Saint of the Month: Vernon Johns

As the last All Saints Day approached, I got this idea in my head that I would share with my readers some of my favorite Christian saints. You must recognize, of course, that when I use the word "saint," I'm not limiting it to those who have been canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. Rather, I'm using the term as Saint Paul employed it--to refer to ANY sinner saved by God's grace. I'm not too particular about whether the saint is living or deceased either. Some of my saints may seem a bit wacky or obscure to you, but I find them to be inspiring by the very fact of their obscurity.

This month (in honor of Black History Month) I'd like to introduce The Reverend Vernon Johns, a man who is considered to be the father of the American civil rights movement even though very few folks (even some African Americans I've spoken to) recognize his name.

I learned about Pastor Johns by reading Taylor Branch's excellent history of the civil rights movement, Parting the Waters. Pr. Johns preceded Martin Luther King, Jr. as pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. As a pastor and preacher, I can't help but admire this guy.

As a preacher, Pr. Johns was erudite (he was a self-taught grandson of slaves who worked his way through Oberlin College and the University of Chicago School of Theology), dynamic, and completely unconventional. He encouraged black capitalism by offering his own garden produce and catfish for sale from the pulpit. The proper black elite deacons of his congregation were scandalized by Johns' often outlandish castigations of his congregants, fearing that the pastor was encouraging civil disobedience. Indeed, Johns had run-ins with the authorities by openly violating racial segregation laws at place in Montgomery in the 1940's.

The Evangelical Lutheran Worship liturgy for Holy Baptism reminds us that all Christians are called to "proclaim Christ through word and deed, care for others and the world God made, and work for justice and peace." Pr. Johns was certainly not afraid to work for justice in a time when so much justice was denied to so many, and when the call for justice could be so very dangerous. I admire his bold--and sometimes shockingly honest--preaching and his fearless stand for justice.

Ultimately, the deacons of Dexter Ave. Baptist called Pr. Johns' bluff and accepted one of his many offers of resignation. The pastor never  again served a congregation and remained a traveling preacher until his death by a heart attack in 1965. The irony, of course, is that the deacons, hoping to find a younger pastor whom they could more easily control, called the twenty-six-year-old Martin Luther King, Jr. as their next pastor.

In spite of a pretty darn good TV movie about Vernon Johns, his contributions to the civil rights movement remain unknown to many. My take-away is this: you don't have to be the one who scores the touchdown as long as you know you've helped move the ball down the field.