Weep with Me: How Lament Opens a Door for Racial Reconciliation

Today, racial wounds from three hundred years of slavery and a history of Jim Crow laws continue to impact the church in America.

Martin Luther King Jr. captured this reality when he said: “The most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o’clock on Sunday.” Equipped with the gospel, the evangelical church should be the catalyst for reconciliation, yet it continues to cultivate immense pain and division. Weep with Me by Mark Vroegop is a timely resource that presents lament as a bridge to racial reconciliation in the world today. In the Bible, lament is a prayer that leads to trust, which can be a starting point for the church to “weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15). As Vroegop writes: “Reconciliation in the church starts with tears and ends in trust.”

Table of Contents

Foreword: Thabiti Anyabwile
Introduction: Dream: The Vision of Racial Harmony

Part 1: Lament in the Bible and History
Chapter 1: Pray: The Language of Lament
Chapter 2: Listen: Lesson from African-American Spirituals
Chapter 3: Walk: The Bridge of Lament

Part 2: Lament and Majority Christians
Chapter 4: Weep: The Healing Grace of Empathy
Chapter 5: Speak: Ending the Painful Silence
Chapter 6: Repent: Remembering with Remorse

Part 3: Lament and Minority Christians
Chapter 7: Protest: The Voice of Exiles
Chapter 8: Triumph: Redeeming the Pain
Chapter 9: Believe: Dare to Hope
Conclusion: Lament: An Open Door for Racial Reconciliation

Appendix 1: Psalms of Laments

Appendix 2: Learning-to-Lament Worksheet

Appendix 3: Sample Civil Rights Vision Trip Itinerary

Bibliography

General Index

Scripture Index