"The Jesus Road" by Lassiter, Ellis and Kotay. A Review

 

Our congregation has been engaged with Cedar Creek Church in Southwest Oklahoma for many years. We have partnered with several Native American groups while serving there, mostly with Kiowa believers. Recently, one of the local pastors told me about "The Jesus Road: Kiowas, Christianity, and Indian Hymns" and I immediately ordered a copy. It was a pleasure to read about many of the congregations in the region that I have been involved with over the past ten years, and to discover some extra history.


The first part of the book is a historical accounting of how the Christian faith came among the Kiowas in the 19th Century. The mistaken notions many of our missionaries, the successes, blunders, etc. The second part of the book is on the role of Kiowa hymns for the faith of Kiowa Christians. There are numerous samples of Kiowa hymns. There was supposed to be an accompanying CD with the book, but there wasn't one with the new copy I received.


The goal of the book is to "help preserve the knowledge surrounding Kiowa Hymns" (113) but it does much more. It preserves the story of Kiowa Christianity, even pushing back against, and correcting those who think Native American Christianity is historically and culturally problematic. As one Kiowa Christian leader is recorded as saying, "we (Kiowas) lost our Christianity because we turned towards the white man's ways" (119). And I think this can rightly be said about my fellow white Christians, as well. This is an important read.

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