The church is in dancer. In her zeal to make herself “relevant” to the modern world’s predicament she is becoming irrelevant to man’s greatest need. In her zeal to become “involved” in the secular order she has become involved in its disorder. In her zeal to “evangelize” she has lost sight of the Evangel. And in her concern for the needs of mankind she is offering a mess of temporal pottage rather than the Bread of Life without which no man can live.
Recently the writer spent nearly two months out of the country. During that time most of the major denominations held their annual meetings. Almost all of these meetings seem to have been primarily preoccupied with sociological matters.
We witnessed some of the student riots in Korea, sensed something of the tensions of Southeast Asia as we flew over South Viet Nam and Laos, and saw a little of the spiritual indifference that is part of a prosperous and secularized Europe.
Then we landed in New York to be confronted by glaring headlines telling of a virtual reign of terror, with rapings, muggings, stabbings, and murder so rampant that the police authorities have requested people to stay off the streets at night; so prevalent that citizens have organized patrols for the protection of those forced to be out after dark.
Nor is the violence confined to the streets of New York, the same picture is seen all over the country in varying degrees of intensity—demonstrations, mob violence, and more of the same promised.
The inevitable has happened; along with the pressures for civil rights that have involved street demonstrations, often leading to disorder and general disrespect for law, there has developed a parallel spirit of lawlessness in that segment of society which thrives on the atmosphere now prevalent in our nation.
We are aware of the contention of some that those humiliated and discriminated against can “no longer wait,” that the pent-up resentments and frustrations of a century are naturally finding expression in open revolt.
But the answer is not so simple. We write frankly and with a degree of boldness because for ten years we have advocated the elimination of all racial barriers within the churches (in the articles “Race Relations—a Christian Principle” and “Race Relations Must Be Natural, Not Forced” in the Presbyterian Journal, and in a symposium, “Morality and Segregation,” in the October 1, 1956, issue of Life magazine), and we are aware of and deeply sympathetic to the need for the establishing of race relations on a truly Christian basis.
With this background of sympathetic concern, we are forced to say that part of the problem with which our country is now faced is due to the Church’s great error of taking to the streets in an effort to promote civil rights. When we say the “Church” we refer to actions of church courts advocating or condoning this procedure, and of churchmen demonstrating in the name of “a Christian witness.”
We question neither the motives nor the zeal of those church leaders who have left their pulpits for the streets. But in all candor we question the wisdom of their actions, for Christian race relations are a matter of the heart; without a work of regeneration man’s relations with man are at best tenuous. Who if not the minister is to preach the way to a new heart? Who if not the minister has the words of reconciliation? Who if not the minister has the message of a balm to the soul—the love of Christ that is shed abroad in the hearts of men?
Burdened by a foreboding of lawlessness, violence, property loss, and bloodshed as the inevitable corollary of street demonstrations, we wrote the following several months ago under the title “Street Demonstrations—Playing with Fire” (Presbyterian Journal, April 8): “We do not believe there is a person in America more anxious for racial justice and harmony than are we. Without pride, but with assurance in our heart, we believe that at the local level and in personal dealings (where the only ultimate solution lies), we have earnestly tried, and in a real measure succeeded, in treating and being treated by those of other races as Christians should one another.
“This being true, we are deeply troubled at the means being used by some to promote civil rights, even if the proposals lead up to violence and tyrannies in reverse.
“That the Church should become identified in growing measure with demonstrations and civil disobedience is ominous.…
“One of the problems stems from those who have little idea of what is involved and who go into various areas with great fire and zeal but with a lack of judgment which results in increased tensions rather than the reverse. These men are playing with fire.
“The ‘liberal’ governor of North Carolina, Terry Sanford, has advised civil rights agitators that they have ‘gotten across their message’ and that the time has come to stop street demonstrations.
“There is a serious question about the wisdom of such demonstrations, for the right solution of race problems can never be achieved that way. Some of the warmest friends of racial justice are becoming concerned because of the tactics used.
“There is no merit in courting arrest for the testimony of having been in jail. As an illustration of these tactics, we note the activities of a group of Northern ministers in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Permitted by the police to demonstrate for several days, they finally deliberately broke the law in order to incur arrest. These methods have been repeated in a number of places.
“We are concerned about continued demonstrations because they are adding to the spirit of lawlessness abroad in the world. One can hardly take up a newspaper without reading of street demonstrations, mob violence, destruction of property, and occasionally loss of life.
“We are convinced that behind some of these activities there are individuals whose primary interest is not civil rights but national disorder. The Church and her ministers, both Negro and white, should carefully shun a method of procedure which can lead, not to civil rights, but to anarchy and chaos.”
That which we foresaw is now coming to pass; there is danger lest the Church find in her hands, not the torch of a righteous cause, but the ashes of a lost spiritual opportunity. In taking up the sword of civil disobedience, the Church may perish in the resulting chaos of a nation without spiritual leadership.
The Church is in grave danger because she is losing her perspective, majoring in social revolution, and forgetting her primary message of personal redemption through the Christ of Calvary.
As was inevitable, the fine line separating legitimate protest from lawlessness and violence is being repeatedly breached—to the ultimate confusion of the Church.
