So long sweet Jesus: A street worker's spiritual odyssey

The transition from the suburban life to the city and the changes Bill Milliken went through are described in his first book, Tough Love, which covered his first seven years on the Lower East Side. Shortly after that period, however, about 1968, he began to question his effectiveness. Black militants charged him with using Christianity as an opiate, anesthetizing black brothers and sisters with religion, trying to keep things cool with promises of rewards "beyond the sunset." That's where this book begins - Bill's enchantment with the organized church. His personal "dark knight of the soul" carries him all the way to the bottom. Violent revolution, he comes to believe, is indeed the only solution for "our oppressive, unresponsive system." He nearly capitulates, but then meets Clarence Jordan, author of The Cotton Patch Epistles and the founder of Koinonia Partners in Americus, Georgia. Clarence told Bill that neither do-nothing, liberal churchism nor violent revolution were paths to follow. Instead he told him about a compassionate radicalism, the kind he believed Jesus practiced 2000 years ago. The denouement of his struggle is an fascinating as it is uplifting. Though some will not agree with Bill Milliken's conclusions, no one can remain unmoved or unchallenged.