Making It Plain

Why We Need Anabaptism and the Black Church

By: Drew G.I. Hart

Narrated by: Drew Hart

There is an answer to white Christian supremacy that is centuries in the making.

For many oppressed and vulnerable people, Western Christianity has been a nightmare. Just centuries after the life of Jesus, the rise of Western Christendom contorted Christianity into an instrument of domination and violence. The church fused with the state, sanctioning empire-expanding crusades, colonization, and chattel slavery.

Author Drew G. I. Hart challenges the church to wake up to how this past persists in the present, calling Christians to confront the living legacy of plundered people and lands in the name of Jesus.

Making It Plain offers a novel pathway for Christians to live out a decolonial and antiracist faith in the aftermath of Christendom: the convergence of the radical discipleship of the Anabaptist tradition and the prophetic witness of the Black church. In the witness of Black and Anabaptist Christian communities across time, we find a faith that takes the life and teachings of Jesus seriously. Despite oppression or persecution at the hands of mainstream Christianity, these traditions salvaged a liberating and peacemaking vision of Jesus right under the nose of empire and white supremacy.

Weaving together narrative history, theology, and practical guidance, Hart compells listeners to engage the best of these faith streams to forge an Anablacktivist faith where everyone belongs, where everyone can thrive, and where everyone matters, especially the last and the least.

The shared wisdom of these faith traditions offers signposts towards a Jesus-shaped, Spirit-filled, community-oriented movement capable of surviving and resisting new mutations of white Christian nationalism, antiblackness, and settler colonialism today.

©2025 Herald Press (P)2025 Herald Press

The detailed timeline of how Western Christianity has morphed from Jesus’ example.

Making it Plain by Dr. Hart was a book as a white man I knew was going to challenge me and it didn’t disappoint. This book has made me look at my own walk with Christ to identify ways that I still may be supporting systems that don’t promote equality or justice. This book left me with more questions for myself than answers. Questions that need to be dug into.