Andrew Young - Preacher Activist Ambassador

Andrew Young’s work as a pastor, administrator, and voting rights advocate led him to join Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in the civil rights struggle. Young, who entered electoral politics shortly after King’s assassination, credited King with giving ‘‘purpose and sustenance’’ to his life (Young, 474). ‘‘He left his mark on me, both in indelible memories and in the spiritual and practical lessons of our trials and triumphs,’’ Young recalled. ‘‘It is by the quality of those days that I have come to measure my own continuing journey’’ (Young, 474).

Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on 12 March 1932, into a middle-class family, Young earned a BS (1951) in biology from Howard University before studying to become a minister. In 1955 he earned a divinity degree at Hartford Theological Seminary and was ordained as a minister in the United Church of Christ. In 1957, after serving as a pastor at Bethany Congregational Church in Thomasville, Georgia, in 1957 Young joined the National Council of the Churches of Christ in America (NCC) in New York as an associate director of the Youth Division of Christian Education.

In his memoir An Easy Burden (1996), Young recalls meeting King in 1957, when the two shared the podium at the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity’s annual program at Talladega College in Alabama. After the event, King invited Young to visit him in Montgomery. Young was excited about the possibility of speaking with King about his philosophy of nonviolence and ‘‘about how he had applied his academic training to the practical situation in the South,’’ but to Young’s dismay, King was not interested in talking about his academic studies: ‘‘He was mostly interested in talking about Yoki, his and Coretta’s new baby … and he didn’t feel like acting out the role of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’’ (Young, 97).

Moved by the student movement in Nashville in 1960, Young considered relocating to the South to run the Highlander Folk School Citizenship Training Program and solicited King’s advice. Although King had high praise for Highlander’s program, he cautioned Young that Tennessee officials were attempting to close the school. ‘‘Certainly I would not advise you to leave the position that you are now holding unless you can be sure that Highlander will remain open’’ (King, 25 April 1961). Young accepted Highlander’s offer, but, as King warned, Highlander closed in 1961 before Young and his wife, Jean, arrived. The program moved its administrative offices to SCLC headquarters in Atlanta, while the United Church of Christ renovated facilities in Dorchester, Georgia, to host the citizenship schools. Young took over the program, which gradually became an integral part of SCLC. In 1963 Young was a key figure on the biracial negotiating committee that forged the hard-won agreement that ended the Birmingham Campaign.

In 1964 King promoted Young to executive director of SCLC after the departure of the embattled Wyatt Tee Walker. For the next several years Young became one of King’s most trusted advisors and confidantes and worked with him during campaigns in St. Augustine, Selma, and Chicago. He recalled that, in executive meetings, King wanted to hear conservative as well as radical viewpoints, ‘‘and it almost always fell to my lot to express the conservative view’’ (Young, 16 July 1968).

In April 1968 Young was with King at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis when the civil rights leader was slain. Young recalled that King was in a jovial mood on the evening before his assasination, even engaging Ralph Abernathy and Young in a pillow fight. Late in the afternoon of 4 April, shortly after a limousine arrived to pick up King and his entourage for dinner, Young heard a sound like a car backfiring and saw that King was no longer standing on the hotel balcony. Young’s first thought was that King was ‘‘still clowning’’ (Young, 464). Young was devastated by King’s assassination: ‘‘It seemed unfair that he was ‘free’ from innumerable problems, while we, the living, were left to try to cope without him. We had been just getting by with him, how could we get along without him?’’ (Young, 466).

Young left SCLC in 1970 to run for Congress. Although defeated in his first bid, he ran successfully in 1972, and represented his Georgia district for three terms before being appointed ambassador to the United Nations by President Jimmy Carter. Noted for his sympathetic approach in dealing with developing nations, Young was pressured to resign in 1979, after an unauthorized meeting with a representative of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. In 1981 President Carter awarded Young the Congressional Medal of Freedom. Young served as mayor of Atlanta from 1982 to 1990 before launching an unsuccessful bid for governor of Georgia in 1990.

SOURCES

King to Young, 25 April 1961, MLKP-MBU.

Young, An Easy Burden, 1996.

Young, Interview by Katherine Shannon, 16 July 1968, RBOH-DHU.

Social Justice - Hot Topic This Time Last Year

"The church is not to adopt a social reform platform as its message, but the faithful church, wherever it is found, is itself a social reform movement precisely because it is populated by redeemed sinners who are called to faithfulness in following Christ." 

 ---R Albert Mohler Jr

This time last year, Social Justice was a hot topic in the media as a result of leading conservative talk show hosts  biting attacks on proponents of social justice and the Social Gospel.


Here's an excerpt from an article which appeared in the Christian Post on March 10, 2010.


[source: http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100310/glenn-beck-s-church-advice-sparks-outrage/]

Anti-poverty Christian groups are up in arms after popular political commentator Glenn Beck urged Christians to leave their church if it talks about social justice.

.........Wallis said the Bible from beginning to the end is clear that social justice is an “integral part of God’s plan for humanity.”

In his radio and television show last week on Fox News, Beck urged Christian viewers to talk to their pastor or priest about the word social justice if their church uses the term. If the church leader refuses to change the church’s commitment to social justice, then they should leave, Beck continued.

“I beg you, look for the words ‘social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church website,” the TV and radio personality said. “If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words.

“Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!” he exclaimed.

Later in the show, Beck held up cards with a hammer and sickle on one and a swastika on the other. He said communism and Nazis both have the same philosophy and in America “social justice” is the code word for both.

“They talked about economic justice, rights of the workers, redistribution of wealth, and surprisingly, democracy,” he said.

Wallis, in response, refuted the controversial claim and highlighted how the Catholic Church, Black churches, Mainline Protestant churches, and an increasing number of evangelical and Pentecostal churches believe that social justice is central to biblical faith.

“I don’t know if Beck is just strange, just trying to be controversial, or just trying to make money,” the long-time anti-poverty activist wrote. “But in any case, what he has said attacks the very heart of our Christian faith, and Christians should no longer watch his show. His show should now be in the same-category as Howard Stern.”

Meanwhile, anti-hunger ministry Bread for the World said it does not usually feel compelled to respond to Beck’s outrageous statements. But it said his recent comments had “gone too far.”

“[W]e say Jesus called us to care for ‘the least of these,’” wrote Jim McDonald, managing director of Bread for the World, in an e-mail to The Christian Post. “No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, it is impossible for biblically-literate people to deny the thousands of verses in the Bible about hunger and poverty.”  

A week later guest columnist, R Albert Mohler, responded to the furor Beck stirred up.

At first glance, Beck's statements are hard to defend. How can justice, social or private, be anything other than a biblical mandate? A quick look at the Bible will reveal that justice is, above all, an attribute of God himself. God is perfectly just, and the Bible is filled with God's condemnation of injustice in any form. The prophets thundered God's denunciation of social injustice and the call for God's people to live justly, to uphold justice, and to refrain from any perversion of justice.

The one who pleases the Lord is he who will "keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice" (Gen. 18:19). Israel is told to "do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness you shall judge your neighbor" (Lev. 19:15). God "has established his throne for justice" (Psalm 9:7) and "loves righteousness and justice" (Psalm 33:5). Princes are to "rule in justice" (Is. 32:1) even as the Lord "will fill Zion with justice and righteousness" (Is. 33:5). In the face of injustice, the prophet Amos thundered: "But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream" (Amos 5:18). In a classic statement, Micah reminded Israel: "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8).

To assert that a call for social justice is reason for faithful Christians to flee their churches is nonsense, given the Bible's overwhelming affirmation that justice is one of God's own foremost concerns.

But, there is more going on here. Glenn Beck's statements lacked nuance, fair consideration, and context. It was reckless to use a national media platform to rail against social justice in such a manner, leaving Beck with little defense against a tidal wave of biblical mandates.

........There is more to that story, however. The church is not to adopt a social reform platform as its message, but the faithful church, wherever it is found, is itself a social reform movement precisely because it is populated by redeemed sinners who are called to faithfulness in following Christ. The Gospel is not a message of social salvation, but it does have social implications.

Faithful Christians can debate the proper and most effective means of organizing the political structure and the economic markets. Bringing all these things into submission to Christ is no easy task, and the Gospel must not be tied to any political system, regime, or platform. Justice is our concern because it is God's concern, but it is no easy task to know how best to seek justice in this fallen world.

Young Christians: pressing social concerns that benefit the common good

Excerpt from:

A Third Way for the 'Christian Nation' Debate

Gabe Lyons

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Author, The Next Christians: The Good News About the End of Christian America
October 26 2010


In the last three years, I've conducted hundreds of interviews and focus groups with the next generation of Christian leaders and found a new view that threads the needle between the left and the right. 

Rather than view America's founding as either wholly secular or sacred, many claim to believe that we are a country influenced by Christian ideas. On the one hand, they recognize that many early patriots and politicians were deeply influenced by their faith. No doubt such influence can readily be seen in the many American icons and traditions where God is acknowledged. 

On the other hand, they are quick to point out that being influenced by such ideas does not equal the establishment of a Christian state....


........According to a 2009 Newsweek poll, the number of people who consider the United States a "Christian nation" has fallen nine points in the last five years, seven points in the last year alone. Public sentiments in this debate are shifting, and the next generation of Christians is too -- albeit to a new paradigm. 

Those who champion this third way often express that religious freedom for those outside of Christianity must be a priority. Many of our national architects were undoubtedly people of faith, but they also carefully sewed a spirit of religious toleration into the fabric of our land. ...


........ young Christians who accept this third way see our current pluralistic setting as well within the founder's vision. In a favorite passage of the Bible among young Christians, Jesus reminds us that one of the greatest commandments it to "love your neighbor as yourself." They recognize this still applies when your neighbor isn't Christian and never will be. 

Indeed, rather than being engaged in a divisive cultural war in the hopes of turning back time, they're engaged in pressing social concerns that benefit the common good -- not just the Christian good. Reaching out to all doesn't threaten Christianity, rather it creates the type of relationships, perspectives and dialogues that reinvigorate and renew their commitment to faith. 

If you hate America, you have a great future in the Methodist church

At least that's what Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips says:

I have a DREAM.  That is, no more United Methodist Church.

I grew up in the Methodist church.  I left as a teenager because the Methodist Church is little more than the first Church of Karl Marx.   After all, what can you say about a church that considers Hillary Clinton to be a member in good standing?

 Today, the Methodist Church is little more than the “religious” arm of socialism.
 The Methodist church is pro-illegal immigration.  They have been in the bag for socialist health care, going as far as sending out emails to their membership “debunking” the myths of Obamacare.
Say, where are the liberal complaints on the separation of church and state?
 I guess their outrage is selective.
 The Methodists joined the Socialists, Communists and Marxists for the “One Nation” March.   While the Methodists have been outraged that American used force to respond to 9/11, they remained shockingly silent on the torture by Muslims.
 Reading the Methodist social justice manifesto is like reading a socialist wish list.   They want amnesty, they want “economic justice”, they opposed “global climate change” (earth to the Methodists, man isn’t doing it), fighting global poverty (here is another hint, most poverty is caused by a lack of freedom and lack of a free enterprise system).  Not shockingly, the Methodists side with the Islamists against Israel, and of course oppose America in Iraq.
 In short, if you hate America, you have a great future in the Methodist church.
 At the local level, there are some good people and they even have a few decent ministers left, though not many.
 I left the Methodist church over 35 years ago.  I have never looked back.   The Methodist church is an embarrassing joke.
 I have a DREAM too.  My dream is the Methodist church goes out of business.

[ source: http://www.tngovwatch.org/2010/12/my-dream-no-more-methodist-church/ ]

Phillips, leader of the Tea Party Nation, has made other controversial statements such as found in this excerpt from his weekly radio show in November of 2010:

• PHILLIPS: The Founding Fathers originally said, they put certain restrictions on who gets the right to vote. It wasn’t you were just a citizen and you got to vote. Some of the restrictions, you know, you obviously would not think about today. But one of those was you had to be a property owner. And that makes a lot of sense, because if you’re a property owner you actually have a vested stake in the community. If you’re not a property owner, you know, I’m sorry but property owners have a little bit more of a vested interest in the community than non-property owners.

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For the past 150 years (or more)  many Christians (including southern protestants) have been spurred to action in response to challenges from men like Judson Phillips.   Their stories are included on this website.  Instead of heated debate and condemnation, the best response to such outrageous ideas is to take positive action to work for social justice,    Kudos to hard-working Methodists for their continued action in the name of Jesus to address the injustices in our land and to improve the lives of the children of God in today's world.

I wonder:
Should we continue to debate and argue about  issues of social justice or .....should we focus on taking concrete actions  (individually and collectively) based on our conceptions of What Jesus Would Do, in light of the vast needs of those around us?