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Living in Color: Embracing God's Passion for Ethnic Diversity
"We would never give Picasso a paintbrush and only one color of paint, and expect a masterpiece," writes Randy Woodley. "We would not give Beethoven a single piano key and say, 'Play us a concerto.' Yet we limit our Creator in just these ways." Though our Christian experience is often blandly monochromatic, God intends for us to live in dynamic, multihued communities that embody his vibrant creativity. Randy Woodley, a Keetowah Cherokee, casts a biblical, multiethnic vision for people of every nation, tribe and tongue. He carefully unpacks how Christians should think about racial and cultural identity, demonstrating that ethnically diverse communities have always been God's intent for his people. Woodley gives practical insights for how we can relate to one another with sensitivity, contextualize the gospel, combat the subtleties of racism, and honor one another's unique contributions to church and society. Along the way, he reckons with difficult challenges from our racially painful history and offers hope for healing and restoration. With profound wisdom from his own Native American heritage and experience, Woodley's voice adds a distinctive perspective to contemporary discussions of racial reconciliation and multiethnicity. Here is a biblical vision for unity in diversity.
218 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2001
13 people are currently reading
208 people want to read
About the author
Randy Woodley
24 books74 followersRev. Randy Woodley (PhD, Asbury Theological Seminary) is Distinguished Professor of Faith and Culture and Director of Intercultural and Indigenous Studies at Portland Seminary. Woodley is a Keetoowah Cherokee (legal descendent) teacher, poet, activist, former pastor, missiologist and historian. Woodley received his baccalaureate degree from Rockmont College in Denver. He was ordained to the ministry through the American Baptist Churches in the USA in Oklahoma after graduating with a Masters of Divinity degree from Eastern Seminary (now Palmer Seminary) in Philadelphia. Randy's PhD is in intercultural studies from Asbury Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky.
Professor Woodley is active in the ongoing discussions concerning new church movements, racial and ethnic diversity, peace, social justice, interreligious dialogue and mission. He regularly blogs in these areas and publishes his own blog, Ethnic Space and Faith. He is also a regular contributor to God's Politics Blog: Jim Wallis and Friends, Emergent Village Voice and The Huffington Post’s religion page.
He also hosts the "Peacing it all together" podcast about journey and place with Bo Sanders.
Rev. Woodley was pastor of the Eagle Valley Church in Carson City, Nevada, which for many years served as a unique role model as an authentic Native American Christian church. He and his wife Edith, cofounders of Eagle's Wings Ministry, are considered early innovators in what has been dubbed the “Native American Contextual Movement.” The Woodleys have spent over 25 years of culturally contextual service in Native North American communities.
Professor Woodley is active in the ongoing discussions concerning new church movements, racial and ethnic diversity, peace, social justice, interreligious dialogue and mission. He regularly blogs in these areas and publishes his own blog, Ethnic Space and Faith. He is also a regular contributor to God's Politics Blog: Jim Wallis and Friends, Emergent Village Voice and The Huffington Post’s religion page.
He also hosts the "Peacing it all together" podcast about journey and place with Bo Sanders.
Rev. Woodley was pastor of the Eagle Valley Church in Carson City, Nevada, which for many years served as a unique role model as an authentic Native American Christian church. He and his wife Edith, cofounders of Eagle's Wings Ministry, are considered early innovators in what has been dubbed the “Native American Contextual Movement.” The Woodleys have spent over 25 years of culturally contextual service in Native North American communities.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 3, 2011
I have to say that this was a very hard book to read as a white man. But I must say that the author said what needs to be said. I had a rush of emotions while reading. I was joyous when stories of deep-rooted Christlike multiculturalism were given. I was angry when I perceived that he might be calling me a racist. I was also saddened when convicted by the fact that I have at times done...dare I say it...racist things. The author is a person of mixed-blood, who mostly aligns his culture to that of the Cherokee Indians. As a result, throughout the book I could sense a very deep longing, sadness, bitterness, and anger when it came to racism in America. But I also saw truth in what he was saying.
Perhaps the most touching part of book is in chapter 14 during the section on repentance. He puts himself out there and shows us a speech he made asking for forgiveness from our African-American brothers and sisters for the racism and prejudice that his ancestors committed and for his own tendencies toward prejudice. I could not help but feel shame for feeling some of the same things he confessed to feeling.
This is worth the read whether you are black, white, hispanic, asian, native american, or any other people group. God loves diversity. We love God. We should also love diversity.
Perhaps the most touching part of book is in chapter 14 during the section on repentance. He puts himself out there and shows us a speech he made asking for forgiveness from our African-American brothers and sisters for the racism and prejudice that his ancestors committed and for his own tendencies toward prejudice. I could not help but feel shame for feeling some of the same things he confessed to feeling.
This is worth the read whether you are black, white, hispanic, asian, native american, or any other people group. God loves diversity. We love God. We should also love diversity.
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January 25, 2023What kind of people are the people of God supposed to be? Did God always intend for them to look alike, think alike, and act alike? Was uniformity and homogeneity the goal? Or did God desire for them to be more different, in looks, thinking, and acting?
In Living in Color Randy Woodley gives his answer to these questions with a resounding affirmation of the goodness of diversity. God is too big to be adequately captured by any one culture expression. Cultures are a gift from God, not something to be flattened out. Woodley draws from various sources, including the doctrine of the trinity, the false unity of tower of Babel and true diversity of Pentecost, and the early church which allowed gentiles to come into the fold of the church without becoming Jewish. Like the trinity, which is three in one, Woodley upholds a vision of unity in diversity.
Unfortunately, too often in the history of the church, unity in diversity has not been appreciated. Instead, what has happened is enforced uniformity and division. Those which are different have not been tolerated, much less appreciated. Though there have been some good outstanding examples that Woodley acknowledges.
Woodley is writing this book from a Cherokee Indian perspective, and this perspective gives him some unique insights. Which also help validate his basic point about the goodness of diversity. He has perspectives on the importance of the land in scripture, the wicked deeds done to and by First Nations people, and what it looks like to squash the cultural differences.
A highlight of this book is his humility throughout. He is humble in acknowledging the ethnocentrism of all peoples, including his own. He includes a corporate confession he gave to his black brothers and sisters that must have been difficult to write, speak, and include in this book.
At times the book is dated, with references to concerns such as overpopulation, and the conversation on diversity has progressed since Dr. Woodley wrote this book. Yet it is a helpful work on an important conversation topic.
Yet, there is still fertile territory to explore in understanding diversity. Randy Woodley either leaves unexplored, is mistaken on, or only addresses slightly various aspects of diversity such as:
- His account of diversity relies heavily upon natural revelation. What if you deny natural revelation or think his account of natural revelation is too strong? Can we affirm diversity is good apart from grace? Is he putting too much weight upon natural revelation?
- He wants to affirm that the image of God exists in every person born today. He uses this to give value for all humans. What if you believe, ala some in the Reformed tradition, that the image of God has been lost? Is he placing too much focus on the image of God for value? Since animals and plants aren’t made in the image of God, how can they still have value?
- He would affirm that we must affirm a culture if we are going to love our neighbor, and that to deny any part of a culture is to fail to love our neighbor. How do we reconcile this with St. Paul’s denial of circumcision as a marker of identity?
- He upholds diversity as an unqualified good, including diversity of thought. How do we square this with the consistent teaching of the NT to be of one mind, or like-minded (Rom 15:5; 2 Cor 13:11; Phil 2:2, 20; 1 Pet 3:8)?
- To what extent is diversity a good? Airports are all fairly homogeneous, including the standards, understanding of arrival and departure times, etc. Would it be better if airports were truly diverse, which could mean different conceptions of what is meant by “8:15 arrival”?
- How does a Christian diversity differ from a secular conception of diversity? For example, with regards to sex a greater diversity is affirmed than would be by Christians.
- Not all cultural aspects should be affirmed. How can we, on balance, say that culture is a gift from God if the negative cultural aspects outweigh the bad? Is it possible to make that judgment call? Must we affirm the good as gifts and reject the bad as sinful human inventions? Is there not a mix of evil in all of our cultural works, which must all be purified by fire before they are acceptable to God? In later books and thinking Randy Woodley would get much more critical of Western culture, including Western Christianity than he is in this book (for example he will later say such things as “Western theology has completely missed the whole point of the Gospel….we need a do-over”). If it is as bad and malforming to Christian doctrine and practice as some think, how can we rightly view it as a good gift?
Randy Woodley has given us a solid, introductory book on diversity. It is not the final word, nor does it adequately address all the difficult questions, but it is a welcome part of the conversation on diversity.
In Living in Color Randy Woodley gives his answer to these questions with a resounding affirmation of the goodness of diversity. God is too big to be adequately captured by any one culture expression. Cultures are a gift from God, not something to be flattened out. Woodley draws from various sources, including the doctrine of the trinity, the false unity of tower of Babel and true diversity of Pentecost, and the early church which allowed gentiles to come into the fold of the church without becoming Jewish. Like the trinity, which is three in one, Woodley upholds a vision of unity in diversity.
Unfortunately, too often in the history of the church, unity in diversity has not been appreciated. Instead, what has happened is enforced uniformity and division. Those which are different have not been tolerated, much less appreciated. Though there have been some good outstanding examples that Woodley acknowledges.
Woodley is writing this book from a Cherokee Indian perspective, and this perspective gives him some unique insights. Which also help validate his basic point about the goodness of diversity. He has perspectives on the importance of the land in scripture, the wicked deeds done to and by First Nations people, and what it looks like to squash the cultural differences.
A highlight of this book is his humility throughout. He is humble in acknowledging the ethnocentrism of all peoples, including his own. He includes a corporate confession he gave to his black brothers and sisters that must have been difficult to write, speak, and include in this book.
At times the book is dated, with references to concerns such as overpopulation, and the conversation on diversity has progressed since Dr. Woodley wrote this book. Yet it is a helpful work on an important conversation topic.
Yet, there is still fertile territory to explore in understanding diversity. Randy Woodley either leaves unexplored, is mistaken on, or only addresses slightly various aspects of diversity such as:
- His account of diversity relies heavily upon natural revelation. What if you deny natural revelation or think his account of natural revelation is too strong? Can we affirm diversity is good apart from grace? Is he putting too much weight upon natural revelation?
- He wants to affirm that the image of God exists in every person born today. He uses this to give value for all humans. What if you believe, ala some in the Reformed tradition, that the image of God has been lost? Is he placing too much focus on the image of God for value? Since animals and plants aren’t made in the image of God, how can they still have value?
- He would affirm that we must affirm a culture if we are going to love our neighbor, and that to deny any part of a culture is to fail to love our neighbor. How do we reconcile this with St. Paul’s denial of circumcision as a marker of identity?
- He upholds diversity as an unqualified good, including diversity of thought. How do we square this with the consistent teaching of the NT to be of one mind, or like-minded (Rom 15:5; 2 Cor 13:11; Phil 2:2, 20; 1 Pet 3:8)?
- To what extent is diversity a good? Airports are all fairly homogeneous, including the standards, understanding of arrival and departure times, etc. Would it be better if airports were truly diverse, which could mean different conceptions of what is meant by “8:15 arrival”?
- How does a Christian diversity differ from a secular conception of diversity? For example, with regards to sex a greater diversity is affirmed than would be by Christians.
- Not all cultural aspects should be affirmed. How can we, on balance, say that culture is a gift from God if the negative cultural aspects outweigh the bad? Is it possible to make that judgment call? Must we affirm the good as gifts and reject the bad as sinful human inventions? Is there not a mix of evil in all of our cultural works, which must all be purified by fire before they are acceptable to God? In later books and thinking Randy Woodley would get much more critical of Western culture, including Western Christianity than he is in this book (for example he will later say such things as “Western theology has completely missed the whole point of the Gospel….we need a do-over”). If it is as bad and malforming to Christian doctrine and practice as some think, how can we rightly view it as a good gift?
Randy Woodley has given us a solid, introductory book on diversity. It is not the final word, nor does it adequately address all the difficult questions, but it is a welcome part of the conversation on diversity.
Read
November 25, 2023This is a difficult book to rate in that there are a number of different considerations--am I to rate the quality of writing, the content, the theology, the politics? Most of this book is fabulous, but, and Europeans have done this always (even in most protestant churches) since this started very quickly after Christ and this is a very common thing, there is a bit of mixing of other religious beliefs with the Bible.
5 stars for the fact that this book was one of the most even-handed books on racism and ethnocentrism. Woodley accurately points out that this happens everywhere and not just in one direction, but since Europeans have dominated a number of areas in recent history (and even 300-400 years is recent history in the grand scheme of things!)
4 stars for pointing out, and I've had the privilege of knowing this for most of my life, that it's biblically incorrect to confuse culture with following Jesus. The failure of many, but not all, missionaries to remember the verse that shows us not to do that, is one of the reasons outreach to indigenous peoples of the world has failed. However, and this is one of the reasons I say 4 stars and not 5 even though he is is 100 percent correct about not imposing one's culture as though it were biblically correct, there is one repeated thing he mentions that wasn't Jewish culture but actually a commandment and covenant with Yaweh and that is circumcision. While he is correct that it wasn't to be imposed on Gentiles because we are no longer under the law, it was a matter of former Jews not wanting to let go of the law rather than culture.
I have many pages marked with excellent and significant things Woodley wrote. While there is a long history of racism in my ancestors, I can honestly say that none owned black slaves or were in North America during the time these things were happening in the US, although I'm quite sure that the land reserved for the two families my parents come from in Canada (they arrived in the 20th century) was on land originally used by First Nations people, although they wouldn't have had the language skills to know much about that at first having come so late. My mother's family's country banned slavery more than 900 years ago and only had white slaves from northern Europe, but they were too racist to allow people of colour to stay until well into the 20th century (after my family had left). When the US opened a military base there they wouldn't allow black soldiers until around 1960 in case they made any local women pregnant. My dad's family were pacifists and abolitionists from the Reformation, but my dad's father was very racist although I didn't witness it, and my dad is living proof that you can have black and Asian friends but still have racist ideas; racism doesn't always mean you won't have POC guests sleep in your home or think they are bright and talented, and what a shock it was to realize my dad was racist. But also, my dad has issues with some cultural things as well.
5 stars for the fact that this book was one of the most even-handed books on racism and ethnocentrism. Woodley accurately points out that this happens everywhere and not just in one direction, but since Europeans have dominated a number of areas in recent history (and even 300-400 years is recent history in the grand scheme of things!)
4 stars for pointing out, and I've had the privilege of knowing this for most of my life, that it's biblically incorrect to confuse culture with following Jesus. The failure of many, but not all, missionaries to remember the verse that shows us not to do that, is one of the reasons outreach to indigenous peoples of the world has failed. However, and this is one of the reasons I say 4 stars and not 5 even though he is is 100 percent correct about not imposing one's culture as though it were biblically correct, there is one repeated thing he mentions that wasn't Jewish culture but actually a commandment and covenant with Yaweh and that is circumcision. While he is correct that it wasn't to be imposed on Gentiles because we are no longer under the law, it was a matter of former Jews not wanting to let go of the law rather than culture.
I have many pages marked with excellent and significant things Woodley wrote. While there is a long history of racism in my ancestors, I can honestly say that none owned black slaves or were in North America during the time these things were happening in the US, although I'm quite sure that the land reserved for the two families my parents come from in Canada (they arrived in the 20th century) was on land originally used by First Nations people, although they wouldn't have had the language skills to know much about that at first having come so late. My mother's family's country banned slavery more than 900 years ago and only had white slaves from northern Europe, but they were too racist to allow people of colour to stay until well into the 20th century (after my family had left). When the US opened a military base there they wouldn't allow black soldiers until around 1960 in case they made any local women pregnant. My dad's family were pacifists and abolitionists from the Reformation, but my dad's father was very racist although I didn't witness it, and my dad is living proof that you can have black and Asian friends but still have racist ideas; racism doesn't always mean you won't have POC guests sleep in your home or think they are bright and talented, and what a shock it was to realize my dad was racist. But also, my dad has issues with some cultural things as well.
February 14, 2020
Woodley provides an excellent path into God's heart for ethnic diversity, rooted in Trinitarian theology and fleshed out in practical ways. I appreciated his insights as a multi-racial indigenous man and was challenged in my own walk toward racial righteousness. Thank you, Randy.
August 8, 2021
Great introduction for Christians seeking to understand how to seek ethnic diversity from a biblical perspective. Also, lots of great insights about Christianity from and Indigenous perspective.
April 9, 2013
Randy Woodley was a fresh voice for me, and his perspective was enlightening. I'd definitely recommend!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews