Chris S. (AmateurHistorian) reviewed The Freedom Revolution and the Churches on + 48 more book reviews
Copyright 1965, National Board of Young Men's Christian Association, 128 pages. From the Preface:
What business does a white middle-class church bureaucrat have writing about the freedom movement in the United States?
One of the most obvious things about the surge of Negro protest efforts in this country is how little white people, even supposedly enlightened white people, have understood the real dynamics of these events. Church people bear a particular burden of guilt because they have so frequently sounded as if they did understand the issues, but really did not. They pay allegiance to a gospel that proclaims the infinite worth of each human soul in the eyes of God. The major opinion of church bodies in this country has been that segregation and discrimination against people on the basis of color are a sinful denial of that gospel. Brave souls have from time to time given personal witness on the streets and in jail in support of that belief. And yet, until very recently, the churches have been so caught up in the inertia of a white privileged class that they have betrayed their gospel and their few courageous adherents by tokenism and inaction.
These times are eschatological. Between riches and death, the Negro people of this nation have begun a social revolution that will alter the life of every single person in this nation and in the world, before it is done.
This book, then, is a tract about the events of the immediate past and present in the freedom movement.
To God be the thanks and the praise!
What business does a white middle-class church bureaucrat have writing about the freedom movement in the United States?
One of the most obvious things about the surge of Negro protest efforts in this country is how little white people, even supposedly enlightened white people, have understood the real dynamics of these events. Church people bear a particular burden of guilt because they have so frequently sounded as if they did understand the issues, but really did not. They pay allegiance to a gospel that proclaims the infinite worth of each human soul in the eyes of God. The major opinion of church bodies in this country has been that segregation and discrimination against people on the basis of color are a sinful denial of that gospel. Brave souls have from time to time given personal witness on the streets and in jail in support of that belief. And yet, until very recently, the churches have been so caught up in the inertia of a white privileged class that they have betrayed their gospel and their few courageous adherents by tokenism and inaction.
These times are eschatological. Between riches and death, the Negro people of this nation have begun a social revolution that will alter the life of every single person in this nation and in the world, before it is done.
This book, then, is a tract about the events of the immediate past and present in the freedom movement.
To God be the thanks and the praise!
