The Omaha guide., 1946-06-22
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Edited by Verna p. Harris
SEGREGATION BAPTIZED
BY Or. Buell. G. Gallagher, former
President, Talladega College;
Prof. Of Christian Ethics. Paci-
fic School Religion, Berkeley,
California.
SEGREGATION BAPTIZED
Edited by Verna p. Harris
NOTE TO

NOTE TO READERS:
Recently Our Guest Column
presented views on the church anc
race relations by a noted Negro
churchman, DR.. George E. Hay.
mes. This week we offer a discus
sion from the point of view of G
white clergyman who a as mil.
liant while heading a Negro col
lege in Alabama Is he is today ir
a California interracial church
DR.. Gallagher's books include
Color and Conscience: The lire.
preside Conflict, an indictment OF
white Christianity.
I write a. a clergyman and as
a theological professor. 1 know,
from the inside, what it means to
work and serve in an institution
which affirms the exact opposite
of what it practices. We preach
the fatherhood of God and toler-
ate nti-Semitism; we preach bro
therhood of man and practice Sc
gregation.
The Christian Church is the
leading candidate for the Jim
Crow badge of dishonor. There
are $780, 900 Negro Protestants in
the United States Less than one
half of one per cent of them are
members of congregations which
include other races. There is no
Y7oiO,- coo;a1 pcfifnfiOp IN ADoar;
CO which has more completely Sc
gregated itself on racial lines. How
did we get this way?
1t is a long story-much too
long for 500 words. For seven
centuries. the church was inclu-
sive, not exclusive. From its Afri-
a and Egyptian church early
Christianity boosted such men as
Augustine. Clement, Athanasius,
Arius, Cypriam, Origen. But the
attitudes and practices Of AFRO
giant superiority at the centers in
Rome and Constantinople so allie
mated the African and Egyptian
churches that they readily went
over to Mohammedanism in the
seventh century. The subsequent
conversion of the barbarian peo-
pies of central and northeren Eu-
rope made it a white mans own
church. For eleven centuries, long
enough to forget its former glory
as an inclusive fellowship.
The partnership of Christianity
and white supremacy in the con-
quest of the Americas is the next
chapter in the story. The pious
Fathers of the American colonies
first fell upon their knees and
fell upon the Indians. And they
brought the black mar in slavery
to the land of the free also with
the blessings of Christianity.
With the eighteenth and nine
teenth centuries Negroes began
once again to be admitted to the
circles of Christianity-but they
We're never taken in on a basis of
equality, just as they were also
denied the privilege of organizing
separately. Fearful of the power
of the Christian religion with its
truth OF brotherhood, the mas
tiers compelled the slaves to stay
in their churches-in the back of
the gallery. The meetings in the
Cwamps and cane breaks after
dark were the nucleus Of the later
Negro churches. Then, with En-
ancipation. the tune suddenly
changed. The former masters now
emphatically demanded that Ne
groes get out of their churches;
and Negroes, having fought des-
perately to attain a position of eq-
uality within the Christian fold,
now turned to building up the Jim
Grow Negro denominations to
powerful strength.
The sixty-four dollar question is
whether the white man can forget
that he is white long enough to
remember that he is a child of
God. If not. he will have to admit
that The Man Bilbo was correct
when he stood before a Mississi-
ppi legislature and said, 1.-THE
white man is the custodian of the
gospel of Jesus Christ, That's a
lie; and the way to prove that it
is a lie is to make it impossible
for men like Bilbo to point to a
white church anywhere.
we have white churches, Ne
gro churches, Filipino churches,
Mexican churches, Chinese chur-
ches. japanese churches; some
day we will have Christian chur-
ches! That day is closer than you
think. 1t is dawning right now. I
affirm that within this decade the
churches Of America will be con-
vulsed with a controversy the like
of which they have not seen since
the debates on slavery that pre-
seeded the Civil War. The conflict
, between minority batting and CO.
lor caste on n side and con-
science on the other side is ire
%pressible. The issue is joined, and
the sledgehammer is already be-
ginning to pound against the MIC
die wall or partition.
There remains n other quest
ion. VIII the blows be delivered
on both sides of that wall of Sc
gregation? Or will we find Negro
clergymen and ecclesiastics and
church members grown so content
with their separate churches that
they viii resist the effort to help
break down the wall? VIII they
raise the cry that they like to be
by themselves? Or will they I'M
tie in the demand for a single
church, where all men stand on
a basis of equality? Will the big
sledgehammer of righteousness
pound nightly on both sides OF
the wall.
BAX STATE