Clarence Jordan (July 29, 1912 – October 29, 1969) was an American farmer and Baptist theologian, founder of Koinonia Farm, a small but influential religious community in southwest Georgia and the author of the Cotton Patch paraphrase of the New Testament.
Hoping to improve the lot of sharecroppers through scientific farming techniques, he enrolled in the University of Georgia, earning a degree in agriculture in 1933.
In 1942, the Jordans, another couple – Martin and Mabel England, who had previously served as American Baptist missionaries – and their families moved to a 440-acre (1.8 km2) tract of land near Americus, Georgia, to create an interracial, Christian farming community.
When Jordan sought help from President Eisenhower, the federal government refused to intervene, instead referring the matter to the governor of Georgia.
[3] Jordan chose not to participate in the marches and demonstrations of the era, instead believing that the best way to effect change in society was by living, in community, a radically different life.
His translation of Ephesians 2:11–13 is typical: So then, always remember that previously you Negroes, who sometimes are even called "niggers" by thoughtless white church members, were at one time outside the Christian fellowship, denied your rights as fellow believers, and treated as though the gospel didn't apply to you, hopeless and God-forsaken in the eyes of the world.
Now, however, because of Christ's supreme sacrifice, you who once were so segregated are warmly welcomed into the Christian fellowship.Along with his rendering of "Jew and Gentile" as "white man and Negro," Jordan converted all references to "crucifixion" into references to "lynching," believing that no other term was adequate for conveying the sense of the event into a modern American idiom: [T]here just isn't any word in our vocabulary which adequately translates the Greek word for "crucifixion."
But having observed the operation of Southern "justice," and at times having been its victim, I can testify that more people have been lynched "by judicial action" than by unofficial ropes.
A marital crisis and dissatisfaction with their millionaire lifestyle had earlier persuaded the couple to sell their possessions and seek a life together in Christian service.
As he had requested, Jordan had a simple burial; his body was placed in a shipping crate from a local casket manufacturer and was buried in an unmarked grave on Koinonia property.