America is at a pivotal crossroads. The soul of our nation is at stake and in peril. A new public narrative is needed to unite Americans around common values and to counter the increasing discord and acrimony in our politics and culture. The process of healing and creating a more perfect union in our nation must start now. The moral vision of Martin Luther King Jr.'s beloved community, which animated and galvanized the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, provides a hopeful way forward. In A More Perfect Union, Adam Russell Taylor, president of Sojourners, reimagines a contemporary version of the beloved community that will inspire and unite Americans across generations, geographic and class divides, racial and gender differences, faith traditions, and ideological leanings. In the beloved community, neither privilege nor punishment is tied to race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or economic status, and everyone is able to realize their full potential and thrive. Building the beloved community requires living out a series of commitments, such as true equality, radical welcome, transformational interdependence, E Pluribus Unum ("out of many, one"), environmental stewardship, nonviolence, and economic equity. By building the beloved community we unify the country around a shared moral vision that transcends ideology and partisanship, tapping into our most sacred civic and religious values, enabling our nation to live up to its best ideals and realize a more perfect union.
Rev. Adam Russell Taylor is president of Sojourners, an ecumenical Christian organization that works to advance justice and peace. He previously led the Faith Initiative at the World Bank Group, served as Vice President of Advocacy at World Vision U.S., was cofounder and executive director of Global Justice, and was selected as a White House Fellow under the Obama administration. A graduate of the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, and the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology, Taylor is ordained in the American Baptist Church and the Progressive National Baptist Convention and serves at the Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia.
Foreword by Representative John Lewis Prologue Introduction Why America Must Be Reborn Part I THE VISION E Pluribus Unum: Out of Many, One Reimagining the Beloved Community Embracing a Bigger Story of Us PART II BUILDING BLOCKS OF THE BELOVED COMMUNITY Unmasking America's Myths Telling the Whole Truth to Set Us Free Overcoming Toxic Polarization Redeeming Patriotism Part III BEATITUDES OF THE BELOVED COMMUNITY The Imago Dei Imperative Radical Welcome Ubuntu Interdependence Prioritizing Nonviolence Stewarding the Environment Dignity for All Reinventing Our Democracy Epilogue: Where We Go from Here
