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Steps toward reconciliation, 1969, reel 2.
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- speakerThe general counsel of the United Presbyterian Church has been
- speakerlooking at how best to bring to the assembly the issues
- speakerthat confront the church and within the context of that consideration,
- speakervoted this morning to invite James Farman
- speakerto come to the assembly and to speak to the
- speakerassembly. We have indication that he will
- speakeraccept and are negotiating a time period.
- speakerWe believe that hearing him is the best way for us to
- speakerjudge the validity of his request and to evaluate
- speakerthem and then to consider them through the proper channels.
- speakerWhen demands of this kind are made upon the church, the thing
- speakerthat we seek to do in the first instance is to engage in dialog
- speakerwith the person making the demands in an effort to understand them
- speakerand to understand the reasons for making and the demands in the first
- speakerplace. If Mr. Foreman is willing to do so,
- speakerwe are prepared to engage in such dialog with him.
- speakerWell, I think the fact that he's been invited doesn't imply any recognition
- speakereither of him or the weightiness of the demands, the reasonableness of the man
- speakermaking.
- speakerBut it does mean that he is one of the most talked of figures on the religious
- speakerscene today. He's certainly in the center of the news
- speakerand his home concerns right now are directed at religious institutions.
- speakerAnd so it's important for a symbol like this to nobody
- speakeris getting it to heaven on the scene to try and
- speakerunderstand and to receive him with a good deal of sympathy.
- speakerBy sympathy, I don't mean sympathizing with his
- speakerhis demands, but sympathizing with the great urgencies
- speakerthat are behind these events.
- speakerIn other words, for it for us to just pay no attention to him, I think would be effecting
- speakera tremendously important thing is happening.
- speakerNo idea that the actions that were taken by the people's coalition in Lincoln
- speakerPark, where actions that famous that had
- speakerits own internal explanation, we went to the board
- speakerof directors of the McCormick Theological Seminary.
- speakerWe attempted to reason with them. We attempted to develop to develop a dialog.
- speakerAnd after we exhausted all possible avenues to
- speakercome to a satisfactory understanding between the
- speakerinstitution and the community, after we exhausted all those avenues,
- speakerwe decided to confront the institution and it in
- speakerits inadequacy through the station of the Stone
- speakeradministration building.
- speakerThere is a confrontation that goes deeper than any giving amount of money.
- speakerIt will be difficult for the jurors to allocate five hundred thousand dollars
- speakeror fifty million dollars or one hundred million dollars.
- speakerThe confrontation comes when both been challenged.
- speakerHere is the role of the jurors itself.
- speakerIs ask that the judge disengaged its investments or liquidate the investments
- speakerthat their corporate bodies, as financial agents have in South Africa
- speakerand in Latin America, that that money or those holdings
- speakerbe made available to black people.
- speakerAnd the people of La Raza for community development, economic and otherwise.
- speakerThen you have a confrontation.
- speakerWe maintain that the church has been a part of the exploitation as
- speakerthe National Committee of Black Church, and they have pointed out that the membership of
- speakerthe church have been involved in that exploitation.
- speakerThe churches go wealthy through contributions of its membership and its
- speakerinvestment.
- speakerAnd the church cannot be separated as just a religious institution,
- speakeraside from its financial acquisitiveness.
- speakerYou know, the church has tremendous amount of investments today which come from the
- speakeraccumulated wealth since its inception in the United States.
- speakerAnd that means it's exploitation.
- speakerNo, certainly black people and the Catholic Church in terms of the people
- speakerof La Raza throughout the world.
- speakerSo that's why I was selected then with precisely which line to
- speakerget over the idea in this country today, not to see the church
- speakersolely as some religious institution and not engage in commercial activities
- speakerbecause it has engaged in commercial activity.
- speakerThey're heavily engaged in commercial activity.
- speakerAnd the Presbyterian church in particular is very heavily engaged in commercial
- speakeractivity. Otherwise, we would not be raising the question of liquidating
- speakerthe assets in South Africa.
- speakerI am a humanist. I wouldn't consider myself a Christian in the sense that a formal
- speakerChristian religion. I think downdrafts love a Christian that many Christians.
- speakerI would say that I would say that I'm certainly more of a Christian than a lot of
- speakerChristians because I take very seriously many of the ethical teachings
- speakerof Jesus in terms of love them.
- speakerThat fellow man is ourselves and what have you.
- speakerAnd that these are principles that I have been acting upon and that the brother here from
- speakerLa Raza is, in fact, acting upon.
- speakerAnd also, I think that it doesn't matter.
- speakerYou see, you know what a man says he is, according to the Bible.
- speakerI mean, even according to Jesus, the question of what?
- speakerOf his deeds. What is he, in fact, do?
- speakerAnd that's what we're saying, is that many people who go around saying that they're
- speakerChristians and many people who have said that they were Christians in the past and still
- speakerhold slaves and still export it, our people were not, in fact, Christians,
- speakerand that it's been this kind of degeneracy in the church, which has made many, many
- speakerpeople skeptical of the church, including myself.
- speakerBut that doesn't make the moral force which we're trying to generate upon the
- speakerchurch any less significant.
- speakerAs a church, we have seldom in history been more aware of our involvement
- speakerin and with the world.
- speakerAnd during this General Assembly in Jesus Christ, we have come
- speakerinto confrontation with God by the cross of Christ.
- speakerWe are called to respond in faith, love and serve.
- speakerIt is in this context that the general counsel invited the representatives
- speakerof La Raza and the National Black Economic Development Conference to speak
- speakerto us. We have listened to them and have heard their demands.
- speakerWe thank them for sharing with us their frustrations and their desires.
- speakerWe are not negotiating.
- speakerBut we assure them that we will continue to listen and be
- speakeropen to communication and conversation.
- speakerAs a church, we have a responsibility to be sensitive to human need
- speakerand frustration, such as we have heard expressed in and
- speakerbehind these statements.
- speakerThe general counsel reaffirms the importance of emphasis by this assembly
- speakeron the Chicanos and on Hispanic America, America as
- speakera whole. In our careful consideration of these issues,
- speakerwe respond in concern and respect.
- speakerOther recommendations have been and will be considered by boards
- speakerand agencies. Effective use of land held by the boards and now
- speakernot actively involved in program has already been under consideration.
- speakerCertainly, it is important that we continue to strive for
- speakera full response to the mandate of the 180 of the General Assembly in 1968
- speakerconcerning the investment of unrestricted capital funds of boards and agencies,
- speakerincluding seminaries and church colleges in ghetto housing and economic
- speakerdevelopment.
- speakerWe repeat the recommendations of the one hundred and eighty eight General Assembly urging
- speakerthe congregations of our denomination to join in this effort.
- speakerInvesting a portion of their capital funds in similar projects through
- speakerthe established channels of the church, specifically PETKO.
- speakerWe believe our action and the spirit of our action
- speakermust be, first of all, in obedience to Christ
- speakerand not in response to demands from outside the church
- speakeror alienation within.
- speakerLet us continue to be open to the spirit of God in whatever ways he speaks
- speakerto us.
- speakerRepentance and obedience to God must be the way of the Christian church
- speakerin every crisis in life.
- speakerSince the General Assembly of San Antonio.
- speakerKumara national missions have been engaged in the first stages
- speakerof reshaping objectives and programs.
- speakerSo that we may be able to deal more adequately with social
- speakerand economic development in relationship to both black and brown communities
- speakerat home and overseas.
- speakerIn facing the Urgency for Action, the presentation made by
- speakerJames Forman, the National Black Economic Development Conference,
- speakerhas both helped and hindered us.
- speakerHis demands have reminded us of the gigantic mansions.
- speakerOf our racial problem and the anger generated by its
- speakerlong neglect.
- speakerThey have also pointed to our own part in the racist society
- speakerand the magnitude of our relative affluence.
- speakerBut the demands of the black manifesto are set within the framework
- speakerof a simplified Marxist ideology.
- speakerIts methods are ultimately those of force and violence.
- speakerIt rejects the democratic process and makes a blanket condemnation
- speakerof the church as a tool of colonialism and oppression.
- speakerThese things, we cannot in good conscience accept
- speakerfrom our vantage point as general secretaries of our agencies.
- speakerIt is quite clear that the day of great statements
- speakerand mere promises is over.
- speakerWe see no easy answer to the questions that have been raised.
- speakerWe must reexamine our previous plans and mission strategies so
- speakeras to be prepared to share in the projects proposed by those who have been
- speakerisolated. But the challenge is deeper than that.
- speakerAnd we cannot presume to announce judgments on issues which cannot
- speakeryet be judged. We are not dealing with a foreman issue
- speakeror the black manifesto issue.
- speakerWe are dealing with a revolution in relationships.
- speakerWe are dealing with a long overdue and honest confrontation within
- speakerthe church between white churchmen and black and brown church.
- speakerTogether, we reject the Marxist ideology which has been thrown at us
- speakerand all the violence that threatens.
- speakerBut together, we are forced to face what churches can do and should do
- speakertoward helping to solve the injustices these militants are rebelling against.
