Brown Church – Five Centuries of Latina/o Social Justice, Theology, and Identity

Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Finalist Interest in and awareness of the demand for social justice as an outworking of the Christian faith is growing. But it is not new.For five hundred years, Latina/o culture and identity have been shaped by their challenges to the religious, socio-economic, and political status quo, whether in opposition to Spanish colonialism, Latin American dictatorships, US imperialism in Central America, the oppression of farmworkers, or the current exploitation of undocumented immigrants. Christianity has played a significant role in that movement at every stage.Robert Chao Romero, the son of a Mexican father and a Chinese immigrant mother, explores the history and theology of what he terms the "Brown Church." Romero considers how this movement has responded to these and other injustices throughout its history by appealing to the belief that God's vision for redemption includes not only heavenly promises but also the transformation of every aspect of our lives and the world. Walking through this history of activism and faith, readers will discover that Latina/o Christians have a heart after God's own.

Brown Church is a truly significant book, filling a unique and critically important niche at this historic juncture. For emerging Latinx generations, this book offers consuelo y animo (comfort and inspiration)--a way to connect roots and wings. For scholars, activists, and church leaders, this book translates wisdom and integrates worlds, bringing us all together to a place of common understanding and mutual enrichment. As professor and pastor, I will use and recommend this book; it is a treasure.--Alexia Salvatierra, ecclesial faculty, Centro Latino and School of Intercultural Studies, Fuller Theological Seminary, As a historian, lawyer, and pastor, Dr. Chao Romero integrates disciplines to clearly argue that the Brown Church has played and will continue to play a critical role in Christianity. The Latina/o community has not only survived church- and state-sanctioned oppression and injustice, we are thriving in the midst of it. Latina/o churches' integrated understanding of the gospel is demonstrated in the way that our Spirit-filled worship is not separated from our Spirit-empowered pursuit of justice. Brown Church is a book not only for Latinas/os; it is a book for all Christians to grasp the power and depth of what the Brown Church offers Christians who seek to understand the whole gospel.--Sandra Maria Van Opstal, founding executive director of Chasing Justice, Brown is the color of the blood of slathered communities for five hundred years crying to God from the lands of the Americas (Gen 4:10). It is the color that symbolizes both the pride and oppression of those sacrificed to the voracity of colonial modernity, depredatory capitalism, and civilizing Christian missions. But Brown Church is also an embedded witnessing to Jesús of Aztlán, walked in pain and hope by border communities in the power of the decolonial Spirit outside the gate. Brown Church showcases recovered history of Christian activism, uncovered human dignity, and above all, the ecclesial imagination called home by a Latinx generation of Christians that for too long have lived stripped of their own faith and sense of mission as decolonial justice. Readable, well documented, passionately evangélico, Robert Chao Romero's work may very well be his new manual of 'church for revolutionaries.'--Oscar García-Johnson, author of Spirit Outside the Gate and associate professor of theology and Latinx studies, Fuller Theological Seminary, Here is a sweeping and fascinating account of the vital theologies and prophetic witness of the Brown church in the Americas. Weaving together stories of oppressed Latin American and US Latina/o communities, Robert Chao Romero tells of faithfulness to Christian calling, commitment to biblical justice, and collaborative theologies that challenge injustice and transform society. Brown Church is a story for the entire church as it seeks to fulfill its callings in the twenty-first century.--Edwin David Aponte, executive director of the Louisville Institute, Passionate, theological, and formational! This is a book that redefines the social identity of the Brown Church, breaking away from religious stereotypes of the Latina/o community and uncovering a rich legacy and discussion of Latina/o faith and identity. Chao Romero tells the bold, proud history of advocacy and the work of social justice across the centuries of the Brown Church, including scriptural and theological foundations, so that the children of the Brown Church and those seeking to understand her may clearly see her spiritual light and the costly marks of faithful, creative courage and sacrifice.--Elizabeth Conde-Frazier, coordinator of relations for theological entities at the Association of Hispanic Theological Education, coauthor of Latina Evangélicas: A Theological Survey from the Margins

Robert Chao Romero (PhD, University of California at Los Angeles; JD, University of California at Berkeley) is associate professor in the Departments of Chicana/o Studies and Asian American Studies at the University of California at Los Angeles. He is the author of the award-winning The Chinese in Mexico, 1882-1940, Jesus for Revolutionaries: An Introduction to Race, Social Justice, and Christianity, and Mixed Race Student Politics.