Deus Misereatur

Who Lynched Willie Earle?: Preaching to Confront Racism by William H. Willimon My rating: 5 of 5 stars Given the present environment of racial tensions in the U.S.A. there are a rising number of volumes from diverse authors rolling out of publishing houses across the country. Will Willimon, retired Bishop of the North Alabama Conference of The United Methodist Church and Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry at Duke University Divinity School, has recently added his voice with his tiny 137 page paperback “Who Lynched Willie Earle: Preaching to Confront Racism”. Though the manuscript is popularly written and small in size, it is deep in thought and significant in intention. The first four chapters of the book deals with the story of the lynching Willie Earle on February 17, 1947, and the critical analysis of the only local sermon preached by a white pastor the following Sunday (Hawley Lynn). The remainder of the material covers the place and problem of racism as well as pre...

[Note: Here at the end of 2010, I felt it was appropriate to present to you some of the things I said at the Reformation Theological Conference on Nov. 6.] In what we are about to read, you must recognize what the people were doing. They are often pictured as following the dictates of their own heart (9.14), taking their direction from their own internal desires, to the point that they had made their own words divine oracles (23.36). The result was public pandemonium & ethical upheaval. Into this environment God speaks: Jer. 6.14-16. “They have also healed the hurt of My people slightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed; nor did they know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time I punish them, they shall be cast down,” says the LORD. Thus says the LORD: “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; t...