A More Perfect Union - Adam Russell Taylor

Jim Wallis
Founder and Ambassador of Sojourners, is a Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy, as both Chair and Director for Faith and Justice at Georgetown University; and is a New York Times best-selling author.

"The political and moral goal before us is a genuine multi-racial democracy in the yet to be United States of America. The spiritual power that undergirds that goal is the vision of the beloved community. It is an old and deep vision that needs to be rediscovered to make our union more perfect. Adam Taylor is one of the leaders who will help us restore and rekindle it. This essential book reframes and renews the vision from our earliest history, in the civil rights movement, to some of the most hopeful and powerful new examples of it today. I recommend this special book to everyone who wants to understand and feel how the beatitudes of the beloved community can make us refreshed, better, and stronger."

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II
President of Repairers of the Breach and author, We Are Called To Be A Movement

"When we re-launched the Poor People's Campaign in 2018, we stood on the National Mall and said this movement must be a national call for moral revival that challenges the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism. I'm grateful for the work Adam has done in this book both to show why we need a better narrative and to explore the rich moral vision of beloved community. Read it and join the long struggle for a more perfect union in this land."

Rev. Traci D. Blackmon
Associate General Minister, Justice & Local Church Ministries, The United Church of Christ

"When Adam shared the preview of his new book I knew this book was worthy of our companionship. A More Perfect Union: A New Vision for Building the Beloved Community is an invitation to reach back and retrieve foundational principles that have always spiritually grounded us, to call forth and examine the tools and gifts we possess to deconstruct policies and praxes that do not serve us well, and to build that to which we aspire. In a toxic world filled with bold dreamers Adam Taylor offers affirmation of dreams past and present and accompaniment into what can be a world that sustains us in Beloved Community."

Richard Stearns
President Emeritus of World Vision US, author of The Hole in Our Gospel and Lead Like it Matters to God.

"This book is a powerful and desperately needed message for our nation. At a time when the United States are anything but united, Adam Taylor offers a sober diagnosis and a compelling prescription for a way forward, a way to be united again, by envisioning a ‘beloved community’ in which all of our people can flourish. The Church of Jesus Christ can and must lead this re-uniting process, not as a tool of the state but as the conscience of the state, reigniting the aspiration of our founders for a more perfect union’."

The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry
Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church and author of Love is the Way and The Power of Love

"There are books that are worth reading, and then there are books like this one that desperately need to be read, and by as many people as possible.  Adam Taylor not only addresses the "toxic polarization" that has infected our society, but through impressive research and spiritually- grounded principles he also offers a way forward to the beloved community that he persuasively argues is still within our grasp."

Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner
President, Skinner Leadership Institute

"In A More Perfect Union: A New Vision for Building the Beloved Community, Adam Taylor has beautifully woven the rich tapestry of his own diverse background and identity into a moral vision of an America that values and celebrates the image of God in all people.  This ‘must read’ book’ offers healing springs to the parched souls of people of color and allies deeply wounded by the all-consuming nightmare of a nation teetering dangerously between apartheid and a restored democracy. A More Perfect Union invites us all on a refreshing, hope-filled journey toward a reimagined America, where all systems impacting human life and flourishing truly reflect the Beloved Community."

Rev. Dr. Alexia Salvatierra
Assistant Professor of Integral Mission and Global Transformation, Fuller Theological Seminary

"At this historic moment, we need a book that seeks to both bring us together and stand up for our deepest spiritual values and their implications for our life together as a society. Of course, when do we not need that beautiful struggle and balancing act? Rev. Taylor brings both his own life experiences and a variety of inspiring stories of a cloud of witnesses to the task. This is an important book, particularly for those of us who care about holistic mission, to read and to discuss."

Rev. Dr. Howard-John Wesley
Alfred Street Baptist Church, Alexandria, VA

"America now, as much as ever before, struggles to pursue a more perfect union and live up to its creed of liberty and justice for all. Dr. King envisioned and dreamed of our nation as a beloved community, Adam Taylor offers a relevant, practical, and contemporary strategy for realizing the dream and vision that counters the polarizing politic of our day, uniting Americans across all divides of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or economic status. Moving from a truthful diagnosis of our nation’s mistruths and polarizing toxicity into the building blocks and beatitudes of a re-envisioned beloved community, Taylor leaves no stone unturned and no lie uncovered. Taylor is a must read for all who are fatigued by the divisions and injustices that bombard us daily and were losing hope of a way forward into a more just and inclusive nation."

Nikki Toyama-Szeto
President, Christians for Social Action

"Taylor separates the truth from lies, and unlocks the foundations that feed into the discord and fragmentation we see. His insights weave together a compelling picture, that transcends the current divides and help us to re-imagine what life together might look like. Taylor helps us to dream bigger AND usher the beloved community into our neighborhoods."

Eboo Patel
Founder and President, Interfaith Youth Core and author of Out of Many Faiths: Religious Diversity and the American Promise

"Adam Taylor is an American treasure, and this book shows why. Beautifully weaving spiritual principles with American possibilities, Adam provides us with a new narrative of interfaith beloved community worthy of Dr. King’s legacy."

Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
Author of Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own

"America stands on a knife’s edge. If we are to survive this moment, with its pitfalls and perils, we have to figure out how be together differently. That is no easy task. In A More Perfect Union, Rev. Adam Russell Taylor offers a path forward to making real the beloved community—a new consensus—for our time. Read this book carefully. Take note of the “beatitudes” at the heart of this bold vision and, together, let us get about the hard work of building a new America."

Otis Moss, III
Senior Pastor, Trinity United Church of Christ

"With a deep commitment to reimagining an America where all can breathe free; Adam Taylor turns his prophetic gaze toward a civic and spiritual vision of a "Beloved Community" waiting to be born.  Drawing from diverse spiritual resources like an experienced jazz musician; Taylor brings light to powerful traditions often made invisible by a nation at times afraid of the music and stories birthed by people who sing the blues and simultaneously preach the gospel.  A More Perfect Union is a call to fight for a nation that is not yet, but will be if we listen to this prophet in our midst."

E. J. Dionne Jr.
Author of “Our Divided Political Heart” and “Code Red”

"The aspiration to building ‘a beloved community’ is so warm and beautiful that we are tempted not to take it seriously as a discipline, a tough-minded guide to political action, and a moral imperative. It is all of these things, as Adam Russell Taylor shows us in this urgent and eloquent volume. In calling us to ‘deeper listening, truth-telling, bridge-building, and common problem-solving,’ Adam Russell Taylor invokes history, theology, and organizing experience to make clear that the idea guiding the witness of Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis should be our North Star in leading toward redemption, renewal and social reconstruction."

Rabbi Jonah Pesner
Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

"As a Jew and a rabbi, I couldn’t be more inspired by Rev. Taylor’s remarkable call for a renewal of the beloved community which our nation – and our world – needs now more than ever. “A More Perfect Union” echoes the enduring Jewish commitment to Tikun Olam: Repairing the World. May this book bring us together across all kinds of lines to become the community of justice and love for which we yearn."

Shane Claiborne
Author, activist, co-founder of Red Letter Christians

"When I think of the biblical mandate to love God with all of our “heart, mind, and strength”… I think of my friend Adam Taylor. He honors God with his brilliant mind, as you will see in this book. But Adam also shows up in the streets, and he spends time on his knees. As well as anyone I know, Adam has learned the holy art of being “as shrewd as a serpent and as innocent as a dove.” He is making change happen in the centers of power, but he is careful not to lose touch with the people on the ground. In this book, Adam invites you not to settle for the past, or even for the present. He urges us all to raise the bar for the future and to usher in God’s dream for our country and for our world — which is nothing less than beloved community."

Rev. Gabriel Salguero
President of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition

"Every generation needs to be reminded of the essential ingredients necessary to heal our Union. In a timely tome, Adam Taylor has masterfully called us back to those unassailable principles necessary for building the Beloved Community in the midst of persistent racial and economic inequity. For those of us committed to the work of justice the insight, honesty, and hopefulness of A More Perfect Union is a clarion call to not relent until this work is done."

Soong-Chan Rah
Professor, Fuller Theological Seminary, Author of The Next Evangelicalism and Prophetic Lament

"We need a fresh word. Our church and our nation has experienced the drying up of our collective soul as the dividing walls of hostility have been allowed to fester and dominate. My dear friend, Rev. Adam Taylor expresses a depth of theology drawn from the breadth of the church and calls us to a life together in community that is thoughtfully explained with clarity. Adam’s call to a common narrative rooted in what can and should be the expression of the common good in the beloved community is the fresh word we need in our church and in our nation."

Professor Azza Karam
Secretary General, Religions for Peace

"I read this book through the eyes of a Muslim, immigrant, North African, woman, who chose to make the United States home, and witnessed the unbelievable savagery -and heroism - of America, over the last 20 years. Rev Taylor’s book is healing. A roadmap of how the sacred can respond to the profane, to build the America of love, resilience and the triumph of the collective human spirit – the Beloved Community."

Wesley Granberg-Michaelson
Author of Without Oars: Casting Off into a Life of Pilgrimage. Former General Secretary, Reformed Church in America.

"In “A More Perfect Union,” Adam Taylor tells the story that America needs to hear about itself, including its repressed transgressions and inviting ideals. This book is a civic gift for our future, demonstrating the galvanizing vision of the Beloved Community. Taylor masterfully weaves his own powerful story into this narrative for the nation, revealing his insightful and incisive prophetic voice. If you want to choose one new book offering a spiritually grounded pathway forward for America at this time, here it is."

Robert A. Boisture
President & CEO, Fetzer Institute

"At this time of growing crisis for our democracy and our culture, Adam Taylor makes a compelling case that love is the only impulse of the human heart strong enough to overcome the powerful forces that are pulling us apart and pulling us down, and that the spiritually grounded vision of the Beloved Community is the only social vision that can give us the solidarity and the passion to build a society in which all can flourish. This “must read” book marks Taylor as a young leader who deserves our attention, respect, and support."

Tim Dixon
Founder, More in Common

"Drawing on reasons from hope from communities all across the nation, Adam Taylor has issued a clarion call for us to embrace the moral vision of the Beloved Community – a story drawn from the deepest wells of America’s civic and religious values. This book reflects Adam’s dual sense of calling as both bridge-builder and truth-teller. There are tensions between those roles. But as the great novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald observed many years ago, the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and retain the ability to function, is the mark of a first-rate mind."