Centennial Assembly: Southern Presbyterians Press Desegregation

In December 1861, in the First Presbyterian Church of Augusta, Georgia, the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. (Southern) was constituted. Although slavery was the issue of that day, the particular action which precipitated a rupture within the National Church was a resolution, voted by the united assembly a few months before, requiring a pledge of allegiance of ministers and churches to the Federal government.

The Centennial General Assembly of America’s second largest Presbyterian body convened one hundred years later, April 28, 1960, in the Riverside Church, Jacksonville, Florida. Still shy of political entanglements, the highest court of the church refused to oppose the nomination of a Roman Catholic for President and defeated, in a 3 to 1 vote, a move to recognize U. S. responsibility for the first use of atomic weapons in war.

Confronting the 100th assembly were reports and overtures providing opportunity for definitive and historic pronouncements in such major areas of interest as world missions, inter-church relations, education, and race relations. But the Southern Presbyterian church is seriously divided, internally, and its behavior is not always predictable. The assembly seemed to drift—first one way, then another.

Obviously mindful of its responsibility in the area of race relations, the assembly urged its colleges and other institutions to speed processes of desegregation. Equally mindful of theological as well as social tensions, it rejected almost unanimously moves to reopen union negotiations with the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.

Apprehensive of increasing centralization in administration, it defeated a resolution by Dr. E. T. Thompson, retiring moderator, which would, in effect, have made its Committee on the Minister and his Work a stronger watch-dog in the affairs of ministers who find themselves in difficulty for “speaking the mind of the Assembly in love”—an obvious reference to the racial situation in the South.

But it took steps which some observers felt would lead to increasing centralization in the sensitive area of stewardship by approving the preparation of a plan establishing a central treasurer’s office and “more equitable distribution of benevolent funds.” (It is understood that some home agencies have been operating short of funds while others, such as the Board of World Missions, have been more liberally supported.)

The 521 commissioners from the 19 states and the District of Columbia rejected a strong bid, through several overtures, to change the basis of the church’s relations with national churches overseas—specifically the Presbyterian Church of Mexico. A further request to reevaluate the denomination’s entire missions philosophy was also defeated, although the Board of World Missions was encouraged to initiate a more intensive study of its own policies overseas. (The Presbyterian Church U.S. is one of the few larger denominations which has not turned over full control and operation of its missions work to the various national churches. It nonetheless recognizes these churches as independent and autonomous.)

The denomination’s relation to the National Council of Churches came in for considerable attention. A resolution asking for an investigation of recent charges against the NCC was referred to the church’s representatives on the NCC itself while another resolution, to re-examine the constitutional validity of the church’s membership in the NCC, was rejected. In its report adopted by the assembly, the Standing Committee handling these matters deplored the “unmerited attacks” made against that ecumenical body.

Easily the most controversial report brought before the 521 delegates was that of the Standing Committee on Christian Relations, containing references to atomic warfare, to the United Nations, to desegregation and to capital punishment. It was understood that opinions represented on the Standing Committee had been rather lopsidedly in favor of strong action in all of these areas and that the work of committee had consisted mostly in deciding just how strong to make its report.

When the committee’s report reached the floor, however, unexpected opposition appeared to a paragraph which said that “although seemingly the [Second World] war’s outcome was not in doubt, we dropped the bomb on two Japanese cities, immediately killing more than 100,000 men, women and children and adversely affecting thousands of others including unborn generations … and we continued to endanger others by continued tests.”

The opposition, which exploded all over the assembly, urged the church to stay out of the realm of military science and tactics, deploring the pacifistic flavor of the paragraph. The assembly rejected a move to soften the language of the paragraph and, in a three-to-one vote, finally struck it out altogether.

Next, the body changed a reference to the United Nations as “the agency now in existence that holds the greatest promise of progress toward disarmament in a more peaceful world,” to “an agency which holds promise.…”

The sensitive problem of race relations came up in the form of a recommendation that the trustees of the church’s institutions be reminded of the action of 1954 assembly (taken before the Supreme Court decision) urging the opening of the doors of those institutions to qualified students “without regard to social distinctions.” After efforts were defeated to modify or to soften the language of the recommendation, it was passed, by a vote of 208 to 186.

New Officers

Dr. Marion A. Boggs, new moderator of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. and Dr. James A. Millard, Jr., inducted as stated clerk, are both graduates of Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia.

Boggs, 65, is minister of the Second Presbyterian Church in Little Rock, Arkansas. He was described by a nominator as a “symbol of reconciliation whereby the Christian leader speaks the truth in love to a troubled community.” Boggs favors integration, but has nonetheless held the respect of many in Little Rock who differ with him on the race issue. The mayor of Little Rock and the chairman of the school board are elders in his church.

Boggs was elected on the second ballot, when he received 260 votes to 251 for Dr. R. Matthew Lynn of Midland, Texas.

Millard, 48, was elected stated clerk in 1958 and assumed his duties last summer. He had been professor of homiletics and director of field work at Austin (Texas) Presbyterian Seminary and had served for a year as acting dean. From 1947 until 1952 he was minister at the First Presbyterian Church of Hot Springs, Arkansas, which Boggs has also pastored (from 1930 until 1939).

Boggs is a native of South Carolina, Millard of Tennessee.

Capital punishment has been under study by a committee of the assembly for the past year. The committee, however, was unable to agree on a report in time for this meeting. It was continued, to report to the 1961 meeting, as was another committee which has been studying the “feasibility” of amending the Confession of Faith so as to strike out references to the “negative” aspects of the church’s historic doctrine of predestination-references to divine election, to reprobation as well as to salvation.

In other actions, the Presbyterians: approved elaborate plans for centennial celebrations throughout 1961 featuring evangelistic “cavalcades” in 80 cities; recognized planned parenthood as a personal matter before God; instructed a committee to study spiritual implications of the use of tobacco and tranquilizing drugs; appointed another committee to “study” such evangelical movements as Youth for Christ, Young Life, Navigators, etc.; and sent to its presbyteries for approval a new Book of Church Order and Directory for Worship.

Also adopted was a resolution which “viewed with dismay the continued persecution of Protestants in the Republic of Colombia.”

The assembly declined to participate, with the UPUSA Church, in plans for the joint development of a $20,000,000 national Presbyterian cathedral in Washington, D. C., declaring that the “creation and construction of a ‘National’ church would be contrary to the nature and mission of the Church, which nature and mission are to be fulfilled through service and not through status.”

Elected to moderate the historic meeting was Dr. Marion A. Boggs, pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church of Little Rock, Arkansas, and brother of Dr. Wade Boggs, moderator of the 1954 assembly. This is the first time that brothers have been elected to the moderatorship.

Inducted into office during the meeting was Dr. James A. Millard, Jr., new stated clerk replacing Dr. E. C. Scott, who retired after occupying the office for 25 years.

The next meeting of the General Assembly will be held in the Highland Park Presbyterian Church of Dallas, largest in the denomination.

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