Austin Brown

Foreword INDIES 2020 Book of the Year Award (BRONZE Winner for Religion)"[A] powerful work. . . . Provides a road map for any Christian seeking greater racial justice."--Publishers WeeklyReconciliation is not true reconciliation without justice! Brenda Salter McNeil has come to this conviction as she has led the church in pursuing reconciliation efforts over the past three decades. McNeil calls the church to repair the old reconciliation paradigm by moving beyond individual racism to address systemic injustice, both historical and present. It's time for the church to go beyond individual reconciliation and "heart change" and to boldly mature in its response to racial division.Looking through the lens of the biblical narrative of Esther, McNeil challenges Christian reconcilers to recognize the particular pain in our world so they can work together to repair what is broken while maintaining a deep hope in God's ongoing work for justice. This book provides education and prophetic inspiration for every person who wants to take reconciliation seriously.Becoming Brave offers a distinctly Christian framework for addressing systemic injustice. It challenges Christians to be everyday activists who become brave enough to break the silence and work with others to dismantle systems of injustice and inequality.

Foreword INDIES 2020 Book of the Year Award (BRONZE Winner for Religion)"[A] powerful work. . . . Provides a road map for any Christian seeking greater racial justice."--Publishers WeeklyReconciliation is not true reconciliation without justice! Brenda Salter McNeil has come to this conviction as she has led the church in pursuing reconciliation efforts over the past three decades. McNeil calls the church to repair the old reconciliation paradigm by moving beyond individual racism to address systemic injustice, both historical and present. It's time for the church to go beyond individual reconciliation and "heart change" and to boldly mature in its response to racial division.Looking through the lens of the biblical narrative of Esther, McNeil challenges Christian reconcilers to recognize the particular pain in our world so they can work together to repair what is broken while maintaining a deep hope in God's ongoing work for justice. This book provides education and prophetic inspiration for every person who wants to take reconciliation seriously.Becoming Brave offers a distinctly Christian framework for addressing systemic injustice. It challenges Christians to be everyday activists who become brave enough to break the silence and work with others to dismantle systems of injustice and inequality.

The Willie Lynch Syndrome is a strategy created by a man named William Lynch in 1710 in Jamestown, Virginia. He created this strategy because plantation owners were having problems with maintaining their slaves, so he put in motion his plan and he guaranteed that if instituted his plan would be in existence for over 310 years. Fast forward to the current year 2016, we can see the effects of his plan transcending creed, class or color. The main component for his plan was to use our differences against each other, from our differences he created divisions and Mr. Lynch's motto was "Distrust is stronger than Trust''. All across the United States the crime rate is soaring because people have a me against the world mentality and as a result we view each other as enemies. Here are some examples: He's Muslim, I'm Christian, She's rich, I'm poor, He's married, I'm divorced, people love him, but they hate me. All those differences produce division. End result is, we have in society an Elite, who works together and everyone on the bottom in opposition against one another. So the characters of this book all had one goal in mind which was to get out of prison, yet they clashed at every turn because they couldn't unite under the banner of "Operation Get out of Jail". These men disagreed with each other not because the others had the master plan, but they didn't want to feel inferior to the next one. This is the mindset of most people within our society. This disunity kept them from working together in a cohesive way until they realized that there's strength in numbers. Let's look at the human body for a moment; this is the greatest show of unity. Imagine if the feet said, I'm tired of being walked over all day, I'm not walking today? (c) Or if the butt said it wanted to be the head? Even though we have a lot of butt heads walking around, that wouldn't work. The body works in harmony each part playing an important role for the well-being of the body. In society many people fail to ever accomplish anything worthwhile due to our lack of trust, remember his motto "Distrust is stronger than trust". This mindset has been engrained into our subconscious minds subliminally ever since we could comprehend words. As children we observe everything and over time we become conditioned by our immediate environment "our household". This is our training ground on how we learn to interact with society. If more people united, pooled their resources and began solving their problem collectively that would in turn help society rid some of its ills. The lack of education limits one's resources and options and whenever a person lacks options, that individual at times can become desperate. All across America, men & women are being herded into the Prison Industrial Complex because of a lack of capital. The root word for capital is cap; a cap is something that covers your head. To decapitate someone means to cut off their head "knowledge". America spends more money on their military & prisons than on education as a result people are suffering spending large portions of their lives within prison. Remember Willie Lynch's mission was to make and control slaves. According to the Constitution, the 13 Amendment in short says slavery is abolished except that you commit a felony and is due punished. Slavery was about economics'; prison is about economics'. Maryland has 25,000 people in prison at roughly $30,000 per person. If the US would aim its resources on education over incarceration, we maybe could begin seeing value within our fellow man. It cost more to imprison a man than to send him to college for four years. If these men had a proper education, they wouldn't have found their selves in prison. In the end, they made their great escape, but the real escape is the shackles of the mind and become free to accomplish any obstacle that you may find yourself faced with.