December 13, 2004

We hear so much about the Christian Right, especially during presidential election years. But what about the Christian Left?

It’ s alive and well — and active in many important social justice causes nationwide — but it has been flying below the media’s radar screen, according to Charles Marsh, professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia.

“Committed Christians have been working quietly for decades to cope with this country’s social problems,” said Marsh, the son of a Southern Baptist minister. “And many of them have opted out of national politics, putting their faith to work in grassroots efforts to ‘think globally, act locally.’ They are an overlooked and neglected social force that is helping to transform the country, one homeless shelter at a time.”

In his new book, “The Beloved Community: How Faith Shapes Social Justice, from the Civil Rights Movement to Today,” Marsh opens with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speaking at a weeklong Institute on Nonviolence and Social Change in Montgomery, Ala., in December 1956. At that meeting, King urges his listeners to consider the Montgomery bus boycott not only as a practical way to fight for civil rights, but also as a way to achieve a greater spiritual goal.

“The end is reconciliation, the end is redemption,” King said. “The end is the creation of the beloved community.”

The beloved community King had in mind combined a new social order with a spiritual journey that would bring together people long-separated by racism and hate.

“If I respond to hate with a reciprocal hate,” King said, “I do nothing but intensify the cleavage in the broken community. I can only close the gap…by meeting hate with love.”

Part history, part theology, part call to social action, Marsh’s book takes an in-depth look at the influence of Christian thought on the American civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s. He brings the story up-to-date by including recent faith-based efforts in community development — in Baltimore, Md., Charlottesville, Va., and Oakland, Calif. — that continue to serve the goals of civil rights and social justice. His book is of particular interest to Christian leaders and church members working for social justice, individuals involved in community development, and college students studying the history of the civil rights movement or religion.

Marsh believes the faith-based movement has been co-opted by the political right and used by “compassionate conservatives” to justify cuts in federal social spending.

“In fact, the faith-based movement has radical roots in the civil rights movement,” he writes. “At its best, the community development movement seeks to reclaim the theological commitments that animated the civil rights movement. The new legions of Christian radicals working in rural and urban areas remind us that beyond the difficult work of achieving legal equality awaits more difficult work – work that should be supported, not undermined, by the federal government.”

Regardless of what happens with the faith-based movement on the national political scene, Marsh believes it is important to honor the sacrifices of those who put their faith in God and their lives on the line during the civil rights movement. He sees their lives as inspiring examples of God working through individuals to create a better world.

“When we look at the story of the civil rights movement in the South, of those women and men who risked everything for beloved community, we see illuminated a rich and compelling way of life; but we also see an invitation,” he writes. “The good news of the story is that the same spiritual vision that animated the civil rights movement remains a vital source of moral energy and social discipline for the present age. The invitation says: Accept that vision as a gift and as a guide.”
The son of a Southern Baptist minister, Charles Marsh grew up in the segregated South. A graduate of Harvard Divinity School, he received a Ph.D. in religious studies from the University of Virginia where he currently serves as professor of religious studies and director of the Project on Lived Theology.

For more information, call Charles Marsh at (434) 924-6839, or contact him by email at crm3p@virginia.edu. For a review copy of his book, contact Jason Brantley, publicity director at Perseus Books, by phone at (212) 340-8164, or by email at jason.brantley@perseusbooks.com.