Say Good: Speaking Across Hot Topics, Complex Relationships, and Tense Situations

Bible teacher Eiland (Human(Kind)) urges readers in this sensitive guidebook to “speak up” for their beliefs while honoring God, themselves, and others. Contending that one’s voice is an “instrument of truth,” Eiland encourages believers to advocate for what they “love... enough to suffer greatly for” and use a “central truth” as a grounding principle to remain focused on the topic at hand in moments of tension, instead of growing angry or losing the courage to speak. As an example, Eiland explains how she drew on her trust in God’s steadfast love to speak out about the murder of Ahmaud Arbery to her mostly-white church community in 2020. She provides advice for humanizing online interactions (before responding to an inflammatory post, readers might consider whether they’d be willing to say to the writer of the post “the very words you plan to... type”), discusses how to receive and deliver “hard truths,” and digs into the challenges of knowing when to advocate for someone else or let them speak for themselves. Eiland’s down-to-earth prose conveys valuable insights into speaking out in ways that are relational and judicious (not every person needs to speak out about every injustice, she clarifies), though some of the more superfluous anecdotes fall flat, as when she recounts an episode of vertigo to introduce a discussion of striking the correct “balance” between speaking and listening in tense conversations. Still, this is a useful resource for the faithful looking to build bridges while staying true to themselves. (May)