Arizona sun., 1962-10-04
Agony Of The Church

been called the agony OF the
Christian church particularly III
the South continues. From the
start. this dilemma of the spirit
and faith has been a deeply dis
turbing one. 1t remains So 1t WOrs-
ems as the pressure of events and
of conscience bring more anc
more pressure to individual man
requiring of him that he answer
up. If this comes separately tc
man, it comes also to the Christian
church.
One of the latest illustrations oil
this wide spread agony OF the
church comes from Macon
Georgia. In that middle-Georgia
city the pastor of the large and
prosperous First Baptist Church
has resigned. Pastor for II years,
he said. in his farewell sermon,
that the content of my preach
ing, particularly as regarded JUS
.tice to minority race groups, did
not set well with some in the
church.. There had been no open
rebellion-jdst a cold rarely-spok-
en- resentment.
DR.. Henry j. Stokes message
of resignation contained what is
the essence of the Christian di-
lemma. 1t is an eloquent state
ment of man who had come face
to face with the time when he felt
he had to abandon his faith and
principles, or resign and retain
them. He said:
'To proclaim at all the real,
demanding, disturbing Gospel of
God is not easy in the best
of times-it was quite as disturb
ing in the first century as now.
"Our current unrest and up
heaval in every realm: the grow
ing view by the observing world
that the church is irrelevant with
its platitudes and fiddle-faddle of
much activism: and the realiza-
ton that human relations in whose
welfare Christ is vitality concerned
have unmasked our shallow spirit
ual grasp of the true witness.
These and other thorny affairs
make the requirements of preach
ing an almost impossible assign
ment. In it all, the preacher can
not please God and man. Often he
pleases neither.
But the choice of masters must
be made"
No thoughtful person can avoid
the plain logic of that statement.
The Christian Gospel is not an
easy one to preach or live. The
world is observing the Christian
church and it is finding it irrele-
want with its platitudes and "fid-
dle-faddle of much activism. y
The Man from Nazareth was
interested in individuals and in
human relations and in the well
fare of all peoples. A shallow
spiritual grasp of what Dr. Stokes
describes as ''the true witness"
is everywhere apparent.
There is apparent a wish to
avoid reality, This expresses it.
self in a clamor against symbols
such as DR.. Martin Luther King
and the NAACP. This outcry ig-
nores the fact that if both of these,
the man and the organization,
did not even exist the problem
of the government and the church 1
would remain exactly as it is.
We cannot go on deceiving our
selves that the greatest worldwide /
struggle of our time
is somehow the product of one
man or one organization. We can
not go on saying that God ordain-
ed discrimination, that the efforts
of colored peoples to attain the
dignity of recognition as human
beings and citizens of whatever
country may be their home is COM
inspired.
The Christian church cannot for
ever proceed with platitudes and
irrelevancies, with fiddle faddle,
with operating huge, rich country
club churches which are almost
totally unrelated to the lives OF
the people, echoing with cliches
and prescriptions for peace of
mind.
The church cannot escape its
responsibility in this area. 1t may
abdicate, but it cannot escape.
The basic tenet of the Christian
faith is at issue. 1t can be ignored,
but the eroding effect of such a
course will be inevitable.