Bible Gateway Blog

How does reading the Bible change a man from a convicted KKK terrorist to a devoted follower of Jesus Christ? How does the dramatic power of Scripture bring liberation from the grip of racial hatred and violence and cause a man to become co-pastor of a racially mixed church and the president of the C.S. Lewis Institute?

Bible Gateway interviewed Thomas A. Tarrants about his book, Consumed by Hate, Redeemed by Love: How a Violent Klansman Became a Champion of Racial Reconciliation (Thomas Nelson, 2019).

What led you down the path of hate?

Thomas A. Tarrants: I was not raised to be racist or anti-Semite. Growing up, my family had a black maid and we all loved her. A black man who worked for my dad also did some work on our cars from time to time. He was an honest, hardworking man and we thought highly of him.

I don’t recall the subject of race being discussed much in our home until the desegregation of the public schools began in Alabama in the summer of 1963. This triggered a time of social upheaval in which what I had known as “normal” was suddenly turned upside down. It was disorienting for me and many others and provoked a concern about where the country was headed. My high school was one of the first in town to be desegregated, and I became angry at the federal government, the civil rights movement, and Black people. After reading some of the racist, anti-Semitic literature that was being circulated, and attending some meetings, my anger began to grow for Blacks and Jews as enemies of America and the White race.

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