Review by Roger Bishop
Duncan Montgomery Gray, Jr. is, he says, "a Southern Churchman."
At the heart of Campbell's book is what the Swedish scholar Gunnar Myrdal called "the American dilemma" -- race. It is about race and how Duncan Gray in this century and young men 100 years before responded to the different challenges they faced.
Duncan Gray left a promising career as an engineer to go to seminary. He found himself not long after in the midst of a controversy over the admission of black students. His responsible student leadership during this period helped to prepare him for similar challenges later on. Perhaps the most notable of these came during the period when James Meredith was admitted to the University of Mississippi in 1962. During that time both the sermons Gray preached from his Oxford, Mississippi, church and the personal courage he displayed during campus violence earned him respect and admiration as well as derision. During his time there he also conducted the memorial service for William Faulkner.
Campbell explains that "it was his tenacious fidelity to the one true God" that motivated and sustained Gray. He is personable, soft-spoken, joyous and not a liberal as we usually think of that word. He was, in fact, "a radical," a rare person "who goes against his culture and his tradition."
He wanted to improve the condition of the oppressed, but he also wanted to lead his people to repentance. "That faithfulness to liturgy, hand in hand with deliverance from injustice, made him a prophet."
Duncan Gray and Will Campbell have both been known for their ministries of inclusion, not exclusion. They believe that all human beings are made in the image of God. Campbell is the self-described "steeple dropout" and "bootleg preacher and free-lance civil rights activist" and author. He has pursued ministry outside of the established church. But he greatly admires the work of Gray who, now retired, has served as parish priest, as the Episcopal Bishop of Mississippi, and as chancellor of the University of the South. Campbell details how in a variety of ways Gray, the smiling, amicable Southern gentleman with the warm, soft voice, stayed true to his commitment to God. "Here was a respectable, intelligent, educated son of the South who believed that racial segregation was incompatible with Christianity, unacceptable in a democracy, and plain boorish in a genteel culture."
Read this book to see how a life of faith and integrity can make a difference.
Roger Bishop is contributing editor to BookPage.
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