Pages 153-174 of the “in the beloved community: how faith shapes social justice, from the civil rights movement to today” talks a lot about John Perkins’s sufferings that him and other activists went through in demands for equal rights for African Americans. It is like John Perkins carried on the work that Martin Luther King was doing before getting assassinated. John had it rough in his life, his father left him, his mother passed away, his brother was killed right after coming back from serving in the war, and his sister was also killed. In his demands for equal rights for all, especially the African-Americans, he experienced a high level of persecution, he was once beaten to the point where he could’ve died, was in jail a couple of time…show more content… He always has his bible with him wherever he goes. In the speech that he gave at the courthouse in front of the black townspeople, he was inspired by the phrase from the declaration of independence that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal” his words were “Well I’m a man and I’m ready to stand and treated like one”. This phrase carried John, his wife and childrens through an imaginable pain for several years. After the death of his brother Clyde and his persecutions in the hands of his oppressors, John perkins’ relatives advised him to move to Jackson. He took their advice and went but Jackson turned out to be no different than New Hebron, his old town. He started saving up to go to California and forever leave Mississippi. But what he didn’t see coming was the fact that Mississippi will be his home, he will discovered the church there, and his own son’s faith, will inspired him and he will finally find his way to The God who was there from the beginning. It is safe to says that John perkins and Dr. King are similar in a couple of ways. They’re both humanitarian, intelligent, considerate and so…show more content… It was really hard to read the paragraphs in which he was beaten at the jail court without emotions. I had to stop reading and take a moment away from my desk, because I couldn’t believe things that were being said to him while he was in his suffering. For a moment, I asked myself, why is he doing this to himself? But then I remember that because he is at the stage in his spiritual life that his life doesn’t matter to him anymore, the well being of others matters the most. Learning from John Perkins actions in additions to Dr. King’s role in the civil right movement made me questioned myself on what it means for me to be a christian and stand up for others even if that means risking my life for it. This article also made me think of my role within my church. I often take advantage of the existence of the church, but reading stories like on how the church community reshape people’s life transform my opinion on the church. Because it is so rare to see people giving up their lives for freedom of others, we often place people like Dr.King and John Perkins in our heads as “Saints” or some iconic figures because they have done and gone through what most of us will refer to as the