A new book highlights 15 sermons by civil rights leader The Rev. Dr. C.T. Vivian, who grew up in Macomb.
They were compiled by one of his daughters, Denise Vivian Morse.
She told TSPR that after her father passed away six years ago, his family started going through his library and papers. That got the ball rolling on a multi-year process that resulted in the book, “Your Soul is Required — The Theology and Sermons of C.T. Vivian.”
Denise said her father wanted people to understand that if you love God, you should also love your fellow human beings.
“Everything he preached was on social justice. Whatever he saw that was going on, he could put into a sermon that was all about how this society needs to change and why, based on God’s word,” she said.
“You just can’t abuse immigrants, abuse fellow citizens, pass laws to hurt people and limit their progress, and then say you love God.”
Denise said her father’s sermons remain relevant today because the word of God doesn’t change. She said they also remain relevant because things haven’t changed that much — and she finds that frustrating.
She said the sermons are about how we treat our fellow man and why we’re falling short.
“How’s God supposed to bless America when you pick up people off the street and take them from their children, and put babies in cages?” Denise said, adding that her father cared about kindness and human decency.
The book is published by Fortress Press and is available from the publisher and through Amazon.
Denise will participate in a celebration of her father’s life and legacy beginning at 5 p.m. on Thursday, July 30, at the Western Illinois Museum in Macomb. Thursday marks the 102nd anniversary of her father’s birth.
Denise will also sign copies of the book beginning at noon on Friday, July 31 at New Copperfield’s Book Service in Macomb.
C.T. Vivian was born in Boonville, Mo. His parents moved the family to Macomb when he was still quite young. He graduated from Macomb High School in 1942 and attended Western Illinois University before moving to Peoria, where he participated in his first civil rights demonstration in the late 1940s.
Vivian was a close friend of civil rights leader The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Vivian worked alongside King during the American Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and ‘60s.
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