{"id":130093,"date":"2024-06-20T12:32:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-20T16:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=130093"},"modified":"2024-06-20T18:37:36","modified_gmt":"2024-06-20T22:37:36","slug":"ct-justin-giboney-on-fred-shuttlesworth-rattlesnakes-dont-commit-suicide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=130093","title":{"rendered":"(CT) Justin Giboney on Fred Shuttlesworth–\u2018Rattlesnakes Don\u2019t Commit Suicide\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What\u2019s been most interesting to me about Shuttlesworth is how he personified the mixture of Christian orthodoxy and freedom fighting that characterized the primary stream of the Black church\u2019s social action tradition. As a pastor and leader, he called himself<\/a> a biblicist and an actionist, meaning he had a devout faith in the authority of Scripture while believing right doctrine compelled the Christian into social action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February, I preached one of the Black History Month sermons at Zion Baptist Church, a traditional Black church in Cincinnati. After the service, Judge Cheryl Grant, a longtime congregant, thanked me for delving into the legacy of civil rights advocate Fred Shuttlesworth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grant had been very close with the Shuttlesworth family after they moved from Birmingham to Cincinnati in 1961, and she was working on a documentary about him<\/a> with filmmaker Mark Vikram Purushotham<\/a> and biographer Andrew M. Manis. Her personal testimony about Shuttlesworth and his story of redemptive action has been more than inspiring for me, and now I\u2019d like to share his story with a wider audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shuttlesworth is an unsung hero of the civil rights movement. A cofounder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, he faced and ultimately outwitted Birmingham\u2019s infamous commissioner of public safety, Eugene \u201cBull\u201d Connor<\/a>, to advance racial justice in one of America\u2019s most obstinately segregated environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s been most interesting to me about Shuttlesworth is how he personified the mixture of Christian orthodoxy and freedom fighting that characterized the primary stream of the Black church\u2019s social action tradition. As a pastor and leader, he called himself<\/a> a biblicist and an actionist, meaning he had a devout faith in the authority of Scripture while believing right doctrine compelled the Christian into social action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>

\u201cThe American church\u2019s sins regarding race are a product of its failure to follow the Bible\u2019s mandates, not the consequence of following them too closely.\u201d@JustinEGiboney<\/a> this Juneteenth: https:\/\/t.co\/2qk8JhX4QW<\/a><\/p>\u2014 Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) June 19, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote>