In Remembrance of My Childhood Pastor — a Digital Leader Before His Time
When I learned that Pastor Manson B. Johnson II had succumbed to Covid-19, it highlighted all the ways that spiritual practice is adapting to an uncertain age
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On the night of the violent riots that shook up Philadelphia’s 52nd Street in protest of police brutality, I received a terse text from my older brother, El. “Pastor Johnson has passed away,” it read. Another came a few seconds later: “Apparently due to Covid.” I hadn’t even stopped coughing from the tear gas I inhaled in the midst of the ruckus up the block; I struggled for both fresh air and the appropriate words. “Wow. Dammit… dammit!” is all that my fingers could muster.
I hadn’t been back to Holman Street Baptist Church in nearly two decades, but Shepherd Dr. Manson B. Johnson II was an instrumental figure in my childhood understanding of how to build community through spiritual service. At 71, the Nashville-born, Mississippi-bred reverend died a man of his era — an era that he helped to mold during his 40 years leading Holman Street, one of the most iconic Black churches in Houston’s Third Ward…
