Contains JUNE Nurturing Faith Lessons ‘Loving respect, clear disagreement 4 MAY 2012 baptiststoday.org Nurturing Faith expands to provide new resources | 9 WHY WE’RE HUNGRY FOR THE THE HUNGER GAMES 29 Pastoral Perspectives with Jack Glasgow | 30 ™ Redeeming Faith BIBLE STUDIES and Sports | 36 for adults and youth 17 JUNE lessons inside BAPTIST MINISTER SETTLES INTO AMBASSADOR ROLE May 2012 7 Vol. 30, No. 5 baptiststoday.org John D. Pierce Executive Editor [email protected] Julie Steele Chief Operations Officer [email protected] Jackie B. Riley Managing Editor [email protected] Tony W. Cartledge Contributing Editor [email protected] Bruce T. Gourley PERSPECTIVE Online Editor [email protected] Collaboration is key to success 9 John Pierce David Cassady Church Resources Editor [email protected] ‘… In fact, we have to serve’ 14 Terri Byrd Colin McCartney Contributing Writer Vickie Frayne The significance of Adoniram Judson 33 Art Director Richard V. 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Information | 3 "#$%& '() *+$#$ ,& -$+( *./%0/ ‘Loving respect, clear disagreement’ Vincent Harding brought Martin Luther King Jr. and Clarence Jordan together to discuss their different approaches to a common goal TLANTA — Martin Luther King Jr. and Clarence Jordan used different means toward the same end: racial equality. A King orchestrated mass boycotts to cripple economic systems and raise awareness of the injustices against African Americans. Jordan suffered the brunt of boycotts launched against his interracial farming community in Southwest Georgia — along with direct acts of violence. At Jordan’s request, mutual friend Vincent Harding brought the two together in Albany, Ga., in 1961 to discuss their difference perspectives. Suprisingly, this quiet but spirited meet- ing of two Georgia-born Baptists — with strong devotion to breaking down human bar- Historian, biographer and activist Vincent Harding, in an interview with Baptists Today, tells of a little-known riers of discrimination — has remained little meeting he arranged for Clarence Jordan to share with Martin Luther King Jr. his opposition to boycotts. known. But Harding recalled that meeting and other events from the Southern freedom move- “Why do we keep talking about this? Maybe Chicago. But on this September day in 1958, ment in a March interview with Baptists Today some of us should just see what happens if we they decided to give it a try. at the Atlanta University Center. did this in the South.” “It didn’t make sense to be on our kind of Harding described himself and his peers journey, to be in Alabama and not try to make HEADED SOUTH as “kind of crazy anyway.” So five young men contact with him,” Harding recalled his band of A careful historian, Harding recalls the events — three white, two black — piled into an brothers saying to one another. going back more than a half-century with old station wagon and headed for Little Rock To his surprise, a bank of phone books in caution but surprising clarity. At age 81, he where desegregation battles had made the Mobile had the phone number listed for the confesses that some of things he witnessed news. pastor’s home in Montgomery. Coretta Scott and some events he has written about over the Some might call them an early version of King answered. years may blend together. “freedom riders,” said Harding. But “Christian “Martin had been stabbed by a deranged But a memorable trip from Chicago to the riders” would be more fitting, he said, as their woman in Harlem on a book-signing tour,” said South in 1958 — in which he first met King faith in Christ clearly drove their mission. Harding, an event that hadn’t registered with and Jordan, separately — is quite clear. After moving through Arkansas and him at the time of his call. “He had gone home While studying at the University of Mississippi, the young men headed for to recover.” Chicago, Harding was part of a pastoral team Southern Alabama to a Mennonite camp. Coretta said she was uncertain if Martin in the “experimental, interracial” Woodlawn Finding interracial housing in the South at would be able to meet with them, but for them Mennonite Church — where bright, young that time was very difficult. to come on by. So they drove to Montgomery. and idealistic members liked to talk about the Upon their arrival, Coretta went back to the struggle for racial equality. They were mostly BEDSIDE MEETING bedroom to tell her husband about the young students or recent graduates of the University of None of the five had ever met King, though Mennonites. She reported back that “he’d be Chicago or the Mennonite Biblical Seminary. Harding recalled having heard the rising civil very glad to see you.” With King in his pajamas Eventually, the conversation shifted to: rights leader speak to a large gathering in and robe, the five young men from Chicago 4 | Feature gathered chairs around his bed and made a “wonderful first connection.” Harding recalled being impressed by King’s Vincent Harding: ‘Keeper of a Story’ “tremendous sense of humor.” “He kept congratulating us on the great feat By John Pierce At age 81, and with many participants of being able to get through Mississippi alive.” in and eyewitnesses to the struggles of the Harding said they talked about what King ATLANTA — Vincent Harding is revered ’50s and ’60s no longer around, Harding was trying to do in Montgomery and what they for both his work as a civil rights activist and said “there is clearly a sense of being a keeper were trying to do in Chicago. They asked King his excellent writings on the subject includ- of a story.” But he wants to do more than about his hope for the South as a whole. ing biographies of his friend Martin Luther share historical facts. After about two hours, the men were leaving King Jr. Students of the freedom movement “My deepest intention is not simply to when King looked at Harding and his friend Ed know that he drafted “A Time to Break pass on the story of that which took place Riddick and said: “You guys are Mennonites; you Silence,” King’s famous speech in opposition before they were born,” said Harding, “but to know about this matter of nonviolence. We need to the Vietnam War, delivered at Riverside encourage them to understand why they need you. You ought to come down here and work Church in New York City in 1967. to know that story in the light of what they with us sometime.” Born in Harlem, Harding attended are planning for their own lives in the future.” New York Public Schools and earned a He reminds young students that it’s history degree from the City College of ON TO KOINONIA only been about 60 years that this country New York in 1952. The following year he has been committed to building a multiracial Clarence Jordan’s interracial and controversial graduated from Columbia University with a democracy — and that “when it comes to farm outside of Americus, Ga., was a certain master’s degree in journalism.