Introduction to the Text

by Don Haymes

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

By the summer of 1963, even Abilene Christian has nominally desegregated its student population. The struggle for civil rights in the United States is approaching a critical climax. At the end of that summer Martin Luther King, Jr., will tell of his "dream" in a sermon that will become a kind of Book of Revelation in the American canon. In the next two years, between the death of John F. Kennedy and the escalation of the conflict in Vietnam, a gifted but deeply flawed politician (and nominal Disciple), Lyndon Baines Johnson, will write much of King's vision into law. It is not enough; but more than that, no government can do.

In 1963, Richard Nathaniel Hogan already knows that more than law will be required to transform the racism that thrives in human hearts. He knows but one way to approach it. Here, in first of three sermons he will publish that summer, Hogan once more threatens hellfire. He knows that it works. His rhetoric and King's could not be more divergent; and yet they share a quest for what King would call "the strength to love," a love that God alone can give.

Christian Echo 58 (June 1963): 3.

Is It The Law or Down-Right Prejudice?

R.N. Hogan

For nearly a hundred years our white brethren have been hiding behind the law of our land respecting segregation in the so-called christian schools. However, in 1954 the Supreme Court of our country pointed out that segregation in schools is unconstitutional. The highest tribunal of our land has ordered desegregation of all public schools, busses and etc, and what is more important is the fact that Christ ordered desegregation over two thousand years ago. After the Son of God died on the cross and broke down the middle-wall of partition that stood between the Jews and Gentiles, He went back to glory and dispatched the Holy Spirit to earth to guide his servants in revealing the will of God to the human family. Therefore, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, James took up the pen of inspiration and wrote, "My brethren, have NOT the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, With Respect of Persons." Jas. 2:1. Hear him again in verse 9, "If ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin." It is gratfying[sic] to know that some of the schools that bear the name Christian have dropped the ungodly segregation bars and are accepting people of all nationalities and are teaching them the word of God and thus preparing them for the great task of carrying out the great world-wide commission as given by the Son of God. However, we yet have a few out-laws who are refusing to obey God or man.

It is almost an insult for a Negro to ask to be admitted into the David Lipscomb College in Nashville, Tenn. Yet it is supposed to be operated by Christians; what reason can David Lipscomb, Harding, Freed Hardeman, Florida Christian(?) and other such schools who are refusing to allow Negroes to be trained in their schools, give for such practice, but sheer prejudice and hate?

The Holy Spirit said: "Whosoever hateth his brother is murderer [sic] and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him." 1 John 3:15. If the Bible is right, and it is, are these brethren who are practicing these things less than outlaws and murderers?

I am sure that I will lose a number of my so-called friends because of these articles, but the ones that will fall out with me because of the truth are not my real friends anyway. We all know that according to the Bible there are no racial distinctions in the Body of Christ. Gal. 3:28, Col. 3:11. We do not have many Carl Spains and James Willefords in the Church of Christ. These men have the intestinal fortitude to stand up and tell people the truth about racial prejudice. However, the most of them are so full of prejudice themselves that they cannot conscientiously stand up like men of God and preach the truth on this subject. The Negro is alright with some of them when they are not around others of their race.

Paul condemned Peter for the very same practice of most of these brethren today. Paul said that Peter walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, and that he was to be blamed for causing others to play the hypocrite as he had done. Paul didn't slip around or beat around the bush about it, he withstood Peter to his face. Gal. 2:11-14.

Yes, Paul worked Peter over before them all. Where are these big debaters in the Church of Christ who are ready to jump on the Methodist and Baptist and every sect because of their false doctrine?

I'll be glad to meet any preacher in public debate on this racial issue. However, I am not expecting anyone to accept the challenge, for they know that God Almighty condemns the prejudicial and hateful segregation that is existing in the so-called Churches of Christ and so-called Christian schools today. Where are the Churches of Christ in Birmingham, Ala., Jackson, Miss. and other places during all of those disgraceful racial struggles in these places? Where were the so-called gospel preachers who are supposed to be dedicated to the gospel of Christ and who are suppose[sic] to contend for the faith?

Isn't it funny that some of the denominational churches opened their doors to Negroes during those struggles as was published in daily papers all over the land and not one word was said about the Church of Christ? What an opportunity for the Church of our Lord to stand up and be counted, what an opportunity for the Church of Christ to really let her light shine in these darken[sic] cities that are blackened by racial strife.

According to reports, not a congregation of the Church of Christ has admitted a single Negro. To all Negro members of the Church of Christ: I admonish you to love all white people, for you will go to hell if you hate them, like some of them are going to hell for hating you. We are told to love our enemies. Hear Jesus, Matt. 5:44. "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you." All Negroes that have prejudice and hate in their hearts against white people, regardless to the way white people treat them, will lose their souls.

I thank God that there are a good number of white christians who love the Lord and do not have any prejudice in their hearts against any one. May God help many more to obey him and cleanse their hearts from all hate and prejudices, if not, such people will be condemned as whitewashed supulcres[sic] that appear beautiful outwardly, but are within full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Matt. 23:27. Let us all remember that gospel Ministers are commanded to reprove, rebuke and exhort. They are suppose to stand up for the three Ds, that is Declare the truth, Disclose error and Denounce sin. Preaching brethren, lets get on the job, suffer if necessary, but obey God.

In Christian Love.

Hogan is speaking here both to black and to white Christians, and not without irony. "Where," indeed, "are the Churches of Christ in Birmingham, Ala., Jackson, Miss., and other places"? Both black and white are silent. Which "Church of Christ" is it that "not a congregation" of which "has admitted a single Negro"? Yet "all Negro members of the Church of Christ" must "love all white people, for you will go to hell if you hate them, like some of them are going to hell for hating you." This is the essence of Hogan's "four-letter-word theology": the strange paradox of Love and Hell. Perhaps those words best capture the ambivalence of black experience in the United States of America and the Churches of Christ.

May God have mercy.

dhaymes, his mark +

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