The Beloved Community

I enjoyed this book very much. Charles Marsh provides vast information on multiple Christian based leaders and groups whose goal for their faith-based movements was to create a beloved community. He explores how these leaders came to find their religious calling. One will learn about Martin Luther King, Clarence Jordan and the Koinonia Farm, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and John Perkins among many others. As one learns about their journeys into their religion, one is able to understand better and connect more to their love for the spirit of God. As I read the book, I was able to empathize with a lot of the work these religious activists were involved in. Their personal stories made me realize how courageous these people truly were. They risked so much for the well-being of community! It also made me reflect on the power of the spirit of God and how amazing those transformative and epiphanic moments were to them. Marsh presents how when their work strayed from their religious roots, some of the work didn’t seem to prove as successful.Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said in a sermon: “We are a chain. We are linked together, and I cannot be what I ought to unless you are what you ought to be.” He spoke of our interconnectedness and our collective soul. He called for a transformative power of love. As you read this book, you explore the different journeys and experiences of different religious leaders and how their living faith shaped their involvement in their communities in their fight for social justice. As you read, you can witness how their involvement in social justice issues is not just driven by theology, but it’s truly an important matter to them as it is connected to everyone’s humanity. They found the courage and motivation in their faith. Some believed that we must meet hate with love, and we must meet violence with nonviolence. Their level of involvement in society to bring about change varied among the different religious leaders and groups. They all demonstrated that it needed to go beyond their church.The book especially explores the deep involvement of the black church in the fight for desegregation and equal rights of African Americans. In trying to achieve a beloved community, some tried to build racially integrated communities to fight powers of authority; others worked within their own groups. Zellner, a white religious leader, made a great point that, just like black people need to fight for their freedom, “white shackles need to be broken too.” White people need to break free from the racism that has been instilled in them and reinforced throughout their lives by their environment and systems of oppression. Having said that, I recommend this book for everyone to read. We should all be so courageous to fight hate with “weapons of love.” How do you find that strength to do so? Read the book and you can see how each of these religious leaders approached their specific conditions and circumstances.Although the book’s focus is to show how faith has shaped social justice in terms of its leadership, there are secular ways in which people in general can connect to the main goals of the different movements. As I read the book, one thing that became clear to me was that there needs to be a certain level of faith in order to truly find the courage to lead a fight for justice. Many of these leaders were willing to die or suffer consequences for their beliefs in justice, and when there were problems and obstacles, it was faith that got them through those horrible times and reenergized their spirits.haped social justice in terms of its leadership, there are secular ways in which people in general can connect to the main goals of the different movements. As I read the book, one thing that became clear to me was that there needs to be a certain level of faith in order to truly find the courage to lead a fight for justice. Many of these leaders were willing to die or suffer consequences for their beliefs in justice, and when there were problems and obstacles, it was faith that got them through those horrible times and reenergized their spirits.

The authenticity of Christian community in postmodern North America is both of scholarly and personal (pastoral) interest to me. In preparing a chapter on how the church might express itself as the Body of Christ in an ever-secularizing social venue I happened upon this quite beautiful monograph. My main interest in reading it was to explore the extent to which social justice should motivate a Christian community. I found a lot to think about here, much more than I anticipated.As a professor and historian of the United States I am well read in the origins and progress of the Civil Rights movement. The author of this book covers the same chronological ground as most. Where Marsh's monograph differs is in that at the center of the discussion is the issue of how a Christian theological impulse toward justice and reconciliation drove the Civil Rights movement to the peak of its success, and how a secularization of the movement led to its dissipation and collapse.As we in the United States experience the fury and tragedy of an unfinished project of reconciliation On the one hand we see the effects of intrinsic racism expressed in a criminal justice system that disproportionately penalizes poor blacks. On the other we are surrounded by a barely concealed knee-jerk Islamophobia that poisons our national discourse almost as hatefully as the unrestrained bigotry of Jim Crow. We wonder where the church fits. Postmodernism, more than anything else, informs us that we can't solve these problems on our own.This book convincingly demonstrates that when the Body of Christ acts to do the work of Christ in building the beloved community, real positive change can occur. And the change is not just the alleviation of material inequity, as important as that is, it is the deliberate enactment of the Kingdom of God on earth. That is indeed Christ's mission, and the mission of his church. But it also shows that when the project became secularized it lost its way. Marsh writes, "When the movement lost its anchor in the church, it began to splinter into activist groups whose spiritual visions were no larger than concerns for their own flourishing, and this proved devastating, since people are not inclined toward social relocation, economic redistribution, or racial reconciliation unless they see their own life stories in a larger theological narrative." (199)I have long been inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement. I have admired from afar those who were willing to sacrifice so much to make God's justice real in the world. I have been stirred by King's expressed theology as well as his courage to act. This book only adds to my admiration, and as well introduces a number of others who shared the struggle both alongside King and after. I am not sure whether the stimulation and encouragement I experienced while reading this volume stems from the subject matter or its presentation. Probably both. The subject matter aside, Marsh is both a careful scholar and a fine author given to poetic turn of phrase and insightful analysis.The book is both historical and theological. It shows us how the Body of Christ has expressed itself in creative ways to create real change, and it calls us to go and do likewise. It provides solid empirical evidence that the Body of Christ can do what secular society cannot, and it thoughtfully answers a question it didn't ask but I did: building the beloved community is the work the church is here to do.

Charles Marsh has written about the South, his father, and the hate that was practiced during the Civil Rights era. I knew Charles' father when he was pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dothan, Alabama. He moved to Mississippi and saw the light. In Alabama he defended segregation, and in Mississippi he stood tall for civil rights and the rights of all men and women. This is a good record of the conditions in Southern Baptist churches in that era, and it is a story of redemption of a minister who saw the light and followed that light. This book is a book worthy the reading of every student of Civil Rights history in the South, especially in Alabama and Mississippi. Reverend Marsh stood face to face and toe to toe with the KKK, and he saw the leaders march to prison.

Anyone concerned about race relations or living faithful to God needs to read this book. Well researched, well written. I read and re-read it and give it to others.

Great survey of the Christian basis of Dr. King and Civil Rights, Clarence Jordan and Koinonia Farms, and SNCC (Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee). Showed the influence of Christianity in its beginning and currently. Then second half of the book surveyed some current Christian ministries that maintain a strong Christian foundation and continue to pursue the beloved community based on the person of Jesus Christ. Especially powerful details around the Christian Community Development Association and Dr. John Perkins. Beautiful story. Very encouraging in pursuing the Beloved Community.

Charles Marsh has written the best book I have ever read on how faith shaped social justice during the civil rights movement. Absolutely brilliant, well researched, and profoundly relevant for today.

Everything was great. Thank you very much

Great book!