June 17, 2013
Pastorgraphs: “The Mississippi Mafia – Plus 50”
There comes
a moment in our lives when we are called upon to make a decision; to
take a stand. How we respond, even if we do nothing, will place us in the
judgment of history and eternity as having been on the side of good and
justice, or an accomplice to evil.
The Rev. Ed
McRae reminded me of James Lowell’s beautiful 1845 poem set to hymn,
“Once to
every man and nation, comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, some great decision, offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever, ’twixt that darkness and that light.”
In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, some great decision, offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever, ’twixt that darkness and that light.”
In my book
on integrity, I wrote justice is the virtue of doing the right thing; prudence
is the virtue of doing the right thing at the right time. This is the story of
28 men and their spouses who did the right thing at the right time.
Shortly
after James Meredith was admitted to Ole Miss in the Fall of 1962, a flashpoint
of the Civil Rights Movement that cost two people their lives in the riots that
accompanied his enrollment, a group of 28 young white Mississippi Methodist
ministers and their spouses assembled to sign a document that would cost them
dearly. That document, now known as the “Born of Conviction Statement”, bravely
expressed the young clergy’s opposition to segregation, use of state funds to
create private schools as a means of avoiding desegregation, and the White
Citizen’s Council’s domination of Mississippi political and social
institutions. The document said in part, "Our Lord Jesus
Christ teaches that all men are brothers. He permits no discrimination
because of race, color, or creed." It was the moral equivalent of Martin
Luther nailing the Ninety-Five Theses on the Castle Church door in Wittenberg.
There was no turning back.
The Rev.
Inman Moore, one of the 28 signers, said that when the document was printed on
January 1, 1963, the reaction was worse than they had imagined. The anger of
many white Mississippians turned against the young maverick Methodists with
threats, destruction of the pastors’ property, and the mass exodus of their
church members to other or newly formed churches. Moore said signing the
document was “a very moving experience. It moved most of us out of
Mississippi.”
Within six
months, 20 of the 28 ministers packed their belongings into U-Haul trailers,
uprooted their families from relatives, friends and schools, and left
everything they had to escape the threats and intimidation.
Rev. Moore
recalls 13 of them, including him and his wife Nelly, “came knocking on the
door of the old California Conference” in June 1963. He recalls how Bishop
Kennedy and the Conference graciously received the Southern clergy, locating
congregations where they could fulfill their call to ministry. They became
known as the “Mississippi Mafia” by their fellow California Methodists.
Last
Sunday, June 9, eight of the surviving members, including the Rev. Inman Moore
and the Rev. Ed & Martina McRae who came to California in 1963, stood
before the Mississippi Annual Conference to receive the long overdue acclaim
for their courageous and heroic act. The Conference marked the Fiftieth
Anniversary of the Born of Conviction Statement. Presenting the Emma Elzy
Award for social justice was Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of Civil Rights
advocate, Medgar Evers, who was assassinated, also 50 years ago. Mrs.
Evers-Williams expressed her appreciation for the courage of the young
ministers in 1963, a courage akin to that of her late husband’s. Standing with
Mrs. Evers-Williams and the eight clergy was Bishop James E. Swanson, the first
African-American Bishop of the Mississippi Conference. How times have changed –
for the better.
The Rev. Ed
McRae reflected on last Monday’s Jackson, Mississippi newspaper headline:
Mississippi Methodists honor heroes. He recalls the same paper’s headline a
half century ago: Mississippi Methodist ministers attempt to undermine Southern
Culture. McRae said, “You know, both headlines were right. Maybe in some small
way we were heroes.”
Not all the
signers left Mississippi. The Rev. Keith Tonkel toughed it out in Mississippi,
and is now perhaps the most beloved member of the Mississippi Conference. For
those who left everything and those who stayed, they had the courage of their
conviction to speak the truth to fear.
Of course
this story strikes home for me. I too came from the Mississippi Conference to
serve the final chapters of my ministry in California, but under much different
circumstances. After all these years, I represent the current generation of the
Mississippi Mafia.
I could not
escape the irony as I invited my dearest friend, the Rev. Donald Owens, and my
young colleague, Jonathan Reyes, to accompany me to Redlands for this year’s
California-Pacific Annual Conference. Three ministers: Caucasian,
African-American, and Hispanic, traveling together, eating, boarding,
worshiping, laughing and loving in the Lord together. Thanks to men like Ed
McRae, Inman Moore and Keith Tonkel, all our lives and the way we live them are
forever changed and enriched. They have my deepest appreciation and gratitude
for having the virtues of justice for the rights of their fellow man, prudence
to know the time to act had come, temperance to do it in the right way, and
courage to stand firm in the face of evil – all hallmarks of integrity.
Bless you
all, Bill Jenkins
From the
Quote Garden:
“Though the cause of evil prosper,
yet the truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong;
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own.”
Though her portion be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong;
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own.”
~ James Lowell, 1845 Hymn: Once to
Every Man and Nation, verse 4 ~
<<<>>>
(Photos:
California-Pacific Annual Conference)
To read the Born of Conviction
document, click here or go to
Christ United Methodist Ministry
Center
“Christ
in the Heart of San Diego”
3295
Meade Avenue - San Diego, CA 92116 - (619) 284-9205
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