When the national protest over police brutality reached its apex in 2020, many white evangelicals struggled to understand or enter into the modern conversations on race, racism, and racial equity. Justin Phillips claims in his new book Know Your Place that their inherited world had not prepared them for that crucial moment. Phillips examines the three communities (white, southern, and evangelical) that shaped his own racial imagination and names how each community creates blind spots, making it difficult to conceive of a world different than the dominant narrative of the white evangelical South. When those narratives are challenged or rejected it can feel like nothing short of the end of the world. Blending together personal experiences with ethics and pastoral sensibilities, Phillips traces for white, southern evangelicals lines that run from the past through the present, to help his beloved communities see how their loyalties have harmed their neighbors. In order to truly love others and reconcile brokenness, you first have to know your place.

Dr. Justin Phillips is the Executive Editor for The Other Journal and teaches theology and ethics in Knoxville, Tennessee.  Connect with Justin and his work at justinrphillips.com.