Synopsis:
As an ordinary high school student in the 1960s, Tom Tarrants became deeply unsettled by the social upheaval of the era. In response, he turned for answers to extremist ideology and was soon utterly radicalized. Before long, he became involved in the reign of terror spread by Mississippi’s dreaded White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, described by the FBI as the most violent right-wing terrorist organization in America.
In 1969, while attempting to bomb the home of a Jewish leader in Meridian, Mississippi, Tom was ambushed by law enforcement and shot multiple times during a high-speed chase. Nearly dead from his wounds, he was arrested and sentenced to thirty years in the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman Farm. Unrepentant, Tom and two other inmates made a daring escape from Parchman yet were tracked down by an FBI SWAT team and apprehended in hail of bullets that killed one of the convicts. Tom spent the next three years alone in a six-foot-by-nine-foot cell. There he began a search for truth that led him to the Bible and a reading of the gospels, resulting in his conversion to Jesus Christ and liberation from the grip of racial hatred and violence.
Astounded by the change in Tom, many of the very people who worked to put him behind bars began advocating for his release. After serving eight years of a 35-year sentence, Tom left prison. He attended college, moved to Washington, DC, and became copastor of a racially mixed church. He went on to earn a doctorate and became the president of the C. S. Lewis Institute, where he devoted himself to helping others become wholehearted followers of Jesus.
A dramatic story of radical transformation, Consumed by Hate, Redeemed by Love demonstrates that hope is not lost even in the most tumultuous of times, even those similar to our own.
You may be like me…I have never heard of this guy nor this book. I just happened to come across this guy’s name while reading another book that takes place in Mississippi – Crooked Snake by Lovejoy Boteler. I decided to search Tarrants name which is how I came across his book. Although the book sounded interesting, I wasn’t “sold” on reading it until I came across a comment he made about Chuck Colson encouraging him to write his story. I love Charles “Chuck” Colson so decided to read it.
Although I did not like this book as much as Colson’s book Born Again, it was an amazing story of redemption. I couldn’t help but think how impactful this story could be if public schools were allowed to share these stories along with civil rights history (FYI…private schools can share these stories, and I would encourage them to do so). Not only would this story be beneficial in helping students see God’s work even through the evil acts by men but students would also realize that no matter what “history” they have, if they are a believer then they are a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
Considering the level of antisemitism today, I believe this is a great book to read in order to learn and to understand how one can become so engulfed in a radical/extremist ideology, especially when the person comes from a family NOT consumed with hate. He walks you through how he gradually became consumed with extremist ideology and just absolutely pure hate. But wow!!!! What an amazing story he has about how God brought him to Himself!
Additional Resources:
I Was a White Supremacist article
