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Bible Interpretation

  1. Lesson One
    Early Bible Interpretation
    16 Activities
    |
    6 Assessments
  2. Lesson Two
    Modern Biblical Interpretation
    17 Activities
    |
    3 Assessments
  3. Lesson Three
    Systematic and Biblical Theology
    13 Activities
    |
    3 Assessments
  4. Lesson Four
    Case Study in Biblical Theology
    16 Activities
    |
    4 Assessments
  5. Lesson Five
    The Context of Revelation
    10 Activities
    |
    2 Assessments
  6. Course Wrap-Up
    Course Completion
    1 Activity
    |
    1 Assessment

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Bible Interpretation Systematic and Biblical Theology In Front | Civil Rights and the Bible
Lesson 3, Activity 12

In Front | Civil Rights and the Bible

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Biblical images and passages, sometimes from the same parts of the Bible, were used to make a case against institutionalized racial inequality. References in powerful speeches by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to the “promised land” and the “mountaintop” may be the most well-known biblical references in the civil rights movement.

King was not the only activist to refer to the Bible in his pursuit of justice. Many of the leaders show a similar mix of biblical theology and what some call “contextual theology.”

Modjeska Simkins, the secretary of the NAACP in South Carolina, drew on a wide range of biblical themes and images in her invective against racism. She compared white persecution and lynching to the murder of Abel by his brother Cain in Genesis, and offered a connection between Job and the African-American people:

Like ourselves—Job [was in a] great struggle against power. In Ephesians 6:12 we find, [“]For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of darkness in this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.[”] Make no mistake. That is where we are. Wrestling against evil in high places—against poor, disenfranchised, various forms of racial and sexual abuse, obvious and subtle …. We are striving to exist in an alien society.  

James Lawson was a Methodist minister who worked with King and other activists and today still trains younger activists in the tactics of non-violence. When faced with persecution, he insisted:

The politics of Jesus and the politics of God are that people should be fed, that people have access to life, that people should be treated equally and justly. Especially the marginalized. The poor, the illiterate, the jailed, the hungry, the naked—those are all terms Jesus uses.

Lawson found not only guidance but also strength in the Bible. 

There’s an idea in the New Testament that love vanquishes all fear. There is all across the Bible the advice, “Do not be afraid! Do not be dismayed. When you see all these things happening, do not be alarmed.” 

Along with his fellow activists, and guided and empowered by a biblical theology, Lawson had an enormous impact on American history and the place of African-Americans within it. 

Sources: 
David L. Chappell, A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion and the Death of Jim Crow, 2004, pp. 63, 66; Heidi Hall, “Civil rights advocate James Lawson was rooted in faith.” The Tennessean, March 02, 2017, Accessed April 27, 2017. http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2017/03/02/civil-rights-advocate-james-lawson-rooted-faith/98605166/.