The Importance of Understanding Your Parents

"I lost my dad two, three years ago. And one of the things writing the eulogy, like you did, at least for me, it's a form of grieving," he says. "You can't understand him without understanding what happened to him and how those things influenced him." The book is called One Family's Journey.

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What is the most racist thing you’ve ever experienced?

That’s the question that was posed to Esau McCaulley, an author, assistant professor, and contributing opinion writer for the New York Times, as he sat on a panel in front of a mostly white audience. He didn’t answer the question. On a new episode of The Russell Moore Show, he explains why.

Tune in for a rich conversation on suffering, how we tell our stories, and the meaning of empathy. Moore and McCaulley cover systemic injustice, the function of society, and how our personal backgrounds inform everything from our political engagement to the way we read Scripture. Reflecting on the wounds and grace of fatherhood, they discuss how they work to make God’s love plausible. They talk about McCaulley’s forthcoming book, a memoir titled How Far to the Promised Land: One Black Family's Story of Hope and Survival in the American South. And they talk about addiction, pastoring, and what McCaulley has learned as a military spouse.

Resources discussed during this episode include:

How Far to the Promised Land: One Black Family’s Story of Hope and Survival in the American South by Esau McCaulley
Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope by Esau McCaulley
All My Knotted-Up Life: A Memoir by Beth Moore
The works of James Baldwin
The works of Martin Luther King, Jr.
The works of Zora Neale Hurston
The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley
Confessions by Saint Augustine
The Seven Storey Mountain: An Autobiography of Faith by Thomas Merton
Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life by C.S. Lewis
The Life You Save May Be Your Own: An American Pilgrimage by Paul Elie
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Pre-order:

Russell Moore's Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America
Esau McCaulley's How Far to the Promised Land: One Black Family’s Story of Hope and Survival in the American South

Do you have a question for Russell Moore? Send it to questions@russellmoore.com.

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“The Russell Moore Show” is a production of Christianity Today

Executive Producers: Erik Petrik, Russell Moore, and Mike Cosper

Host: Russell Moore

Producer: Ashley Hales

Associate Producers: Abby Perry and Azurae Phelps

CT Administration: Christine Kolb

Social Media: Kate Lucky

Director of Operations for CT Media: Matt Stevens

Production Assistance: coreMEDIA

Audio Engineer: Kevin Duthu