Adam Russell Taylor - A More Perfect Union: A New Vision for Building the Beloved Community

Praise for A More Perfect Union

America stands on a knifes edge. If we are to survive this moment, with its pitfalls and perils, we have to figure out how to be together differently. Rev. Adam Russell Taylor offers a path forward to making real the Beloved Communitya new consensusfor our time. Together, let us get about the hard work of building a new America.

Eddie S. Glaude Jr., author of Begin Again: James Baldwins America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own

When we relaunched the Poor Peoples Campaign in 2018, we stood on the National Mall and said this movement must be a national call for moral revival. This book explores the rich moral vision of Beloved Community. Read it and join the long struggle for a more perfect union in this land.

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, president of Repairers of the Breach and author of We Are Called to Be a Movement

In a toxic world filled with bold dreamers, Adam Russell Taylor offers affirmation of dreams past and present, and accompaniment into what can be a world that sustains us in Beloved Community.

Rev. Traci Blackmon, Associate General Minister, United Church of Christ

An old and deep vision that needs to be rediscovered to make our union more perfect. Adam Russell Taylor is one of the leaders who will help us restore and rekindle it. This essential book reframes and renews the vision.

Jim Wallis, founder and ambassador of Sojourners, and New York Times bestselling author

There are books that are worth reading, and then there are books like this one that desperately need to be read, and by as many people as possible.

Rev. Michael B. Curry, presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church and author of Love Is the Way and The Power of Love

This book is a powerful and desperately needed message for our nation. At a time when the United States is anything but united, Adam Russell Taylor offers a sober diagnosis and a compelling prescription for a way forward by envisioning the Beloved Community in which all people can flourish.

Richard Stearns, president emeritus of World Vision US and author of The Hole in Our Gospel and Lead Like It Matters to God

An urgent and eloquent volume. Adam Russell Taylor invokes history, theology, and organizing experience to make clear that the idea guiding the witness of Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis should be our North Star in leading toward redemption, renewal, and social reconstruction.

E. J. Dionne Jr., author of Our Divided Political Heart and Code Red

With a deep commitment to reimagining an America where all can breathe free, Adam Russell Taylor brings light to powerful traditions often made invisible by a nation at times afraid of the music and stories birthed by people who sing the blues and simultaneously preach the gospel. A More Perfect Union is a call to fight for a nation that is not yet but will be if we listen to this prophet in our midst.

Otis Moss III, senior pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois

Adam Russell Taylor offers a relevant, practical, and contemporary strategy for realizing the dream and vision that counter the polarizing politics of our day. Moving from a truthful diagnosis of our nations mistruths and polarizing toxicity into the building blocks of a reenvisioned Beloved Community, Taylor leaves no stone unturned and no lie unaddressed. A must-read for all who are fatigued by the divisions and injustices that bombard us daily and are losing hope of a way forward into a more just and inclusive nation.

Howard-John Wesley, senior pastor at Alfred St. Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia

Adam Russell Taylor paints a clear and compelling vision for a way beyond the fragmentations we experience. For those who have long been on this justice journey, and for those just joining, Taylor provides excellent analysis and tangible actions. He helps us to dream bigger and usher the Beloved Community into our neighborhoods.

Nikki Toyama-Szeto, president of Christians for Social Action

Adam Russell Taylor is an American treasure, and this book shows why. Beautifully weaving spiritual principles with American possibilities, Taylor provides a new narrative of interfaith Beloved Community worthy of Dr. Kings legacy.

Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core and author of Out of Many Faiths: Religious Diversity and the American Promise

As a Jew and a rabbi, I couldnt be more inspired by Adam Russell Taylors remarkable call for a renewal of the Beloved Community, which our nationand our worldneeds now more than ever. A More Perfect Union echoes the enduring Jewish commitment to tikun olam: repairing the world. May this book bring us together across all kinds of lines to become the community of justice and love for which we yearn.

Rabbi Jonah Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

In this book, Adam Russell Taylor invites you not to settle for the past, or even for the present. He urges us all to raise the bar for the future and to usher in Gods dream for our country and for our worldwhich is nothing less than Beloved Community.

Shane Claiborne, author, activist, and co-founder of Red Letter Christians

In a timely tome, Adam Russell Taylor has masterfully called us back to those unassailable principles necessary for building the Beloved Community in the midst of persistent racial and economic inequity. For those of us committed to the work of justice, A More Perfect Union, with its insight, honesty, and hopefulness, is a clarion call to not relent until this work is done.

Rev. Gabriel Salguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Network (NALEC)

Adam Russell Taylor expresses a depth of theology drawn from the breadth of the church and calls us to a life together in community that is thoughtfully explained with clarity. Taylors call to a common narrative rooted in what can and should be the expression of the common good in the Beloved Community is the fresh word we need in our church and in our nation.

Soong-Chan Rah, professor at Fuller Theological Seminary and author of The Next Evangelicalism and Prophetic Lament

In this book, Adam Russell Taylor has beautifully woven the rich tapestry of his own diverse background and identity into a moral vision of an America that values and celebrates the image of God in all people. This must-read book offers healing springs to the parched souls of people of color and allies deeply wounded by the all-consuming nightmare of a nation teetering dangerously between apartheid and a restored democracy. A More Perfect Union invites us all on a refreshing, hope-filled journey toward a reimagined America, where all systems impacting human life and flourishing truly reflect the Beloved Community.

Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner, co-convener of the National African American Clergy Network, president of the Skinner Leadership Institute, and author of I Prayed, Now What?: From No Faith to Deep Faith

As a Muslim, immigrant, North African woman who chose to make the United States home and witnessed the unbelievable savageryand heroismof America over the last twenty years, I find Rev. Adam Russell Taylors book healing. It is a roadmap of how the sacred can respond to the profane to build the America of love, resilience, and the triumph of the collective human spiritthe Beloved Community.

Azza Karam, secretary general at Religions for Peace

At this historic moment, we need a book that seeks to both bring us together and stand up for our deepest spiritual values and their implications for our life together as a society. Rev. Adam Russell Taylor brings both his own life experiences and a variety of inspiring stories of a cloud of witnesses to the task. This is an important book, particularly for those of us who care about holistic mission to read and to discuss.