"FINDING OUR WAY"

 “FINDING OUR WAY”

We are at the end of our annual beach trip, usually to Tybee Island near Savannah.  We like Tybee because it is relatively undeveloped and still a bit funky, and it is also not a bad drive from Atlanta.  It is also the place where the Savannah River meets the Atlantic Ocean, and it is always moving to watch those two powerful bodies of water meet, flowing in opposite directions, then meeting with a clash, then becoming one, as the ocean takes over the river.

On one of our days here, we met our long-time friend Pat Hiott-Mason, her daughter Susan and granddaughter Mary, for lunch on John’s Island, South Carolina.  Pat was the original semi-matchmaker for Caroline and me, so we are always glad to see her – and we got to meet teen-ager Mary for the first time!  On the way back from that lunch, we crossed over the Combahee River on the Harriet Tubman Memorial Bridge, where there is a small historical marker that notes that this is the place where Harriet Tubman led Union troops to free over 700 enslaved people.  Tubman had been doing spy work in the surrounding plantations, letting enslaved people know that an opportunity for freedom was coming. In early June, 1863, she led several boats of mostly Black Union troops up the Combahee River, and when the larger Union ship blew its whistle, those who were enslaved came running out of the woods.  Out they came, and off they went.  The historical marker on Highway 17 downplays her role in the venture, though it does note that she was a part of it.  

Given the magnitude and complexity of this operation – it took a lot of planning and espionage work on Tubman’s behalf, and it struck a deep blow in the white enslavers’ hearts – we were surprised that this site is not better marked or celebrated.  Yet, we have to remember that it is located in South Carolina, the place where the first shots of the enslaver’s rebellion were fired in the Civil War and the place where the longing for the return to neo-slavery is still deep and powerful.  So, perhaps I should be grateful that it is even marked at all.  And, that date in June, 1863, marked an important month in the Civil War – Tubman’s raid, Vicksburg falling to the Union, Gettysburg in early July, and of course my hometown of Helena, Arkansas surrendering to Union troops on the same day as Vicksburg.

On the other end, we made a visit to Savannah the next day and found the Green-Meldrim House on Macon Street, where General William Sherman made his headquarters as he made his march to the sea, delivering Savannah as a Christmas present to President Lincoln in 1864.  In January, 1865, Sherman met with Black ministers and leaders in the Green-Meldrin House to hear their suggestions on how to implement freedom for the formerly enslaved people.  Out of this discussion came his Special Field Order 15, which confiscated land from the rebels and gave it to the newly freed people whose forced labor had built up the wealth of the Southern rebels.  President Lincoln had sent down Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to help facilitate the deal, and both had approved Special Field Order 15, which became known as “Forty Acres and a Mule.” 

    It confiscated lands mostly in South Carolina and Georgia, and it began to be implemented as the Union troops marched up through the Carolinas.  In one of the great tragedies of American history, after President Lincoln was assassinated, his successor President Andrew Johnson rescinded Special Field Order 15, returning most of the lands to the enslavers and their families.  Out of this failure came the neo-slavery that replaced slavery in the South until 1965.

    Though there are many wonderings in our history, this is one of the main ones.  Will we ever acknowledge the deadly cost of slavery and neo-slavery?  Will we ever acknowledge how much American wealth was built on the backs of the forced, unpaid labor of slavery?  Will we ever acknowledge our theft of the land from the indigenous people who lived here?  As we made our travels through this history-rich land on our beach trip this week, we thought of these questions and of the attempt of the current administration to “whitewash” this history, to take us back to the 1850’s when everyone knew that white men should rule the land and everything.  Until we have this kind of reckoning, we will never find our way. 

"WHY IS THE CHURCH DYING?"

 “WHY IS THE CHURCH DYING?”

Since I retired almost 10 years ago (wow!), Caroline and I have been attending and preaching in many different churches – mostly Presbyterian but with some Missionary Baptist and some AME churches sprinkled in there.  We have been in some dynamic ones, including our current church North Decatur Presbyterian.  But, for the most part, we have been in ones who are on life support, usually with large buildings and low membership.  The members who are attending those churches are dedicated and committed, but the mainstream churches in the USA are dying.

I am not an expert on the state of the church, but from my 79 years of experience in the mainline church (including 51 of those as an ordained minister), I believe that I have some informed opinions.  Let me start by saying that both the churches that were so important to me and Caroline in our childhood and youth are now closed – First Presbyterian in Helena, Arkansas where I grew up, and Central Presbyterian in Chattanooga, where Caroline grew up.  In both of those churches, the reason for their closure is clear – a lack of inclusivity in who they welcomed and even permitted as members.  Both churches refused to allow Black people in their worship for the longest time, and by the time they did, it was too late.  First Presbyterian was in a small, dying Delta town, so that makes it obvious – most of the young white people (whom they preferred) have left town.  Central is a different case – it was in a vital urban area.  Still, the word went forth – only certain kinds of people were welcome there.  There was a struggle to get women officers; there was a struggle to even allow Black people on the grounds, much less in worship; and don’t even get started on the LGBTQ+ issue.

For Southern churches especially, we cannot discount race as an issue in the decline of churches. The church where Caroline and I served for over 30 years, Oakhurst Presbyterian, lost 90% of its white membership after its Session voted in 1963 to allow Black people to attend worship.  That story was repeated around the South in mainline white denominations, and most churches never recovered.  Fortunately, Oakhurst did recover and is now led by a dynamic Black pastor OJ Flowers, while its membership remains stable and multicultural.

Mainline white churches have had many fights over the last few decades about who is welcome and who can lead.  We’ve fought over Black people attending.  We’ve fought over whether women can be leaders and even pastors in the church.  We’ve fought over whether people of differing sexual orientations can be members.  We’ve fought over whether Christianity is America’s national religion. We have often resisted those whom God is sending to our doors, and that resistance has been costly.  We have gotten a reputation for being closed-minded, for being mean, for being exclusive.  

Because of our resistance and our reputation, fewer people are showing up at our doors; fewer people are saying “I was glad when they said to me: let us go to the house of the Lord.”  And we are steadily losing members – the PCUSA is shrinking fast.  Our recent national General Assembly celebrated this summer because we did not lose as many members as we had been losing.  Still losing members, but at least we are still over a million members (down from over 3 million in the 1960’s).  When Caroline and came to Oakhurst in 1983, Atlanta Presbytery had over 55,000 members.  Now, we are down to just over 29,000 members.  That story is repeated around the country in all denominations.

Will the church survive?  I don’t know the answer to that question, but I do know the answer to the larger question.  God is calling forth those who will worship and serve Her, and while those communities may not be structured like our current ones, there will be communities who have God at the center.  Next week I’ll suggest some possible steps to take to seek revitalization, but for now here are the two main principles that Jesus gave us: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your strength, and all your soul.”  And “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”  And, he reminded us in that powerful parable of The Good Samaritan that our neighbor is not the one we choose, but the one whom God is sending us.  Let us open our hearts and our doors to them.