The Melvin Bray Interview: Politics, Racism, and Telling a Better Story

Our guest for this week’s installment of our Raven ReViews Election 2016 series was Melvin Bray, author of the upcoming book Better: Waking Up to Who We Could Be. (Pre-order now with the code Ship16 and receive 20% off!) Melvin is a gifted storyteller and writer whose approach to telling better stories about ourselves is especially pivotal in this election season. As we struggle with the issues of racism that have dogged the presidential campaigns, his insights are especially important for Christians. Melvin does not flinch from his message that too often the ways in which we have interpreted and handed down our faith stories have been instrumental in perpetuating racism in our nation and in our churches. Grounding his message is his belief that “better” is possible. Melvin speaks directly to Christians when he says, “The problem isn’t our stories, but rather the way we tell them.”