University of Virginia Library

The Bible Says . . . : Interpreting Social Action

The Congregation in Cincinnati moved from house to house each month, and this mobility soon necessitated a newsletter, including a map locating congregational gatherings. This also kept members abreast of the activities of various committees and contained chatty notes about important events in the lives of members and their families. Although its ostensible public was the

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Holm reasoned that if his congregation was to provide a helping ministry to the established churches, such a ministry must be built upon a relationship of mutual respect and trust. The essential prerequisite of trust is communication. Once the newsletter was established, it became a facility for communicating with other pastors in the Presbytery. The stated purpose of such distribution was to keep pastors informed of congregation activities. More importantly, however, it served to interpret social action in term acceptable to even theologically conservative pastors and laity Each month, on its cover page, the newsletter carried devotional message addressing issues relevant to the social-action concerns of the mission. The message was almost always embedded in a biblical narrative followed by a terse and pointer interpretive statement. Speaking from within the tradition of biblical faith, the newsletter carried an air of authority attractive to orthodox Christians. This approach to Presbytery clergy sough legitimation for congregational concerns in those churches when dormant opposition could have been expected. The strategy goal moreover, reached beyond simply neutralizing the opposition. I sought mutual respect, reduction of threat, and increase in the common ground of identity on which to build a helping ministry

To illustrate, one such devotional is cited below. It was distributed on the eve of the November 1971 election day.

Jeremiah was the local white liberal in Jerusalem. There are some in almost every community And Jeremiah was in a hole. He had called on his country to end a war they could not win. He upset the leaders in the community. He had to be toned down a bit. So they lowered him down to the bottom of a mucky, muddy well.
Well. That's where Ebedmelech came in. Ebedmelech was a black man. He was a government official and a politician. People called him an Uncle Tom behind his back-an "Ethiopian eunuch." They considered him impotent and powerless. But Ebedmelech knew the ropes. He had learned how to work the system. He got orders for Jeremiah's release. He got ropes and rags from the government stores. He told Jeremiah to wrap the rags around him so he wouldn't get rubbed raw by the ropes. "Then

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they drew Jeremiah up with ropes and lifted him out of the cistern."
The moral of all this is that local white liberals need to have a black politician friend who can pull strings. Good black elected public officials may well be the last, best hope of this nation. Fortunately for us, we have another chance to elect some on Tuesday.

The Dayton congregation contrasts sharply in its approach to established churches for several reasons. First, the social-action goals of the Congregation for Reconciliation in Dayton did not depend for their success upon the cooperation of other churches, nor did they, beyond one initial attempt, ever involve other churches. Second, had some members made this a serious goal, the effort would have almost inevitably generated a new round of conflict within the mission. Considering the style of the Congregation's members and pastor, limitations on project selection and action to assuage other churches could have totally unraveled the group. Third, even if the social-action strategy of working through other churches had been adopted and supported, image management would have presented a structural problem. The news media in Dayton seemed prepared to cover the activities of the experimental congregation even before Righter appeared on the scene. He has, however, skillfully cultivated the media as indispensable tools in the public confrontations characteristic of the Congregation's action strategy. Had Righter and his following desired to court the churches convincingly, media attention would probably have proven dysfunctional and would have been avoided. This is what occurred in Cincinnati. Rather than striving for skill and sophistication in the arena of city-wide media, that _ congregation developed a commensurate skill in relating to the Presbytery to better fulfill its design and goals vis-a-vis social action.