"Parting The Waters- America in the King Years 1954-1963" has totally hooked me. The author, Taylor Branch, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for this work. I can remember it coming out, but I had no time to read it. On top of that I had not yet experienced my renaissance in education and reading. I was busy with my family newly moved to Minnesota. Many of the men in my current class had not been born. I have been keenly aware of how important this book is and how well respected. Taylor writes not only about an important subject, but he writes beautifully and clearly.
I've placed pictures of Charlton Heston parting the Red Sea in the 1956 film version of "The Ten Commandments" along with the cover page of "Parting The Waters". I am not far enough along in the book to make all the connections I need to understand its title fully. However, I can take a bit of a guess as to what one of the meanings "might" be. As the children of Israel had their backs to the Read Sea with Pharaoh and his army pursuing them, intent on their destruction, the sea represented a barrier, that if not overcome, would lead to the people of Israel's destruction. The recorded miracle of God parting the waters, so that they could cross over, made the sea bed and the water "the way" to salvation. The feat of parting the sea was beyond human capacity. In like manner America, and for that matter all of humanity, in the 1950's through at least 1968 (we still have to fight) had their social and spiritual backs up against a sea of racism, which effectively would lead to the destruction of the "American way of life", democracy, and perhaps lead to the moral collapse of western civilization. There needed to be a supernatural path, a way, so that we all could escape destruction. The men and women of the civil rights movement were perhaps the miracle that God ordained. This is just one possible guess as to the meaning of Mr. Taylor's book title. Needless to say the film version had many unbiblical and extra biblical additions and subtractions to the Exodus story, some made for film art's sake, some made for political and religious reasons. But, as I read this account of the civil rights movement, it seems to me to be the real thing.
I can remember as a teenage boy/man hearing such terrible things about Martin Luther King Jr. His politics were wrong, he was black, ignorant, a trouble maker, arrogant, communist puppet, revolutionary, womanizer, and much more. I can remember him coming to the Chicago land area to lead a civil rights march in Cicero and Skokie, two of the nation's most segregated and racist communities. You wouldn't think of northern cities as being in the running for such a horrible title, but it was true then. I don't think so now. That is a long story you can ask me about. The hate aimed at Mr. King and his activists was so great that for the first time Mr. King chose to not march for fear of assassination and the potential of a counter productive riot. To save his life, the lives of his family and friends, and to keep his movement peaceful, he respectfully retreated to fight another day. It was wise, and also a learning experience for him and the civil rights movement. I was born in Cicero, Illinois in 1952. The first church I ever attended was "The Cicero Bible Church." Hard core fundamentalists that they were, they didn't step up to the plate for equal justice under the law. A sad commentary on a church body, a sad chapter in the life of a small suburban town.
One of the great secrets of the 1950's and 1960's was just how smart, educated, and wise Martin Luther King Jr. was. His education put "all" of his critics to shame. Couldn't let that little bit of information out in those racist times, now could we? Anyway, he was amazingly and highly educated. Nothing he did was without serious social and spiritual thought. Here is a quote I lift from the text as an example of Martin Luther King Jr's thoughtfulness as a young college student.
Even as a student, King believed that religion was alive only at its edges, and that doubt was as important as belief. In a paper obviously influenced by Hegel and Niebuhr, King wrote that "if a position implies a negation, and a negation a position, then faith carries disbelief with it, theism, atheism, and if one member of a pair comes to be doubted the result may be disastrous to religion itself."
Chew on that awhile fellas. There is lots there that pertains to all of our lives and I think you will find some "margins" when you take a look at the churches in Revelation. Also, Christ brings up the margins in The Sermon on the Mount.
Martin Luther King Jr. was an amazing man. I need to learn more about him. You do too. He was a "brother in Christ". I have no doubt. Less than perfect, but wonderfully equipped, he lead a movement that perhaps has shaped your lives more than any other. I've got to finish this book! You've got to read it too!
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