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The Sunday Forum, March 30, 2008 Faith and Civil Rights |
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Sunday Forums
Sunday Forum On-Demand:
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Sunday, March 30, 2008, 10–10:50 am Faith and Civil Rights with civil rights leader and Congressman John Lewis
Synopsis
Lewis was serious about his faith from an early age. “Preacher” was his childhood nickname, and at age four he had a congregation—a flock—of chickens to whom he preached on the family farm. “Some of these chickens would bow their heads, some of these chickens would shake their heads,” he recalls. “They never quite said amen, but they tended to listen to me better than some of my colleagues listen to me today in the Congress.” Lewis represents the Fifth Congressional District of Georgia in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Lewis studied, and committed himself to, nonviolent means of protest. He participated in sit-ins, peaceful marches, and the Freedom Rides. He was beaten and spat upon, and arrested dozens of times. During beatings, Lewis always sought to look his assailant in the eye, to make human contact and acknowledge the spark of divinity in every person. “You have to have the power, the willingness to forgive, and accept the suffering and the violence in the right spirit,” he says.
Dr. King “went with his gut…with his soul. He felt he was doing the right thing, and he was carrying out the mission, the calling, of God almighty,” Lewis asserts. 
About the GuestJohn Lewis has represented Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1986. A leader of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, he has continued to champion human rights and civil liberties in America and around the world over the last forty years. Lewis is the author of Walking With the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement and the recipient of numerous humanitarian awards, including the only John F. Kennedy “Profile in Courage Award” for Lifetime Achievement granted by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation.
(also listed in Cathedral worship service leaflets) For more information, please contact Deryl Davis at (202) 537-6382 or e-mail ddavis@cathedral.org. |
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John Lewis discusses faith and civil rights with Dean Lloyd, as part
of a week of Cathedral events devoted to racial reconciliation.
As Lewis grew up, his faith deepened, and he thought about
Christianity in light of racial oppression. “Segregation was not in
keeping with my Christian faith. It was not in keeping with the
teachings of the Great Teacher,” he comments. As a teenager he was
inspired by the actions of Rosa Parks and the preaching of the Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. He later became closely affiliated with Dr. King
and co-founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or
SNCC.
The discussion includes a recorded excerpt from Dr. King’s last
Sunday sermon, preached at the Cathedral forty years ago. Lewis
considers what Dr. King would say, had he survived until today. “He
would tell us to take care of the poor, to provide for the homeless, to
provide food for those that need a decent meal, to clothe the naked, to
visit those in prison…and study war no more,” Lewis says, making
references to Jesus’ teachings as well as Dr. King’s work for civil
rights.