Remembering Will Campbell

As a seminary student in the South in the early 1980s, I found Brother to a Dragonfly—Will Campbell’s moving memoir—as transforming as Barth or Tillich; Stringfellow or Reuther.

There is a section in the book where Campbell, who died this week, realizes in a sort of “second conversion” that Jesus truly died for all people, not just for those on Campbell’s side of an issue. As any pastor knows, it’s tough to minister to folk on both sides. Tough to minister to both the spouse who cheated and the one betrayed. Tough to visit a death-row inmate and also pray with the victims of the crime. Tough to side with the striking coal workers and also listen to the company’s higher-ups within the congregation.

We choose sides. It’s only natural.