One-Man Show Recounts Life of Clarence Jordan and the God Movement

COLUMBIA, Ky. -- Area residents will have an opportunity Tuesday night at Lindsey Wilson College to learn about one of America's great civil rights champions of the 20th century.

"Clarence Jordan and the God Movement" will be performed by Al Staggs at 7 p.m. CT Tuesday, Oct. 6, in the Norma and Glen Hodge Center for Discipleship. The event -- which is part of the 2009-10 Lindsey Wilson Cultural Affairs Series -- is free and open to the public.

Staggs, a pastor and actor, gives a stirring one-man performance of the iconic Jordan.

Jordan was a Southern Baptist and a New Testament scholar who founded the progressive Koinonia Farm in 1942 in Georgia.

Because Koinonia Farms was an intentional interracial farming community in the Deep South, it was a challenge to the status quo of segregation and therefore came under attack.

"Koinonia Farms was attacked because it promoted interracial harmony and cooperation in a time and place where those things just were not done," said LWC Director of Library Services Phil Hanna, who is also chair of the LWC Cultural Affairs Series. "Koinonia Farms is an important part of America's civil rights movement."

Jordan also translated parts of the New Testament into Georgian-Southern dialect in what became known as the Cotton Patch Gospels. 

For example, Matthew 7:12-28 was translated into: "Therefore, in all your dealings with people, treat them as you want to be treated. This in a nutshell, is the essence of all our moral and religious principles."

Koinonia Farms was also the place where Habitat for Humanity came into existence.   

Al Staggs will perform "Clarence Jordan and the God Movement" at 7 p.m. CT on Tuesday, Oct. 6, in the Lindsey Wilson College Norma and Glen Hodge Center for Discipleship. For more information, contact Cultural Affairs Chair Phil Hanna at hannap@lindsey.edu or (270) 384-8250.