Stoned-Campbell Disciple

Today would have been John Perkins ninety-sixth birthday.

JOHN PERKINS (June 16, 1930-March 13, 2026). I learned a short while ago that one of my heroes, John M. Perkins entered his reward to await the resurrection of the righteous. I first came to know Brother Perkins while in Mississippi in the 1990s. I have, I think, read all of his books. Pastor, lived passionately for the Lord, a living monument to racial reconciliation.

John was all about love. A story from 1970 a van load of young people from his church were stopped by the police in Rankin County. Perkins went to get them. The whole thing was a set up for the state police were waiting for Perkins. He would be severely beaten by the police and nearly died. Later his son Spencer wanted to know if Malcolm X was in fact correct and we should not love “white people.” (This came from reading the Parable of the Good Samaritan btw). And Perkins, whose body would physically have the marks of that night in 1970, said we have to love white people the most. It was not a popular answer with Spencer at the time (Spencer himself, before he died years ago, would become a vocal advocate of racial justice and reconciliation). John Perkins was about love. Justice is what love looks like in the public sphere.

I wrote the following for his birthday a few years ago, I share it again in memory of his gracious ministry of love.

“John M. Perkins was born in New Hebron, MS on June 16, 1930. His father abandoned the family, and he was raised in poverty by sharecropping grandparents. At 17, his brother Clyde, a United States veteran of the European theater of World War II, was murdered by the police while waiting in line to go to a movie (this was 1947).

John’s family feared he may suffer a similar fate. So he went to California, where he was drafted into the army. While in the Army he met his wife, Vera. In 1957, John’s son, Spencer, led him to faith in Jesus and he would go on to become a great apostle of love.

In 1960, John felt he owed a debt to Mississippi and moved his family back “home” and located in Mendenhall (an impoverished town southeast of Jackson). Never having had the opportunity for education himself but a firm believer in education, he started a “Head Start” program to help ensure the poor (mostly African Americans) had the resources to lay a foundation for learning and opportunity. In 1965 his family lead the way in integrating the local high school (Spencer was the first and only person of color in 1965). He led voter registration drives in Simpson County, led boycotts of all white businesses over their racist discriminatory practices, he led a protest march in 1969.

All the while there was considerable push back. In 1969, he was arrested by the Brandon Police and tortured and nearly beaten to death. Spencer, who had led John to faith, testified to how this incident was one of the greatest crises of faith he ever had. He confessed the rage that swelled inside of him to witness not only the brutalization of his father, but the humiliation of his father. He found this intolerable. He told his father perhaps it was time to agree with Malcolm X and black people simply could not be Christians. But John responded that he must love white people “especially.” John preached that we must love everyone, especially white people.

So, John began Voice of Calvary Ministries with the goals of helping the poor and directly addressing racial injustice and reconciliation in a focused manner. By the 1970s his ministry focused around the “Three R’s.”

Relocation

Redistribution

Reconciliation

All of these boil down to Christ-centered love. In fact, John argues repeatedly that “love is the greatest and final battle.” He refused, and still refuses, to give up on the vision of the kingdom of God as a purposefully multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-color place located in space and time in the hear and the now where God’s will is done on Earth as in heaven.

John led Thomas Tarrant, Grand Wizard of the KKK, to biblical Christianity. Then they coauthored a wonderful book called “He’s My Brother: Former Racial Foes Offer Strategy for Reconciliation.” John has written numerous books that have been crucial in my learning and training in understanding just what love really is.

– Let Justice Roll

– Beyond Charity: The Call to Christian Community Development

– One Blood: Parting Words to the Church on Race

– He’s My Brother

– Dream With Me: Race, Love and the Struggle we Must Win:

– One Blood: Parting Words to the Church on Race

– Go and Do: Nine Axioms on Peacemaking and Transformation from the Life of John Perkins

Stephen Berk wrote a full biography of Perkins in 1997 called,

A Time to Heal: John Perkins, Community Development and Racial Reconciliation.

In the 1990s, John started and published a magazine called “Urban Family,” focusing on the unique needs of the poor, especially those in the cities of America. I read it in Grenada, MS regularly.

I met John Perkins while preaching in Grenada in 1995 when I became involved in Mission Mississippi, an interdenominational effort to get white Christians and black ones to come together, to learn from one another, to repent if need be (and there is need!). And to win that greatest and final battle, the battle of love.

John Perkins may not be as famous as Martin Luther King Jr or Cornel West or James Baldwin. But about 15 years ago someone asked me “what do you think Jesus was like?” I thought for a few minutes and I said, “I think John Perkins is what Jesus is like.”

I hope you will get one or several of his books and read them. He is a hero of the kingdom of God. Happy 92nd birthday John Perkins. May we, your white brothers and sisters, develop your capacity to love and to know love is action.

The American church needs to listen to men like John Perkins. I will say it again, the American church needs to listen to men like John Perkins. He (or She) that has an ear …

I cannot recommend enough getting, today, some books by Perkins and diving in. Dream with Me is a good starting point

SEE ALSO

Dr. John M. Perkins Bible Study with Bryan Stevenson (YouTube video)

Spencer Perkins and the “Prolife Credibility Gap”

Can I Do Anything about Racial Reconciliation? Yes!

James Baldwin: They Don’t Want to Hear the Truth

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 16th, 2026 at 8:44 am and is filed under Black History, Church, Love, Ministry, Race Relations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.