#IVEDReads Summer Book Club

Meet the Authors

Chandra Crane, Steve Tamayo and Jonathan Walton are leaders who preach, practice and pursue ethnic justice and reconciliation. Jonathan wrote our June read – Twelve Lies that Hold America Captive and the Truth that Sets Us Free. Steve composed our July scripture study, “Embracing Ethnic Identity: Bringing Your Full Self to God”. Chandra penned our book for August – Mixed Blessing: Embracing the Fullness of Your Multiethnic Identity.

Saying Yes to Jesus & No to Christian Nationalism

“The infusion of government structures with a legal, deceptive “fear of the other” stands in opposition to the biblical mandate for us to love our neighbors (Mark 12:31) and care for the stranger in our midst as if they were native born (Leviticus 19:34).

Followers of Jesus believe that reconciliation through Christ is the only way to attain an eternal identity through adoption into an everlasting covenantal love, which is what all people of every background and ethnicity profoundly need. American history composed by white, wealthy men was written to argue otherwise. The Bible, however, exclaims that we do not need citizenship, voting rights, or access to property and capital, but a constant, unchanging status in Christ Jesus, which cannot be taken away. All of humanity is in need of a home, but that home is not the United States or any place. It is a person, and his name is Jesus.”

Saying Yes to Jesus and No to Racism

Ethnicity shows up on every page of the Bible and is a gift from God. If we truly believed that and lived as if it were true, the way we interact with family, friends and enemies might begin to change.

Because of the history of the United States and the church in America, discovering that God has a great deal to say about ethnicity might come as a shock. Some of us might expect the Bible to tell us about Jesus and how to live, but perhaps we don’t expect to see our ethnicities affirmed or challenged. Hearing the Bible on ethnicity makes the Scriptures feel freshly relevant.

Engaging this material can lead us to speak out with our small voices against systemic injustices. Because ethnic tensions jump out to us in Scripture, we won’t be surprised when they appear in real life. And we’ll have hope for reconciliation.

Saying Yes to Jesus & No to White Supremacy

Each person and every ethnic group is part of how God reveals His Glory. Genesis 1 declares that ever person is made in the image of God and Revelation 7 testifies to a coming processional where every tribe and tongue worship together in blessed wholeness. This was Good News to the multiethnic ethnic audience who first heard it and it is Good News to us now. With a Thai birth father, European American mother, and African American father who adopted her when she was five, Chandra has keenly felt the otherness of never quite fitting in.

Despite the dominant narratives of America, Chandra knows, “The problem isn’t being mixed. The problem is in multiethnicity being seen as incomplete, abnormal, and undesirable”. Multiethnic people, through scripture and history, teach us about ethnicity and how we can bring all of ourselves to our sense of identity and calling.

Get your books, keep up with the Summer Book Club, and don’t miss an opportunity to engage!