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Caste:
The Origins of Our Discontents

By Isabel Wilkerson

A Review by Dwight A. Moody

What you really need to read is not this 748-word review but the 12-page Epilogue of this stunning book. It ends with this prophetic word: “A world without caste would set everyone free.”

A first step toward that hopeful future is to see the world as it really is. Pulitzer-Prize winning author and scholar Isabel Wilkerson helps us see just that in her newly published Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. And what she makes visual for us is different than what we have seen before, because it replaces the lens of race with the perspective of caste.

Caste is color-coordinated, of course, in the United States, at least. But not necessarily in the two other countries Wilkerson includes in this study: India and (Nazi) Germany. It jars the imagination to see our country lumped together with these two nations and their despicable histories. But the jarring is good, even necessary; it forces us to see ourselves as others see us— and by “us” I certainly mean white folk, even Southern white folk. We need to read the remark of Albert Einstein as quoted by Wilkerson: “The separation of the races is not a disease of the colored people but a disease of the white people.”

Here the separation is of black and white; in Germany it was of Aryan and Jew; in India it is the division of the people into five castes with the Dalit—the untouchables—below the bottom rung.

Wilkerson draws attention to eight common characteristics of caste cultures: divine authorization, heritability, endogamy, purity/pollution, occupation, stigma, terror, and inherent superiority.  All of them are generously illustrated by the continued treatment of black people in these United States of America.

Wide ranging scholarship and first-person anecdotes populate this book with credibility, readability, and quotability: “You know that there are no black people in Africa …. They don’t become black until they go to America ….” They then discover they are suddenly a member of the lowest caste in their new country, one sanctioned and enforced by all levels of government until very recently and still embraced by millions of Americans today.

In fact, the disruption of the caste system by the recent successes of black entertainers, athletes, and statesmen (Colin Powell and Barak Obama, for instance) has created a mighty blowback. It began, we all now know, in the days of Martin Luther King Jr. and merged with an established political party and powerful religious networks (white Christian) to create the movement that fueled the election of Reagan, the “Contract with America”, the Tea Party rebellion, and finally the rise to power of Donald J. Trump.

“Trump channeled insecurities and disaffections that went deeper than economics,” Wilkerson writes then quotes researchers who assert that “white voters’ preference for Donald Trump was … strongly related to concerns that minorities were taking jobs away from whites” (325).

Confederate monuments are symbols of caste, she asserts, and thus explains the fervid defense of rebel and slave leaders (preserving the story of our country’s “descent into madness”) in sharp contrast to the German repudiation of Nazi flags, Nazi art, and Nazi statuary.

In one chapter in the section on Backlash she quotes noted King biographer Branch Taylor as saying that “if given the choice between democracy and whiteness, how many would choose whiteness?” (352)

Of course, I read these things through the lens of religion—mostly, the Christian religion—and extrapolate that question into another: If given the choice between their religion (which they call Christian) and whiteness, what would they choose? Many of us are convinced that the majority of white Christians in America (Catholic, Evangelical, and Protestant, the research declares) are choosing caste over Christ, white over right.

Wilkerson concludes (and I agree): “Thus, regardless of who prevails in any given election the country still labors under the divisions that a caste system creates and the fears and resentments of a dominant caste that is too often in opposition to the yearnings of those deemed beneath them” (381).

Other than calling for a rebirth of “the humanitarian impulse”, Wilkerson gives little to no guidance on how we extricate our country from the bondage of caste presumption and practice.

And me?  I bow my head and wonder if there is in our future a version of Christian community that can repudiate our addiction to whiteness and live out the gospel in living color: red, yellow, black, and white—and everything in between.

(September 2020)

all rights reserved 2020

Book Review Archive

After Evangelicalism:
The Path to a New Christianity

by David P. Gushee

America’s Religious Wars:
The Embattled Heart of our Public Life
by Kathleen M. Sands

The Asbury Hymnal

Becoming C. S. Lewis 
Harry Lee Poe 

Becoming Mrs. Lewis 
by Patti Callahan 

The Benedict Option:
A Strategy for Christians
in a Post-Christian Nation
by Rod Dreher

C. S. Lewis, A Life: 
Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet 
by Alister McGrath

Call Stories:
Hearing and Responding to God’s Call
edited by Barry Howard

Caste
The Origins of our Discontents 
by Isabel Wilkerson

Climate Church, Climate World 
by Jim Antal

Christ in Crisis:
Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus
by Jim Wallis

Educated: A Memoir
by Tara Westover

The End of White Christian America
Robert P. Jones

Factfullness
Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World
and Why Things are Better Than You Think
by Hans Rosling

God’s Hand on America:
Divine Providence in the Modern Era
by Michael Medved

The Great Spiritual Migration 
How the World’s Largest Religion
is Seeking a Better Way
to be Christian
by Brian D. McLaren

The Greatest Prayer
Rediscovering the Revolutionary Message
of THE LORD’S PRAYER 
by John Dominic Crossan

The Green Good News
Christ’s Path to Sustainable and Joyful Life
by T. Wilson Dickinson

Gullah Geechee Heritage in the Golden Isles
by Amy Lotson Roberts & Patrick J. Holladay

A Brief History of Christianity in Asia:
Beginnings, Endings, and Reflections
by R. LaMon Brown and Michael D. Crane

Israel Matters:
Why Christians Must Think Differently
about the People and the Land
by Gerald R. McDermott

Jesus Loves Obamacare
by Barbara Young

Just Mercy: Story of
Justice and Redemption 
by Bryan Stevenson

The Last Leonardo
The Secret Lives of the World’s
Most Expensive Painting
by Ben Lewis

The Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglas, an American Slave 
by Frederick Douglass

Paul: A Biography 
by N. T. Wright

Piety and Power: Mike Pence
and the Taking of the White House
Tom LoBianco

 That All Shall Be Saved: 
Heaven, Hell and Universal Salvation 
by David Hart Bentley

This Precarious Moment 
by James Garlow, David Barton

Raising Boys Who Respect Girls 
by Dave Willis

Resilient Faith:
How the Early Christian “Third Way”
Changed the World
by Gerald L. Sittser

Riding the Wind of God:
A Personal History of the 
Youth Revival Movement
by Bruce McIver

A Scandalous Providence:
The Jesus Story of the Compassion of God
by E. Frank Tupper

Songs of American: Patriotism, Protest,
and the Music that Made a Nation
by Jon Meacham and Tim McGraw

The Spiritual Danger of Donald Trump 
edited by Ronald Sider

Truth Over Fear:
Combating the Lies about Islam 
by Charles Kimball

The Universal Christ 
Richard Rohr

A Warning 
by Anonymous

Where Do We Go From Here?
edited by Kevin Slime

White Too Long:
The Legacy of White Supremacy 
in American Christianity
by Robert P. Jones

Books By
Dr. Dwight A. Moody

Here are four books written by Dr. Dwight A. Moody, provided here (or in the near future) in both text and audio format. All are in various stages of production for this web site. Feel free to provide comment on these books using the response form at the bottom of each page.

Free and Faithful: Christian Discipleship in the 21st Century

This was a series of sermons preached by Dr. Moody at Third Baptist Church of Owensboro, Kentucky. It is inspired by (and follows the format of) the influential book by Buddy Shurden, Four Fragile Freedoms.  The text here includes an epilogue written in 2018 that offers reflections on the book, 20 years after its publication. It is also the intent of Dr. Moody to provide an audio version of this book; to date, only the Preface and Introduction are available.

On the Other Side of Oddville: Stories of Religion and Everyday Life
For a number of years, Dr. Moody wrote and published in public newspapers around the country a weekly column on Religion and American Life (something he continues to do through this Meetinghouse initiative). This book collects 105 of these 700-word essays. You may purchase a sign copy of this book–$20 inclusive of shipping; simply request it through the Response Form at the bottom of each page of the website. (This text is in production.)

Its’s About Time: A Memoir of Ministry at Georgetown College
From 1997 to 2008, Dr. Moody served as dean of the chapel and professor of religion at Georgetown College in Kentucky. This is the narrative essay that forms the core of this book. Upon leaving the school to launch the Academy of Preachers, he produced this self-published book. The book also included sermons, prayers, letters, essays, and memos; it can be ordered through Amazon. (This text is in production.)

Nine Marks of a Good Sermon
During Dr. Moody’s tenure at Georgetown College, he taught a course in “Communication for Ministry” (and popularly called “Preaching). This material was developed during that ministry and continued during his years as founder and first president of the Academy of Preachers. It is published here without the illustrative sermons included in the book.