EP 34: Loving Your Black Neighbor as Yourself
What does it actually look like to love your neighbor? And have you ever wanted to love well but realized you didn't quite know how?
Jesus said love your neighbor as yourself. He didn't say love your neighbor from a safe distance, with good intentions, when it's convenient. So what does real, costly, cross-cultural neighborliness actually look like? And why is the church still struggling to get there? Our guest, Chanté Griffin, not only lives this out, she literally wrote the book on it.
Chanté Griffin is a literary artist, journalist, actor, and author of Loving Your Black Neighbor as Yourself: A Guide to Closing the Space Between Us. Her work sits at the intersection of racial equity, faith, and communal wellness. And she brings all of it to this conversation with warmth, wit, and a willingness to go there.
In this episode, Chanté and Christine dig into the Good Samaritan, not as a familiar Sunday school story, but as a radical, costly, cross-cultural act of love that Jesus held up as the standard. They talk about what keeps well-meaning white Christians stuck, why healing has to start inside the church before it can speak to the culture, and what it actually looks like to show up in a new community without making people your project.
In This Episode
The Good Samaritan retold: what crossing an ethnic line actually costs
Why you can't give what you haven't received
What genuine neighborliness requires
What the church is getting wrong about racial justice, and where to start
How to enter new communities with humility instead of a hero complex
Why curiosity might be the most underrated spiritual practice
The posture shift that changes everything
Why loving your Black neighbor is also an act of loving yourself
This conversation is an invitation to learn, to receive, and to love the way Jesus did.
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EP 34 Special Guest
Chanté Griffin
Chanté Griffin is a literary artist (journalist + author) and performing artist (actor + TV personality) who uses the arts and media to advocate for equity and wellness for all — particularly Black Americans. Her work centers on the intersection of racial equity and spiritual and communal wellness.
She is the author of Loving Your Black Neighbor as Yourself: A Guide to Closing the Space Between Us (WaterBrook/Penguin Random House). Contributing writer for The Washington Post, Faithfully Magazine, and LA Parent Magazine. Her work has appeared in EBONY, The Huffington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Good Housekeeping, Marie Claire, and more.
Chanté also coaches creatives through Spirit & Scribe, an online workshop at the intersection of writing craft and spiritual formation.
NOTE: Featuring a guest, resource, or organization on The Holy Shift does not necessarily constitute a blanket endorsement of their entire body of work.
The Holy Shift Resources
Related Resources & Inspiration
On the Blog
Black Love Lenses | by Chanté Griffin
Hearts have eyes — if not literally, then definitely metaphorically. Our hearts hold our innermost beliefs, and they reveal how we see and resultantly treat our Black Neighbors. If we allow our hearts to be examined, they reveal how much (or little) love we have for those neighbors and the ways our love needs to be purified.
Love Is… | Poetry + Prayer by Chanté Griffin
love is the wrapping of oneself around another. it’s handling someone with gloves to ensure they are well taken care of.
love is gentle and soft like a newborn’s tummy. love knows that the other is fragile, that it must handle with care. it makes concessions for the other, which makes love subject, even submissive, to the other. love doesn’t mind though.
Blackness as a Love Language | by Chanté Griffin
Blackness is my mother tongue, my very first love language. I was birthed in a Black Pentecostal church. My dark-skinned body was birthed into choir rocks and hand claps, my spirit reborn in the cool baptismal pool. My speech refined with new tongues, and my future prophesied into being.
Scripture
Luke 10:25–37 — The Good Samaritan
On one occasion an expert in the law stood op to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho…”
Mark 12:29–31 — The Great Commandment
Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord .And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
Quotes
Chanté Griffin:
Our cultures give us a different view of the world, ourselves, and God.
You are actually loving yourself when you choose to love your Black neighbor.
Healing and making things right starts from within.
The only side should be the side of the kingdom and the side of love.
Humility gives us the grace to love even when we don't yet understand. We don't have to understand someone's point of view to love them.
Christine Crawford:
We can't love our neighbor as we love ourselves as Jesus commanded unless we know our neighbor — and we can't know our neighbor unless we learn to listen. Really listen to their pain, their stories, and their experiences, especially if those are different from our own.
Loving our neighbor well means more than just having good intentions. It requires entering in.
Jesus didn't love from afar, and neither can we.
Music
Other Resources
DWELL Bible App & Prayer App
Longing for God’s Word in your life? Discover the Power of Listening to the Bible.
Hallow Prayer & Meditation App
Discover new ways to grow closer to God alongside millions of other Christians worldwide.
Abide Christian Meditation App
Christian Meditation Made Easy. Sleep better and stress less.
Lectio 365 Prayer & Meditation App
Free daily prayer app with morning, midday & night devotionals to help you experience God’s presence in your life.
Biblehub: Search, Read & Study
Online Bible Study Suite. Topical, Greek, and Hebrew study tools. Concordances, commentaries, sermons, and devotionals.