“In this era of racial tension in the United States, Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah offer a corrective lens that brings into sharp focus the seed of Euro-American exceptionalism along with its enduring effects through history up to this present day. Unsettling Truths examines the racially charged yet unrecognized theology that unleashed the slave trade in West Africa and the dispossession of indigenous peoples’ lands in North America: the Doctrine of Discovery. The United States’ two original sins find their roots here, and the racial tensions that grow from them continue to overrun the American cultural landscape. These Unsettling Truths lead us to self-examination and offer hope for conciliation. This is the true American story.”
Gene L. Green, professor emeritus of New Testament, Wheaton College and Graduate School
“If you’re Native, you have been waiting for this book. It tells truths that we didn’t learn in school about how the ideology of Christian discovery resulted in the dehumanization of the indigenous people of Turtle Island, and how those principles continue to oppress. If you are Native who follows Jesus, you have been hard pressed to explain the difference between your faith and the dysfunctional theology that birthed an exploitative Christian worldview that cultivated genocide and slavery. This book explains the concealed history and theology of truths that this country has not been able to own and shows how we might move toward a restoring narrative.”
Lenore Three Stars (Oglala Lakota), cross-cultural facilitator in racial reconciliation
“Followers of Jesus say, Amen! to the emancipatory call of John 8:32. He is Truth, and the truth sets us free. Yet even as we go on to affirm, ‘All truth is the Creator’s truth,’ we recognize we are not immediately emancipated by all truth. Sometimes truth is at first inconvenient, even outright offensive. That’s why this narrative will trouble you—because while it is true, it chronicles the great lie that America, Canada, and other colonial nations arose ex nihilo from the land. Once embraced, however, this truth can reset your relationships in the land, creating a trajectory toward authentic freedom in Christ.”
Terry LeBlanc, director of NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community, where he teaches theology and community development
“Charles and Rah offer critiques of American myths and white American Christianity that must be accounted for as Christians of all races reckon with and lament the brokenness of the past—to seek justice and unity in the present. Although the historical narrative lacks context, at times wrongly interpreting historical figures’ actions and therefore caricaturing the past, the authors raise powerful questions. Charles and Rah have created theological space for wisdom to grow in the church if readers seriously engage their arguments.”
Karen Johnson, associate professor of history, Wheaton College
“Oh that this book’s thesis were merely ‘unsettling’ like a brisk wind or a cancelled flight might be. Instead, Charles’s and Rah’s argument feels more like an earthquake or a tsunami. To hear the Doctrine of Discovery this richly, poignantly, and painfully explicated will press readers to face ‘truths’ that are not merely unsettled but undone. Therein lies the book’s hope.”
Mark Labberton, president of Fuller Theological Seminary
“In Chicana/o Studies, many reject Christianity because of the unsettling truth that white racial nationalism has historically infected the American Church and perverted the biblical message of Jesus Christ. Drawing from a unique indigenous perspective, Charles and Rah persuasively trace the historical roots of such nationalism to the Doctrine of Discovery and settler colonialism, and call the church to lament and conciliation. Unsettling Truths tears down a stronghold that has held the American church in captivity for four centuries.”
Robert Chao Romero, associate professor, UCLA César E. Chávez department of Chicana/o studies
“There is an inherent danger in attempting to decolonize and deconstruct one’s faith without an understanding of how deeply Western Christianity wed itself to the false and dangerous Doctrine of Discovery. Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah skillfully give us an unflinching look at Western political and church history, weave in personal stories, and help connect the past to present policies, appealing to both our hearts and minds.”
Kathy Khang, speaker and author of Raise Your Voice
“Reading Unsettling Truths hit me between the eyes. It’s a worldview changer. Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah powerfully take us deep into the impacts of the Doctrine of Discovery on the ‘new’ world and on our faulty understandings of Christianity. I needed to read this book.”
Michael O. Emerson, author of Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America
“This volume offers a bold challenge to the simplistic and distorting ways in which the history of Christianity in North America is often told, refusing to accept any approach that denies the horrors of genocide. For any believer rigorously committed to the good news that the truth does set us free, this will not be an easy book. It will challenge many of us to relinquish our all-too-easy denials of past trauma and to taste the bitterness of tears of lament. It will also invite us to sense with astonishment the breadth and depth of what life with Jesus and with each other could look like, not only in the fullness of the coming kingdom but also in the near future of our life together in the land.”
John D. Witvliet, Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary