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
congregation membership, the newsletter addressed another audience as
well.
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
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.
