Why Should I Care What the Gospel Says?

March Blog Prompt

Tags: , , , , , ,

I have never been able to connect to Christianity despite coming from a very religious background. At a young age I was being suffocated by the same religious beliefs my parents had been raised by. I attend a private Christian school in my home country. As I grew older, I felt more and more disconnected from my religion. As I began to discover who I was as a person, my beliefs shifted. Suddenly, my parents’ prayers fell on deaf ears, my bible sat on my desk gathering dust, and my feelings got the better of me at the dinner table. I don’t consider myself as a religious person anymore, I don’t think I ever was. So, when I saw John Lewis preaching to the baby chickens as a child, I couldn’t help but sigh. I went into the book with a very negative view of Christianity, but to my surprise I didn’t find myself rolling my eyes.

“He applied the principles of the church to what was happening NOW, today. It was called the social gospel and I felt like he was preaching directly to me.”

This is what John Lewis mentioned when he first heard Dr. Martin Luther King on the radio. The social gospel is a more modernized version of the biblical gospel. One that’s more focused on the liberation of others. More often than not it was used to silence minorities, used to protect injustices, and even encourage the mistreatment of others. Even if that wasn’t its intended purpose, that’s how a lot of people used it. One of the ideas that struck me the most was of social evolution. It stuck with me the most because of the idea of moving forward in society. Being seen as everyone’s equal, no matter the color of your skin, is something we still struggle with to this day. It’s why I think this gospel is one I could get behind, despite my past.

 
4 Comments

the important movement of America

Engl 165-04 Fall '22

Tags: ,

        To me social gospel is a movement that is derived from Christion ethics, which are then applied to social problems. There were many problems that this was applied to. Poverty, nutrition and health, education, economic inequality, alcoholism, racial tensions, slums, unclean environments, child labor, lack of unionization, poor schools, crime, and warfare would be such problems. “However social needs were emphasized, the doctrines of sin, salvation heaven and hell, and the future kingdom of God were downplayed.” Social gospel had inspired many people to create social institutions where people in trouble could go to escape their hardships. Some of the more famous institutions were the settlement house founded by Jane Adams which served the poor in urban areas by “living among them and serving them directly.” The YMCA was created to help young homeless men which surprisingly is still around today.   

 

        The social gospel led John Lewis towards a path of non-violence. The philosophy of John Lewis started to spread as the civil rights movements grew. It says in the book that johns love for the gospel was born at a very young age, his uncle even gave him his own bible when he was four. Even though he was unable to read it himself when his mother read to him, he was strongly impacted by the words. He said himself that “I’ll never forget my mother reading aloud to me the first words in that book ‘in the beginning God, created the heaven and the earth’”. Knowing early on that he wanted to be a preacher he would often preach to the chickens he was responsible for. He knew not that as he was preaching to these chickens, he was indirectly molding his own future. The social gospel helped society grow and reform past its barbaric beliefs. Many people dealing with problems were helped by this movement.

 
1 Comment

Preaching to the Public

Engl 165-04 Fall '22, March Blog Prompt

Tags: ,

When thinking of social gospel, the idea of preaching comes to my mind. The concept to go into public and tell the outside world how you feel about a specific topic, that is what I think of when talking about social gospel.

When learning about the civil rights movement I learned about Martin Luther King Jr., a very passionate, caring, and thoughtful black man who knew he wanted to make all individuals have the same rights. In March, Lewis was just as passionate about having his voice heard as Martin was. They both preached about equal rights, wanting every white and black female and male to all be equal. Through God’s eyes we are all the same, that is what Christians believe, that is also what Martin and Lewis believed. When these men went out and gave speeches, they told their ideas through God’s ideas. These men preached just as much as a preacher would, going into public, into the media’s eye, wanting to be heard and seen, just trying to get their voices out into the world. That is what social gospel is known as.

If you asked me what social gospel was, I would tell you it’s voicing how you feel into the public, putting your ideas out to the people who want to listen and have the same viewpoints as you do. I can see that continuously throughout March, in the beginning with the chickens being preached to, then later having it become thousands upon thousands of people. In today’s time, social gospel is used in the media, and across many platforms. Everyone has something to preach about, and throughout time it has become easier to do so. Many people have become fluent in the way of social gospel, myself on the other hand I am do not feel very literate in social gospel, at least not as well as Lewis or Martin. Martin stood at the podium in Washington D.C., gave his ” I Have a Dream” speech, something I do not believe I could do. In conclusion, I believe social gospel is when an individual expresses themselves to the public religiously about something they care very strongly about, and I feel in March, that is an ongoing theme as well as in our everyday real lives.

 
1 Comment

Our World Continues to be Much of the Same

Engl 165-16 Fall '22, March Blog Prompt

Tags: , ,

As I was reading March it brought up some thoughts I had about the similarities in the world today and even in my own life. Those similarities included

  • injustices of diversity
  • gaining information on a subject which alters your viewpoint

When reading March, it illustrates people protesting for what they believe in. This reminds me of the protests that have been happening over the country in response to the overturning of Roe v Wade. I resonated with John since he did not say anything but he would notice it. Yet he did not outwardly say anything. I would do everything I could to help protest but I never went to a protest myself. Even though women have more freedom than the past. Women have been viewed as less than compared to men and have been treated unfairly.

He reminisces about his change in attitude after coming back from his Uncle’s house. This was how I felt when growing up in a Catholic school. I only knew one truth that was what they wanted and you don’t know any other life then what you are lead to believe as normal. I did not think anything of what I was told because it was what I was raised in and was considered normal. He would notice all the differences about the two places and it changed his entire way of thinking. Which is how I felt when I grew up and had access to news on my own. Therefore I researched topics on my own rather than what I was told to believe is normal.

The book reminds me of the protests that have been very big for the last couple years. That have been over the mistreatment of black people by law enforcement. It has been a constant battle even though in the book it shows that there was less of a segregation it never went away. This is proven with the way protests have continued into today’s society. Included in that is the narrative of protests has not changed since the time March was written about.

 

 
1 Comment

How much have things truly changed?

Engl 165-16 Fall '22, March Blog Prompt

Tags: ,

While it is unfortunate to read about such heinous racism during the mid 1900s,  these stories seem still all too realistic in todays day and age.  Reading about how African-Americans had to be careful about driving to and from places is still a serious worry for some today.  While there are indeed places and areas of our country where even the idea of racism seems nonexistent, there are others where you might say the opposite.

It’s remarkable to think about how big of a difference there was within our country when it came to integration back in the day.  How in the north both Black and White people would be able to live in more or less “Harmony.”  Yet in the south, racism was an all day, everyday event.  It’s upsetting to think that in todays world, while we have seemingly evolved and matured into a country that might look as if we have moved past racism on pen and paper, the everyday daily life is still fully of racism.

The public school system that I attended in middle and high school is a prime example of modern day racism.  Almost half of the counties schools had confederate based mascots.  One of the high schools were LITERALLY the confederates!  You would walk into their schools football games on Friday nights and see multiple confederate flags being worn, waived, etc. amongst the student section.  Just like in the book when they were stressing about making the drive from the south to north because of the areas that black people would have to pass through, I would have to assume that these areas would make some having at least some of the same type of worries.  I would sit in class and hear groups of white kids, ages 15, 16, 17, some 18 calling the few African-american kids in the class the ‘N” simple because they thought it was funny and that they were somehow above and better than them.

While racism clearly was much more common during the mid 1900’s, it still is making its presence now in todays world.

 

 

 
4 Comments

Second Civil Rights Movement?

Engl 165-04 Fall '22

Tags: ,

I didn’t have much experience reading in comic format until this class. Until reading March, I thought comics were just short stories that told a fictional story. While the comic format was difficult to read at first, I actually enjoyed the way it told the story. I like how the words are not the only thing telling the story. When reading this comic, I learned that you really have to look at the pictures to get a sense of the story as a whole.

I had some prior knowledge of what I had read. Although I did not know much of anything about John Lewis, I did know most other names he used. He talked about Martin Luther King, Emmitt Till, and Rosa Parks. Thinking about everything I knew before reading this, I always assumed it was a lot longer ago then it really was. I didn’t realize that these people in our history books were all experiencing the horrific stuff they went through less than 100 years ago. Reading the story March, I assumed Lewis had been learning about these people in history books. Little did I know, he was living through everything at the same time as them.

I didn’t have much interest in history growing up. I always thought of it as something in our past and did not see a point in reading and knowing about it. As I grew older I realized that what was in our history books is still very much an issue in our society. I was reading the comic thinking how horrible it is that these people had to go through this, not even thinking about how people still are experiencing this. Although we are not segregated like they were in the times this book is about, people of color are still looked at and hated similarly. People are still getting killed for doing nothing, all for the color of their skin. People are still looked at as the problem, when they are the victims. Emmitt Till was a 14 year old boy that was killed for saying two simple words to a white women. His attackers were found not guilty, and later confessed to the crimes but could not be tried again. George Floyd was a black man living in America just two years ago. He too was let down by the American justice system. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, John Lewis, and many more fought far too hard to still have these injustices happening in our world still today. It is only a matter of time before there is a second Civil Rights Movement, hopefully this time America will wake up and change.

 
1 Comment

The World Is Different But Also The Same

Engl 165-04 Fall '22

Tags: ,

The first sixty pages in March book one was an easy read for me. Not only do I love to read comic books but it wasn’t difficult for me to relate the story to my background knowledge that I’ve learned in my school age years. John Lewis comes from a typical black family you’d hear about from the 1950’s. Segregation was still a huge deal including seperated schools, bathrooms and even gas stations between blacks and whites. John Lewis grew up living in poverty in a very low income town, like most black families back then. He lived on chicken farm where the chickens were his best friends. He preached to them, prayed with them, and read the bible to them. They went church often but John always thought it was a little odd that the pastor drove a nice vehicle like the whites would. He never paid much attention and just brushed it off his shoulders until one Sunday morning he heard a sermon from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It was then, when preaching and politics struck his interest. John Lewis started to follow civil rights movement including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech, King’s boycott, and when Rosa Parks refused to move seats on the bus.

Martin Luther King Jr. advocated for blacks all over the world and fought for equality and human rights for African Americans. Today, sometimes it still feels like we’re in the civil rights movement. Politics and society are so harsh still. Segregation isn’t a big deal anymore but racism very much is. White people can be racist but so can black people. I witness racism first hand almost every single day. All of these social activist advocated for African Americans all over the world and yet there’s still problems. Even though there are still challenges and obstacles the world still faces today with racism, it’s because of the activist, that blacks no longer have to grow up like John Lewis.

 

Time to Write!!!!

Engl 165-16 Fall '22

Tags: ,

Partial Cover of Book One of the Graphic Novel March

Please reflect on the first reading in Book One of March, pgs 1-61. You can, but aren’t required, to talk about

  1. What your experience was reading in the comics format. Have you ever read comics before, was this hard for you, did you have issues while reading, etc.
  2. How much of this did you already have knowledge of, did you learn in school, are you a history buff, etc.
  3. For you personally, how relevant is this right now given everything that is going on in our world.
  4. For our country, how relevant is this right now given everything in the news

You are not limited to these in your reflection, these are just some ideas. BE SURE to use techniques in They Say, I Say. I will be LOOKING for these.