SELMA

               I saw the movie “Selma” last Sunday evening. From things I saw on T.V. news and read in the newspaper during those times, I cannot fault the historical accuracy of the movie. I was not there. I moved to Selma eleven years later in 1978. But make no mistake, the events depicted in the movie multiplied and hardened racial bias in the city. I had told the Lord that I didn’t any longer wish to serve a church which was not open to blacks. Therefore, when a pulpit committee from Selma came to invite me to come to their church, I refused their offer. Six months later they came back and the Lord put it on my heart to go check out the situation. While visiting the church and city I sat with the twelve person Pulpit Committee and each one of them in turn assured me their church was open to black members, even though they had none at that time. So I felt free to accept their call to be pastor. There were two all white academies in Selma, but we enrolled our girls in the public schools. This was a real challenge to older daughter Julie whose junior high and high schools were primarily black. She had to face a lot of black prejudice and bullying. Liz taught in a public grade school.

 A year after I moved to Selma, the “open door” of the church was challenged. A widow with school aged children moved back to Selma, her childhood home. She had met her husband at the local Air Force base. He, as training instructor elsewhere, had been killed in a crash. Her children had attended Southern Baptist Churches at the bases where their father had been assigned. So the family began to participate fully in our church, especially music, R.A.s and G.A.s. Immediately some within the church wanted to hold a special business meeting to bar them from attendance. A special business meeting was called on a Wednesday evening. Some of our members wanted open membership, some did not but felt God wanted us to have it, and some were radically opposed to it. On the night of the vote the attendance was double the Sunday morning attendance. People who had membership in the church but hadn’t attended in years materialized. The resulting vote was to ask the family to not return.  I vividly remember a precious pre-school boy crying loudly when the vote was announced.

I needed to decide, do I stay with the church or seek another? God led me to stay another four years as an advocate for open membership. This I did. I was not confrontational, for that in itself would have lost me the opportunity to change minds. But preaching and teaching the Bible, I left no doubt that we, as a church, were out of God’s will. I was able to counsel one on one with individual members. Some came to understand despite their personal feelings, God is “no respecter of persons.”

            At one point some of the deacons held a secret meeting, the purpose of which was to get rid of me. They invited one young deacon who had formerly sided with them, but with whom I had spent some time. I understand that when he arrived at the meeting and discovered its purpose, he soundly rebuffed the other deacons present and put some of them to shame. That ended their plan.

 Liz and I spent those four years in perfect peace, the peace that Jesus gave us. Actually it was a sense of spiritual euphoria. This was in spite of the opposition we faced from some in the church and many in the area. We would sit in the swing and. because of our spiritual euphoria, giggle at the situation. We look back and agree that our five years in Selma were some of the happiest of our lives. I sense that both girls think positively about them.

After five years I accepted a call to a church in Pensacola. Our Selma church still did not have any black members. I was told by one of the deacons that before they started looking for another preacher the deacons had a meeting that lasted all night. They debated the race issue back and forth. They came away from that meeting agreed that the church would be open to black membership. We did not get the victory while we were there, but we did ultimately get the victory. 

Grace and peace.