Talking about the "R Word" in the South

Plus, a tribute to my agent Roger Freet and appreciation for our fellow citizens who are federal worker.

Dear #WhiteTooLong readers,

Thanks for your patience over the last couple of weeks as my postings here have been thinner than usual. March has been a perfect storm. It’s high fundraising season at PRRI, so I’ve been pitching and writing grants to ensure our work, now fully focused on “Religion and Protecting Democracy,” remains strong in this unprecedented and challenging environment. I’ve also been back on the road (more on that below—great to see many readers in person). And I’ve been finalizing proposals for my next two books (more on that soon—can’t wait to share!). I’m now back in the saddle and will be resuming my normal weekly rhythms here.

Some Sad and Challenging News

Before covering an inspiring story from the road, I want to share some sad news from my personal world. My long-time book agent, Roger Freet, died the morning of March 18th from pancreatic cancer, which took him from us far too early (he and I were born just a few months apart). I’ve been with Roger for more than a decade, when he helped me make the challenging jump from academic to trade publishing. For two years over drinks at the American Academy of Religion annual meeting, we discussed the then largely unnoticed seismic shifts in American religious demographics, particularly the decline of white Christians as a proportion of the population. With Roger’s encouragement and guidance, that conversation became a book that landed at Simon & Schuster in 2016 as The End of White Christian America, and then went on to win the 2019 Grawemeyer Award in Religion. For the last decade and across the lifespans of three books, Roger has been one of my most trusted advisors, sounding boards, and advocates, as well as a close friend.

Roger Freet, 1969 - 2025.

Fr. Jim Martin wrote a tribute to Roger at America Magazine highlighting his unique contributions to religious publishing. Many of the books you likely have on your shelves would not be there without Roger’s guidance and advocacy:

One reason that so many religious authors trusted him so much (in addition to his joie de vivre and his love of the written word, of books and of the publishing industry overall) was that he had a master’s degree in divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and could easily chat about anything from Karl Barth to St. Ignatius Loyola to the Gospel of John. In time, as an editor and later as an agent, he would work with authors like Bart Ehrman, Kate Hennessy, Diana Butler Bass, Jim Wallis, Candida Moss, Amy-Jill Levine and many more.

I also love that Roger was an accomplished drummer and represented Paul Stanley (yes, from Kiss). Roger you will be missed by so many. May your memory be a blessing.

Beyond the politics, my heart has also been heavy as I’ve witnessed the destruction caused by President Trump’s broadside attacks on our own government. The media often talks about these attacks as targeting government agencies known by their acronyms: DOD, FBI, EPA, DOE, USAID, and so many others. But here in the DC-Maryland-Virginia area, we are experiencing the damage our president is doing not to anonymous entities but to our fellow citizens whose names we know. In a democracy, the government is not just by and for the people; the government is comprised of the people. This truth has become exceptionally clear here.

In our inner circle of friends and neighbors, only two families have not had at least one spouse lose his or her job since January 20th. Among them are a lawyer who left a lucrative private practice to work at the Department of Education because she believed in the importance of our public school system that offers free education to all; a gifted project planner who immigrated to the US, became a US citizen, and worked to implement USAID grants providing access to HIV medications, women’s reproductive health, and food to underserved areas of rural Africa; and a Harvard Law grad who took a job at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to protect consumers from predatory business practices like junk fees and the deceptive financial practices that led to the 2008 financial crisis. They are already burning through vacation days and preparing to cash out retirement and college savings accounts to pay the mortgage and buy groceries. Two others at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration—who take pride in ensuring we have safe air to breathe, clean water to drink, and reliable drugs to treat illnesses—have been showing up to work in a demoralized daze, wondering if each day will be their last.

So many families have been devastated that local churches are holding federal worker appreciation events. Here’s a photo I took of one such event that will be held this weekend.

I have no doubt that we likely have hundreds of similarly impacted fellow citizens among this newsletter’s readers—people who sought out a federal or related nonprofit job because believed in the ideals of good government and public service. If you are a federal worker or contractor, I want to personally say that I am so grateful for your service and your dedication to helping our democracy work for everyone. We see you, we appreciate you, and we will continue to resist this destruction of our government. A president is not a CEO who has unlimited authority to dispose of a company’s assets for his own benefit and as he alone sees fit; a president is someone we select to have the honor of taking a limited turn stewarding a government that serves the people.

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Talking about the "R Word" in the South

While much of the national news has been grim, I’m continuing to find hope in the courageous and steadfast work of people in local communities. On March 15, I was invited to speak at the Fayetteville Public Library by the Zacchaeus Foundation, a unique nonprofit working for racial healing in northwest Arkansas.

Lowell Taylor, Founder of The Zacchaeus Foundation.

In addition to sponsoring educational events like the one at which I spoke, the foundation is not shying away from the “R word,” reparations (they even named their NPR-affiliated podcast “The R Word”). What I love about this local effort is its simplicity and practicality. Simply put, the foundation provides a vehicle for white residents and predominantly white churches to invest in Black-led nonprofits as a form of reparations. White board members spearhead fundraising, while Black board members oversee the distributions. The foundation was the brainchild of Lowell Taylor, a white guy with a middle-class day job, who became convinced that white Americans—and particularly white Christian Americans—needed to take seriously the biblical example of Zacchaeus, a corrupt tax collector who decided to give away his ill-gotten gains after encountering Jesus.

In addition to appealing to individuals, The Zacchaeus Foundation is also reaching out to local historically white churches, asking them to make an ongoing investment of 1% of their annual budget to the fund. Recently, Fayetteville’s St. Paul’s Episcopal Church answered that call. Rev. Evan D. Gardner wrote a moving letter explaining his own journey and the church’s decision to support reparations via the fund. I encourage everyone to read the full letter here, but here is an excerpt:

In the story of Zacchaeus, Jesus did not declare that salvation had come to the homes of those whose stolen money had been returned to them. He announced that salvation had come to the home of the tax collector who had given it back. This is a story about the value of repentance and repair—about the way that an encounter with Jesus not only inspired a change of heart but, through the accompanying economic change, brought salvation to a lost child of Abraham. As Christians, we participate in the work of reparations because we, too, have met Jesus and have experienced in his death and resurrection God’s unconditional love, which, in turn, transforms us into a healed and restored image of that love….

I support the work of reparations and the approach offered by The Zacchaeus Foundation because I recognize that that work is necessary for my own healing, restoration, and repair, and I have come to believe that that healing is not possible as long as I continue to exercise control over the outcome of this work….

As a congregation of committed Christians, we believe that racial healing is central to our work as disciples of Jesus…. In order for salvation to be manifest fully in our lives, that part of ourselves which belongs to a world that is affected by the sin of racism must be repaired and restored. That healing is not possible unless it is accompanied by a change of heart and a change of life.

See these efforts, moving full steam ahead in the South, in these days, gives me hope. If we stay the course, against all odds, we may yet, as James Baldwin put it, finally “end the racial nightmare, and achieve our country, and change the history of the world.”

You can check out my talk at the Fayetteville Public Library here:

ACTION OPPORTUNITY 1: If you are white, and particularly if you have any connection to the Ozarks or northwest Arkansas and would like to invest in this effort, you can make a contribution to the Zacchaeus Foundation via the Arkansas Community Foundation below.

ACTION OPPORTUNITY 2: If you’d like to start a similar fund in your area, or encourage the Zacchaeus Fund in their efforts, you can reach out to Lowell Taylor and the board at info@thezacchaeusfoundation.org. And if you’d like to send a note of gratitude and solidarity to the rector and people of St. Paul’s, you can do so here: info@stpaulsfay.org.