This was a great, short look at the ways racism creeps into religious movements and why white people, especially those in religious spaces, need to be actively anti-racist and integrate their worship. I'm looking forward to following Rob Lee's career.

Good starting point for people ready to begin confronting white supremacy. A good introduction for those just beginning to grapple with the idolatry of many Americans to an idealized and sanitized version of our past.

Robert W. Lee writes with a clarity and honesty that is not at all common in most of my nonfiction reading. A Sin by Any Other Name treats on important and relevant topics and does so in a way that is compelling and clearly written.

Growing up in the south with a name like "Robert Lee," the author has been pulled into more conversations about the Civil War, the south, and race than the average person. As a member of the Lee family, (Confederate General Robert E. Lee was a distant uncle) Confederate history has always been a significant part of his life. And, at one point in his adolescence, he shamefully admits that he even decorated his bedroom in Confederate flags.

However, during his childhood of private schools and an all-white country club, he came to meet people who would gently encourage him to rethink this preconceptions of the past, and reconsider the effect that commemorating that past may have on people living in the present. This book is partly a letter of appreciation for a few kind and patient older black women who lovingly molded him in his formative years, eventually leading him to join the ministry.

This book is also a lamentation on the state of the American church, including his heartbreak at losing his pulpit after speaking against white supremacy and in favor of the Black Lives Matter movement. Why, he asks, are there often two churches of each denomination in southern cities -- one for white believers and one for black? Doesn't the Bible that both of these churches read say that God "has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility"? He doesn't have the answers, but he is asking the questions, and suggesting that the obligation to answer them shouldn't fall solely on the shoulders of the black church, but is something that the <i>whole</i> church should figure out together.

Reverend Lee, despite his outspoken presence in the pulpit, writes in an almost quiet voice, clearly torn between his fear of drowning out other voices and his fear of staying silently complicit. His attitude reminds me of something Senator Cory Booker said on an episode of "Finding Your Roots" recently, that I feel is worth sharing here: "You have a choice in life, you can just sit back, getting fat, dumb, and happy, consuming all the blessings put before you, or it can metabolize inside of you, become fuel to get you into the fight, to make this democracy real, to make it true to its words that we can be a nation of liberty and justice for all."

This is a short book -- the hardcover comes in at 256 pages -- and is recommended reading for Christians with an interest in racial reconciliation. (Which, the author would argue, should be ALL of them.)

arc received from the publisher

Last year, I listened to an episode of the podcast More Perfect that discussed the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision. (Season 2, American Pendulum II) The Supreme Court decision, written by then Chief Justice Roger Taney denied Scott, and enslaved man rights to which he was, up to that point, legally entitled. Taney famously wrote that black men “had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” In 2016, one of the descendants of Dred Scott organized a conference, the Dred Scott Sons and Daughters of Reconciliation, which brought together descendants of Dred Scott, Roger Taney and the slave owning families involved in the Dred Scott case. The podcast interviewed attendees and was an eye-opening look at how the different sides see this legacy and looks at a way to reconciliation.

After hearing about how the United States’ history affects the descendants living with the legacies that their ancestors brought forth, I was eager to pick up A Sin By Any Other Name. Here, Robert W. Lee, a descendant of Robert E. Lee, speaks about General Lee’s legacy, the fight about statutes (in particular in Charlottesville in 2017), and how his heritage fits into his ministry. The author, a Methodist minister in North Carolina, speaks widely and loudly about the need to acknowledge, make amends, and change the past and ongoing racism in the U.S. He speaks in many ways directly to Southern Conservative Christians and it’s a message that I hope will be widely disseminated.

I read somewhere that Jesus' purpose in life was to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. In some ways, this book afflicted me, which I'm sure was the point. Written by a descendent of General Robert E. Lee, A Sin By Any Other Name talks about how race and racism has affected the life of this twenty-six year old minister.



While his parents held more progressive views on race than many in their community, Rob knew he was related to Robert E. Lee and accepted the statues, Confederate memorials and Confederate flags as a normal part of life.



While he had interactions with African-Americans, particularly after he transferred from the local Christian academy to the public high school, his family lived in an upper-middle class white area. Still, when it came time for Rob, a Methodist, to be confirmed, he chose an African-American woman who worked with his mother as a sponsor and in a very loving way she opened his eyes to see some of these normal parts of life in a Southern town through her eyes. He removed the Confederate flag that was hanging in his room because of a conversation with her.



Rob tells some stories about race relations in his hometown that, to me, sounded a lot more like things that would have happened when I was young, rather than ten years ago--but I live in New Orleans, not a small town.



I've lived most of my life below the Mason-Dixon line but I'm not from the South, and as many people will tell you, New Orleans lacks many of the characteristics that are typically "Southern". However, one thing New Orleans did have until relatively recently was a lot of prominent Confederate monuments.



After the Charlottesville protests, the mayor of New Orleans spearheaded a move to remove the most prominent of them, and ended up doing so in the dead of night, without notice to the public. Suffice to say, it was a controversial move. It is also a move that I suspect was criticized far more in the suburbs than in the city itself.



After Charlottesville, MTV asked Rob, who had recently been hired as the pastor of a small church in a small southern town, to appear and talk about statues. He did, and shortly thereafter, chose to resign rather than tear his church apart.



As I said, I'm not from the South. My parents were from Wisconsin and North Dakota and from what I know of my family tree, most of my relatives weren't even in the US at the time of the Civil War. I don't feel connected to those who gave their lives on either side of that fight.



I'll admit that I was surprised that the street names had lasted so long in New Orleans--the statues weren't really on my radar, but like most cities, New Orleans suffered from White Flight during the 1960's and 1970's, such that the city itself is slightly more than half African-American, while the metro area is about 34% African-American. As people my age will say, when "they" took over, they renamed "our" schools--of course by that time "our" schools were 99% African American. But, until Charlottesville, the only thing I'd heard about the statues was some controversy about making sure the Liberty Place monument was replaced when it was moved to do some construction. In my White suburban world, I was unaware there was any real "movement" to remove Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee or P.T.G. Beaureguard. I still haven't heard anything about renaming Jefferson Davis Parkway or Lee Circle.



When the statues were the topic of the day, my general feeling was that I wasn't personally attached to them, but I knew people who were. I thought a better idea than condemning the statues and pulling them down would be to replace them one by one with more appropriate memorials to things or people that were important to the community as a whole.



Rob Lee on the other hand, believes that pulling down those statues and others is a needed step in leading Whites away from racism. I'm not sure. Is pulling down those statues like lancing a boil--a painful but necessary step to drain the infection so the sore can heal, or is it like picking at a scab--disturbing the healing that has happened and perhaps causing more damage? Honestly, I don't know.



Here in New Orleans, four monuments were affected. Two were in prominent places; I suspect over half the population didn't know where the other two were. One of the prominent ones was at the entrance to City Park, down from the art museum. Outside the art museum is a sculpture garden. Would it have been better to quietly ask the art museum to come up with a piece to put at the entrance, and then move the General to the sculpture garden? Or was making a point necessary, even if it alienated some people and has left an ugly empty pedestal at the park entrance? On the other hand, would the statue lovers have been any happier my idea than with what happened? I don't know.



Rob Lee gives his age as twenty-six, which is the same age as my son. Talk about making me feel old! I will say that from what I've seen, people in his generation are far more open to social relationships with people of different races than is typical in my generation, and I think that's a good thing.



The book is an easy to read memoir of a man who feels called to change the way the South deals with race.



I'd like to thank the publisher for providing a review copy of the book via NetGalley. Grade: B+

Robert W. Lee was a young, newly minted pastor when his family connection to Robert E. Lee brought a spotlight to him, and he became a passionate spokesperson for race relations and the end to the glorification of the confederacy. Unfortunately, his church voted him out for his views, but he was unbowed. This fascinating book tells his story, and calls us to do our part in building bridges instead of walls. Highly recommended.

This is an important book to read. You might not agree 100% with what Lee believes, but you cannot argue with his perspective. Lee does have insight into southern ideology and history. Lee does provide a lineage that , if nothing else, gives him unique positioning during the current political debates surrounding the Confederate monuments across the south. His lineage does not validate his position more than another person's, but it does provide for an interesting background for Lee's ideas. Lee does a great job of illustrating small town, southern life, and how race relations are weaved throughout.

Lee could have added more examples of how his lineage influenced interactions with others, and how these interactions conveyed strong reactions from others. The examples in the book are a powerful tool to show others how prejudice spreads, even when it is not intentional. The juxtaposition of Lee's lineage and his belief system is what drives the book. A few more examples would not hurt. Lee explores the friendship he had with his African American nanny (and how this dynamic is replicated throughout the south). This friendship was vital in shaping the man Lee became, but this story stops almost abruptly, and there is a long gap in time in this narrative. I would have liked to at least known why the gap occurred and how Lee coped with the gap being that Janie was so important to his development.