During the Jaffrey Amos Fortune Forum Friday night, author Hahrie Han told the story of four people who underwent a faith-based program designed to foster antiracism and systemic change.
Her most recent book, titled the same as her talk, is “Undivided: The Quest for Racial Solidarity in an American Church.”
Han said she first learned of the Undivided program when she was in Cincinnati, talking to people about a ballot referendum that increased taxes in order to fund universal preschool for low-income children, which passed by a large margin. One of the deciding factors many people cited were volunteers from a local Evangelical church, Crossroads, who had done phone-calling and door-knocking in support of the initiative. And not a small handful, Han said, but in the hundreds.
Han said she was surprised, since she had a preconception of white Evangelicals that didn’t fit with what she was hearing. Those volunteers, she found, had taken part in a program called Undivided, a racial justice program that had started in the church in 2015, and encouraged participants to get involved in working on racial justice issues in their community.
“So, it’s absolutely true that there are parts of the white Evangelical community that are very conservative, that are kind of bastions of white Christian nationalism, and the things that often get reported. But it’s absolutely also true that there are large parts of the white Evangelical community that are very different. And I think that as one of the largest megachurches in America, Crossroads kind of contained all of that within the community,” Han said.
Han’s book explores the experience of four people in the Undivided program, two Black and two white, who took the six-week curriculum around racial justice. They came from a variety of backgrounds; one had a father who was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, while another was a Black pastor.
Han, reading from her book, said, “I started this project because I wanted to understand how people seeking to make change in something as complex as racial injustice persisted in the work and thought about what they could and should do. People in Undivided were willing to risk some of their deepest and most personal relationships to stand up for justice.”
This Friday, the Amos Fortune Forum will continue with Abigail LePage, speaking on “Ten Generations: Deep Roots and Scientific Pursuits.” LePage will speak on her Jaffrey roots, and her work as a technician at Kimball Physics in Wilton. This session will use an interview format, facilitated by William Baker. Amos Fortune Forums are held on Friday at 8 p.m. at the Jaffrey Meetinghouse, and are recordings of all lectures are available on the Amos Fortune Forum YouTube page.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 244, or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on X @AshleySaariMLT.