Robert Callahan is a lawyer and author. In 2012, he was nominated Outstanding Young Lawyer of the Year by the McLennan County Young Lawyers’ Association. In 2016, he was named one of the National Black Lawyers’ Top 100 Lawyers, and in 2020, he was named the Top Criminal Defense Attorney in the State of Texas, receiving the Percy Foreman Award.
By Beth Allison Barr
If I had one word to describe my friend Robert Callahan, it would be brave. Brave enough to fight for his clients in the courtroom, so much so that he was named the Top Criminal Defense Attorney in the State of Texas in 2020. Brave enough to care for people more than profit, providing legal advice to those in need and taking time in his busy life as a trial lawyer, law school instructor, and author to reach out and encourage people like me.
Brave enough to leave a prominent evangelical church that had been his family’s long-time home because it refused to face its own racism. Brave enough to tell his story through his powerful (and cleverly humorous) 2024 book, Fire in the Whole: Embracing Our Righteous Anger with White Christianity and Reclaiming Our Wholeness. And brave enough, at a time when it is so easy and understandable to walk away from faith, to stand and fight instead. I am so proud to call Robert Callahan my friend. May he inspire you as much as he inspires me.
—Beth Allison Barr is the James Vardaman Endowed Professor of History at Baylor University and the author of The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth.
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Reflection and resources at the intersection of faith and culture through an inclusive Christian lens.
