The When I see the fires that have been lighted in the city, I cannot help but wonder when it will come to me.
When will my neighborhood be burned? As I think more carefully, I begin to ask what was it that led a man to set such a fire? How much had he been hurt before he was willing to hurt others? How can I remove the causes of the hurt in order that the fires will not be set? I'm dismayed by the rioting crowd because when the police must move in to quiet a riot, I have to move out.
I cannot be effective.
No one will listen to a preacher.
The preacher who can't speak always is dismayed.
But fortunately, we live for another day.
When the riot has been quieted, when we can investigate the causes of the riot, when we can work to overcome those causes.
When I hear of students destroying a president's office, I say they've gone crazy.
I cannot condone it.
At the same time, I admit that students are in a role where they may not be heard.
They may have difficulty speaking out in such a way as to bear an influence commensurate with their own abilities.
So every school and every university has been alerted and I think is working to find the ways in which students can take their place along with faculty and board of directors and administration to work for the common good of the educational program.
Change is the most certain thing about human life.
I once wrote that a man grows up in one world and he grows old in another.
I have felt this need for extreme adjustment myself as I'm sure almost everyone has in modern society.
It makes our inner soul cry out for stability.
It makes us want to shunt away problems.
But God calls us through the changes which I feel he's working in history.
We will tell them, we will tell them that this generation is out of breath.
We will face them wherever they come, anytime they come.
Black Power! I feel that the militant may be tearing the temple down without being able to rebuild it.
At the same time I realize that there is a place for what is called Black Power.
We've had Scandinavian power and German power and we Lutherans have reason to understand how living in one neighborhood we were able to elect people to the city council who truly represented us and elected people to Congress who represented us.
Therefore we can understand why some people would say Black people must live in one neighborhood where they can elect members to the city council or to the Congress who will truly represent them.
One of the impressive findings of the Kerner Report has to do with the dangers of two societies in America.
From one point of view that is merely a matter of national strength.
From a Christian point of view it relates to our concern for the unity of mankind.
The underlying forces at work that the commission found to be the chief causes of unrest in these cities.
At bottom underneath all of those causes is the whole history of race.
The commission has also found that there can be no higher priority for national action and no higher claim on the nation's conscience.
In other words the commission was saying for heaven's sake put up front on the front burners of the stove.
Racism has been used in so many ways.
I discover in conversations with people that they often do not understand the term as I would understand it.
But I think of that natural barrier between people that comes from having lived too far apart.
I would be willing to confess that I am probably guilty of white racism.
Even as much as I desire to love the black man, consider him my brother, work together with him to meet our mutual needs.
Still no doubt there are ways in which I may become paternalistic, condescending, heaven knows what the psychological implications may be.
Furthermore, since we live in a society that is made up of corporate institutions, there can very easily be ways in which our corporate existence, our institutional existence puts the black man at a disadvantage that I don't even realize.
I think how right this is.
And secondly I think how sad it is that it's necessary.
So it is altogether right that they should begin to realize that they are beautiful people.
The dichotomy between wealth and poverty has always been frustrating to Christians.
What we need to guard against is such extremes that some people cannot even be heard when they are in need.
That some people do not have the opportunity to rise in power, in enlightenment, and in productivity, in spiritual realization.
We need to be alert to the cruelties that may occur for some people, even when the mass of the people are benefiting greatly.
I know in my very viscera something's out of tune.
I know that something has to be done to overcome this tragedy of the undernourished child in a nation enjoying abundance.
There isn't a day passes but shows us the dimensions of the problems in our cities.
The easiest way is to call our attention to the headlines in the newspapers.
It includes simple material needs of people, earthly needs, the needs for employment, the need for housing, the needs for education, and we as Christians are responsive to those needs.
But there is a deeper and more subtle aspect.
I would call it the spiritual aspect.
It's the aspect of men loving each other, if I may put it very simply.
The church has been working in many ways to meet the needs of people in the cities, especially the Board of American Missions has delegated a sizable portion of its budget to work with minority groups in order to create one unified program for a neighborhood.
The Board of Social Ministry has seen to it that a representative was on the scene in the time of crisis to be of assistance to pastors and congregations who needed to face up to the particular difficulties.
It has also carried on an educational program of helping people to understand the problems of our cities and of our minority groups.
We who know the fellowship of believers seek a way for it to become tangible in the relationships between churches in the suburbs and churches in the city, churches in the countryside and churches in the metropolis.
Through the emergency needs appeal of our Lutheran church in America, which we have called Act in Crisis Today, we will be able to help congregations survive and revive where people are most crowded together.
We will be able to assure the preaching of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments.
We will be able to strengthen bands of Christian people to serve where the needs are greatest.
Will you join with me through your gift to Act in Crisis Today?
