Clarence Jordan

Clarence Jordan (1912-1969) was an extraordinary theologian, pacifist, founder of Koinonia Farms, author of the Cotton Patch version of the Gospels and hero to us all. In addition to his remarkable legacy, Jordan has Jeff Street connections.

Jordan was a Southern Baptist Seminary graduate and the Superintendent of Missions for the Long Run Baptist Association in Louisville in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Jordan was responsible for getting Henlee Barnette as pastor at Jeff Street's predecessor, the Union Gospel Mission and Jordan made some visits to the Mission during those days.

For more info on St. Clarence, click here.

There's a story about Jordan, when he was getting a red-carpet tour of another minister's church. With pride the minister pointed to the rich, imported pews and luxurious decoration. As they stepped outside, darkness was falling, and a spotlight shone on a huge cross atop the steeple. "That cross alone cost us ten thousand dollars," the minister said with a satisfied smile. "You got cheated," said Jordan. "Times were when Christians could get them for free."

Oscar Romero

broken
Originally uploaded by paynehollow.

Óscar Romero (August 15, 1917 – March 24, 1980), commonly known as Monseñor Romero, was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church in El Salvador. He later became prelate archbishop of San Salvador.

As an archbishop, he witnessed numerous violations of human rights and began a ministry speaking out on behalf of the poor and victims of the country's civil war. His brand of political activism was denounced by the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church and the government of El Salvador. In 1980, he was assassinated by gunshot while consecrating the Eucharist during mass. His death finally provoked international outcry for human rights reform in El Salvador.

Jeff Street often recalls the powerful testimony of Romero and his authentic Christian teachings.

For more info on Romero, click here.

On March 23, Romero delivered his final sermon before being assassinated. There were soldiers in the crowd as he said:

Brothers, you are from the same people; you kill your fellow peasant... No soldier is obliged to obey an order that is contrary to the will of God...

There was thunderous applause; he was inviting the army to mutiny. Then his voice burst,

In the name of God then, in the name of this suffering people I ask you, I beg you, I command you in the name of God: stop the repression.

Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy is an Indian author and activist whose writings have been inspirational to many of us at Jeff Street. She has been a vocal opponent to Bush’s Iraq invasion and an advocate for the poor around the world.

Her novel, The God of Small Things, won the prestigious Booker Award.

For more on Roy, click here.

An excerpt of her beautiful writing in God of Small Things:

May in Ayemenem is a hot, brooding month. The days are long and humid. The river shrinks and black crows gorge on bright mangoes in still, dust green trees. Red bananas ripen.Jackfruits burst. Dissolute bluebottles hum vacuously in the fruity air. Then they stun themselves against clear windowpanes and die, fatly baffled in the sun.

Glen Stassen

Glen Harold Stassen is a noted Christian theologian and ethicist. He is a contributor to Sojourners Magazine (and others) and currently the Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary in California. He is known for his work on theological ethics, politics, and social justice and is a favorite of many Jeff Streeters.

Stassen is the author of the tremendous book, Just Peacemaking.

For more information about Stassen, check here.

Walter Wink

Walter Wink is professor emeritus at Auburn University and a favorite theologian for many of us at Jeff Street. His words often appear in Cindy’s sermons and in some of our conversations.

Wink has written much about pacifism and Jesus’ Third Way – not of returning violence with violence, nor of cowering in fear but standing up and resisting evil with good. He also coined the phrase “myth of redemptive violence,” and has written about Christianity and homosexuality.

His website: http://www.walterwink.com/

An excerpt from an essay:

One of the most misunderstood passages in all of the Bible is Jesus' teaching about turning the other cheek. The passage runs this way: "You have heard that it was said, `An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, do not resist one who is evil. If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also. And if anyone takes you to court and sues you for your outer garment, give your undergarment as well. If one of the occupation troops forces you to carry his pack one mile, carry it two."

This passage has generally been understood by people as teaching non-resistance. Do not resist one who is evil has been taken to mean simply let them run all over you. Give up all concern for your own justice. If they hit you on one cheek, turn the other and let them batter you there too, which has been bad advice for battered women. As far as the soldier forcing you to take his pack an extra mile, well are you doing that voluntarily? It has become a platitude meaning extend yourself.

Jesus could not have meant those kinds of things. He resisted evil with every fiber of His being. There is not a single instance in which Jesus does not resist evil when He encounters it…

What Jesus is articulating here is a way of living in the world without violence, a way of overcoming domination in all of its forms by using a way that will not create new forms of violence.

Clarksdale

Clarksdale
Originally uploaded by paynehollow.

In 1933, the Public Works Administration’s Emergency Housing Corporation began construction of public housing projects in Louisville. That construction began with the Clarksdale project on the east side of downtown.

From the late-1930s through the 1940s, it (and its successor agencies) built six low-rise public housing projects: College Court (all white), LaSalle Place (all African-American), Clarksdale, Beecher Terrace, Parkway Place, and Sheppard Square, with Clarksdale and Beecher Terrace being built as slum clearance projects.

Jeff Street has long been associated with Clarksdale Housing and many of our friends and members have been residents.

Over the first few years of 2000, the city decided to gentrify the now-desirable downtown Louisville neighborhood and, although we worked with Clarksdale residents through CLOUT to try to ensure justice in the process, Clarksdale is now a memory, being replaced by Liberty Green.

El Regadio, Nicaragua

Boys at El Regadio School
Originally uploaded by paynehollow.

El Regadio is a village in Nicaragua that was at the center of some of the Contra-era destruction and is currently being harmed by CAFTA-era destruction.

Several Jeff Streeters have made Witness for Peace (and other) trips to Nicaragua (and specifically to El Regadio), where we are always touched by her natural beauty, her gracious people, her great poverty and our common, sometimes sad history.

Some of our Reclaiming Christmas profits have helped build a community center in El Regadio.

Dan Trabue had this to report on his Witness for Peace trip to Nicaragua:

Nicaragua is a beautiful but poor country with a tragic history, with many of its darker chapters having been written by the US. Nica reminds me, in may ways, of our own Eastern Kentucky, only to an extreme - taller mountains, more drastic poverty, more villainous antagonists, more striking beauty.

My visit made me wish to one day visit Nicaragua again, perhaps to hike across her pleasant countryside. I just hope to do so in a day when justice has been meted out and wrongs righted.

Ximbaxuc, Guatemala

Ximbaxuc, Guatemala
Originally uploaded by paynehollow.

For a few years, Jeff Street's Reclaiming Christmas Project sent money to Guatemala to help develop a potable water system for the small village of Ximbaxuc.

Ximbaxuc was one of the villages decimated during the 1980s when the US was supporting Guatemala's oppressive regime. Here's a report from a visitor to Ximbaxuc:

"At dusk, we walked the gloriously beautiful land with Juan, the only survivor of 5 brothers who were killed during a massacre that destroyed the lives and burnt the homes of many in this village, forcing those who had survived to flee. Now Juan and his parents and other survivors have returned after 10 years in exile to begin again." For more information, see here.

In the years since its destruction, villagers have begun to try to rebuild their lives in Ximbaxuc, keeping hope alive.

Steve P. Holcombe

Steve P. Holcombe, the converted gambler : his life and work, is the title of a book about the riverboat gambler/drunkard/murderer who got saved and started the Union Gospel Mission, the mission from which Jeff Street sprang. Written by Rev. Alexander Gross in 1888(!), it is a fascinating bit of writing.

The book is out of publication, but copies of the old book can be found by doing searches for rare books. Interestingly, it is available online here.

Travelers on the Journey

Travelers on the Journey: Pastors Talk about their Lives and Commitments, is a 2006 book written by Mark Constantine that features "six socially engaged pastors across the American South. Serving Protestant, Catholic, and nondenominational congregations from rural Arkansas to urban Atlanta..." including our very own CINDY WEBER!

An interesting book even if it didn't feature Cindy, it is improved by her presence.

More info on the book can be found here.