2/13/66
"Helpful, Friendly, Kind"
Scripture: Luke 10: 25-37 (parable of the Good Samaritan)
The 12th Day of February brings to our attention several reminders. It is the birthday of Abraham Lincoln --- who is still revered here in this land, and over much of the world, for his simple honesty and great capacities --- a common people’s man with uncommon abilities.
Some few of us have recently seen a motion picture version of the Lincoln-Douglas debates on the question of slavery. It was impressive to see an interpretation of his determined opposition to slavery as a violation of human rights and dignity; as well as to hear some of the words he is reported to have uttered in those debates. Following the debates, Lincoln won Illinois’ popular vote but lost the electoral vote and so was defeated then, in his bid for office. But he became President of the USA a little later. Many of those who adhere to the Republican Party, of which Lincoln was the first Presidential representative, have gathered for Lincoln Day observances in numerous communities.
It happens that the Boy Scouts of America usually observe National Boy Scout Week at the time of Lincoln’s birthday. The Scouts of our community have been active in learning the functioning of city and county government this past week. And the citizenry is happy to encourage them. Today, at the end of Boy Scout Week, is Boy Scout Sunday. We are happy to welcome Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts, and their leaders, at our worship services today and to have the assistance of Scouts at ushering. The Scouts are attending services in churches of their choice all over the nation today.
Another of the special emphases, which appears on church calendars on the weekend nearest Lincoln’s birthday, is Race Relations Sunday. Today is that day. Probably it seems particularly appropriate that such an emphasis should occur near his birthday because of Lincoln’s lifelong opposition to slave-holding and his sacrificial success in having chattel slavery abolished in this country.
But his success did not settle the matter of improved relations between black and white people, nor of relations between people of other races as well. That is a matter that is still crying for improvement a century after the time of Lincoln! There are those who think that the church of today has little influence on the real issues of living. Indeed, many professing church members say (according to polls of the American Institute of Public Opinion) that their religious beliefs have no influence on their politics or business. Why not? That is where life is being lived, and religious convictions should be at the center of living! I hope that we people of this church take our faith seriously --- not only for comfort on Sunday morning, but for the conflicts and dangers and sufferings of the week!
At least in a church of our order, we are the spiritual descendants of people who have taken the matter of race relations seriously for a couple of centuries! For many years before the Civil War, Congregational Churches and Congregational people were in the forefront of those who believed that human slavery is wrong and must be abolished. Not a few helped with the so-called “underground railway” movement in assisting runaway slaves to escape northward. They were strong supporters of the abolitionist movement. Not all were agreed, for Congregationalists are free people to disagree, then and now, when their convictions so dictate.
But this temper has been part of our churches’ tradition for a long time. Following the Civil War, it was an agency of the Congregational Churches, the “American Missionary Association” that raised funds and recruited leaders for a great many schools and colleges to educate the freed (but untrained) Negroes and their descendants. The primary and secondary schools started by the AMA have long since been absorbed into the public school systems of Southern states. But a number of the colleges are still encouraged and supported in part by the AMA and its present successor, the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries.
I was present, though not a delegate, at the 1946 meeting of the General Council of the Congregational Christian Church, held in Grinnell, Iowa. One feature of that council meeting was a centennial of the AMA with warm appreciation of what it had meant for over 100 years. But the church members who attended that council realized that the whole matter of race relations had still a long way to go. And so it was urged that for the next 100 years, beginning right then in 1946, a motto or goal of our church fellowship shall be “an unsegregated church in an unsegregated society.” One fifth of the century -- 20 years of it! -- has already passed. And we are struggling with grim reality. But some progress has been made! 3,800 congregations in our United Church of Christ fellowship have declared publicly that their membership is open to Christian people without regard to racial origin.
The United Church of Christ, of which a great majority of Congregational churches are now a part, has shown a marked concern for racial justice. At the Denver meeting of General Synod in 1963, there was genuine concern for the racial crisis so clearly discernible by that time. Most of those attending that General Synod were convinced that our churches ought to embark on a mission of eliminating racial segregation and discrimination in the life of the churches, and that we ought to throw our influence into securing racial justice in our society.
Because there is a ground swell of feeling among Negro people that they can no longer wait through some prolonged “gradualism” for their God-ordained rights, but that the sharing of these rights must begin now, our churches have generally recognized the crisis, and many rise to the challenge. We are doing a lot more thinking --- some of it quite painful --- about this matter than we have done for a long while. At the urging of our General Synod, we have, in this congregation, already made two offerings in former years for “Racial Justice Now.”
The need is still acute and the cause is alive and the dangers from neglect are ominous. The General Synod of 1965, last summer in Chicago, reaffirmed the concern of our churches, and the conviction of our church leaders, that this must be a major field of endeavor and sharing. “The mission for Racial Justice Now has only begun.” And it is a priority concern on our consciences.
Following the General Synod meeting, President Ben Herbster appointed a new committee to be our vehicle of witness, to keep us informed as to the need. Chairman of the new committee is the Rev. Sterling Cary of New York City, and the executive coordinator is the Rev. Truman B. Douglass, executive vice president of our Board for Homeland Ministries. In October, Dr. Douglass sent to our churches an appeal to prepare for receiving an offering for Racial Justice Now on Race Relations Sunday, February 13th. He repeated the request in December, and again in January. Our church Board of Trustees has authorized it here, and that is why last Sunday’s announcement was made in anticipation of today.
But, some of us ask why all this fuss? There are obvious differences between the white and black races. Why not recognize the differences and let the relationship alone? One obvious answer is that the matter is not going to be left alone. There is a ferment of unrest, and determination, and even bitterness among our Negro population that has become one of the insistent crises of our time.
Many of us believe that one of the hopeful things in the situation is that so many ministers and churches in the Negro community are being heard. Their approach is insistent and persistent; but it is non-violent. These leaders plead with their people not to resort to hatred, but to depend on positive love.
If progress in the direction of their rights is too slow, it is quite possible for hatred movements, like the Black Muslims, to gain the leadership, and for the crisis to become a bloody strife. I have been sobered at this possibility for some time; and was further concerned by one incident related to me by one of my sons who lives, at present, in an integrating neighborhood in Chicago. While in a grocery store, he was approached by a uniformed colored man who quite bluntly said that he was a black Muslim, soliciting contributions for that cause from anyone who would donate. My son declined to give him anything, making it clear that he had other channels through which he might contribute to the cause for racial justice.
If the movement, and foment, among American Negroes can be kept under constructive leadership, our nation may yet be spared a lot of grief and strife and even bloodshed. But there must be progress, and it is my own conviction that Christian people like you and me in this church must be helping.
Now here is where Scouting and Race Relations come together for a time! The Boy Scouts have a Scout Law with 12 affirmations. Some of these affirmations are readily applicable to the relationship between the races in our country. Among the other statements in the Scout Law are these: “A Scout is helpful; a Scout is Friendly; a Scout is Kind.” Those are precisely the qualities of spirit that are needed by members of both races in this twentieth century crisis. Another of the Scout laws is: “A Scout is courteous.”
It was a Negro minister of an AME church in Jackson, Mississippi, who recently urged his own congregation to practice courtesy in order to create the climate most conducive to their highest aspirations. He pulled no punches in his assertion that United States Negroes have too often had neither the protection of the State, nor the compassion of their white fellowmen. He recalled vividly the hot summers of 1964 and 1965 with what he referred to as the “sweat, swill, and stench of scores of jails; the cattle prods, police dogs, and tear gas; the bombings, burnings, and beatings; and the shameful killings” .... and those things notwithstanding, the notable gains achieved by the American Negro in his present struggle for first class citizenship. But the Rev. George Sewell was still urging his people to be courteous because he insists it is based on the teachings of Christianity, it can be contagious, it is hopeful good sense. White people can be courteous, helpful, friendly, kind -- for the same good reasons! It is not easy when we think of some of the injustices.
In 1964 these qualities were tossed to the winds, as serious rioting broke out in Philadelphia. Last year, another serious riot broke out in Watts, California. These do not just happen accidentally; they accumulate! And here are some of the causes of the Philadelphia riot as analyzed through the Human Relations Press of the American Jewish committee: (1) substandard education. Most Philadelphia Negroes got nearly 2 years less education than white children, and often in run-down buildings with inexperienced teachers. (2) Unemployment -- Negro unemployment running almost 3 times the general overall unemployment rate. (3) Slum housing -- more than half the homes in the riot area being substandard by Philadelphia’s own housing code, yet still very costly in terms of Negro ability to pay. (4) Poor relations between merchants and customers with not a little exploitation of Negro need. (5) Hostile relations between police and the community. These sores must be healed. And you and I must be among those who support the “doctors” of healing.
Take the elemental need for a place to call home. Housing is a chief sore spot for Negro people. In Chicago it runs at least 20 percent more expensive for Negro people than for other folk --- and this is true whether it be a low-income family or a well-to-do Negro household -- whether renting or buying. One of the myths, now being exploded, is that residential values will decline when Negroes move into white neighborhoods. Sherwood Ross, a Washington DC consultant on racial affairs, has checked US census-listed values of well over a million homes in 47 major cities listed in 1800 census tracts. Ross’ discovery is that, in most census tracts, home values rise rather than fall during neighborhood integration.
In areas where Negroes with some money go in, they are so eager to catch up with decent housing that they will pour every available nickel into a decent house for a home. In run-down areas where Negroes move into large houses formerly occupied by white residents, several Negro families will often occupy the same house formerly used by one white family --- and pay handsome rent! A seminary professor recently observed that a house he knew to have been the comfortable home of one white family some time ago is now divided into makeshift apartments occupied by 6 Negro families all paying at least $70 per month for that housing. $420 rent per month is not too bad an income for the landlord! Can you understand how his tenants feel?
Well, what can we do about all this racial crisis? Suppose we do give a few dollars today for “Racial Justice Now” in order to walk out of church today with an easier conscience. Who will administer it and how will it be spent and what will it accomplish? It will be spent through the agencies of our own denominational fellowship, and all of it will go for its intended cause. Administrative and promotional expenses are being provided by our regular, existing agencies and instrumentalities. Here is how earlier “Racial Justice Now” offerings have been spent:
1) For leadership training, voter registration, citizenship education, and community development at Bricks, North Carolina; Beaumont, Texas; Albany, Georgia; and several communities in the Mississippi delta.
2) Scholarships enabling Negro students to attend predominantly white colleges related to our United Church of Christ; also pre-college enrichment at Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for Negro high school graduates.
3) Establishment of a task force of United Church of Christ people on housing; legal assistance to some low-income Chicago families seeking code enforcement of housing violations. (My son has commented to me on the relieved comment of a custodian who recently came to the building where he rents -- “No rats!!” -- and the fellow is not a Negro, either!)
4) Monitoring 2 TV stations in Mississippi for discriminatory practices in their programming resulting in changes required by the Federal Communications Commission.
5) Programs of ecumenical witnessing for racial justice in Cleveland, Detroit, and New York.
These and other practical moves will be continued so far as our generosity permits and makes possible. That is what “Racial Justice Now” does, providing more voter education; aid to law-abiding citizens who are victims of racial discrimination or their stand against it; remedial education for kindergartners through college age who have been short-changed with inferior training; healing for the sores of Watts, Harlem, Philadelphia, Chicago’s south side and other Negro ghettos; and more deeply insightful answers to the question: “Who is my neighbor?”
Today’s offering for “Racial Justice Now” is a separate offering, to be taken now. It is received from each of us only in the amount we want to give, measured by our belief in this cause. Let each one do as he purposes in his own heart. The ushers will now wait upon us, the worshippers in this congregation.
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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, February 13, 1966.