Reclaim the radical roots of Christianity with John Brown as your guide--resist oppression, confront Christian nationalism, and embrace a faith that demands justice. Christianity began as a revolutionary faith in Africa and Palestine, yet across centuries it has been distorted into a tool for conquest, slavery, and nationalism. In her powerful debut, We Need John Brown Christians, activist and broadcaster Jacqueline Luqman reintroduces us to John Brown, the radical abolitionist whose failed raid on Harper's Ferry and subsequent execution made him known both as "God's instrument" and as America's first person tried for treason. Far from the caricatures of madness or martyrdom, Luqman presents Brown as a model of uncompromising discipleship, a patron saint for those who would resist the misuse of Christianity today. Through a fusion of history, theology, and political analysis, Luqman shows how Brown's legacy challenges contemporary believers to confront white supremacy, resist Christian nationalism, and reclaim faith as a practice of justice. She situates Brown in a broader genealogy of liberatory Christianity, while also exposing how mainstream churches and prosperity preachers have emptied the gospel of its radical edge. Written with urgency and clarity, We Need John Brown Christians invites us to wrestle with the hypocrisy of America's national origin story and to imagine a faith committed to freedom rather than domination. For Christians disillusioned by the politics of their church, for organizers seeking a spiritual framework for justice, and for anyone ready to ask what discipleship demands, this book is a bold call to action rooted in the fire of history.
Jacqueline Luqman is a broadcaster, activist, and writer who explores faith, politics, and liberation through a radical Black internationalist lens. Host of the weekly radio show Darker Than Blue on the Pacifica Network's WPFW 89.3 FM and a political commentator on the Black Liberation Media YouTube platform, she draws on decades of activism and scholarship to challenge injustice and inspire Christians to embrace a faith that resists oppression. She lives in Washington, DC.
"Jacqueline Luqman not only reframes our understanding of John Brown's legacy, but positions his overlooked radical spirituality as an invitation for us all to embody. Luqman challenges us. She demands that we be as critically impatient, as morally maladjusted, and as keenly attuned to the unjust order of things as John Brown was." --Jamall A. Calloway, author of Imagining Eden: Black Theology and the Search for Paradise, and senior minister of Plymouth Congregational Church, Washington, DC "Jacqueline Luqman offers a provocative reexamination of John Brown that urges white Christian communities to confront the moral complexities of justice and violence. This book places Brown within the moral failing and ardent convictions of his era, challenging readers to weigh prophetic faith against the costs of armed action. We Need John Brown Christians is a timely call to confront white Christian nationalism with rigorous accountability and compassionate advocacy." --Rev. Patricia H. Fears, senior pastor, Fellowship Baptist Church, Washington, DC
