This is an important piece that addresses many points that were new to me. I've long been aware of the fact that portraits of Jesus have historically represented Jesus as being white when that simply can't be accurate, but that is just the tip of the iceberg.

I've heard before the rationalization that was made by white slave owners in our US history that they were somehow doing God's work by bringing Christianity to the African American population. That of coarse is ludicrous. What I had missed int that narrative is the fact that many people in Africa had actually been exposed to Christianity long before the man stealers came to take slaves to America.

There are more people of African descent in Scripture than there are of European descent. Jerome Gray introduces us to a sample list of some of the influential philosophers and theologians who embraced the Christian faith thousands of years before the slave trade and "have given us theological terms, monasteries, books, and hermeneutical brilliance that are still in use today.”

There is a lot of valuable information here and I would highly recommend it to Christians of all colors. It is not written from a divisive point of view. Jerome Gay is clearly a uniter .... not a divider... To my friends who feel a bit shell shocked from having been in an environment where you felt that you were having the finger pointed at repeatedly for being racist when in you heart you are certain that is not true ... I would say that you will find this a safe book that may be helpful in bringing about some awareness of issues that may have flown under your radar ..... and will help see what things look like from another person's point of view.