On Surviving Tyranny: Rev. Dr. Susan K. Williams Smith Recalls Deep Spirituality of Rev. C.T. Vivian on His Passing in July, 2020

@JaniceOCG Biographer of #CTVivian, @cassady2euca, recalls how spirituality sustained Civil Rights Movement in @Sojourners.  Dr. Smith is live, Thurs., Jan. 20 at 8 pm ET, w/ “If America Fails?” on TWN, for our chat on cults, cultures & religion in @HandmaidsOnHulu & modern practices.

The day after Rev. C.T. Vivian passed on July 17, 2020, Sojourners published an article by Rev. Dr. Susan K. Williams Smith, recalling how his deep spirituality had fueled and sustained the Civil Rights Movement.  Smith had spent many hours with Vivian in interviews about his life for the authorized biography she is writing.

“The Rev. C.T. Vivian was a civil rights leader and ordained pastor who never stopped fighting for justice; throughout his life, he believed that his work was inspired, guided, and sustained by God,” Smith wrote.

The spiritual nature of the movement was clear in the recollections Vivian shared with Smith.  In the article linked below, she wrote,

“what I found so striking in the stories he shared with me was his belief that the movement – and everything that he and others did in it – was spiritual.” 

Vivian offered specific examples of incidents where he believed a spiritual element was protecting him and other activists who faced many bodily dangers in the quest for freedom and justice.  Read those stories in the article, “C.T. Vivian Wanted Us to Remember: The Civil Rights Movement Was Deeply Spiritual.”

It leaves me to wonder how we sustain ourselves, without strong faith, in our modern era – and how we might survive…a coming tyranny.  — LMO

“Rev. Dr. Susan K. Williams Smith is an ordained minister and the founder of Crazy Faith Ministries in Columbus, Ohio. She serves on People For the American Way Foundation’s African American Ministers In Action. She is working on an authorized biography of civil rights organizer C.T. Vivian.”  — Sojourners

Rev. Dr. Susan K. Williams Smith is an ordained minister, pastor, musician, writer, activist and mother of two, living in Columbus, OH, where she now serves as Founder and Executive Director of Crazy Faith Ministries.  This is a non-traditional church with faith ministries providing outreach and services for homeless people; services for children of incarcerated parents; and voter education and registration, among other things.  Pastor Williams Smith also leads Freedom Choir that sings songs of freedom at marches and events offering messages of social justice through music.  She previously served for 22 years as pastor of Advent United Church of Christ, also in Columbus, and maintains an interest in the relationship between politics, religion, and race.  A prolific writer and author of several books, Williams Smith began her career as a newspaper reporter in Baltimore.  Her books include Crazy Faith:  Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives (2009), and most recently, With Liberty & Justice for Some: The Bible, the Constitution, and Racism in America (2020), Dr. Williams Smith also blogs at Candid Observations and has written for the Washington Post and Huffington Post.  With a Doctorate in Ministry, she maintains leadership roles in many national and community organizations and religious networks.  — If America Fails:  The Coming Tyranny, a TruthWorks Network Production

READ | C.T. Vivian Wanted Us to Remember: The Civil Rights Movement Was Deeply Spiritual | by Susan K. Williams Smith | Sojourners | 7/18/2020