Mennonite Central Committee News Service
August 28, 1962
THE CHRISTIAN AND THE RACE QUESTION
by Vincent Harding
The following is a portion of Vincent Harding's
address to one of the Peace Section meetings at the Mennonite
World Conference in Kitchener, Ont. Harding is serving as MCC
representative in the United States South. On July 23 he was
arrested, along with several others, on the city hall steps of
Albany, Ga. The group had been praying that love might reign,
in the hearts of the men, women and young people of that troubled
city. He was in jail three days. His opening remarks in this
article allude to this experience.
As I sat in the confinement of my cell in
Albany, and considered my responsibility as a speaker here at
World Conference, I was sorely tempted to stay there indefinitely,
for the benefit of my Mennonite brothers and sisters. I was tempted
to stay there and to write a letter from prison, confessing to
you how weary I sometimes get of talking and talking about the
church and race. For I do get weary, and I considered seriously
staying in my four-man cell and sending to all of you a short,
gracious note of invitation, urging you to come down to Albany
to share the experience with me. For behind all the other circumstances
and peripheral issues, I knew that I was in jail because I believed
that segregation is deeply sinful, and I was convinced that many
of us here really know this, too.
We know it in terms of what it does to human
lives. We know that it scars the human spirit, defaces the image
of God, and makes the victim feel less than human.
It makes a spiritual murderer out of the perpetrator.
We know that it makes one group believe that God has cursed them
with a darker skin, and makes another group believe that God
has especially blessed them with a light one; and both of these
are blasphemies against the God who looks only upon the heart.
We know from scripture that segregation and
discrimination and racial prejudice are wrong. We know that the
message of the New Testament is that all men are equally in need
of the gospel; that all men are equally eligible to become children
of God; that the body of Christ is made up of believers of every
color and nation; that Christ in his crucified body took to the
cross every barrier of race, class and culture that men build
to keep themselves apart from one another. We know, too, that
the greatest vision of the kingdom of God in the scriptures is
one that speaks of the redeemed as those who come from "every
tribe and tongue and people and nation." (Rev. 5:. 9). We
know that a God who intends to have no segregation around His
throne surely is not pleased with segregation in our communities
and even in our churches. And on the most sensitive issue of
all we know that the only scriptural requirement for marriage
is that it be "in the Lord," with no qualifications
given concerning color, language or nationality.
Moreover, we know, too, that Christians were
never meant to accept evil with silent complacency or fearful
acquiescence. We know that Christ has called us to a ceaseless
struggle against the powers, of darkness. We know that our Master
has told us to love our neighbor as surely as to love God. He
has made it clear that our neighbor is to be found wherever we
find a fellow man in need. We know that He has told us that our
ministry to the poor and to the oppressed is really a ministry
to Him. For when he says, "unto the least of these,"
he surely includes the black brother who is imprisoned behind
the invisible bars of segregated housing ghettos,--the Indian
brother who is a stranger and outcast in his own land,--the white
segregationist brother who is sick in spirit,--and the migrant
worker brother who is naked of all legal protection and human
rights. He included all these in our ministry to Him. We know
this. We know too that He called us to be peacemakers, (makers
of reconciliation) wherever there is conflict and strife. We
know that He calls us to champion the oppressed, just as He came
to "set at liberty those who are oppressed..." (Luke
4:18).
Deep within ourselves, we know this to be
an irreducible part of our calling as Christians, yet we continue
stubbornly and sinfully to refuse to hear and follow the Master's
voice. We call ourselves a church, and yet we let our Mennonite
culture become our God. We refuse to accept outsiders into our
fellowship. Indeed we often cut ourselves off from them by speaking
a language they do not understand. We act as if the church belongs
to us, rather than to Christ. We say that those who are not like
us do not belong in Christ's church-- a great sin. (Sometimes,
of course, we salve our consciences by setting up a "mission"
Sunday School or church a few blocks or miles away from "our"
church, but no one is really deceived by this.)
We know our calling, and yet we choose to
be complacent, callous, and frighteningly insensitive to the
sufferings of men all around us. We do not seek to go out of
our way to learn of their needs. We excuse ourselves by saying
we do not know, we do not understand. We know our calling, and
yet we are so insecure about our way of life that we are afraid
to share it with others. We are afraid others will reject our
"peculiar" doctrines. So, we stand off from them, covering
our fear with a mantle of false pride.
We know our calling to unity, and yet we continue
to build segregated congregations and to organize segregated
"missions." Meanwhile the so-called secular world leaves
us far behind, breaking down the dividing walls in schools, restaurants
and buses. Ignoring the unity of the body of Christ, we bring
great frustration and unhappiness to many persons by telling
our Negro, Mexican and Indian "converts" that we love
them. We send them off to our schools proclaiming their equality
before God. Then when they dare to think of dating our sons and
daughters, we vigorously shake our heads, and shout, "No!"
And if one ever became bold enough to love and to speak of marriage,
we declare they are carrying love and equality too far. We know
our calling, but we have allowed ourselves to become deeply conformed
to the prejudiced and discriminatory ways of the world around
us. We are afraid to pay the price of true non-conformity. So,
we seek to fool ourselves and others by refusing to conform in
outward things, but within we have allowed ourselves to be pressed
into the mould of the white, western world, a world on the decline.
In this context we see a Mennonite lady in one of the southern
states, properly attired in the modest garb of her conference,
saying "I'd never let my children go to school with Negroes."
It is certainly necessary to pause here and
to acknowledge the fact that there is a steadily increasing number
of persons in our fellowship who are deeply concerned about these
things, and constantly seeking for ways in which to bring a truly
Christian witness to the vexing problems of race. We must give
God great thanks for this, but we must never let it blind us
to the fact that the overwhelming majority of us simply have
not yet cared enough to seek God's will in this matter.
Therefore, it seems apparent to me that the
only message which remains for the Mennonite fellowship on this
issue of race is the message that came from Christ to the churches
1900 years ago through the vision of John the Seer. He was the
Lord of these churches, and if his Lordship over us is more than
a slogan, then the words of Revelation are yet the same for us:
"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to
the churches." (2:29, etc.)
Within our brotherhood, there exists on the
issue of race (as well as on war and on economic justice) the
very same attitudes which prompted our Lord's admonition to the
seven churches of Asia Minor, an admonition that was surely meant
for all churches every- where. Like Laodicea, we, too, are insipidly
lukewarm on the challenge of racial brotherhood and human justice.
We have issued statements and held conferences, but we are neither
hot nor cold. We are too respectable to be hot and too pious
to be cold. We are too prosperous and too well thought of in
our communities to identify ourselves with the cause of a persecuted
minority. We are quietly keeping out of "controversial"
issues, and because of this our Lord has no choice but to tell
us that we are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. And
unless we repent and clothe ourselves with the garments of His
compassion for the suffering, and anoint our eyes with the salve
of His love to see the needs of our outcast brothers, we shall
surely die.
Our name is not only Laodicea; it is also
Pergamum and Thyatira. For we have fallen prey to the temptation
to conform to the immoral and sinful ways of the world. We condemn
drinking, but condone segregation, and the latter evil is at
least as great as the former. We have joined the immoral, segregated
schools without a word of protest. We have taken advantage of
our white skins and have used facilities denied to our darker
brothers, without a word of protest. Doing so, we have eaten
meat and enjoyed lodging that was offered to the idols of racial
pride and prejudice. And the message comes to us: "Repent."
Surely, too, our name is Ephesus. For we have
forgotten the love we had at first and have fallen from what
we once were. So, we need to hear the words of the writer to
the Hebrew Christians, too, as he reminds them also of "the
former days, when, after you were enlightened, you endured a
hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed
to abuse and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those
so treated." (Hebrews 10: 32, 33): What better description
is there for the life of our persecuted Anabaptist forefathers?
They were a minority, forever in danger of their lives, always
threatened with swift destruction of their property. But we have
forgotten what it means to be a persecuted minority, and what
it is to rejoice in suffering for Christ's sake. We have forgotten
all this and we have been glad to forget. And Christ has this
against us. Christ calIs us to remember again our role as sufferers
for the right. In this matter of racial injustice, he asks us
to remember what it is to be "partners" with those
who are "publicly exposed to abuse and affliction..."
Does this not describe our Indian, Mexican, Negro and Oriental
brethren? Christ calls us to be partners with them in their suffering.
If we refuse, our lampstand--representing His Church--will be
removed from its place. (Some persons believe that God has already
removed his lampstand from us--his disobedient people--and passed
it on to the courts, schools and the "secular" organizations
which lead with compassion the struggle for racial justice and
understanding. Perhaps we are already too late. I hope not.)
To take on the role of partners with the oppressed
is not easy in our day. The churches of Virginia, Georgia, Florida
and other parts of the southern United States, especially, must
be ready to face a real cross if they follow Christ faithfully
on this way of partnership. The churches of Canada face another
kind of cross, but it is there for them, too. It means in each
case possibly giving up much of our life as we have known it,
so that we might discover life as Christ has prepared it for
us. Some congregations might be divided. Some members might face
social ostracism and economic deprivation. Some schools may lose
money. This is the way of the cross. Christians are called to
walk it, not to avoid it. This will be the privilege available
to churches wherever the issue of racial differences is sharp.
In Asia and Africa, there are places in which whites have already
become the persecuted minority. It will take great courage and
exact a great price for the native Christians of these countries
to be partners with the white brothers. But there is no other
Christian way.
For all who would follow this path on the
issue of race, the message to the church at Smyrna rings out
with clarity, realism and hope. It says to us: "Do not fear
what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw
some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and... you will
have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you
the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit
says to the (Mennonite) churches." (Revelation 2: 10, 11.)
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