Blockbusting Revisited

Note:  I hesitated to make this posting on the first day of my blog, however, the activities of the last week in Orlando, Florida have inspired (no really pushed) me to offer these reflections.

In the 1960s, as integration was becoming a reality, certain real estate agents engaged in the practice of blockbusting.  They would convince one minority family, almost always black, to move into a community.  Then the real estate agents would go from door to door attempting to convince neighbors they should sell their property and move to a “better neighborhood” where those new people would not be their neighbors.

During this period, the Kennedy Heights neighborhood in Cincinnati, where my in-laws lived, was under attack from the blockbusting real estate agents.  Dick and LaDonna Avery were both natives of small towns in Indiana.  Dick taught is a suburban school district and LaDonna worked at the Cincinnati Art Museum.

Dick and LaDonna could have moved out of the community when “those other people” began to move in.  But they made a decision to remain in the community and welcome their new neighbors, even though they were “those other people.”  Dick, the avid fisherman and skilled do-it-yourselfer made a special effort to develop friendships with their new neighbors.

Currently, there is a move by some of our Presbyterian sisters and brothers to form a new denomination.  I am sorry to say that the movement, known as the Fellowship of Presbyterians or Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians, has very loud echoes of the “blockbusting” of the 1960s.  How is that?

First, the Fellowship or Order is deathly worried that “those other people” are going to be moving into their neighborhoods/churches.  “Those other people” are different than the Fellowship/Order group.  This time it is not the color of their skin, but their sexuality.  No matter how much they proclaim they “hate the sin but love the sinner,” the reasoning is the same.  “Those other people” are different and we don’t want to sit next to them in the pew, on the session or at the presbytery.

At the 1976 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church U.S. (Southern), a college age young woman stood up in a meeting considering reunion with the United Presbyterian Church (Northern) and stated that her church would never work with the church on the other side of the square in her town.  The “Southern” church was all white and the “Northern” church was all black.

In response, the Rev. Lawrence Bottoms, first black moderator of the “Southern” General Assembly said: “Young lady, God did not intend for you to decide who is sitting next to you in the pew on Sunday morning.”

Second, the Fellowship/Covenant sounds echoes of the blockbusting of the 1960s stating that, if they can’t keep “those other people” from living next to them, they are going to take their assets and move elsewhere.

I am reminded that the belt buckles of the German Army in World War One held the motto “Gott mit uns.”  I would not begin to claim “Gott mit uns” but at the same time neither should our Fellowship/Covenant bothers and sisters.

In every congregation I have served I have offered the following invitation: “ All the perfect people can leave.”  No one ever left.

Dr. Ron Patton, H.R.