Danita Queener

In February 2005, more than 10,000 people in Bakersfield, California, watched as Brian “Head” Welch—the former lead guitarist of the controversial rock band Korn—was saved by Jesus Christ. The event set off a media frenzy as observers from around the world sought to understand what led this rock star out of the darkness and into the light.

We are living in a world divided. Race and ethnicity, caste and color, gender and sexuality, class and education, religion and political party have all become demographic labels that reduce our differences to simplistic categories in which “we” are vehemently against “them”. But Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis’s own experience - of being the first female and first Black minister in her church’s history, of being in an interracial marriage, and of making peace with childhood abuse - illustrates that our human capacity for empathy and forgiveness is the key.