John H Armstrong

The Slave Haven Underground Museum

During my time @ CCT (last week) I visited the Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum in downtown Memphis. The museum is a house on the former estate of Jacob Burkle. Burkle immigrated to the United States from Germany in the 1840s. He initially settled in Arkansas. In fact, the place where he settled was Stuttgart. If you guessed that this was a destination for many German immigrants you would be right. Now, the irony of this little factoid is that my mother, and her Freeman family, were all residents of Stuttgart going back to some time in the 19th century. I have childhood memories from the 1950s in Stuttgart. It was called "The Rice Growing Capital of the United States." It was also famous for duck hunting, even billing itself, if memory is right, as "The Duck Hunting Capital of the World." (Don't ask me how they got that claim.) I still remember being awakened in the early morning at the Riceland Hotel by duck hunters leaving before daylight quacking on their duck callers as they walked merrily down the hallways oblivious to anyone who was lodging at the Riceland and not a duck hunter. (Is this the way hunters are when they get into their "zone" and get up so early to pursue their sport?) You can guess that I never got into ducks! For that matter I never wanted to rice farm either but I did love getting boxes of rice for Christmas every year.

Back to the Jacob Burkle story. In 1856 he moved to Tennessee and bought a farm just a few city blocks (in today's Memphis) from the Mississippi River. Burkle was a well-respected citizen and owned the Memphis Stockyards. This thriving business gave him a good income so he lived on a very large plantation. 

When Burkle built his family home he did something no one else in Memphis had a clue he was doing. He build a special basement, with unique entrance/exist points. His home was designed and built to help runaway slaves get their freedom. Burkle become the single most significant Underground Railroad leader in one of the two or three largest slaves trading cities in America. Slaves would come and go through his home weekly, escaping at night to get into the bottom of boats headed north on the Mississippi River. The goal was to get to the Ohio River in the North and then on to Canada and real freedom! The risks were great, for the slaves and for Jacob Burkle. But he pulled it off, even buying slaves in the Memphis market to fool his neighbors. He would then treat these African slaves as brothers and sisters in private and eventually release them. (In these actions Burkle was much like Corrie ten Boom, the famous Christian rescuer of Jews in Holland.) Burkle was a Lutheran and slavery profoundly troubled him. He left Germany to find freedom in America but here he encountered chattel slavery and it deeply distressed him enough to prompt him to break laws in order to rescue people. 

Rescuing slaves was not only risky business but costly. And of course Burkle broke the law, as I've already mentioned. Should Christians ever break the law? You bet they should. Should they have rescued slaves? You bet. Hindsight is 20-20 here, and I doubt I would have had Burkle's courage, but I can tell you that I am persuaded that he obeyed God, not man's foolish and desperately evil laws about slaves. 

This story raises a host of issues that most of us do not like to think about, much less draw definitive conclusions about what we should actually do. It is easy to admire Burkle in 2012 but what would you do? What about immigrants who are being harassed by unjust laws and their families torn apart in the middle of the night? What about the racism that is still impacting our country at so many (less obvious) levels? What about the life of the unborn or the rights of African-Americans, and the poor in general? And what about those who die in disproportionately large numbers through the legal abuse of capital punishment?

Christians then, and now, have used the Bible to defend all kinds of unjust practices and laws. If justice and mercy is our highest priority (Micah 6:8) then perhaps we should seriously question how we have reached some of our conclusions. Some of our conclusions (ethics) are based on an utter certitude that what we believe is clearly rooted in biblical texts. My Southern family believed this about slavery and was even willing to die for these "biblical convictions" even if they did not personally own slaves.

This question raises all manner of related questions about the claims of biblicism, the idea that the Bible speaks clearly and definitively to a whole host of questions that have clearly divided people of real Christian faith for centuries. (More on this problem of biblicism in later blogs!)

Burkle House provided unique insights into the secret activities of a German Christian who loved African slaves as brothers and sisters in Christ. Burkle was a Lutheran, like Bonhoeffer. Both men understood when to obey God and when to obey man. His life, and this antebellum home which has been open to the public as a museum since 1978, stands as a holy witness to the power of the gospel. If you get time in Memphis visit Burkle House at 826 N. Second Street. The Slave Haven web site is helpful.

For the record Wheaton College, my alma mater (B.A. '71 and M.A '73), began as an institution that actively supported abolition. Wheaton also supported the Underground Railroad. I am particularly pleased to know this history. I bless the life and memory of Jonathan Blanchard for his courage and leadership in founding a unique college on the prairie of Illinois. My life straddles both sides of this great American debate over slavery. I have a Freeman relative who fought for the Confederate States of America (CSA) in the Civil War. I am much more proud of my Armstrong family, and my Wheaton connection, at least on this count. 

How Shall We Deal with Our Religious Identity Crisis?

The success of what Professor Ken M. Schultz has called “tri-faith America” there remain problems. One is the identity crisis I wrote about yesterday. Catholics and Protestants are no longer sure why they are Catholic or Protestant, at least to a significant degree. Few understand the theological debates and most do not live in the tensions of the past. How do Catholic and Protestant institutions self-identify when they have been so successful that they are losing their way? This question is as old as antiquity if you know the Old Testament.

The religious right has posed serious opposition to this new version of public expression Schultz calls “tri-faith.” But, he rightly concludes, “the success of the tri-faith idea shaped American life during the second half of the twentieth century and has continued to do so well into the twenty-first” (Tri-Faith America, 208).

This new public expression of faith in America helped to formulate new principles of group communalism, group rights, and religious privacy. While some conservatives debate the ultimate value of these principles I am one that welcomes them as a better way than that of our pre-civil rights past. Schultz notes, “It helped usher in the second disestablishment of religion in the United States, which still stands as the law of the land” (Tri-Faith America, 208). While this may be despised by some who long with nostalgia for an older America I believe it is the fruit, generally speaking, of our best ideals and principles as a people.

The tri-faith movement also “softened the ground for the civil rights movement” (Tri-Faith America, 208). This set the terms for all future debate about American diversity. This changed the landscape for women, homosexuals and others who have been socially and politically marginalized in various ways in America’s Protestant past. With this change the church now faces major concerns. Who are we? What makes us distinct? How do we become inclusive without losing our way morally and spiritually?

It is here that I end this brief series of comments about America and the role of religion in our public life. What is the role of missional-ecumenism in tri-faith America? I believe it is the only appropriate response to this change given the great mission field which is now America. American Christendom is dying, if not dead. How will we pursue the kingdom of God in America when America is no longer closely linked with that kingdom in the perception of most people? This is the question that gets me up in the morning and drives me to teach what I call missional-ecumenism. America is not going back to what it was. I, for one, am grateful. The question really is clear: “What is our role as Christians (not as Protestants or Catholics first) in this new context?”

The Amazing Story of Congressman Bobby Rush

U. S. Congressman Bobby Lee Rush was born November 23, 1946 in Albany, Georgia, but grew up on Chicago’s North Side, where his mom was a Republican precinct captain. Today he is the U.S. Representative for Illinois' 1st congressional district. Rush worked as a medical clinic director during the early 1970s, and as an insurance agent in the late 70s and early 80s. In 1983 he was elected a Chicago City Alderman, and the following year became a second ward committeeman in Chicago. He began serving his congressional constituency in January, 1993, and is a member of the Democratic Party, the Progressive Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus. His district is located principally on the South Side of Chicago and is a minority-majority district that has the highest percentage of African Americans (65%) of any congressional district in the nation. Bobby Rush has the distinction of being the only person, at least to date, to ever defeat President Barack Obama in an election for office. Obama challenged him in a primary election in 2000 and was defeated by the incumbent.

After watching the movie Night Catches Us (2010), a film which dramatically portrays the cultural and social impact of the Black Panthers in the late 1960s, I began to do some Internet reading about the Black Panther movement and its leaders. I was particularly interested in Bobby Seale, who was featured in a 20-minute interview in the features portion of Night Catches Us. By virtue of this wide-ranging search I came across Bobby Rush, himself a former Black Panther. Then as I read about Congressman Rush I came across this statement that amazed me:

On November 5, 2007, Rush proclaimed his support for National Bible Week, saying that he had not always been an ardent reader of the Bible, but after having been elected to the House, he received a copy in 1993 and that while in Chicago with his wife, he was drawn to read the Bible and is now a ferocious reader. He quoted Micah 6:6-8 and Luke 4:18. At the close of the speech, he called on Christians and non-Christians alike to read the Bible.

To say that I was interested in this account is an understatement. I looked up Rush’s speech in Congress and read the following from the Congressional Record entry of that date. (I have included the whole portion of the Congressional Record with no edits.)

NATIONAL BIBLE WEEK

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. RUSH) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. RUSH. Mr. Speaker, on the week of November 18 we begin to celebrate in this Nation National Bible Week. National Bible Week is the National Bible Association’s signature event which is celebrated the week before Thanksgiving every year since it began in 1941.

In this week, we encourage the citizens of this Nation to read the Bible. Mr. Speaker, I must admit that I was not always an ardent Bible reader. I was always in and around the church, but as so many of us who belong to church, I was in the church, but church wasn’t in me. Mr. Speaker, I came to this Congress in 1993 and almost immediately upon my presence here I received a Bible similar to this given by Rev. Dr. D. James Kennedy. And, Mr. Speaker, I found my evenings alone, my wife and my family back in Chicago, and somehow I had a prompting to pick up the Bible and to read the Bible. I must admit, Mr. Speaker, that although I wasn’t an ardent reader, now I’m a ferocious reader of the Bible, avaricious in my interests in terms of the words recorded in God’s living book.

Mr. Speaker, I must say that I have been renewed as a man by the renewing of my mind according to the dictates and the Spirit that’s incorporated in the reading of the Bible. I am a changed man; I am a new man. I don’t have the same friends I used to have. I don’t walk the same way; I don’t talk the same way, and it’s all because of this Bible.

Mr. Speaker, I am an activist, and for years I had shunned this Bible because it didn’t speak to my activism. And then the Holy Spirit spoke to me through my conversations and through my interests in reading the Bible. And, Mr. Speaker, I came across a Scripture that really moved me, two, as a matter of fact. One is taken from the Old Testament, Micah 6:6–8: ‘‘With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of ram, 10,000 rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?’’ The Lord answers, ‘‘He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? But to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.’’

Mr. Speaker, in those words, it encapsulated all that I had attempted to be, my activism, my love for humanity and my love for the Lord. Mr. Speaker, Luke 4 and 4:18: ‘‘The spirit of the Lord is upon Me. Because He has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken- hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.’’

Mr. Speaker, my life had been, and continues today, to be a reflection of the spirit that is within me, the Holy Spirit that is within me. I call on all good citizens, Christians and non- Christians alike, during this week and every week of the year, pick up your Bible. Read the Bible. You have no better friend. You have no better solution than what is recorded in these words.

All I could say when I read this was: “Wow!” Think about this for a brief moment. Rush was a Black Panther. D. James Kennedy gave him a Bible. I doubt Dr. Kennedy ever knew what that gift really did. And I doubt that he would have had much regard for Bobby Rush since his conversion to Christian faith because of Dr. Kennedy's well-known Christian Right stance. But his simple gift to Bobby Rush was used by the Holy Spirit to lead this man to embrace Christ as his Lord and Savior.

This led me to do some more reading about Bobby Rush. I discovered that after dropping out of high school he joined the U.S. Army in 1963 but then went AWOL. He received an honorable discharge in 1968. Throughout the 1960s Rush was involved in the civil-rights movement and worked in various civil-disobedience campaigns in the South. He then co-founded the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers in 1968 and was its "defense minister.” In an interview with People magazine several years ago Rush said: "We needed to arm ourselves." He was actually present when fellow Black Panther Fred Hampton was killed in a Chicago police raid (I still recall the day this happened and the front-page news). Rush made an official statement that the police, whom he referred to as "pigs,” had murdered Hampton. Rush's own apartment was raided in December 1969. The police discovered an unregistered pistol, rifle, shotgun and pistol ammunition, various training manuals on explosives and booby traps, and a small amount of marijuana and an assortment of communist literature.

Rush was imprisoned for six months in 1972 on a weapons charge after carrying a gun into a police station. Nevertheless he worked on several non-violent projects that built support for the Black Panthers in African-American communities. He coordinated a medical clinic that offered sickle-cell anemia testing on an unprecedented scale. Rush also graduated with honors from Chicago's Roosevelt University in 1973. A year later he left the Panthers, who were already in decline. He humbly admitted to People, "We started glorifying thuggery and drugs.” This became distasteful to the deeply religious Rush, who said he was [now]a born-again Christian. He went on to say, "I don't repudiate any of my involvement in the Panther party—it was part of my maturing." He subsequently resumed his education in the early 1990s and entered McCormick Theological Seminary (PCUSA) where received a master's degree in theology.

It is safe to say that Bobby Rush is a political progressive, or liberal. During his congressional career he has voted:

• Against the development of a national missile defense system;
• Against the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001;
• Against the post-9/11 anti-terrorism measure known as the Patriot Act;
• Against allowing the U.S. government to use electronic surveillance to investigate suspected terrorist operatives;
• Against a bill permitting the government to combat potential terrorist threats by monitoring foreign electronic communications which are routed through the United States;
• Against an October 2002 joint resolution authorizing U.S. military action in Iraq;
• Against the establishment of military commissions to try enemy combatants captured in the war on terror;
• In favor of withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq immediately and by a preordained date;
• Against President Bush's 2007 decision to deploy some 21,500 additional U.S. soldiers in an effort to quell the violent insurgents in Iraq;
• In favor of a proposal to expedite the transfer of all prisoners in the Guantanamo Bay detention center;
• Against requiring hospitals to report (to the federal government) illegal aliens who receive emergency medical treatment;
• Against the Real ID Act, which proposed to set minimal security requirements for state driver licenses and identification cards;
• Against separate proposals calling for the construction of some 700 miles of fencing to prevent illegal immigration along America's southern border;
• Against a proposal to grant state and local officials the authority to investigate, identify, and arrest illegal immigrants;
• Against major tax cut proposals in September 1998, February 2000, March 2000, July 2000, May 2001, May 2003, October 2004, and May 2006;
• Against separate welfare reform bills designed to move people off the welfare rolls and into paying jobs;
• In favor of prohibiting oil and gas exploration in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR); and
• Against a proposal to fund offshore oil exploration along the Outer Continental Shelf.

I list these votes to give you an idea of the political perspective of Congressman Bobby Rush. I agree with some of his positions and strongly disagree with others.

My primary reason for listing his votes on various issues, and telling his story in the first place, has nothing to do with politics per se. My purpose is missional. My purpose is related to the grace of God in transforming people’s lives through the Word of God. I found this story amazing and encouraging. I realized, once again, that you cannot fit the followers of Jesus neatly into a political box and say, “This is the position that defines what a real Christian will do politically.” I simply did not know anything about the personal story of Bobby Rush other than the Black Panther part of this past life. I find this story faith-building and encouraging beyond words.

I also found it a little more than ironic that the late D. James Kennedy gave a Bible to Congressman Rush and this gift became the instrument that God used to open his life to the good news. I wonder if we might all learn something very basic and important about the kingdom of God from this story. I did. I will pray for you, Congressman Rush, my brother whenever I hear your name in the future. May God bless you and may your life bear good fruit in every way.

Martin Luther King, Jr. on Conscience and Consensus

It is no secret that I did not grow up in a cultural and Christian context that had a deep appreciation for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In fact, I still remember wondering why he so passionately opposed the war in Vietnam in the last two years of his life. I was recently reminded of this by watching a video of King’s interview on the Mike Douglas Show. (This video is available on Netflix as streaming video if you are a subscriber. The Mike Douglas Show was a syndicated daytime TV show that aired from 1961-82.)

We now know that the FBI targeted Dr. King with wiretaps and wanted to convince the public that he was a Communist. There is absolutely no truth to this charge even though J. Edgar Hoover spent a considerable amount of time trying to prove it. Dr. King’s life had been threatened a number of times and he quite clearly knew that he might someday be martyred. If you lived through that time in history you have memories just as I do. When King was killed the nation stood on the precipice of the deepest division in my lifetime. As much as we hear how bad things are today those of us who lived in the 1960s remember a much worse time.

In the Mike Douglas interview Dr. King was asked several times if he was stepping beyond his bounds by his opposition to the war in Vietnam. He was asked if he did not run the risk of losing his role in the civil rights movement by his stance on the war. Was he not surrendering the position he held, which included a large measure of respect and prominence, by speaking out so boldly against this war? I will never forget his answer:

A man of conscience can never be a consensus leader.

I have a great respect for consensus leaders. We need them to guide governments and institutions. College presidents and statesmen must become such leaders. But leaders need men (and women) of conscience if they are to promote the truth. Dr. King was a true leader but not a consensus builder in the normal sense, even though he did build a growing consensus about civil rights. He was a man of conscience. The older I get the more I realize how important this is for the well-being of church and society.