Who Lynched Willie Earle?: Preaching to Confront Racism

by William H Willimon

Overview

Pastors and leaders long to speak an effective biblical word into the contemporary social crisis of racial violence and black pain. They need a no-nonsense strategy rooted in actual ecclesial life, illuminated in this fine book by a trustworthy guide, Will Willimon, who uses the true story of pastor Hawley Lynn’s March of 1947 sermon, “Who Lynched Willie Earle?” as an opportunity to respond to the last lynching in Greenville, South Carolina and its implications for a more faithful proclamation of the Gospel today. By hearing black pain, naming white complicity, critiquing American exceptionalism/civil religion, inviting/challenging the church to respond, and attending to the voices of African American pastors and leaders, this book helps pastors of white, mainline Protestant churches preach effectively in situations of racial violence and dis-ease.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501832512
Publisher:	Abingdon Press
Publication date:	02/07/2017
Pages:	152
Sales rank:	1,094,633
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Will Willimon is a preacher and teacher of preachers. He is a United Methodist bishop (retired) and serves as Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry and Director of the Doctor of Ministry program at Duke Divinity School, Durham, North Carolina. For twenty years he was Dean of the Chapel at Duke University. A 1996 Baylor University study named him among the Twelve Most Effective Preachers in the English speaking world. The Pew Research Center found that Will was one of the most widely read authors among Protestant clergy in 2005. His quarterly Pulpit Resource is used by thousands of pastors throughout North America, Canada, and Australia. In 2021 he gave the prestigious Lyman Beecher Lectures on Preaching at Yale Divinity School. Those lectures became the book, Preachers Dare: Speaking for God which is the inspiration for his ninetieth book, Listeners Dare: Hearing God in the Sermon.

Table of Contents

Prelude xi

Chapter 1 The Lynching 1

Confession: Jessie Lee Sammons 2

Testimony: Tessie Earle 7

February 1947 9

Chapter 2 Preparing to Preach 11

The Meeting 17

Preparation 19

Scripture 22

Chapter 3 "Who Lynched Willie Earle?" 23

The Trial 33

Chapter 4 Assessing the Sermon 37

Public Witness 37

Civil Religion 40

Faith in American Justice 43

Scant Biblical Support 45

Not about Us 47

Bodily Absence 49

The Victim 52

Chapter 5 Christian Talk about the Sin of Racism 55

Good News 57

Denial 58

Bias 61

Peculiarly Christian Talk about Race 63

Sin 67

Repentance 70

Works of Love 80

Chapter 6 Preaching That Confronts Racism 91

Theology Rather Than Anthropology 92

Exorcism 95

Can We Talk? 97

Being Biblical 99

Conversion 101

More Than Moralism 107

Narrative 115

The Preacher as Pastor 117

Time to Preach 126

Postlude 131

Index of Names 133

Index of Subjects 137