{"id":356,"date":"2007-08-04T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-04T02:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jazztheologian\/2007\/08\/what-if-they-li.html"},"modified":"2007-08-04T02:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-04T02:00:00","slug":"what-if-they-li","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2007\/08\/what-if-they-li.html","title":{"rendered":"What if they lived life in concert?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kinggraham\"<\/a> The Greatest Partnership that never happened.<\/p>\n

Chris Rice, Author of Grace Matters? wrote the following article that appeared in Sojourners Magazine in 1998.  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

One of the most instructive but little-known stories in the search for racial healing is the intriguing relationship between two of the most significant American Christians of the 20th century. Two years after the <\/p>\n

Montgomery<\/p>\n

bus boycott began, Billy Graham invited Martin Luther King Jr. to deliver a prayer at his 1957 crusade in <\/p>\n

New York City<\/p>\n

. It was an amazing step for a white Southern preacher with a growing national reputation who already was being criticized for taking racial integration too far. <\/span><\/p>\n

The two held three private strategy meetings in the months afterward. King began to look at Graham’s crusades as a model for his mass meetings and dreamed about joint crusades that would convert racially mixed audiences first in the North and ultimately in the Deep South. <\/span><\/p>\n

Imagine the power of a King-Graham alliance: Two southerners\u2014one <\/p>\n

America<\/p>\n

‘s great apostle of justice, the other, our great apostle of evangelism, together in the pulpit. Graham cutting the air with a challenge, calling for the heart change, "You must be born again!"; King’s voice resounding, calling for the proof: the "descendants of former slaves and slave-holders sitting at the table of fellowship together." <\/span><\/p>\n

But King and Graham broke ranks over a tension that continues to plague our attempts at becoming one body. In his history of the civil rights movement, Parting the Waters<\/em>, Taylor Branch writes:<\/span><\/p>\n

Dreams [of partnership] floundered…on the question of emphasis between politics and pure religion. [King’s friends] found Graham increasingly unwilling to talk about the worldly aspects of the race issue….Furthermore, racial polarization was making it more difficult for Graham to hold interracial meetings at all. Like countless Southern moderates, he was being forced to choose, and within a year King would be writing to \u2018Brother Graham’ pleading with him not to allow segregationist politicians on the platform of the San Antonio crusade. The two preachers tacitly agreed to confine their cooperation to privacy.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Graham and his evangelicals desperately needed King. When a movement such as Promise Keepers still gets only a sprinkling of black participation (despite intense efforts), it’s clear that white evangelicals whose predecessors stood on the sidelines of the civil rights movement are still digging out of a deep hole to earn the trust of the black church. <\/span><\/p>\n

BILLY GRAHAM SEEMS to have regrets. When asked, "What is the most serious issue facing the church?" he has answered, "Racial reconciliation." He has also expressed his regret for not preaching more about "the <\/p>\n

kingdom<\/p>\n

of <\/p>\n

God<\/p>\n

," which he defined as "justice for all."<\/span><\/p>\n

King needed Graham just as much. Many are convinced that King had serious moral failures in his personal life. While this does not diminish his contributions\u2014few American Christians have ever endured as much torment and persecution for the sake of the gospel\u2014King’s moral blindspot may expose what became a serious weakness in the civil rights revolution itself. What began as a spiritual movement in the church became primarily a political assault that failed to prepare a freed people for post-desegregation moral challenges.<\/span><\/p>\n

Especially overlooked were those African Americans who remain in <\/p>\n

America<\/p>\n

‘s inner cities. Since the 1960s\u2014despite courageous attempts by many grassroots leaders\u2014the moral high ground of the civil rights movement has slowly eroded through failure to address these challenges adequately. Into this vacuum stepped Louis Farrakhan, quoting Christian scripture more than the Quran, sounding the religious theme of "atonement," and calling for foundations of marriage, responsible fatherhood, and personal responsibility.<\/span><\/p>\n

King’s focus would have had to change\u2014from battling racial enemies without to also facing moral enemies within. To their partnership Billy Graham would have brought a powerful emphasis on personal transformation and renewal. Graham would have been transformed as well, forced to face the realization early on that social sins are every bit as much "moral" issues as are personal ones.<\/span><\/p>\n

In my own city of <\/p>\n

Jackson<\/p>\n

, <\/p>\n

Mississippi<\/p>\n

, two interracial, church-based movements have sprung up, giving powerful leadership to racial reconciliation. One, <\/p>\n

Mission<\/p>\n

Mississippi<\/p>\n

, focuses primarily on prayer, relationships, and family issues. The other, the Amos Network, focuses on organizing to address urban problems. Both are desperately needed. But like most other cities I visit, the self-proclaimed "conservatives" and "liberals" often seem embarrassed even to be discovered in the same room together, much less become partners.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nationally, groups like Promise Keepers and the Call to Renewal have just begun to talk to one another. One focuses on reconciliation through relationships; the other on justice attacking structural racism. One emphasizes social renewal based in family and marriage; the other on social renewal based in community development, a new civic culture, and love for the poor.<\/span><\/p>\n

King and Graham exemplify probably the greatest Christian partnership that never happened: two ministers of the gospel, representing two streams that truly need each other but have never combined in a massive, interracial movement. An alliance between these two streams would have turned the American church upside-down. <\/span><\/p>\n

It still could. Do we dare unsettle our constituencies and comfort zones to begin an honest conversation to find common ground?<\/span><\/p>\n

Chris Rice was director of Reconcilers Fellowship in Jackson, Mississippi, when this article appeared<\/em>. (Sojourners, Jan-Feb. 1998 http:\/\/www.sojo.net\/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj9801&article=980141e)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Greatest Partnership that never happened. Chris Rice, Author of Grace Matters? wrote the following article that appeared in Sojourners Magazine in 1998. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat if they lived life in concert? - The Jazz Theologian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2007\/08\/what-if-they-li.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What if they lived life in concert? - The Jazz Theologian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Greatest Partnership that never happened. 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Author of Finding the Groove: Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith (Zondervan) and the upcoming, Strange Fruit: The Cross as a Way of Life (2011). Founder of Project 127, a ministry dedicated to seeing the day when there are no children waiting for homes in Colorado's foster care system. Robert deeply desires to see the body of Christ mobilized to serve the least of these. The poor, the down and out, the disenfranchised and disabled, those deemed unimportant and the unborn. He believes that God loves all people yet he has a special heart for the poor and the poor in spirit, the miserable and the marginalized. A Contributing Editor for Leadership Journal and Urbanfaith.com. He acquired a B.A. in Bibilcal Studies from Colorado Christian University and a Master of Arts in World Christianity (Missiology) from Denver Seminary. Robert is married to the love of his life, Barbara, and they have six energetic children (3 boys & 3 girls--one bio, five adopted--two from Ethiopia). Friend of God...Passionate about the Body of Christ...Lover of this thing called jazz! Please visit Jazztheologian.com for contact info., speaking schedule, videos, Facebook and Twitter.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/author\/rgelinas"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}