Joel Edward Goza - AMERICA'S UNHOLY GHOSTS

Start: 
Wednesday, June 12, 2019 - 7:00pm
Location: 
2421 Bissonnet St.
Houston, TX 77005

America's Unholy Ghosts examines the DNA of the ideologies that shape our nation, ideologies that are as American as apple pie but that too often justify and perpetuate racist ideas and racial inequalities. MLK challenged us to investigate the "ideational roots of race hate" and Ghosts does just that by examining a philosophical "trinity"--Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Adam Smith--whose works collectively helped to institutionalize, imagine, and ingrain racist ideologies into the hearts and minds of the American people.

As time passed, America's racial imagination evolved to form people incapable of recognizing their addiction to racist ideas. Thus, Ghosts comes to a close with the brilliant faith and politics of Martin Luther King, Jr. who sought to write the conscience of the Prophetic Black Church onto American hearts, minds, and laws. If our nation's racist instincts still haunt our land, so too do our hopes and desires for a faith and politics marked by mercy, justice, and equity--and there is no better guide to that land than the Prophetic Black Church and the one who saw such a land from the mountaintop.


After receiving degrees from Wheaton College and Duke University, Joel Edward Goza joined the staff at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Houston’s 5th Ward. For 10 years, Joel focused on issues of faith, race, politics and urban research.

He provided leadership in urban redevelopment, immigration and educational reform initiatives, developed the Healing the Brokenness Conference that brought Christian leaders together across racial, economic and denominational lines with leading scholars, and facilitated partnerships between the 5th Ward and leading research universities.

Joel also served as a Visiting Scholar on Race, Religion, and Politics for the Center for Faith and Culture at St. Thomas University and at Baylor University's Truett Theological Seminary. Today, Joel continues to write and work from the 5th Ward. He has written for The North Star, The Houston Chronicle, and Salon. When not working, Joel spends his time pestering his wife Sarah, daughter Naomi, and son Samuel Roger.

America's Unholy Ghosts: The Racist Roots of Our Faith and Politics By Joel Edward Goza Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9781532651434
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Cascade Books - March 22nd, 2019