Full Text for The Nature of the Evangelistic Task of Predominantly White Denominations in Relation to The Black Community (Text)
The Nature of the Evangelistic
Task of Predominantly White
Denominations in Relation to
The Black Community
T h e author is the Executive Director of the Comrnissioiz on
Race and Religion for the United Presbyteriaiz Church, U . S. A.
H e is also the author of the ?~olz~me The Secular Relevance of the
Church and a nunzbrr of l~criodical articles. T h e follo~uing essay
u7as originally l~rcscnted to a gathering of black pastors of various
Lutheran bodies in Chicago in May of this year and is repri~zted by
perwzissio?l of the author.
B Y T H E SUhlMEll of 1966 it was clear that the white churches and white churchmen could not be depended upon to under-
stand and interpret the black power discussion that had taken
place on the march between Memphis and Jackson, nor werc they
willing or able to correct the distortions of what had happened
as perceptions and explanations became confused both outside of,
and within the movement itself. That task, as far as the churches
were concerncd, had to be performed by Negro churchmen who
werc closc cnough to the national scene to have gained a pano-
ramic perspective, who had been deeply enough involved with Dr.
King and the civil rights movement to have won their right to
speak boldly, and who werc black cnough to challenge, without
deep feelings of guilt and betrayal, thc white brethren who were
beginning to show signs of attempting a reconciliation with the
great mass of white liberal opinion and backlash against black
Dower.
A -
But something else was even more obvious by the summer of
1966 and again it was what was occurring outside of rathcr than
within the churches which made the situation clear.
The famous slogan which thc Federal Council of Churches
had adopted in the late 1930's-"A non-segregated church in a
non-segregated society7'-had become totally bankrupt as an ex-
pression of the highest priority for church action in the race field.
It was no longer acceptable as a description of the social context
or the realities of contemporary life with which we wcrc dealing
as "secular men who had heard the Gospel" in our own time and
place.
Thc banner of a non-segregated church in a non-segregated
Society begged too many burning questions to be unfurled as a brave
pronounccmcnt of where we were and where we thought we were
going. Was it not of the very nature of the church in the United
States that it is and always has been segregated by race and class?
Was there any indication that the majority of either whitc or black
Christians wanted it differently? Given the characteristics of con-
ventional Christianity in the Unitcd Statcs, is whether or not the
churches arc intcrracial a relevant question? \Yas there any rca-
sonable expectation that thc churchcs could be desegregated be-
fore widespread desegregation occurred in housing, public schools
and in the informal ancl associational structures of American soci-
ety? Finally, should black Christians permit the~nselves to be
integrated within overwhelmingly whitc church structures without
the freedom to develop ancl maintain their own leadership cschclons
and without determinative power concerning those aspects of church
life in which their lives arc most directly affected?
These and many other questions wcrc simply by-passed in the
play acting and lip service that for 3 1 years wcrc given to the
concept of a non-scgregatecl church in a non-segregated society. It
took the Meredith march and the emergence of the black power
motif within the churches themselvcs to unmask the irrelevancy
and hypocricy of the white liberal pronouncements and sloganiz-
ing about racial integration within what is undoubtedly the most
conservative of all American institutions.
Sobered by the failurc of the old civil rights movcment in the
North-a failurc for which the white church I I I U S ~ bear major
responsibility-and made wiser by the intcrracial confrontations
which have occurrecl over the last several months within ccunlcni-
cal circles, as wcll as within the denominations, we approach to-
clay the problem of reconciling black and whitc within the one
church of Christ from a solnewhat different clirection. Those black
churchmen who are members of the predonlinantly whitc clcnom-
inations know very wcll that the real question is not whether or
riot these churches can become truly integrated on Sunday morn-
ing, but whether, in the next 25 to 50 years, these churches will
have any meaningful contact with black people at all! If that
question can be answered in the affirmative we must move on
quickly to inquire what the nature of that contact must be in order
to contribute to the dignity and humanity of both black and white
people in a time of revolutionary change.
That is why any discussion of the mission of the church in
the United States today must ask totally new questions in a totally
different context than the one in which we searched for solutions
to the faithlessness and brokeness of the church in the period be-
tween the Supreme Court decision of 1954 and the death of
Martin Luther King. It is not merely segregation or integration
which are at stake today. It is rather the question of the viability ,
of the Christian Church in the United States-and perhaps in
Western civilization. I t is the question of whether or not this
church can any longer encompass within it the masses of non-white
livtr?zgc~listic Tnsk in Relation to the Ulack Commzrnity
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7
persons, who makc up the majority of tlic pcoplcs of the carth,
without undergoing radical changes in its understanding of its pur-
pose in thc world vis-a-vis robbccl, subjugated and cxcludctl peoples,
without clismantling its organizational structurcs for mission nncl
without bringing to an end its basic conformity to European theo-
logical traditions and Anglo-Saxon styles of life and structures of
value. That is to say, as far as the American church is concerned,
therc can be no question of coming through this pcriod of crisis
as a viablc and relevant institution ~vitliout a radical changc in its
s1,iritual and physical relationship to black Christians-most of
~vhom arc in all black churchcs-and to the black coin~nunity as
a wholc.
11.
At thc heart of racis~il \vithin the ~3mcrican churches is the
disjunction in the hearts and iiiinds of whitc Christians bctwccn
Christian brothcrhood and racial equality. From thc earliest mis-
sionary advances to convert the slave to Christianity the basic as-
su~nption was that while his soul bclo~ig to Jrsus, his body was
the lxopcrty of his master and nothing shoultl bc construed from
his conversion that .cvoultl proscribe the fundamental caste rcla-
tionsliip into which he hat1 I,ccn forcibly introtluccd upon his ar-
rival to colonial Anicrica. With thc Society of Friends being the
one exception, a ~ i d that not u~lti l 1688, the official opinion of the
American churches for more than o century was that thcrc was
no inconsistency in calling a black man a Christian brother, in
teaching him 110117 to read the Bible and worshipping with him
(often in the salilc local church) and at the same tinlc holding
him in I~ontlagc, or at lcast nccluicscing to chattel slavery as a lc~i t i -
matc Amcrican institution.
Icct."
When northern whitc Christians, with their purses less bulging
from the cconomic benefits of slavery than those of their brothers
in the South and with their consciences burning under the lash
of the abolitionists, finally concluded that slavery was a sin, nos t
of the major churches split North and South and the stage was set
for one of the blooclicst civil wars in history.
13ut tlle original attitude of the churchcs founcl it cxpctlicnt
to separate love and justice ~vllcrc black pcoplc were concerned
ant1 that attitude prevailed in the end. \Vi~at Idincoln might have
said was that the war was a tcst to tlctcrininc ~vhctllcr this nation
or any nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition
that all men arc created equal, could extend those sanlc ideals to
black nlcn as well as to whitc men aud still cndurc. That tcst
has not yet bccn dctcrminativcly made, for what was guarailtcctl
to the freedman in the amcntln~cnts to the Constitution and thc
early civil rights laws, have never I~cen satisfactorily dclivcrctl and
the nation still cntlurcs half slave and half free. The war re-
moved the legal fetters which bound black Americans, hut it did
not remove from society thc tlisjunction bciivccn citizenship for
Negroes and thcir,frcc access to all gootl things Amcrica had to give
to the off-scouring of F,~~ropc, nor did it remove from the white
churches the disjunction between brotherhood and equality in the
household of faith.
The result has been that church integration, like intckgration
in society, has always been a one-way street with the assumption
that cvcrything black was suborclinatc and inferior and woultl have
to be given up for cvcrything white. The whitc church, in its
;~ccon~moclation to whitc middlc class socicty, attcmptctl to n~ake
over the black man and his church in its ow11 image ant1 to force
the black community into the mold of the whitc society to which
the whitc church had always bccn in bondage and which it con-
ceive to be the nearest thing on earth to the kingcloin of Gotl in
heaven.
Was this clevclopnlent the inevitable expression of what has
bccn the historic relationship of thc church to its cultural milieu? ,
Even if Christianity is always transnlittcd from one group to an-
other in a cultural context the fact remains that the exclusion of
black Christians from authentic experience of that context, in terms
of freedom and cconomic justice, subverted the missionary cnter-
prise in the United States in the same way it is subverted today by
complicity of the church in American imperialistic ambitions in
Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Eva,uelirric Tusk in Relotion t o the Block Contmunity 9
111.
Thc black churches which split off fronl thc wl~itc Mcthodist
and Uaptist denolninations in thc latter part of the eighteenth and
early ninctecnth ccntury borrowcd llcavily from the white churches
rvhich had first evangelized thcm and ordained thcir clergy. These
black churchcs rverc able, however, to develop their own stylcs of
life and their own institutions. Joseph Washington in his book
Black Religion is sharply critical of these churchcs which p e w out
of what he calls Ncgro folk religion, shorn of thc rich theological
and ecclesiastical traditions of thc main line Reformation churches.
But it is precisely in thcsc hlack churches, which were cithcr
forced out or broke away, that an authentic black culture and re-
ligion were gcrminatcd. Whatever may be said of the deficiencies
or excesses of their preaching and brand nf churchmanship they
werc thc precmincnt cxprcssion of the yearning for freedom and
dignity by a people who had bcen introduced to a religion, but
excluded from all but the most demeaning aspects of the cultural
mold of that religion.
On thc other hand, thc hlack churches which remained a
part of the main line white denominations, hut were alro cxcluded
from participation in the main line culturc. were obliged to sub-
stitutc whatevcr they had of thcir own for a system of white cultural
and rcligioos values-a system which in the black cllu~-eh and com-
munity could only be a poor facsimile of the real thing, a second
class culture for second class Christians.
Despite the fact that the wbitc denominations have made a
lasting contribution to thesc churchcs and to thcir coninunities by
establishing hundreds of church~s , schools and colleges throughout
the nation (and espcciaily in the South), it must nevertheless be
conccded by those who are products of this misionary activity that
as long as thcse institutions remain under white control-either
locally or from denominational headquarters-thcy make littlc cf-
fort to interpcnetratc the whitc cultural accretion with a distinctive
black ingredient which could bc recognized as a viable compnent
of the Arncrican ethos.
This is because they are created and sustained as appendages
of a middle class whitc church and society. At best they were thc
objects of a benevolent paternalism and cithcr atrophied or were
smothered to dcatll in the avid cmbracc of the great White Father
and the Grcat Whitc Mothcr. At worst thpy were hostagcs thrown
over the walls of the white churches to kecp at bay thc wolves of
a guilty consciencc and a national embarrassment. I n such a situa-
tion it was inevitable that a kind of cynicism would develop on
both sides and that onc day tl~csc whitenized black Christians
would say, "Thcre ain't nothing 'harley can do far me hut lay his
mopey on the 1i11c and move on. 'That's the name of the game
I weve been playing with one another and if hc's satisfied with it, am I!"
The problem of the whitenizcd black churchcs today is how
to recover their own self-respcct by demythologizing thc white cul-
tural bag througll rvhich the faith was transmitted to them and in
which thcy havc curled themselvcs up so comfortably. In so doing
they may discover tliat thc cssence of the Christian faith not only
transcends ultimately the ethnocentric culturc of the white man,
but that of thc black man as well; that this Christ, in whom there
is neither Jew nor Grcck, bond nor frcc, male nor fcmalc. is also
neither black nor white.
Indeed, in libcrating itself from thc mythology of white Chris-
tianity and standing over against the suburban captivity of thc white
church, the whitcnized black churchcs may be able to illuminate
a theme from the left wing of thc Protcstant Reforrnation which
the American experience has incrcasingly niade opaquc. Namely,
that while thc church is not pcr~nittcd to creatc its own culture
alongside of thc sccular, it does stand in a dialectical rclationship
to culture-more often in opposition than accomnlodation-its most
sevcrc critic and rcformcr rather than its champion and cclebrant.
This possibility rests upon what may at first appcar to be a con-
tradictory position, but is in fact a necessary concession to the per-
vertcd reality of the hlack man's rcligious situation in America.
Before thc whitcnizcd black churches can immerse themselves in
ecumenical Protestantism in the United Stntcs and perform their
critical and rcformatory role in rclationship to thc total culture
from which thcy havc been systematically cxcludcd, tllcsc churches
must inlinerse themsclvcs in a hlack ccumenicity and in a black
culture, both of which they have repudiated in the past, hut for
which they, ncvcrthclcss, havc a peculiar rcsponsibility.
Is this to say tliat thc Christian faith as viewed through the
black power movcnient is but yct another expression of an cthno-
centric religion or culture? T o this qucstion we must today give a
qualified affirmative answer. Qualified, bccausc what we arc seek-
ing in thc posture of black religion is tcmporary and transitional.
A way of correcting the errors of thc past and preparing tllc ground
for the futurc. But we must insist that if thc Christian church is
to bccornc a dynamic influence in thc black conlmunity, rvhich
~vill continue for some timc to come to bc beleagured by white
racism, it must bccomc not only a rcligious institution, but a com-
munity organization. It must develop and embrace an ideology
of black power not on1 as a defense against the racism of the white I' church and white cu ture, but as a necessary alternativc to the
cynical, materialistic sccularism toward which the black community
is moving-especially the youth-in its flight from thc dchuman-
i d n g effects of a spurious white Christian culture.
This is a hard saying that will not be readily accepted by our
white Christian brethren. But the time has come when we who
have accepted from their hands a religion devoid of an ethic rele-
vant to our real situation and a culture in which we were never
permitted to participate on equal terms, must stand back from them
EL-nnaelistie Task in Relation to the Dlock Communitv 11
to reassess our relationship to our own people and to the hostile
society to which the white church continues in servilc accommo-
dation and for whose sake white Christians have betrayed us-
their black brothers in Jesus Christ. W e must stand back and be
in a strategic Exodus from this unequal engagement, this degrading,
debilitating embrace, until we have recovered our own sense of
identity, our true relationship to the people we scrse and until the
white church is ready to enter into that partnership in life and
mission which is ablc to renew the whole church of Christ.
Only under these conditions can we remain in these predomi-
nently whitc denon~inations and maintain our connection to, much
less our integrity in, a revolutionary black community, where God
is bringing to naught thc things which are and bringing into
existence the things which do not cxist. Unless black churchmen
and black institutions within these historic denominations redefine
their role in the black community in such tcrms as these, there is
no sense in talking at all about the task of predominently white
denominations in relation to the black community.
IV.
Grace and James Boggs in one of their most provocative papers
on the black revolution, speak of thc city today as "the black man's
land." There can no longer be any doubt of it. The report of
the National Advisory Cnmmission on Civil Disorders says, "Central
cities are steadily becoming more heavily Negro, while the urban
fringes around them rcmain almost entirely white. T h e propor-
tion of Negroes in all central cities rose steadily from 12% in
1950, to 17% in 1960, to 20% in 1966. Meanwhile, metro-
politan areas outside of central cities remained 95% white from
1950 to 1960, and became 96% white by 1966." (p. 243).
In the past 16 years 9 8 % of black population growth has
occurred within the metropolitan areas with 86% of that growth
in the central cities. During approximately the same period the
outflow of white population from these cities has becn accelerating
and with the greatest rapidity behveen 1960 and 1966 at the
height of the civil rights movement. In the last six years, off-
setting white population growth in the nation as a whole, about
five million white people moved out (we might even say fled) from
the central eities of the great metropolitan areas.
More will certainly follow, leaving the core areas to black pec-
ple. The Kerncr Commission reports eleven major cities, includ-
ing Baltimore, St. Louis, Philadelphia and Chicago, that will he-
come over 50% black between 1971 and 1984. (p. 391) Wash-
W o n , D. C. and Newark have already gaincd majorities and all
13 of these cities which contained, as long ago as six years, 2 2 %
of the total population of all 224 American central cities, will have
Negro majorities by 1985.
This contemporary phenomenou is so striking that expert
predictions are avalanchin One popular estimate is that bcfore
the year 2000, blacks wi 7 1 constitute betwcen 25 and 50% of
the total population in at least ten of thc fourtccn largest ccntral
cities and in about 22 other important urban centcrs. Another is
that 50 cities will have absolute black majorities by 1980. What-
ever statistic one cares to consult it is clear that wc are witnessing
today what can only be called the blackanization of thc American
cities.
Whether or not this is the way the white church and society
wanted it, this is what has happened and is happening wherever
the black population is growing rapidly in relation to the whitc
population. The church is powerless to arrcst these trcnds. In-
deed it bas never even attempted to do so. Nothing underscores
more obviously the subordination of the Christian missionary m-
terprise to the class stratification system and racisn~ of the Amcri-
can society, for in these blackening cities the white church is dead
or dyin and will undoubtedly disappcar in thc next 50 years.
~ 1 7 we can say is that Amcrican rcligion has bccn compro-
mised by the materialistic, cthnocentric secularisn~ of the dominant
white culture. This culture has made rcligion servc it, but in so
doing it has emasculated religion, made it a static appendage of
itself an adjunct of upward mobility and material success. White
religion in the black man's land, thercforc, is recessive. Black
religion, at least in this period, is progressive. But only so where
it bas been permeated by the black man's ycarning for social justicc
and, in these days, where it serves and is servcd by a conscious move-
ment through which blacks seek both peopleness and power.
The evangclistic task and the rcncwal and unity of thcsc two
aspects, one black and the othcr white, of American Christianity,
can be considered in the light of four possibilities.
First, the Consultation on Church Union may bc able, within
the next ten years, to unite in one church, on a precisely calculated
basis of equality, the predominantly whitc and the predominantly
black denominations. Despite the apparent openness of the whitc
denominations and the fact that the three largcst black Mcthodist
bodies have remained in the consultation, this seems to be an un-
likely possibility for the foreseeablc future. Even if the three
Methodist churches were to come into the union, the black Baptist
and Pentecostal groups would be outside and thcy contain today
sucl~ large numbers of Negroes that the interracial character of
American Protestantism would bc only slightly more disccrnible
than it is today.
Indeed, one must ask if thc success of COCU, evcn if all of
the major black churches participated in the union, would affect
the de facto segregation of the American churches in any real sense?
Without limiting the power of the Holy Spirit, it is difficult to
imagine that within the present century we will sce a sufficicnt dis-
tribution of the black population throughout the nation and a
li~vrttgr~liutic '1;rsk itr Iicliitiotr to thc lllack (:ornintctrify
. -~ - --
sulficicnt tli~ninution of color l~rcjutlicc to il~tcgratc existing ant1
ncw local congregations to such an extent as to have morc than a
small proportion of blacks and wliitcs worshipping togcthcr on Sun-
day mornilig. W e should no longer tlcludc oursclvcs if we arc goiiig
to get about t l ~ c real I~usincss of cvangclisii~.
But even morc inlportant in the present climate of black
awareness is the necessity of black c h ~ ~ r ~ h c s tlcaliiig witli tlicir ow11
(lisunity antl irrclcv;~ucc in thc ghetto. I n view of the new role
that the youiigcr clcrgy :ire tliscovering ill relation to the black power
m o v c m c ~ ~ t i is i n ~ ~ ~ r o b a b l c tliat they, at least for the next few
pcars, will Ijc easily pcrsuatlcd to turn time and attention from
the n101)ilization of black people for con~munity action to preparc
thcir people for clclicatc ccumcnicnl cncol~ntc*rs witli white c l ~ u r c l ~ c s
and the i~itcrminal)lc red t;111e of cl~urcli union.
One thing is certainly clc:lr as one stutlics thc C;O(:U reports,
unlcss tlic Consultation is more willing to tlialoguc on the thorny
issucs of race ;lntl face morc forthrightly the psychological, thco-
logical antl s t ruc~u ral prol~lcms of nutlicntic church intcpation in
an increasingly ~~ol;irizctl and racist society, tlicrc is cvrn less 1iol)c
that 1,l;lclc churc11nic.n will do Inor(: than go along for tlic ritlc until
the tvhitc I~rcthrcli get thc nlcssagc that c.vitlcntly has not been
conllnunic;~tctl u p to now.
A sccontl possil)ility cnicrgcs for the prc*tlonlinant whitc clc-
no i i~ i~ i ; l t io~~s in the prcsvnt crisis. Tt is to rclc;isc thcir most co111-
pctcnt black 11rl):ln pastors to study the total rcsoilrccs antl cliarac-
tcristics of each IdaClc congregation in t c r~ns of its rcvol~~tionary
function in thc ])lack community ant1 to recommend wliatcvcr radi-
cal rc;~llocation of' n:itional ant1 jutlicatory rcsourccs slioultl go into
these churches to cast tllcm into a new posture ant1 relationship
to the I)l;~ck comniunity.
Onc of the pitfalls tliat woultl have to I)c s c r ~ ~ p u o ~ ~ s l y avoidctl
hcrc woultl I)c the temptation to return to thc old concepts of
"Negro work" with its ingrnti;ltiiig ant1 patronizing connotations.
It would l ~ c highly clcsirablc for somc blilck ccu~ncnical medianism
to 1)c created in ncighl~orhootls or sectors of the metropolitan area
which woultl scrvc as a condl~it , on intlircct nlcans ant1 strategy
for clianncling large sums, with no strings attached, fro111 national
ant1 regional sourccs to local communitics. TFCO, of course, is
alrcacly involvccl in somc such intermediate opcratio~l 1)ctwccn
sourccs of cliurc.11 funds and ghctto conimunitics. Its basic purposc
and scope, however, as wcll as' its rcsourccs, arc not claboratc cnougli
to serve tlic ohjcctivcs envisioned in this nlodcl. What is callccl
for is a large scale, multi-million clollar mission cntcrprisc of black
clustcr iiiinistrics, lay apostobtcs, cxpcrinicutal ministries and ccu-
menical task forces in black con~~nuni t ics , all oricntcd toward
comniuliity organization and militant political and ccononiic action
Programs undcrgirdcd by a black thcological and cultural rcnais-
sancc.
The question is mhethcr we can now design and finance this
new secular mission in the black community, recruit and train
both its lay and clerical leadership across denominational lines, and
project it into the vortex of the black revolution in such dramatic
ways as to attract and serve not only the black poor, but also the
increasingly alienated black ~ o u t h , the new Afro-Amcrican student
gencration and the emerging middle class. Whilc we are obviously
talking about Blacktown, U. S. A. (which, from all indications,
will be with us for some time to come) there are instrumentalities
and cadres which can serve the function of a nexus with White-
town. U. S . A,, interpenetrating and extending across the checker-
board communities and structures that will undoubtedly exist in-
between.
A third possibility exists in the proposals which have been
put forth for thc predominantly white Protestant denominations
to stop worrying about organic union among themselves and reap-
prochnlent with Roman Catholicism and begin to enter, on an
unprccedentcd scale, into ecumenical relations in life and work
with the five great all-black denominations and about twenty-four
smaller churches which comprisc more than 90% of all black
Protestants in the United States.
This is not a suggcstion that black and white denominations
simply cxchange fraternal greetings and enroll each other's prestgi-
ous churchn~en at church conventions. \Vhat is meant is that the
white dcnominations begin to do joint planning for a total mission
to thc merging rncgalopolises or regional cities with the black de-
non~inations. Actually givcn thc mission structure of many of these
black churches it may mcan joint planning and strategy execution
betwccn key black congrcgations and key white congregations and
whitc urban mission structures.
Thc inequality of financial and material wealth anlong these
entities could bc neutralized to some extent if the white denomina-
tions learned to acccpt from black hands what God has given and
when black churches learn that black religion has something to give
to the whole Church of Christ. White churches may give money.
Black churches which are not afllucnt may give contributions in
kind for thc thc development and execution of r,arious kinds of non-
residential and urban fringe ministries beamcd to the middle classes,
joint nlissionary education and teaehcr training projects, joint liturg-
ical study and renewal and new concepts in seminary education,
recruitment and placement. T h e possibilities for black-white co-
operation, short of organic union, are myriad, even given thc pres-
ent mood, if the black churches and churchmen are given a little
respcct-in the profound sense that word has taken on in the
"soul community."
It is perhaps too obvious to mention that in such joint mission
strategy planning and action such goups as thc denominational
black caucuses, the emerging geographical black caucuses and the
Evst~grl irt ic Terk in Relution to the Block Cornmunil" 15
National Committee of Ncgro Churchrncn should be consulted and
utilized to thc fullcst extent.
The three possibilities for the evangelistic advancc of predomi-
nantly white churchcs upon tcrritory now occupied by black congre-
gations-whether of the white or of the historic black denominations
-depend finally not upon ~noncy or real estatc or cqoipment. Their
success dcpcnds upon the determination of the whitc churches to
attack the racism within their ranks and institutional structures
with the samc vigor and holy zeal with which they threw thern-
selves into missionary activity among peoplc of color in thc South
following Emancipation and in Asia and Africa in the 19th century.
Perhaps it will take eren more effort than this in the strugglc
against thc systemic racism and the covert racist presuppositions
and myths of the whitc churches. But there are no real possibilities
for mission in the black community, joint or otherwise, until the
white church cstablishn~cnt begins to use church law to deal with
racism aniong its members, to forcc complianre with official policy
and pronouncenlent and to dcsegrcgate every aspect of church life
-beginning with thc bcaurocratic structures wherc decision-making
powcr lics, running through thc mission agencies, educational insti-
tutions and local churches, and continuing to decisions about que r
tions of qualifications, recruitment, training and creating new
opportunities of mcaning and worth for black leadership.
v.
It scarcely needs emphasis at this p i n t that the concept of
urban evangelism with which we have been dealing is something
other than the cvangclism of the Graham crusades. Notwithstand-
ing the traditional religiosity of many black churches, the white
denominations darc not seek to return to the cities with a soul-
saving, moralizing approach to thc evangelistic task.
The proclamation and demonstration of the good news about
Jesus Christ-a Jesus Christ who himselF must be reinterpreted
from the sidewalks of the secular city that is thc black man's land-
must focus on those points where personal troubles bisect social
issues: where God meets and deals with indiridual men in the wn-
text of their corporate relationships to the opportunity systems, the
political realities and thc economic goods and services which ean
give nien freedom and happiness.
In a world that God made for all to enjoy and live in to the
full, sonic men have taken more of their share of the power which
makes the good life possible. In their dehumanization of other
men they make faith in a just God impossible. The church that
is engaged in the business of evan elism comes into this situation
with power, speaks the word of ju d gment and erforms the act of
mercy which reveals unmistakeably that the Go whom it serves is
the one of whom Mary said:
B
"He has shown strength with his arm, he has seattercd
the proud in the imagination of their hearts,
He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and
exalted those of low degree;
H e has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich
hc has sent empty away." (Luke 1 : 51-53)
Men and women, boys and girls, may bc drawn to such a
church as this. W e cannot he sure in these incredulous days. W e
do know that in such a time no other church can call and minister
to the poor, the secularists, the black power radicals and all the
other alienated persons and groups which the churches, black and
white, have abandoned and i nored. But whether they will for-
give and come into a renewc j and renewing household of faith is
really God's business. Ours is to be faithful in our service to the
world, in his Name.
Now is the time for thc American churchcs to demonstrate
what that service means in this new day that is breaking all over
the nation. T h e white church, for more than two centuries, held
up before the weary, sweat-blindcd eycs of black men, without
power or self-respect, thc image of a white, middle-class Christ-
turnin their eyes away from themselves, from their poor and from
the faifures and hycrocricies of that very form of Christianity which
was being commended to them.
But a new day is dawning. Black Christians, who today are
finding themselves and one another, are imbued with a strange,
new sense of their own significance and power in both the black
and the white communit and the peculiar role which God may
be calling upon them to p I' ay.
Just as the lay movements within the Western Church sought
to judge and purify and finally changed various strains and cras
of main line white Christianity, just as Father Divine, Daddy Grace,
Malcolm X and the Muslims judged and changed the black church
in the United States, the black church within the broken body of
American Christendom judges it and-if i t pleases God-may re-
new and unite it. The seeds of the renewal and the redemption
of the Christian Church in our time may lie within the long-
anguished souls and suffering bodies of black Christians.