"Among modern-day Baptists, few names can evoke as mixed emotions as that of Clarence Jordan. Jordan was and is best known as cofounder of Koinonia Farm near Americus, Georgia, and as translator of the Cotton Patch Version of the New Testament. Jordan was a bona fide hero for many, a certified visionary to some, a genuine puzzle for most. You cannot really live by the Sermon on the Mount, they say, but Jordan tried. Worse still, he expected other people to try ."
my emphasis -- ed.
(quoted
here
here, or
here)
" Clarence stated in the introduction to his first Cotton Patch book, "We want to be participants in the faith, not merely spectators." And so he wrote a version of the New Testament that would bring its messages home to the people of his time.
Called "a colloquial translation with a Southern accent, "the Cotton Patch version states that Jesus was wrapped in a blanket and laid in an apple box at his birth; he was killed by lynching; and when he came out of the vault on Easter morning, he came to his disciples and said, "Howdy."
The humanity of Christ is central in this version. It is Christ who brings reconciliation between white and black, just as he brought reconciliation between Jew and Gentile in the traditional versions.
In Florence's words, "Clarence read his Greek New Testament always. He could read it like we read English. It was the Greek of the everyday people, the koine Greek, not the classical. And so he translated just as he read it, using modern equivalents."
The incarnational theme so important in the Cotton Patch versions was also a powerful concept in Clarence's preaching. He saw the resurrection not as an invitation to heaven when we die, but as a declaration from God that he has established permanent residence on the earth and comes home with us, bringing all his suffering sisters and brothers with him: "And we say, 'Jesus, we'd be glad to have you, but all these motley brothers of yours, you had better send them home. You come in and we'll have some fried chicken. But you get your sick, naked, cold brothers out of here. We don't want them getting our rug all messed up.'"
"The setting is Louisville, Kentucky, late 1930s. Racial tensions are at a peak. A group of angry black men are assembled in a small room planning to retaliate against an act of violence perpetrated by some white men in the community. The voices grow louder as the men, years of injustice echoing in their voices, plan retribution -- an eye for an eye.
One man swings a section of iron pipe and declares, "Just like the whites kill a Negro for this, I'm going to kill a white man." There is one white man in the meeting, a trusted friend of those gathered. He speaks.
"If a white man must die for this. . . let it be me. Do it now." The room grows silent.
The man was Clarence Jordan.
Cotton Patch Justice, Cotton Patch Peace:
The Sermon on the Mount in the Teachings and Practices of Clarence Jordan
by Ann Coble
"Why a "cotton patch" version? While there have been many excellent translations of the Scriptures into modern English, they still have left us stranded in some faraway land in the long-distant past. We need to have the good news come to us not only in our own tongue but in our own time. We want to be participants in the faith, not merely spectators...So, the "cotton patch" version is an attempt to translate not only the words but the events."
Koinonia (pronounced Koy-no-NEE-ah) is the Greek word used in the New Testament to describe the early church. It means "community, fellowship.""
"Koinonia Farm began in 1942, when Clarence and Florence Jordan and Mabel and Martin England came to Sumter County, Georgia to live out the teachings of Jesus amidst the poverty and racism of the rural South. They envisioned forming an interracial community where blacks and whites could live and work together in a spirit of partnership. Based on a radical call to discipleship, Koinonia's very presence confronted racism, militarism and materialism with their commitment to:
- Treat all human beings with dignity and justice
- Choose love over violence (i.e. pacifism).
- Share all possessions and live simply.
- Be stewards of the land and its natural resources."
"It is a tragic irony that over 150 million adult Americans, who together form over 86% of the most consumptive society the world has ever known, claim as their 'Lord and Savior' the One who said, 'None of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.' [1] In the beginning all of His followers shared a simple common life of love and unity. Any who wanted to join them gave up their personal wealth, trusting their leaders to distribute it wisely so that there would be no needy among them.[2]
This was the first truly sustainable life .... Not only was it sustainable in its material simplicity, but also in its social relationships, because they were forgiven, washed clean of their former lives of self-indulgence and had received the ability to live for each other, to forgive one another, and to overlook each other's faults.[4] This way of living was intended to grow into a nation and produce a great light to show the world what a truly sustainable life is. As its love, light, and unity increased it would overflow to the whole world and bring salvation to the ends of the earth. However, by the end of the first century, this life was already waning, mutating into the stale, ritualistic system known as Christianity.
The largely Christian society of the Western world bears no resemblance to the life of those first-century believers. Instead it is a society driven by self-concern, with an insatiable appetite for greater comfort, wealth, prestige, and pleasure, but with the least possible effort or accountability."