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By CHRIS SHIPMAN
Hometown News
Rev. Clifton Edell Dawkins, Jr., in honor of his work with the homeless in Atlanta, was inducted last week into The Martin Luther King, Jr., Board of Preachers, Sponsors, and Collegium Scholars at Morehouse College.
Dawkins, along with his brother Darrell, who serves as Woodruff’s police chief, was raised in Enoree and Woodruff. He graduated Woodruff High in 1988 and went on to Morris College in Sumter, S.C., then to Morehouse College in Atlanta— Dr. King’s alma mater—before entering the ministry.
For the last nine years, he has been the Chaplain of Indigent Care for Fulton County, Ga., where he performs ecumenical counseling, Indigent/Homeless services and invocations at various county-related functions.
“I believe if we lose sight of the needs of people, we ultimately go blind from our lack of vision and compassion,” he said. “The ministry I founded feeds almost 200 people every week on the streets and under the bridges of Atlanta. We provide clothing and basic needs for those in need. Our goal is to be a holistic ministry in serving others. It is the most rewarding and meaningful thing I have ever been part of."
Rev. Dawkins first heard the call to action as a student in Sumter.
“I served as a student minister at a local church that had the heart to serve and feed those who had nothing,” he said. “That experience coupled with the reading of key books such as “The Cost of Discipleship” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer led me to what Bonhoeffer described as two different graces in theological terms: first, ‘Cheap Grace’ which tells us that God has done everything and that we can sit back on our hind parts, go to church, pay our money, and let God do the rest, and second, there is ‘Costly Grace’ which tells us that we owe something to God and can’t sit idle while people in our community, county, state, nation are hurting, hungry, and hopeless. ‘Costly Grace’ is a call to action—not holy lip service and arrogance which helps no one and only satisfies what Sigmund Freud would describe as our ‘Super Ego.’”
Rev. Dawkins heard the call to preach early on. “I always knew I was going to preach,” he said, “but I had my evolutionary period of discovering myself in maturing in the call as a minister. For me, ministers were looked upon as being perfect, but with 20 years of ministry that is simply not the case. God calls imperfect men and women to tell a perfect story of the word of God.”
One of his mentors in the ministry growing up, he said, was Rev. Dr. James Gray of New Prospect Baptist Church, “who always preached with power and conviction.” He knew how to “paint the picture of the gospel story,” he said. Another was Rev. Andy Young, formerly in Enoree, “who was a real down to earth guy who preached with passion and served with compassion to everyone.”
“He taught me that all people have worth,” Rev. Dawkins stated, “even if they are addicted to drugs or are presidents of major corporations. There is some good, some light, in everyone.” Another, he added, was Rev. O.T. Hill, “who was an excellent teacher at my college and brilliant pastor in Enoree.”
The citation comes with a challenge. It was established “because of the crises of character in America requiring more ethically and spiritually oriented role models and moral examples,” and its recipients are charged “to be affirmative and appreciative, coherently critical examples for this generation of students, always remembering that our vision is the creation of a global society in which the full development of each individual’s potential is the central goal.” They are to be “guarantors of continuity, celebrators of change, negotiators of structure, and facilitators of meaning with the hope that we can right age-old wrongs that continue to haunt the American people and the world.” And lastly, they are to use their “time, talent, tender, and technology to help usher in an age of peace and nonviolence for the children of the world, to raise another generation of morally inspired leaders committed to building the ‘Beloved Community.’”
The award ceremony was part of the 142nd Annual Science and Spiritual Awareness Week. Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was also honored posthumously with the Gandhi-King-Ikeda Community Builders’ Prize. The award honors those who work for peace and nonviolence.
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