This Item appeared in Lutheran Quarterly, in 1968. There are commentaries on the church's position paper,  Those comments will be posted tomorrow on the 4th.  Blessed Black History month.

Symposium on Black Power  LutheranQuarterly , May 1968, Vol.XX

A POSITION PAPER WRITTEN BY THE PARISH COUNCIL OF HOLY FAMILY LUTHERAN CHURCH, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

AS WE walk through our neighborhood we are confronted again and again by the slogan "Black Power." Few buildings have been spared this now popular headline. What does it mean? How should we react to it? Is it good? Will it be the death of us all?

In America today a system of social injustice presents itself, which makes an individual's attempts at personal goodness irrelevant. If we attempt only to be nice to some one individual whose whole being is twisted by this system, and all of its controlling agencies, our being nice is not of much influence.

"Suppose," William Lee Miller says, "The Good Samaritan came upon the wounded man and took him to the inn and cared for him, and then the next day found another beaten man at exactly the same place along the road, whom he again cared for. Then suppose that each following day wounded travelers were discovered at the same place along the road. If this went on for weeks, would we not think there was something wrong with the Samaritan's faith if he never thought to ask who was patrolling that road
against bandits?" His own personal goodness would be frustrated by a society which permitted such things to take place, much in the same way ours is when we expect our personal goodness to compete with the society which has and continues to cripple the black man of our land.

We must then find ways to speak to our white brothers of the human race, not to emphasize our separation, but in order to inaugurate reconciliation and a common life together.

Perhaps the greatest distortion facing us today in this land is the gross imbalance of power and conscience between Blacks and Whites. Because of this imbalance we have been led to believe that Whites are justified in getting what they want through the use of power, but that Black Americans may make their appeals only through conscience. The system has said, "We will give to the Black man when he appeals to us, but the Black man dare not use a power, even though we have told him to pull himself up by his bootstraps.”  The result is the corruption of White power and Black conscience.  It is fair then to say that in Black--White confrontation we find conscience-less power of white men meeting the power-less conscience of the Black man. This clash threatens to break out into civil war, which could very well destroy the nation. Integration, therefore, has failed as a means of achieving peace among American citizens. Without the capacity to participate with power in the life of America Black men cannot take themselves seriously as human beings who are creatures of God. Unless we see ourselves as human beings in whom God's power operates, and unless white America recognizes us as people whose level can be measured in power which is equal to that of White American citizens, honest racial integration is an impossibility.

           

 

Our definition of Black Power then is not White hatred, but rather a necessary means to place us in an equal position with White America. Then and only then can the goal of an integrated common life under God be attained.

            Some people have complained that Black Power will lead to open conflict between White and Black America, and that if this were to happen the
Black minority would be annihilated. We feel this is a total misunderstanding
of the intent and purpose of Black Power. Let us also say that if violence were to break out, this resulting violence would be a natural outgrowth of the mind set of a White system which has again and again resorted to violence as a solution. We must further add that any resulting violence could never do the amount of de-humanization, personality damage, pain, and sorrow, which have resulted from the racist practices of our society.

            All power comes from God and we as creatures of God have been given the task as God's Church of using God's created power to serve human freedom. Man has always had the God-given task of insuring man's freedom by using the things of God, which God places at his disposal. Power is one of
these God-given things. As we view it the real problem is not the anguished
cry for black power, but our own failure to use power to relieve injustice and create equality.

            It is for this reason that love can never be properly set in opposition to power, for as our Lord and St. Paul remind us, love is that force which is to control all, including power. We then, as the Church can only oppose the misuse of power and the longer we take to recognize this most basic distinction, the longer present injustices will continue.

            In the past our country has asked us as Black people to fight for

opportunity as individuals, when what we needed to do was to move as a group for all Black people, as other ethnic groups have done in our land.
Now that we attempt to move through Black Power, White fear rises on
every.side.

            What we seek today then under the title of Black Power is organizational strength. It is not something out in the streets to be fought over. It is what we already are, creatures of God. No longer must we think of ourselves
as inferior, for we hate inferiority, and if we are filled with self-hatred we
will project that hatred out upon others and not respect them. Striking
out at everything White in the name of Black Power will simply cause us to
fall into a racism of our own. Only the creation of such power as it operates
under the control of the love of Jesus Christ will be able to change our
feelings about ourselves and others. Black Power is not a dirty thing nor a
slogan to be feared.

In America today where justice is thwarted by an illegitimate use of
power, the Church, God's own people, must allow God to throw her reck-
lessly and wholeheartedly into a struggle which will create a power for
maintaining justice. We believe that the Church has no other alternative at
this time than to work as God's tool for the establishment of Black Power.

Written and unanimously adopted by the Parish Council of Holy Family
Lutheran Church on November 25, 1967.

 

Mr. Leonard Boyd                            Mr.  Luther Simpson
Mr. Robert L. Thompson                 Mr. Ronald Price
Mr. Moses Mathis                             Mr. Lonnie Branch

 February 2, 2021 Black History Month  -  Post #2

AS A CHURCH THE LCA a predecessor Body to the ELCA Adopted this Social Statement, July 2-9, 1964.  Somehow I was in Pittsburg for the event.  In many ways the Summer of 64 was a hot summer in regards to race.  In reading this 'historical document one can raise the question of why this was not a stimulant to push the church beyond where we are today.  Promises made...57 years ago...

 

SOCIAL STATEMENTS

OF THE LUTHERN CHURCH IN AMERICA

Race Relations

Adopted by the Second Biennial Convention Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania July 2-9, 1964*

* The Executive Council of the church adopted a Statement on Race Relations on June 28, 1963. The full text may be secured from the Board of Social Ministry.

The current racial revolution has thrust the church into a time of travail and perplexity but also  of opportunity and  hope. Injustice, which for a long time was either ignored, rationalized, or mutely  borne, is now seen more clearly for what it actually is. Injurious discrimination based on race is a  violation of God's created order, of the meaning of redemption in Christ, and of the nature of the church.                  Implicit in such discrimination often are unbiblical views of God and of man. The church must oppose such false views with all the power of the truth of God: in its prayer and worship, in its  theological thought, in its nurture of the personal life, in its institutional forms, and in individual and  corporate action in society.                  At the heart of the life of the church is prayer. In the Prayer of the Church, we find the great  pleading and thanking voice of hundreds of thousands of Christians assembled each Sunday for the  worship of God. Unless we mean what we say, and live as men who intend to do what we mean, the holy gravity of our prayer itself condemns us.                  In the Prayer of the Church we petition: Sanctify and unite thy people in all the world, that one  holy Church may bear witness to thee, the God and Father of all.                  Here we pray that God may heal-"Sanctify and unite"-the church in order that it may "bear   witness" to the "God and Father of all" in whom alone the world finds healing. We pray that, our unity  of  fellowship being manifest, we may hold out to a broken world the salvatory meaning of God's  fatherhood.                  This requires a unity that is visible and tangible.                  It requires Christians to seek out and receive one another as brothers without regard to nation,    race, or culture.                  It means that a racially segregated church is institutionalized disobedience. Having thus prayed for the integrity of our witness as a church, we pray for the nation and its  structures of law and authority: Preserve our Nation in righteousness and honor....Grant health and favor to all who bear office in our land,... and help them to acknowledge and obey thy holy will.               When spoken in the Prayer of the Church, "righteousness" points to the "right" that God wills;  "honor" implies being approved by God because of our obedience to his "right."     This petition indicates that the church supports the rule of law and the civil government which administers and interprets it. At the same time it means that the church must oppose any law or governmental practice which under the guise of rightful authority perverts justice. In particular it means that the church must oppose any force which would prohibit the expression of its inclusiveness according to "thy holy will." Next we pray: Give to all men the mind of Christ, and dispose our days in thy peace, 0 God. Take tram us all hatred and prejudice, and whatever may hinder unity of spirit and concord. These sentences are related. Our days cannot be lived in God's peace unless hatred and prejudice are removed from us. The prayer is realistic: it recognizes that we are guilty of harboring hatreds and prejudices which we are inclined to hold dear. Therefore, nothing less than a mighty, holy, act that can "take away" will do. We believe and confess there has been such an act in Christ! In blood and agony, God's decision has been made and sealed.     The problem of the relations between persons of different races, particularly between white and Negro persons, is here exposed. To stand before God and pray that he will "take from us all hatred and prejudice," and then as a praying church to discriminate among men on any such sinful basis is a contradiction of this prayer.

Finally we pray:

All these things, ... grant us, 0 Father, for his sake who died and rose again, and now liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end.

In prayer God's peculiar people acknowledge that they are freed for a strange new life before God and among their neighbors. The Prayer of the Church illumines the way of the church. Some things are no longer ours to decide. The decision has been made-and forever. In a time of travail and opportunity, perplexity and hope in race relations, the church needs to pray-and to act in accord with its prayer-"for his sake who died and rose again" and who reigns "world without end."

The substance of the church's action in all matters of racial discrimination is determined for it and stands as a permanent testimony each time the church prays or confesses its faith or proclaims its message. The forms of the church's action on the specific ecclesiastical, political, economic, and social expressions of racial discrimination are subject to human judgment and must be directed to specific times, places and circumstances.

In obedience to the Lord of the church and in repentant acknowledgment that urgent occasions require fresh resolutions, the 1964 Biennial Convention of the Lutheran Church in America issues a renewed call to action to include the following elements:

 1. No congregation, synod, agency, or institution of the church in its fellowship and varied ministries should discriminate against any persons on the grounds of race.

2. The publications of the church should present an objective picture of racial diversity and emphasize the Christian's responsibility in the struggle for racial justice. Editors should be realistic in their use of pictures and descriptive materials in such publications so as to reflect the inclusive character of the church.

3. The church, together with its congregations, synods, agencies and institutions, should support its concern for racial justice in all its business involvements and should give critical scrutiny to its own employment practices. In the calling of pastors and the employing of staff the congregations of this church should not make the race of the candidate a qualification for consideration.

4. The church, its congregations, synods, agencies and institutions should initiate programs and support occasions in which Christians acknowledge the imperative of worship, fellowship, and mission without regard to race.

5. The church, its congregations, synods, agencies and institutions should initiate and participate in efforts to bring about understanding at points of racial tension.

6. The church, its congregations, synods, agencies, institutions and individual members should support the enactment and enforcement of federal, state or provincial, and local legislation which seeks to guarantee to all persons equally, without racial discrimination

a.  civil rights, including the right to vote and full protection of law;

b.  access to education;

c.opportunity for employment, promotion, apprenticeship, job training, and union membership;

d. the right to rent, buy, and occupy housing in any place, and the right of access to means of 

mortgage financing;

e. access to public accommodations.

7. Christians are committed to the rule of law as an expression of the moral law of God. Nevertheless, it must be recognized that laws have been and may in the future be enacted, or social customs may exist, which are believed to be in basic conflict with the constitutional law of the land or the moral law of God. In such circumstances, the church, its congregations, synods, agencies and institutions, including their representatives, as well as individual members, are recognized as free by all lawful means, including participation in peaceful public demonstrations, to urge repeal or invalidation of such laws or to effect change of such customs.

If and when the means of legal recourse have been exhausted or are
demonstrably inadequate, Christians may then choose to serve the cause of racial justice by disobeying a law that clearly involves the violation of their obligations as Christians, so long as they are

a.  willing to accept the penalty for their action;

 

c.willing to limit and direct their protest as precisely as possible against a specific grievance or injustice;

 

c. willing to carry out their protest in a nonviolent, responsible manner, after earnestly seeking the counsel of fellow Christians and the will of God in prayer.

 

In all of this, we are guided and supported by the normative teaching of
the church in Article XVI of the Augsburg Confession: Christians are obliged
to be subject to civil authority and obey its commands and laws in all that can
be done without sin. But when commands ot the civil authority cannot be obeyed
without sin, we must obey God rather than men (Acts 5 :29).

 

 

RESOLUTION ON CIVIL RIGHTS ACT Adopted also by the 1964 Convention   WHEREAS, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law on July 2, marking a historic advance in the long struggle to secure rights to which we, as Christians, believe all citizens are entitled; and   WHEREAS, countless organizations and individuals have contributed to this result, many of them at great personal sacrifice;   NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Lutheran Church in America record its appreciation for the action of the President and the Congress of the United States, and for the efforts of the count- less private citizens who have contributed to the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; and   RESOLVED, that the Lutheran Church in America urge all citizens to join in compliance with the Civil Rights Act in letter and in spirit; and RESOLVED, that the Lutheran Church in America call upon its members to take the lead in their communities to encourage obedience to this legislation, and to undergird by prayer and action those whose duty it is to enforce it.

 

Distributed by the Board of Social Ministry, Lutheran Church in America 231 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y. 10016

 

Black History Month – Pastoral Reflections on 50 years and more… R. Stewart

What does one do when you are in your 50^th year of Ordained ministry?  Being ordained was not the “beginning” of my “church work”.  My parents were “Charter Members” of Ascension Lutheran Church, Toledo, Ohio.  We were the second mission start by Rev. Allen Youngblood.  Allen had already started Annunciation Lutheran Church, [now Grace, Philadelphia], before moving to Toledo.

My Baptist Father and AME Mother alternated Sundays in which I attended with them. About the 3^rd grade they decided to become a one church family when approached by Pr. Youngblood about becoming a part of a new mission.  My pianist father was quickly on board as the church’s organist and my seamstress/culinary artist mother found her niche in the Altar Guild and Kitchen as they were charter members resurrecting a new mission in neighborhood that had gone through racial transition.  Along with my cousin / my father’s brother’s son who lived 2 blocks from the church, we anchored the Acolyte corps.

So, I’ve been a part of this faithful response to Luther’s teaching since age 8.  Helping to organize a scout troop, going to church camp, Mowana, and eventually starting Luther League in our church among the youth.  In my late teens I became the Treasurer of the Toledo Federation of Luther Leagues, attended Luther League conventions and in the Late summer of 1962, attended the constituting convention of Luther League, LCA.  Around thanksgiving of that year [my freshman year of college at Wittenberg] I was elected the Luther League executive board. 

Two years on Executive Board led to two terms as President of Ohio Luther League, then election to the National Luther League Executive Board, along with Harold Echols, the older brother of James Kenneth Echols, who later was a colleague at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia.

In my fifth year at Wittenberg, I completed undergraduate studies and began seminary at Hamma School of Theology.  One key element did not change, Dr. Karl Hertz, a sociologist was both my undergraduate advisor and my seminary advisor as I moved to the graduate school.  Little did I know at the time that he was the great grandson of the first missionary to the African American community in the southern tier of the United States, John Doetscher.

In being asked by Grover Wright in 1974-75 to consider writing and researching African/American history of Lutheranism, I was not aware that it would be a career long effort extended into what is now my retirement.  Yet the information gained has been shared with others on my continuing research, occasional lectures and this year in light of the pandemic [2020-21] I have been asked numerous times to share what I know to a wider and wider audience.

During this February month “Black History Month” I chosen to ‘tell my story’ and share some of the research I have collected over the years of the response of the US Lutheran church [Primarily the history I’ve gained regarding ALC and LCA as I’ve wandered through libraries and documents that have passed through my hands as I clear out the boxes, that need to no longer be in my possession, but in the archives of the church as one person who has served for 50 years in expressions of the church that bear the initials ELCA, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Your responses are appreciated.

Richard N. Stewart, Retired ELCA Pastor - Previous church bodies: United Lutheran Church in America; Lutheran Church in America, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.