{"id":8420,"date":"2020-06-08T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-08T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedisciplemaker.org\/?p=8420"},"modified":"2020-06-08T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-06-08T17:00:00","slug":"real-conversations-on-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2020\/06\/real-conversations-on-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Real Conversations on Race"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

This article by Jason Cook is a review of Ben Sciacca’s<\/em> Meals From Mars<\/strong><\/a> and was originally published at The Gospel Coalition<\/strong><\/a> on August 18, 2017.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n

Malik paused. \u201cDid it ever occur to you that people from my neighborhood are scared about rollin\u2019 up on your neighborhood?\u201d<\/em><\/p>

\u201cWhatever,\u201d Jim replied. \u201cWhen\u2019s the last time someone has had their head bashed in by some thugs in Stone Brook? When\u2019s the last time someone had their car stolen at gunpoint when they were filling up their tank?\u201d<\/em><\/p>

\u201cRobbery and thugs ain\u2019t the only things to fear. There are other things people like me gotta worry about. Stuff you wouldn\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/em><\/p>
Meals from Mars<\/em>, Ben Sciacca<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n

Most people enter discussions of racial injustice like they\u2019re entering a gun fight: heavily armed. Their weapons are statistics, experience, and a bevy of opinions and solutions. A new novel titled Meals from Mars: A Parable of Prejudice and Providence<\/strong><\/em><\/a> helps to de-escalate the conflict. Written by educator Ben Sciacca, this book will benefit not only his high school students in Fairfield, Alabama, but also suburbanites and those in between.<\/p>\n\n\n

Meals from Mars<\/em> opens with guns drawn on the two protagonists, Jim and Malik. We see blood, police lights, and a young black man shot by police. This is an unfortunately familiar narrative today, but Sciacca gives us the story behind the headlines\u2014the story about the incredibly complex lives involved in this scene: Jim, Malik, and the law enforcement officers sworn to protect and serve.<\/p>\n\n\n

Usual Suspects<\/h2>\n\n\n

Jim, an affluent, churchgoing white man from the \u201cright\u201d side of the tracks, is a Good Samaritan. He delivers food to a poor family on the \u201cwrong\u201d side of the tracks. Malik is an 18-year-old black man who lives with his grandmother in her apartment. She sends him out to buy ingredients for Thanksgiving dinner. Trouble quickly ensues. The lead on the case, MarQuan Cole, is a neighborhood kid turned professional detective. He finds himself at the intersection of violence perpetrated by blacks and the disrespectful white world he\u2019s obliged to protect and serve.<\/p>\n\n\n

These men\u2019s worlds are on a collision course that ends with a young black man shot, a suburban white man forever changed, and a black cop in conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n

Nuanced Approach<\/h2>\n\n\n

For Sciacca, Meals from Mars <\/em><\/strong><\/a>is more than a story; it\u2019s his life. He serves as executive director of Restoration Academy, a Christ-centered private school in one of Birmingham\u2019s poorest neighborhoods. Each day Sciacca teaches and mentors young black men, empathizing with their experiences, feeling their pain, and refusing to give simple answers to complex problems.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n

Sciacca knows that when churches engage in ministry to poor youth in predominately minority neighborhoods, they assume the poor youth are the only at-risk group involved. In fact, two groups are at-risk: those ministered to and the ministers themselves. For poor youth, risks include lack of education, cyclical poverty, and basic needs going unmet. For those ministering to the poor, the risk is believing that affluence or social standing grants them a heroic position. They\u2019re at risk of self-righteousness, false holiness, and a paternalistic mindset.<\/p>\n\n\n

Sciacca labors to protect both groups from these risks at his school. Urban students are greatly helped by community churches, and affluent volunteers are rescued from the sin of self-righteousness. The result? A collective flourishing of both urban and suburban individuals that brings glory to God.<\/p>\n\n\n

Urban ministry, in part, requires the resources, networks, and talents of the affluent alongside the creativity, ingenuity, and brilliance of poor communities. Meals from Mars<\/em> doesn\u2019t offer a one-size-fits-all answer to racial strife and injustice in our country. It does, however, humanize both those in the prison of poverty and also those in the prison of paternalism.<\/p>\n\n\n

Effective urban ministry can\u2019t be done by \u201cTurkey Men\u201d\u2014those who deliver a turkey at Thanksgiving and that\u2019s it. Effective ministry requires intentionality\u2014the same intentionality exhibited by God at creation and Christ in his incarnation, the intentionality that gets our hands dirty by bringing holistic remedies to struggling communities through being a part of them.<\/p>\n\n\n

Real Conversations<\/h2>\n\n\n

A major strength of Meals from Mars<\/em> is the running dialogue between Malik and Jim. Through several chapters they discuss socioeconomic inequality, educational inequality, joblessness, police brutality, incarceration, and the Confederate flag, among other things. Their limited experience of each others\u2019 worlds often leads to communication breakdown and rudeness. But even though both come to the table eager to air their own views, they leave learning more than they imagined. The most surprising revelation might be that while they come from different sides of the tracks, they are quite similar.<\/p>\n\n\n

Sciacca\u2019s characters discuss many complex racial issues, but Sciacca offers no solutions. He does, however, create an environment for the reader to feel. Perhaps this is the book\u2019s greatest strength\u2014the empathy it encourages us to recover. You won\u2019t find simple answers to racism in this novel. You will, however, be confronted with the difficulties and nuances of social dynamics.<\/p>\n\n\n

Should you pick up this book, be warned that you may walk away slower to speak, slower to anger, and quicker to listen.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\n
\"Ben<\/figure>
Ben Sciacca<\/span>

You’ve been reading a review of Ben Sciacca’s<\/strong><\/a> book\u00a0Meals From Mars<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/em>that originally appeared at The Gospel Coalition<\/strong><\/a> on August 18, 2017. Follow the link below to engage further or to read the first chapter for free.<\/p>\n

More from Ben<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

NavPress<\/strong><\/a> has resources for listening well to people\u2019s stories and understanding viewpoints other than your own. You can find them here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article by Jason Cook is a review of Ben Sciacca’s Meals From Mars and was originally published at The Gospel Coalition on August 18, 2017. Malik paused. \u201cDid it ever occur to you that people from my neighborhood are … <\/p>\n

Read moreReal Conversations on Race<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":8432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[72,347,422,423,427],"yoast_head":"\nReal Conversations on Race - The Disciplemaker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2020\/06\/real-conversations-on-race\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Real Conversations on Race - The Disciplemaker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This article by Jason Cook is a review of Ben Sciacca’s Meals From Mars and was originally published at The Gospel Coalition on August 18, 2017. 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