Tyler Merritt

This book opens with a heavy moment of racial stereotyping of an innocent black male as suspect, even criminal. Then it introduces us to that man’s life story. Hardly nefarious, author Tyler Merritt has overcome numerous challenges to embrace life today. With loads of humor and empathy, he lets readers know what it feels to be him. He is entangled at times with fame, but in the long run, he learns to be authentically himself.

His journey started in Las Vegas, Nevada. The son of a military father (Air Force) and a mother in banking, he found a calling in a magnet high school’s theater program. He also found a religious identity at a Christian youth camp. After that, it seems, life, with all its ups and downs, started to happen. He lived a creative life. Turning down a handful of full scholarships to attend a Bible college, he started a Christian rock band. After moving to Nashville, he realized that his band did not fit the Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) market well. Messages of social and racial justice, though firmly rooted in the Christian Scriptures, did not play well in the conservative white communities that listened to CCM.

Merritt began to fill other roles, like a youth pastor, a dramatic voice for Sunday School lessons, a social media influencer, a YouTube videographer, an activist, and now, an author. He learned many lessons from these roles. These often-painful lessons spoke to some hard truths about American Christianity and about American culture more generally. Like it or not, people pigeon-holed him into being treated like a black man, not quite a full human being. He also found dark, contradictory corners of the world and does not hesitate to shine a light upon them. He made many eye-opening mistakes along the way, but he never refuses to take responsibility for them. He owns the shortcomings we all have.

Simply, Tyler Merritt is a human being, one of us. His background in theater brings along a compelling communication style. He helped me, a white man, understand black culture and mannerisms better. Even 60 years after Jim Crow was legally dismantled, too many social conventions of white supremacy need deconstructing. As someone who has spent much life among white people – and particularly white Christians – Merritt can speak hard truths that we need to hear.

Growing up in Southern Baptist Christianity, his story would be correctly categorized as a testimony, one with the chance to minister to us. Or to put things in non-churchy language, this memoir has the opportunity to invoke national healing. Anyone who reads this will laugh, maybe cry, be outraged, and experience every other human emotion along the way. In the long run, you will know better who this character is. He is proudly a black man, but at the end of this narrative, you’ll feel more deeply like you’ve found a new friend.… (mer)

In this story little Tyler is spending the summer at his Grandparents house. He meets a new friend named Jack. They have a great time until one day they do to show off all their freshly caught fish and Tyler learns that some people in the neighborhood do not want a black boy in their house. Jack goes in and leaves Tyler on the doorstep. Tyler is hurt but comforted by his grandfather who helps him process the hurt.

Beautiful pictures with expressive features help tell this story about a young boy who decides to continue to love himself. Despite the hurtful actions of the neighborhood, he decided to find his own door and open it for himself.… (mer)