{"id":260,"date":"2013-02-04T04:50:40","date_gmt":"2013-02-04T04:50:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/keepingthefaith\/?p=260"},"modified":"2012-12-29T18:16:00","modified_gmt":"2012-12-29T18:16:00","slug":"more-than-we-can-stand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/keepingthefaith\/2013\/02\/more-than-we-can-stand.html","title":{"rendered":"More Than We Can Stand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/keepingthefaith\/files\/2012\/12\/campbell.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-261\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/349\/2012\/12\/campbell-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>In the previous generation there were at least three great Southern-born prophets: Martin Luther King, Jr., Clarence Jordan, and Will Campbell. Campbell is the only one still living. He is nearing his 90<sup>th<\/sup> year, and is a self-proclaimed prickly, \u201cbootleg preacher\u201d from Mississippi with a Baptist ordination, a foul four-letter-word dropping mouth, and a love for Bourbon and country music that is just short of his love for Jesus.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Educated at Wake Forest, Tulane and Yale, he has been a pastor, chaplain, an executive with the National Council of Churches, and a writer. But he is most respected for his tireless work toward racial equality in the civil rights South, and his no-compromise, no pulled-punches attitude when it comes to the message of reconciliation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\u201cGod is ready to forgive and restore all who will come,\u201d he has preached for decades now. When asked how he would summarize his theology and his work, in Campbell\u2019s iconoclastic style he answered, \u201cWe are all bastards; but God loves us anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">This belief was put to the test during the racial violence and upheaval of the 1960s. One of Will\u2019s best friends, a seminary student and Civil Rights worker named Jonathan Daniels, was shot and killed by an Alabama sheriff. The sheriff was acquitted by \u201ca jury of his peers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Will retreated to Fairhope, Alabama, to grieve and rage, taking refuge at the home of friend P.D. East. East was an agnostic newspaper editor who wanted racial equality as well, but he was not an adherent to the Christian gospel. So while Will stalked around the house, angrily grieving Daniel\u2019s death and the uncorrected injustice against him, P.D. confronted Campbell directly:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\u201cCome on, Brother,\u201d P.D. said. \u201cLet&#8217;s talk about your definition of the gospel. Was Jonathan a bastard?\u201d Will responded that he was sure that everyone is a sinner in one way or another, but that Jonathan was one of the sweetest, gentlest guys he had ever known.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">P.D. persisted: \u201cBut was he a bastard? Now, that&#8217;s your word, not mine. That\u2019s a pretty tough word. I know, \u2018cause I am one; a real one. My mama wasn&#8217;t married to my daddy. Now, by God, you tell me right now, yes or no: Was Jonathan Daniel a bastard?\u201d Will finally said, \u201cYes, Daniel was.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">P.D. East pulled his chair close to Will and just above a whisper asked, \u201cWhich one of those two bastards do you think God loves the most \u2013 Jonathan or that sheriff? Now, you\u2019re the one who always told me about how simple the gospel is. Just answer the question: Which one of those two does God love the most?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Here are Will Campbell\u2019s words of response: \u201cSuddenly, everything became clear. Everything. It was a revelation. I walked across the room and opened the blind, staring directly into the glare of the street light. And I began to whimper. But the crying was interspersed with laughter. It was a strange experience. I remember trying to sort out the sadness and the joy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\u201cJust what was I crying for, and what was I laughing for? Then this, too, became clear. I was laughing at myself, at twenty years of a ministry which had become, without my realizing it\u2026an attempted negation of Jesus\u2026a theology of law and order and of denying the faith I professed to hold. That sheriff was indeed as loved by God as Jonathan Daniel. And if loved, forgiven. And if forgiven, reconciled.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\u201cP.D. came and stood beside me, handing me his half-empty beer. The lesson was over. Class dismissed. But I had one last thing I had to say to the teacher: \u2018P.D\u2026damned if you ain\u2019t made a Christian out of me. And I\u2019m not sure I can stand it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">This is the category-exploding, boundary-breaking, world-upturning gospel: God\u2019s grace trumps everything. God\u2019s love welcomes all who will come. God\u2019s forgiveness is no \u201crespecter of persons,\u201d even those persons for whom we ourselves have little mercy. Yes, this is sometimes more than we can stand, but it is the no-compromise, no pulled-punches message of reconciliation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the previous generation there were at least three great Southern-born prophets: Martin Luther King, Jr., Clarence Jordan, and Will Campbell. Campbell is the only one still living. He is nearing his 90th year, and is a self-proclaimed prickly, \u201cbootleg preacher\u201d from Mississippi with a Baptist ordination, a foul four-letter-word dropping mouth, and a love&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":441,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,18,42],"tags":[57,3,50],"class_list":["post-260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grace","category-kingdom-of-god","category-tragedy","tag-clarence-jordan","tag-ronnie-mcbrayer","tag-will-campbell"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>More Than We Can Stand - Keeping The Faith<\/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\/keepingthefaith\/2013\/02\/more-than-we-can-stand.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"More Than We Can Stand - Keeping The Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the previous generation there were at least three great Southern-born prophets: Martin Luther King, Jr., Clarence Jordan, and Will Campbell. 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