Unarmed Empire Revisited #1

A Book About Racial Justice, LGBTQIA, and White Nationalism When No One Cared

My first trade book, Unarmed Empire, celebrated her 5th birthday this past August. For me, Unarmed Empire will always be connected to Hurricane Harvey since it was released just a week before the category 5 hurricane devastated my hometown of Houston. With over 100,000 homes flooded, celebrating a book release seemed both out of touch and in bad taste, especially since one of those 100,000 homes was one I owned.

It took four years to write and publish Unarmed Empire. Most of that time she floated from one editor’s desk to another as they loved the book, but decided they couldn't sell it. The reasons were as broad as “we don’t know how to sell African-American authors,” to “no one is interested in reading about the church.” I accept those reasons as the current reality at the time, but they are also emblematic of many of the profound problems I was addressing.

After it’s release, given the limited time — post-hurricane — I had to help promote it, Unarmed Empire did fine in sales. I even got a personal phone call from the CEO of my publisher. He said, “most of our books don’t do this well.” I was overwhelmed, but had no visions of grandeur nor expectations. I was proud to have written her and honored that she got published.

What is interesting though, is that now, 5-years after the fact, readers still find it and reach out to me. In fact, the book continues to find a home in church small groups, many of which ask me for the accompanying small group curriculum which was developed, but never published. Unarmed Empire will always be my baby. In her pages are my heart, as I tried to articulate the kind of church that I dreamed of for my daughters.

Unarmed Empire was simply ahead of its time. In it I address racial justice, LGBTQIA inclusion, political partisanship (the kind of which now we would refer to as ‘White, Christian Nationalism’), and the reality of evangelicalism serving as a fig-leaf for a particular view of power, male domination, and out-group animosity rather than any scripturally rooted faith commitment.

At the center of Unarmed Empire, I offer an unsuspecting remedy for those problems: The church. Not only that, but I argue for the church to return to a Christ-centered, Pauline vision. In the last 5 years, more American Christians have joined me in what I diagnose the problems to be, and a few have discovered Unarmed Empire.

Over the next several posts, we will revisit the major themes of Unarmed Empire. I still believe the thrust of what I articulated in those pages. In fact, in most cases I feel even more strongly than I did before. Sadly, it may be too late for those for whom American churches and Christians have become too distanced from the teachings of Jesus, leaving them believing that to save their soul means leaving the church. I see that. I get that.

In the end though, I still believe God is up to something beautiful, redemptive, creative, and healing through the church, when and if those of us who construct her maintain our fidelity to the Christ of the cross rather than the inherent anxieties of allegiance to a country, class, or flag. I hope you’ll join me in reading back through and share our discussion with your friends.¹

1. As of publication, the Kindle version of Unarmed Empire is only $2.99.