Thursday, July 23, 2015

The Ku Klux Klan, Pastor Bob and Liberty and Justice for All

When I worked for the U.S. Forest Service in East Tennessee in the late 1960’s I attended the Methodist Church where Pastor Bob served as chief shepherd. It was a wonderful church and Pastor Bob and his family “adopted” me as a fourth son.  Years later when he and his wife visited us in New Orleans, he told us the story of his experience delivering the devotion at a Ku Klux Klan Rally, burning cross and all.

When Pastor Bob went home and told his wife that he had been invited to give the devotion at a KKK Rally, she said that “of course he wasn’t going to do it was he?” When he replied that “he believed he would” she responded with some very un-pastor’s comments, some of which suggested that he just might have taken leave of his senses.  Pastor Bob responded that he believed God was calling him to deliver a message to the Klan.  I leave the reader to decide who may or may not have been correct in their assessment of the situation.

On the given night, Pastor Bob drove to a designated location and was met by two men in Klan outfits with masks. He was blindfolded and rode with them up the mountain and turned off the paved road. The three men drove down the dirt road and stopped in a broad area where lots of other vehicles were parked.  Pastor Bob, still blindfolded walked with them men to the Rally area.  When his blindfold was removed he saw a huge crowd of men in sheets and masks. He was introduced by the leader as “Pastor Bob from the Methodist Church, who had come to bring them a devotion and a message from God.” 

Pastor Bob proceeded to tell the story of what he called “The Good Klansman.” As the story unfolded, “a black man was driving from Knoxville to Chattanooga when he was run off the road, beaten and robbed.  As he lay bleeding in the ditch behind his car, the local Baptist Pastor drove by, stopped, looked at the black man and said to himself, I just do not have time to stop and care for him. I am a busy man and must get to the spiritual retreat in Chattanooga.  Next the local Methodist pastor drove by, decided that he did not much care for black people and drove on.  At both of this incidents, the Klan members cheered and shouted, sharing their joy at the wisdom of the two pastors.”

Pastor Bob continued. “The next person to drive by was a Klansman on his way to this very rally.  When he saw the beaten, helpless man in the ditch, he stopped, took out a canteen of water and bathed the man’s wounds, gave him something to drink and bandaged his wounds.  The Klan members in attendance began to boo and yell and shout obscenities about the preacher and the Klansman who stopped.  As they got louder and louder, Pastor Bob shouted, ‘QUIET! HOW DARE YOU INTERUPT THE WORD OF GOD WHEN IT IS BEING PREACHED.” The crowd grew quiet and listened to the rest of the story of the ‘Good Klansman.’” The then re-blindfolded Pastor Bob, extinguished the fires in the circle, including the cross and silently left, leaving Pastor Bob alone in the middle of the East Tennessee Woods in the dark.

Pastor Bob removed the blindfold, but it was still too dark to see. He felt his way along the foot path to the dirt road, turned right and headed uphill toward the paved road. When he reached the paved road he walked a hundred yards to a pickup truck where sat a member of his congregation.  The man said, “howdy Pastor Bob, would you like a ride? Pastor Bob replied, “yes.” The two rode quietly into town to the church parking lot.  When Pastor Bob got out of the truck the both said, “good night, see you Sunday.”

Did Pastor Bob change any minds that night? Was he truly doing God’s work, or was he as crazy as his wife thought him to be? I do not have an answer to these questions, but I do know that he possessed the same courage Jesus possessed when he overturned the tables in the temple; the same courage Jesus had when he stood up the religious and political leaders of his day. Jesus stood up to the evil of his time and it cost him his life. Pastor Bob stood up to the evil of his time and lived to tell the story, but it could have cost him as much as it cost Jesus. 


In this story, Pastor Bob is for me a prophet.  His story inspires me to work for justice, freedom and peace for all of God’s people. To speak truth to power against all those who are enemies of the truth, whether they are the leaders of the state and nation, leaders of the church or those whose money give them more power than they deserve to have. There are those in the world who work to destroy God’s Kingdom and God’s people. Jesus, the Apostles and the Prophets, and Pastor Bob (who I truly believe is a prophet), and other modern day prophets show us how to live. Their example helps me to have the courage to stand up for those whom Jesus calls “the least of these my brothers and sisters.”

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