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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