Will Campbell and Greg Locke show two different ways to fight America's demons | Opinion
The Tennessean’s recent front-page story on the Mt. Juliet preacher, Greg Locke, gave a vivid portrayal of this self-styled revivalist who wants to “save America from its demons.”
Whether demons are understood in a literal or metaphorical sense, I find myself agreeing with the proposition that our nation, and our world, is wrestling with relentless forces of evil.
As a person of faith, I support healing for anyone who is scattered, fearful and cynical about our institutions— including the church, which seems to widen rather than bridge our cultural chasms.
As I reflect on the current controversy with Greg Locke, who has Baptist roots, I can't help but recall another Mt. Juliet Baptist preacher, Will Campbell— who was an eloquent writer, a renegade preacher, a civil rights legend and an iconoclastic Christ-like figure who also distrusted institutions.
He skillfully sought to purge America from its demons of racism, classism and all the many phobias that violently tear us from the God-created fabric of our common humanity.
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More: Greg Locke timeline: From independent Baptist pastor to right-wing firebrand
Brother Will was a 'confounding enigma'
Brother Will, as he was affectionately known, was anything but a Bible-thumping narcissist. He'd shied away from mass followings and yet, one-by-one, he generously widened the circle of his pastoral hospitality to include the most eclectic array of people, from highest to lowest estate.
On one end of the spectrum, Brother Will organized and protested with his colleagues Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. James Lawson, Jr., helping to successfully bring about the historic Woolworth lunch counter sit-ins.
More: Pastor Greg Locke says Christians can't vote Democrat. Why this rhetoric is bad faith. | Hill
On the other end the spectrum, he was a chaplain to members of the Ku Klux Klan and once to a Grand Dragon who was on death row. Will was a confounding enigma, a prophet of God whose center was everywhere and circumference nowhere.
As he famously said about the radical nature of grace, “if you’re gonna love one, you’ve got to love them all.”
While a comparative assessment of Will Campbell and Greg Locke’s leadership styles could produce a few similarities, I believe that Brother Will, if still among us, would listen compassionately to Greg Locke just as he faithfully befriended and loved the white Christian nationalists of his own day — without succumbing to their views.
Brother Will understood the hypnotic lure of religious fanaticism and, like a southern Socrates, possessed a quizzical wisdom that asked appropriately probing questions capable of setting prisoners free from their self-imposed lies.
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While Pastor Locke is clearly aligned with the cult of Trumpism, Brother Will was not an ideologue and eschewed the cultural and religious trap of tribalism. He was pro-life in a way that most are not: he was against abortion and the death penalty. He believed that the state held no authority to adjudicate life or death.
He once noted in a news column that liberals would rightly grow silent if a racist joke was told in their presence, but that they would uproariously laugh if a redneck joke was told in its place. Jesus said of such who were not beholden to any but God, “foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Luke 9: 58)
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In other words, Brother Will chose not to find comfort in crowds so that he could be of comfort to any lone scoundrel who might come his way.
The truth of the matter is that comparing Brother Will to Greg Locke––or to me, you, or anyone––is a fool’s errand. My hope is that we foolishly persist in faithful ways to emulate those who are worth remembering and celebrating.
Rev. Mark Forrester is a retired United Methodist clergyperson who spent the last 27 years of his ministry as a campus minister and chaplain in the world of higher education.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Greg Locke v. Will Campbell: Two preachers differed on fighting demons
