Set in racially troubled Mississippi in the 1960s, at the height of the civil rights movement, Jujitsu for Christ naturally reflects the social turmoil of its time and place. Indeed, the novel's social concerns are most obviously centered in the relations between the races, white and black, both on the larger scale of society as a whole and on the individual scale of the characters in the book.

It is clear through the personalities of the characters and their actions and interactions with one another that this novel affirms and upholds such values as love, tolerance, and community.

This is not to say that the novel is didactic, or that it "preaches" its "message" to the reader. On the contrary, the novel's social values are inculcated subtly by the author's dramatizing and exemplifying them (and their opposites) in the thoughts, statements, and behavior of the characters...