Old vs New Civil Rights

A movement can have righteous actors and a flawed foundation, and only a Christocentric foundation can carry the future. March 2003, Cambridge—On Harriet Tubman Day, enthusiasts of the King Movement from the MLK Center anoint Rev. Walter L Smith III "the King Boy" to celebrate society's demand for a new herald of the mid-century dream, and honor the old guard's blood-bought courage while placing its philosophical foundation on trial. "Old vs New Civil Rights" traces the architectural shift inside the American pulpit that preceded the marches: Walter Rauschenbusch's Social Gospel recasting the kingdom of God as a social condition achieved by human institutions rather than received from the risen Christ. Rev. Smith III argues that preaching, detached from the resurrection, is "vain" (1 Cor. 15:14) and leaves the movement the shell of religion without its power. This critical book also follows the misplaced anchor of twentieth-century theology as it drifted toward Cone and Gutiérrez, equating the Exodus with modern political struggle. Readers will learn to distinguish horizontal liberation (man acting upon man, ending in oppressor/oppressed categories) from vertical liberation in Christ (whose constraint is love and whose liberty is ironclad and eternal). Discover the truth of the biblically-aligned, Christ-centered advocacy of the new civil rights movement!