Black History Month
From Gospel of Freedom by Jonathan Rieder
“King did not rest his optimism on faith in the American dream, or the ordained nature of freedom in America. Instead, he found solace in his deep love of black people and the exceptional spirit of the slave ancestors.”
“The clergy [affirmed] that hatred and violence have no sanction in our religious and political traditions. That was a flagrant untruth. Violence and hatred were utterly Southern traditions when it came to black people. But it offered a nice aspirational note.”
“The ideology of moderation was mostly myth. [...] Activist black ministers reacted to the moral evasions of white religion, and Southern Christianity in particular, with disdain and indignation. The Reverend C. Herbert Oliver recalls, ‘All these preachers were preaching Jesus and God’s love. Yet they were satisfied with people being thrown in jail, and you can’t get a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. The Christianity that existed in Alabama was not the Christianity of the Bible.’ It still galls the Reverend C.T. Vivian, a legend of the nonviolent movement, that Southern whites profess to believe in every jot and tittle of the Bible and had the nerve to talk about a Christ of love. Yet they still hated millions of people for no reason other than the color of their skin. The preachers knew their congregants weren’t Christian, but they refused to condemn segregation or support a civil rights movement that was trying to create a world that reflected the love ethic of Jesus.”
“King did not rest his optimism on faith in the American dream, or the ordained nature of freedom in America. Instead, he found solace in his deep love of black people and the exceptional spirit of the slave ancestors.”
“The clergy [affirmed] that hatred and violence have no sanction in our religious and political traditions. That was a flagrant untruth. Violence and hatred were utterly Southern traditions when it came to black people. But it offered a nice aspirational note.”
“The ideology of moderation was mostly myth. [...] Activist black ministers reacted to the moral evasions of white religion, and Southern Christianity in particular, with disdain and indignation. The Reverend C. Herbert Oliver recalls, ‘All these preachers were preaching Jesus and God’s love. Yet they were satisfied with people being thrown in jail, and you can’t get a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. The Christianity that existed in Alabama was not the Christianity of the Bible.’ It still galls the Reverend C.T. Vivian, a legend of the nonviolent movement, that Southern whites profess to believe in every jot and tittle of the Bible and had the nerve to talk about a Christ of love. Yet they still hated millions of people for no reason other than the color of their skin. The preachers knew their congregants weren’t Christian, but they refused to condemn segregation or support a civil rights movement that was trying to create a world that reflected the love ethic of Jesus.”
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