Best documentary I've seen all year

I just watched "Briars In the Cottonpatch: The Story of Koinonia Farm."

It's depressing, inspiring, shocking and incredibly and powerfully moving. Long before Brown v. Board of Education forced desegregation in Dixie, a man named Clarence Jordan decided to integrate a rural southwest Georgia farm with all deliberate speed in the 1940s. His objections to segregation were largely theological. He wanted to create koinonia -- the kind of commune or community which the early church created, according to the book of Acts.

("And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their food with gladness and singleness of heart, Praising God, and having favor with all the people." Acts 2:44-46)

A graduate of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville who could read the New Testament in the original Greek, he took Paul at face value. In Christ, "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." (Gal. 3:28).

Ironically, taking the Bible at face value in the Bible Belt nearly cost Jordan his life. For awhile, Jordan's farm apparently flew under the radar. The trouble began in earnest in the mid-1950s when he brought a man from India with him to an all-white church. Other churchgoers, fearing the Asian Christian might be an African Christian, had a conniption.

After Brown sent segregation into its decade-long death throes, Georgians made Koinonia a scape goat. The KKK picketed and burned crosses. The community boycotted the farm and refused to buy or sell it anything. Buildings were bombed. Shots were fired. Members were savagely beaten.

After Koinonia appealed for help, law enforcement officials began investigating the farm -- not the Klan.

The story has an inspiring ending. Jimmy Carter speaks in the documentary. Andrew Young narrates it. The seeds sown by Jordan fell on fertile ground. One of Koinonia's members went on to found Habitat for Humanity. But Jordan died in the 1960s, never seeing the harvest.

Ironically, his toughest foe wasn't Satan or a sheet-wearing Grand Wizard. It was the local Southern Baptist church. As Jordan said: "I would rather face the frantic, childish mob, even with their shotguns and buggy whips, than the silent, insidious mob of good church people who give assent to boycott and subtle psychological warfare."

Every American ought to see "Briars In the Cottonpatch." You can find it at www.briarsdocumentary.com"

Comments

[Caleb Powers]

I haven't seen this documentary, but I will. This tends to confirm my view of evangelical christians and southern baptists in general: They claim to base their actions on the bible. Instead, they base their actions on their own prejudices, then justify them with the bible.

They believed what they believed about racial integration in the '40s and '50s, and justified it by the bible. Now, they believe what they believe about gays and lesbians, and justify it by the bible.

Different victims, different era, same theology.

[UKLutheran]

Amen, Caleb, Amen.

[Marcia]

That's a pretty sweeping characterization, Caleb. I mean, is it true of some of those folk? Sure. But you're painting with a pretty broad brush.

[Caleb Powers]

Well, Marcia, perhaps so, but I don't exactly see evangelicals in any serious numbers getting in line to support equal rights for gays and lesbians, just as they never, in serious numbers, supported equal rights for blacks and women when those issues were hot.

I mean, if evangelicals think gays and lesbians are going to hell, fine, but does that mean we deny them equal rights while they're on this mortal plane, too?

I mean, the bible doesn't make any distinctions between sins, proclaiming that all of us have sinned. Therefore, who among us can deny legal benefits to others because we think they are sinners? I mean, our court system bends over backward to extend the full protection of the law to everyone, even those who have committed serious crimes. Shouldn't Christians do the same?

But nooooooo, homosexuality is an abomination before God . . .

[Marcia]

Gays and Lesbians, Gays and Lesbians, blah blah blah.

I'm so very tired of homosexuality, abortion, and creation/evolution being the trinity of religious judgment.

Liberals shout out, "You're not Christians! You don't accept gays!" while Conservatives scream back, "Baby killers!! And the Earth was so created in six days!"

None of which defines Christianity for me.

[Caleb Powers]

I agree, Marcia.

The problem is that gays and lesbians have issues to be faced, including serious health insurance issues. And they have to face them today. And Christians going around saying they are going to hell, whether they are or not, is not helping.

And I can't imagine why ANYONE would question the doctrine that the earth was created in six days . . .