Changes Challenge a Fictional CRC Chicago Community in the Racially Charged 1960s
By James Dekker
Green Street in Black and White, by Dave Larsen, sketches an all-too-familiar history about more than one Christian Reformed community in Chicago and beyond during the 1960s. Larsen’s remarkable debut novel compactly narrates the backstory of Englewood, a community and CRC enclave on Chicago’s South Side, even as it tells painful truths.
I grew up four miles south of Englewood, and I still hear echoes of Englewood’s responses to racial changes, changes that drive the engine of this novel.
In these pages, four “Green Street” boys—Erik, Pete, Frank, and Eddie—carry the plot as they roam the ’hood. The historic isolation of their white ethnic and religious enclave sheltered them from the real world, but their parents’ anxiety and anger surge after a mugging and the murder of milkman Fred De Vries. Magnus and Fenna Pederson nervously visit the first Black family on Green Street, Rev. Willowby and Sheila Jackson. Carl Bensema wishes Pastor Willowby dead as he berates Magnus, which shakes these long-time neighbors’ friendships.
Larsen describes actual and fictional events as the neighbourhood changes. Michael Schaap, missionary to Nigeria, and his Nigerian wife and children live in Englewood while “on furlough.” The children feel unsafe attending the Christian school. Rev. Wolthuis’s sermon twists the Exodus story into a call for CRC people to leave Englewood. Schaap stands up and demurs: “This congregation sponsors missions in Africa, but you’re fleeing African Americans next door.” The consistory soon entertains a motion to pull support for the Schaaps.
In reality, many Christian Reformed people from Englewood moved to Roseland hoping to find “safety.” But by 1969, Roseland was on the move like Englewood. My family moved to Oak Forest in June 1969. All four original Christian Reformed churches headed to the suburbs between 1967 and 1969, though integrated Pullman CRC sturdily remains.
Larsen’s Christian Reformed characters are not bad people. But the Reformed gospel they’d learned hadn’t prepared them to live with strangers whom they feared before even meeting them. The Rev. Willowby Jackson and his wife boldly search for stability, while Magnus and Fenna Pederson naively misgauge the fears of staying. They’re ill-equipped to face storms of ethnic and racial upset. Everybody suffers. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of “the arc of history bending toward justice” suffered in many places in those years.
Green Street attempts to dissect those malevolent powers. I highly recommend this novel for book clubs that want to be challenged. Some readers will feel misrepresented. Others will somberly nod their heads. Those who don’t remember American cities’ racial storms will learn the sad results of intentional social and spiritual isolation. I hope readers will reflect on Green Street and the mistakes of the past so we can compassionately and humbly serve those who look different from us in our present day. (Reformed Journal Books)
Reviewed by Lorilee Craker
ABC’s High Potential, a critical and ratings hit, follows the sassy, funny Morgan Gillory (Kaitlin Olson), a single mom who struggles to pay the bills despite her off-the-charts IQ. When, during her night job cleaning the police station, she accidentally solves a crime that had been baffling the police, she is hired as a special consultant to the force, working as a partner with the stoic, rule-following Detective Karadac (Daniel Sunjata, the perfect dry-witted foil). Christian viewers will appreciate how this show highlights the fact that everyone has different gifts and none are more valuable than others.
Fans of Castle will warm to the delightful chemistry between Morgan and Karadac, as well as the lighthearted approach to the classic police procedural. Season 2 drops Sept. 16. (Rated TV-14 for violence, mild language, and mild sexual innuendo. Watch on ABC, Hulu, and other streaming platforms.)
By Cosmic Cathedral
Reviewed by Robert J. Keeley
When multi-instrumentalist Neal Morse jammed with former Genesis drummer Chester Thompson, the session was so much fun that they decided to invite veteran guitarist Phil Keaggy and bassist Byron House to join them. The jam sessions formed the seeds of the first album by the quartet, who now call themselves Cosmic Cathedral.
The shared faith of the four members means that even though this is a mainstream release, the lyrics are decidedly Christian. They not only use metaphors that point to the Christian life, but they also explicitly mention Jesus. Deep Water showcases the instrumental chops of all four players. Keaggy’s lyrical guitar playing and the light, jazz-flavored touch of Thomson’s drums are the tip of the iceberg of the wonderful musical moments on this album.
Standoff: Kidnapped from Ukraine #2
By Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Reviewed by Sonya VanderVeen Feddema
On Feb. 24, 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, the apartment building in the city of Mariupol where fictional 12-year-old twin sisters Rada and Dariia Popkova and their parents lived was destroyed by a bomb. Though the family escaped, they were separated. Dariia fled with her mother, and Rada with her father.
Told from brave Dariia’s perspective, readers learn about the physical deprivations experienced while under siege, the psychological torment of not knowing what has happened to loved ones, and the constant fear of being killed, even as evidence of death is everywhere.
The book is recommended for children ages 8-12. However, this reader found much of the story so gut-wrenching and too mature for younger children. It is better suited to readers 12 and older, including adults.
(Scholastic Press)
Declutter Your Heart and Your Home: How a Minimalist Life Yields Maximum Joy
By Julia Ubbenga
Reviewed by Sonya VanderVeen Feddema
Author Julia Ubbenga was raised in a middle-class family with upper-class grandparents who often took her shopping. Ubbenga learned a detrimental lesson: “More stuff equals more happiness. Eventually, the ‘stuff + more stuff = happiness’ equation became ingrained in me. … Deeply.”
Several years after she married and had children, Ubbenga faced an existential crisis and hit rock bottom. Literally swamped beneath her possessions and debt, she cried out to God for help. The Holy Spirit led her to read Luke 12:13-21, Jesus’ parable of the rich fool, in which listeners are commanded to “be rich in what matters.”
Peppered with insightful anecdotes and practical inner and outer decluttering tools, Ubbenga’s book is a breath of fresh air for Jesus followers who want to “be rich in what matters.”
(Zondervan)
The Lowdown
Everything Is a Story: This book by Indigenous author Kaitlin B. Curtice explores the power of stories to shape our personal lives and collective identities, for better and worse, and helps readers examine which stories are worth passing on and which are worth letting go. (Brazos)
Starring John Corbett: After suffering an accident, a young boy ends up relying on his family, his faith, and his community in his fight for survival in the faith-based film Soul on Fire. (Angel Studios; in theaters Oct. 10)
The Runarounds: This eight-episode series follows a group of recent high school graduates in Wilmington, N.C., who come together to form a rock band. Starring William Lipton and his real-life band. (Prime Video)
By Dog Rescue Advocate Rocky Kanaka: Sitting with Dogs is a collection of stories about nine rescue dogs that each got off to a rough start but found their way into Rocky's rehabilitating arms. (Penguin Random House)