brenda Salter McNeil

Narrated by: Brenda Salter McNeil

Reconciliation is not true reconciliation without justice! Brenda Salter McNeil has come to this conviction as she has led the church in pursuing reconciliation efforts over the past three decades. McNeil calls the church to repair the old reconciliation paradigm by moving beyond individual racism to address systemic injustice, both historical and present. It's time for the church to go beyond individual reconciliation and "heart change" and to boldly mature in its response to racial division.

Looking through the lens of the biblical narrative of Esther, McNeil challenges Christian reconcilers to recognize the particular pain in our world so they can work together to repair what is broken while maintaining a deep hope in God's ongoing work for justice. This book provides education and prophetic inspiration for every person who wants to take reconciliation seriously.

Becoming Brave offers a distinctly Christian framework for addressing systemic injustice. It challenges Christians to be everyday activists who become brave enough to break the silence and work with others to dismantle systems of injustice and inequality.

©2020 Brenda Salter McNeil (P)2020 Recorded Books

Awakenings

Very good education on areas of the Bible I never considered to compare with what happening now in the world. Women should rule the world. Where is Christianity without real humanity?
Monica Young

Interestingly good

The storyline was actually intriguingly captivating. The book was written in a way an artist/painter would draw you in with vibrantly colorful and abstract stroke to pull you into meaningful purpose of their artwork. Becoming Brave drew me in with the way the author revealed the biblical truths from the book of Esther.the way she told the story captivated my attention and I was hooked. The only reason this was not a top rated book is there was something within the writing that left me dumbfounded with a lot of questions like help me to understand the reason for such a decision. But anyway I digress. For what’s is worth, I still this it was a very good read. Blessings

The Story of Esther told anew.

Loved listening to this story and its relevance today. The way the author weaves in personal illustrations and her narration has me listening to it again.

Motivating & Inspiration

This was such a captivating read.

My work is in the Christian spaces of diversity and oneness, and I still think I learned something new with each chapter.

Rev. Dr. McNeil's words inspired and motivated me to consider what I could do to most glorify God in my approach to this broken world. It was an honor to sit at the feet of such a wise woman of God and listen to her stories of life, loving others, and listening to the Spirit of God.

I also noticed in reading this book, that I felt seen with every chapter. It's one of the few times in reading this type of book that I didn't feel like a secondary thought to a majority White audience.

Must read for our time for people of faith or non.

Salter McNeil brilliantly weaves this book together in a way that cuts straight through the vines of our fears that entangle our action to create the world we want or to live out our heart's most expansive and brave desires to change the world and our communities. In a world where power and policy leave us longing for more justice and representation of the poor and marginalized, I recommend this book to anyone as a companion on the journey. I have practical tools to step into a bigger more brave version of myself and calling in order to continue in the work of world changers and justice seekers who have gone before, work toward building the kingdom, the beloved community here and now - where every human being has an equal chance to flourish and live an abundant life.

Powerful wisdom and practical encouragement

What a joy to hear Rev McNeil read this book. It is filled with spiritual truth and practical wisdom about the calling of God’s people to pursue justice.

A semi-autobiographical look at the book of Esther

I have long looked up to Brenda Salter McNeil. She doesn’t know me at all. But when I was in college, more than 25 years ago, I participate in the college’s urban summer program, working with homeless families in a long-term shelter in Houston for a summer. In part, that experience led me to pursue a master’s in Social Service Administration a few years later, and my entire work career has been non-profit consulting and management. Several of my friends also participated in the summer program in later years. One of those friends worked with Brenda Salter McNeil in Chicago. My friend could not speak more highly about the now Rev Dr Brenda Salter McNeil. But also, as a young White woman working in a Black community in Chicago under Dr McNeil, she felt clearly impatience around racial issues and a strong prodding to ‘get it’.

About the same time, I was attending an intentionally interracial church in Chicago, Rock of Our Salvation Evangelical Free Church. Raleigh Washington led the church, and Glenn Kehrein led the slightly older Christian Community Development Corporation. Together they wrote the book Breaking Down Walls about racial reconciliation. Not too long after I left the church because I moved to a different part of the city for grad school, Raliegh Washington left the church to work for Promise Keepers as their VP of reconciliation. I kept in touch with several from the church and for my master’s thesis, I looked at the different ways that church-based community development work understood the relationship of the non-profit ministry to the work of the church. The Rock of Our Salvation/Circle Urban model was one of the three models I profiled and I interviewed Glenn Kehrein for that thesis a couple of years after Raleigh Washington had left. The Promise Keepers’ model of reconciliation, which I talked about with Glenn, and which has been written about frequently as a step, albeit a limited one, toward racial reconciliation, was incomplete.

I say this as an introduction because while I have very positive feelings toward Brenda Salter McNeil, and I have heard her speak multiple times, I do not think I have read any of her books prior to this. As was pointed out in the book, I had classified her as generally in the model of Promise Keepers reconciliation. In other words, make friends, study the bible together, do church-based ministry together, serve the community, but make the reconciliation palatable to white people, and do not enter into political issues or other issues that get sensitive too often. I both think I had misclassified her, and in some ways gotten it right.

To start at the end of the book in the conclusion:

"That’s why I will no longer focus on simply coming together as diverse ethnic groups. Instead, my goal is to activate reconcilers to repair broken systems that are rooted in the evil of racism and resist the kingdom of God. I will not hide behind the mask of niceness or pretend not to be angry in an effort to make White people feel more comfortable with my ministry of reconciliation. I will speak my truth. I will stand in truth, and I will no longer dumb down the truth to help White people feel less guilty. To do so is to be complicit in sanitizing the truth, and I refuse to be complicit in that any longer. Reconciliation happens by repairing broken systems and engaging power, not just by focusing on relationships and feelings."

Or as she said in the early part of the book:

"Up until this point, my reconciliation work has been deeply concerned with how my message will be received by white people. I have tried to ensure that offense did not interfere with my message of diversity and harmony. I made my message easy for them to hear. But no more. I have come to realize that over the years, I was used by white-dominant culture, probably not maliciously or intentionally, but unconsciously, to make the conversation about racial reconciliation more palatable, understandable, and acceptable to them."

Esau McCaulley said in an interview (my paraphrase) that the difference between tone in a lot of racial reconciliation discussions is 20 years. You can start trying to be palatable and make people understand what you are trying to say, but after a while, you recognize that regardless of how politely or gently you say something, some White people are still going to take offense and you might as well stop exerting the emotional energy and just say it clearly the first time.

The most encouraging thing that I get out of this book is that Brenda Salter McNeil, a woman that has spent decades working in racial reconciliation work in one way or another has, in her 60s, made a significant change in her method and approach. That change is clear in the book, but also is clear in a number of podcasts like this one with David Swanson or this one on Colored Commentary. I know from their reports, that McNeil has spent years mentoring young White pastors like Daniel Hill and David Swanson. She has a role somewhat like Howard Thurman’s that may not be super visible, but it is important toward a shift in the culture of the movement.

A few days ago I tweeted about John Walton saying that Daniel was not a model for how we should live in a post-Christian world, but a descriptive (not prescriptive) model for how one person (Daniel) chooses to live faithfully in the world. In Becoming Brave, I think that Brenda Salter McNeil follows that model to show descriptively how Ester ‘became brave’ and descriptively applies those insights not as a rigid model for how we all should also follow Ester, but as a method of teaching discernment that can be applied in different situations.

Dr McNeil explores the story of Ester, but also takes the story of her own life and allows herself to see the parallels as a ways of seeing where God is at work. Becoming Brave is a book of inspiration and encouragement. And it is a book that I recommend highly.

This is an important book for such a time as this.

The way Dr. Salter McNeil weaves the story of Esther, her own story, with the truth of the gospel message is powerful. I love that she narrates herself because her voice magnifies her own vulnerability and bravery that she poured into this book. The message is timely and critical for this point in history.