The Peacemaking Heritage of Second Baptist Church
by Dr. Stephen D. Jones, 2008
For a follower of Jesus the pursuit of peace is not an option. Jesus was a peace teacher, a teacher of shalom. To be a church of Jesus Christ is to be a peace church. There is no other way. To speak of a violent church, an abusive church, a fighting church, a church eager for war, is an oxymoron if Jesus is our guide.
However, there are seasons in every church’s life and emphases of faith that speak more clearly to one congregation than another. Our church has had a varied peacemaking history. The peace history of Second Baptist Church is evident more in the persons whom the church has called as pastors. A number of them had national and international reputations as peacemakers. Second Baptist Church has so valued soul liberty and the right of each individual to reach his or her own conclusions that the church hasn’t had a tradition of taking strong, corporate stands for peace. This same passion for the freedom of the individual, however, extended to the pulpit, and pastors of Second Baptist Church have been afforded great freedom to speak their minds and give the kind of civic leadership to which each has felt called. Because the pastors of the church have consistently come from the progressive or liberal wing of American Baptists, these pastors have stood against slavery, for racial integration, for reconciliation in society and among Baptists, for justice and equality. At least one pastor was an avowed pacifist but many have spoken out on issues of peace, war, justice and equality.
Second Baptist Church was founded by John Mason Peck who openly disobeyed the justice of the peace in early St. Louis to begin a school to educate slaves. He worked vigorously to oppose the spread of slavery to Illinois, being credited more than any other single person with the citizens of Illinois voting, in a state-wide plebiscite, to remain a free state. What would it have meant to the Presidency of Abraham Lincoln if Illinois had earlier voted to become a slave state? How would that have tipped the outcome, or the delay of the outcome, of the Civil War?
Isaac Hinton, born at Oxford and immigrated to the United States in 1832, was one of the earliest pastors of Second Baptist Church. In 1833 he was called to the First Baptist Church of Richmond, Va. But his deep sense of equality and justice troubled him in Richmond. He told the church due to “the difficulties with which I am surrounded arising from the existence of slavery…I am left to conclude that it is the will of God that I should labour in another portion of his vineyard.” He was an amazingly popular pastor while serving at St. Louis from 1841-1844. This passion for justice and deep concern about the immorality of slavery was a common theme among so many of our pastors.
Galusha Anderson served before and during the Civil War. As an abolitionist and supporter of the Union, Anderson spoke out for justice. Anderson was of the conviction that there could be no peace without justice for all. He condemned slavery and he condemned the secession of Southern States from the Union. He was the first pastor in St. Louis to take a public stand from the pulpit. An angry mob gathered outside our church the next Sunday and threw a brick through the window of the sanctuary. One secessionist newspaper in St. Louis declared in an editorial one Saturday evening, “The Devil peaches at the corner of Sixth and Locust Streets, and he is just the same sort of a being that he was more than 1800 years ago; he wants everybody to bow down and worship him.” Of course, this was referring to Dr. Anderson. Dr. Anderson wrote, “On a June morning of 1861, a gentleman accosted me at the Post-office, whither I had gone for my morning mail, and with pardonable inquisitiveness and much earnestness asked if I went out nights. I assured him that I did. He then urgently advised me not to do so, saying that he knew that a plot had been laid to kill me. I answered that I had very important duties as a Christian pastor, and when in order to perform them it was necessary for me to go out in the evening, I must go regardless of consequences to myself… I assured him I had not the slightest consciousness of fear; and that come life or death I proposed to stand at my post and do my duty… Very soon after a neighboring pastor called upon me, and with evident anxiety which expressed itself both in his words and in the tone of his voice, detailed what he had heard about the planned assassination of myself. He thought that I was in imminent danger and that perhaps it might be best for me to leave the State. I replied that I suspected that some of these gruesome stories had been invented to frighten me from my post; and if that was the design, the authors of them had missed their mark.” (p. 167-8) In November of 1861, a Union general took over a building used by the secessionists and a book was found with one column of names written in red ink and the other column of names in black ink. If the city had been taken over by the Confederate Army, those in red were to hanged from the nearest lamp-post and those in black were to be jailed and tried by court martial. Galusha Anderson’s name was written in red.
In 1864, the Civil War was still on-going with no easy end in sight. Dr. Anderson preached to a packed house at Second Baptist Church about peace and war. He chose as his text Jesus’ words, “Think not that I came to send peace on the earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword.”
“There are those, however, who cry out for peace. Who does not desire it? Have we not had enough of fratricidal strife? Yes, verily. Has not enough blood been shed? Yes, a thousand fold more than ought to have flowed. Have we not had enough of lamentation and tears? Let the Rachels who weep for their children, and refuse to be comforted, answer. He has a stone in the heart who, looking on the desolations of war, does not sigh for peace. But peace at what price? At the price of truth? Shall we for the sake of peace give up the principle that good government must be obeyed? Shall we tamely abandon the truth that all men are equal in God’s sight, and have a right to the product of their own labor? Shall we timidly assent to the tyrannical doctrine that the normal condition of a portion of our race is slavery? We cannot purchase peace at so great cost. God giving us strength, we never will. Let our wives be widows and our children orphans; let them beg their bread from door to door; let them die without care in almshouses, and be buried uncoffined in the potter’s field; yes, ‘let a general conflagration sweep over the land and let an earthquake sink it,’ before we yield one rood of our territory to those who, without cause, lifted up the red hand of rebellion against the government of our fathers in the interest of slavery. And why all this? Because the truth for which we contend is worth more than your life or mine—or more than the lives of a generation of men. When peace shall be obtained which is based in righteousness which flows from justice established and exalted in the midst of the nation, which grants to all classes of men their inalienable rights, we shall sing paeans of joy for it; but if we are to have a peace based on a compromise with iniquity, which will be as deceptive as the apples of Sodom, involving our children in disasters more dire than those which have befallen us, every lover of truth, and justice and good government will hang his head in shame. O God, save us in mercy, save us from such a peace! Give us anything rather than it. Grant us an eighty years’ war like that waged by the Netherlands, rather than pour into our cup such an insidious curse.” (pp. 339f. A Border City During the Civil War, Anderson)
Dr. Aaron H. Burlingham came to St. Louis after the Civil War and, though a strong Union supporter, discovered that Baptists in Missouri had splintered into two opposing Conventions, one of Southern and one of Union sympathies. Due to his untiring work, he brought about reconciliation between the two groups and re-united the Baptists of Missouri.
Dr. Willard W. Boyd endeavored “by every means in his power to advance the cause of Christianity and to improve social and moral conditions.” He was actively engaged in politics and it was his unusual custom, preceding each election to discuss politics and candidates from the pulpit. He publicly endorsed some candidates and opposed others. Dr. Boyd was also concerned about equality and justice and this was evident from his active involvement in the women’s suffrage movement in his day.
While at Second Baptist, Dr. Boyd preached a sermon opposing capital punishment following the hanging the week before of a prisoner, arguing for the sanctity of life and against the cruelty of state-sanctioned killing. He also served as chaplain of the First Regiment of the Missouri Infantry in 1880. Another pastor, Jim Barnes, also preached a sermon opposing the death penalty on April 27, 1969
Dr. William Coleman Bitting was a true ecumenist as one of the founders of the Federal Council of Churches, the National Religious Education Association, and the Metropolitan Church Federation of S. Louis. Dr. Bitting’s concern for peace was well-known and led him, ironically, to experience first-hand the emergence of war. Dr. Bitting was one of the delegates to an international peace conference in Constance, Switzerland, in the summer of 1914, which was broken up by the beginning of the World War. He and Mrs. Bitting were in a party which was escorted across Germany after the outbreak of the war, stopping in Munich, Bavaria. After his return to St. Louis from the war zone, Dr. Bitting preached strongly against the war spirit, and against the belief that military preparedness prevents war. “It takes more time to breed a dove than to make a bullet,” he said. “We must abandon jungle ethics, which teaches that might makes right. We must tell big business to stop playing with human life.” After entry of the United States into the war, Dr. Bitting spoke in support of a vigorous prosecution of the war, condemning “slackers.”
Dr. Ashby Jones was active in the “World Alliance of Peace through the Churches.” In 1928, the British committee of this organization requested that Dr. Jones carry their message to churches in England. During the summer he spent five weeks touring and speaking at churches in English cities. In addition, he visited Russia with Sherwood Eddy and a group of Americans under the auspices of the Soviet government in 1929 and on his return newspapers carried accounts of his sermon urging recognition of Russia as a means of maintaining peace and communication between the two nations. (p. 47 SBC History)
Rev. Dr. Jones said, “At present the attitude of most of the great nations toward Russia is to treat her as an alien and an outlaw to the family of nations. This attitude has created in the consciousness of the Russian people the feelings…that every nation’s hand is against them, and in turn there is a growing enmity and fear of all other nations. The old psychology of Germany prior to 1914 is being reproduced in Russia in an even more acute form. They have that same feeling of being ‘ringed around by their enemies’ and they are unquestionably preparing to defend themselves. We know too well from the terrible past that such an attitude on the part of any great nation is a menace to the peace of the world. It seems quite clear to me that nothing would so quickly and completely change Russia’s attitude to the rest of the world as the recognition of her government by the United States and Great Britain. There is something pathetically significant in the question which we often heard asked by ‘the man on the street’ or expressed in the daily newspapers: ‘Why does America hate us?’
“If communism is the wrong politico-economic policy, which most of us believe it is, the best way to prove it (and thus destroy it) is to give the Soviet Union a free hand to try it out. If with the friendly cooperation of the great capitalistic nations of the world Communism fails, as it seems to most of us it must fail, one of the great economic and political ghosts of the world will vanish into night.”
St. Louis Globe Democrat, Sept. 11, 1929
During Dr. Jones’ pastorate, an evening service reflected the congregation’s broad views toward the world. In one litany, the congregation read, “The most useful form of patriotism is that which expresses itself in efforts to cultivate and preserve friendly relations between one’s native land and foreign nations.” The congregation rose and sang a hymn, “The Day of World Brotherhood.”
In another service, the congregation rose and repeated in unison:
“We together pledge our strength and effort to make America great—
Not in the greatness of its possessions, but in the strength and righteousness of its ideals and principles.
Not in the assertion of rights but in the glad assumption of duties.
Not flaunting her strength as a giant, but bending in helpfulness over a sick and wounded world.
Not in selfish isolation but in Christlike cooperation.
Not in pride, arrogance and disdain of other races, but in sympathy, love and understanding.
Not in treading again the old, worn, bloody pathway which ends inevitably in chaos and disaster, but in blazing a new trail into the New Jerusalem where wars will be no more.
Some nation must take that path. That honor we covet for our beloved America. In that spirit and with these hopes we say with all our hearts, “May America be great.”
Dr. Jones served as vice president of the Church Peace Union and as a member of the Advisory Committee of the World Alliance for Peace through the Churches. He spoke at a World Peace Service in St. Louis on May 27, 1933. In his speech he used the non-militarized peaceful frontier between the U.S. and Canada in voicing the hope of international disarmament.
In the church newsletter on Feb. 18, 1932, Dr. Jones said, “With multitudes of unemployed in every land and the minor tones of their muttered protest in every language, we are called upon to face the staggering fact that the world is paying five billions a year in preparation for the possibility of another destructive war.”
In a Community Farewell Service to Dr. Jones held at Temple Israel on March 28, 1932, Dr. Jones’ final address to St. Louis was entitled, “The Relation of Religion to the New Internationalism.”
During the pastorate of Rev. George Tolley, he frequently conducted a mailed, written survey of the congregation on social issues of the day and then released the outcome of the vote in his sermon and to the local media. Rev. Tolley surveyed the congregation on divorce (congregation voted that it should be allowed) child labor protections (congregation voted the church should be involved in labor disputes), church involvement in political issues (sixty in favor; ten against), and a vote urging the government not to engage in proposed Navy maneuvers near Japan (38 opposed the maneuvers, 13 were in favor), and distribution of contraception and birth control information (59 yes, no negative votes).
In his first newsletter as pastor, Rev. Tolley spoke of national expansionism saying, “The use of arms to enforce national projects of expansion must be denied. And the church must assume the responsibility for arousing this ‘moral disapproval.’” Oct. 7, 1932
Rev. Leon Robison was the president of the Baptist Peace Fellowship and was an avowed pacifist “who let no opportunity pass to speak out.” (p. 61, SBC History) In a sermon at Second Baptist on November 30, 1958, Dr. Robison said, “Peace means more than absence of strife, it means the establishment of justice, it means freedom from oppression, and the establishment of social well being… The peacemaker prepares for world citizenship by practicing the principles of brotherhood in his own community, for he knows that if he cannot get along with his neighbors, it is futile to talk about a family of nations…”
Robison advocated for the establishment of a Department of Peace (Oct., 1961) “to create an agency of the State Department to study, plan and work for disarmament.” Our current pastor, Stephen Jones, has also repeatedly called for a National Academy of Peace within the federal government in order for our country to learn better ways of resolving conflicts and misunderstandings through peaceful resolution and diplomacy. Robison also called for a strong World Court, “We must use our influence, however small, to find a way to establish a world court that can make, interpret, and enforce world laws equitable to all.” (June 1963)
It is important to note the role of Jesus’ beatitudes in expressing the communal values of Second Baptist Church. The Beatitudes represent Jesus’ most subversive teachings, turning upside-down the prevailing wisdom of the world. Jesus blesses the very people from whom the world turns away. The presence of the peacemaking window in the Sanctuary of the Beatitudes is a tribute to the recurring theme of peacemaking at Second Baptist Church.
Larry and Craig Marks grew up in Second Baptist Church and were heavily influenced by their pastor during their childhood and teenage years, Leon Robison. They were keenly aware of Robison’s pacifist stands. Facing the mandatory draft of the Vietnam years, both Larry and Craig felt called to declare themselves Conscientious Objectors before their draft board and were granted this status on grounds of their faith and conviction about pacifism. They found support within their family and congregation for this courageous stand.
Because reconciliation is such an integral part of peace, the partnership between Antioch Baptist Church and Second Baptist Church, an historically African American and historically Euro American church, is noteworthy. Week-end retreats between adults from the two churches and vacation Bible schools for children were planned for several years. Several African American families joined Second Baptist Church from Antioch during this period of cooperation. Dr. John Whitney and Dr. John Ervin, colleagues at Harris and Stowe Colleges, led their respective churches in this partnership because of a deepening, mutual respect between them as colleagues.
During Rev. Harold Hoffman’s tenure, the church began to host an annual Peace Sunday in May. During the Vietnam War, Rev. Hoffman preached a sermon on “Beware of the White Knight” about the excessive costs of the war and how our nation could not afford “guns and butter.” Books on the atomic threat were purchased for the church library. The church hosted the head of the international department of the Soviet Baptist Union (1980) who was on a peace dialogue mission to the United States….
In 1977, the church voted on September 22 regarding “the policy of Second Baptist Church of Greater St. Louis to maintain a stand of openness to ethical, moral and social demands for equality and justice. Consistent with this policy, we re-affirm the purpose and principles of our church as stated in our Constitution, re-affirm our tradition of a free pulpit, affirm the right of members to express themselves on issues affecting equality and justice, safeguard that individual or group statements are not to be construed as an official statement of the congregation unless voted upon by the congregation, and a hesitancy to allow the Outlook and Bulletin to promote individual members’ positions on issues.” (summarized)
Rev. Jerry Keeney represented American Baptists on the St. Louis unit of the Interfaith Committee on Latin America (IFCOLA) addressing the civil strife in Nicaragua. In the spring of 1984, Second Baptist Church hosted IFCOLA’s ecumenical community service of remembrance for the assassinated leader of Salvadoran Catholics, Archbishop Oscar Romero. At the same time, Keeney preached a sermon on March 18, 1984 entitled, “With Jesus Among the Oppressed” in which he supported peacemaking efforts in Central America including a critique of American policy in Nicaragua. One group in the church was so incensed that they invited a Nicaraguan expatriate to speak the next Sunday in an adult class. Keeney stated, “Second Baptist was struggling with its tradition of ministers who speak out for peace… Even so, there was a strong support for the integrity of a free pulpit…”
In Rev. Bill Rook’s pastoral years, Second Baptist hosted the 18th Annual Pilgrimage for Peace and Justice on April 29, 2006 in which our peacemaking tradition was shared with our pilgrimage guests. After 9/11, the church reached out to Islamic leaders to help in furthering interfaith understanding.
Dr. Stephen Jones has been an active peacemaker throughout his years of pastoral ministry. Two interfaith prayer services for peace at the beginning and the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq were held at Seattle First Baptist Church during his ministry there. A Partners in Peacemaking mission group was re-activated in that congregation during his years. At the time of the first invasion of Iraq in 1990, Stephen organized a “Deadline for Peace” movement in the mid-Atlantic States protesting the launch of that war which corresponded to President H.W. Bush’s “Deadline for War.”
In 2006, Jones was elected to the Board of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America and in 2007 was elected President of the Board, the second pastor of Second Baptist Church to lead a national Baptist peacemaking group. In 2007, Jones wrote his fifth book, Peaceteacher, Jesus’ Way of Shalom which has been used as a fundraiser by the Baptist Peace Fellowship.
The Duwamish Tribe of Puget Sound gave Jones a glass salmon sculpture as their expression of gratitude for his interfaith leadership to gain federal recognition of the tribe of Chief Seattle. When Steve became pastor of Second Baptist Church, the issue of becoming a partner congregation with the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America was raised within the congregation.
This is a long and illustrious tradition of peacemaking at Second Baptist Church. Few churches could claim such an amazing heritage. It calls us to build upon the foundation in ways that respond to issues of peace and justice in our world today. In so doing, we stand tall on the shoulders of those who have been peace leaders in Second Baptist Church in the past.
Posted by Linda Novak on Apr 23, 2008 at 16:20:56 | Article Path: Home: History: The Peacemaking Heritage of Second Baptist Church
