ACTIVISM AND THE MAINLINE CHURCH

Antinuclear Movement

Mainline churches were heavily involved in the growing antinuclear movement of the 1980s. The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), the Unitarian-Universalists, and the United Church of Christ launched separate large-scale campaigns against the creation and use of nuclear weapons. The Quakers' "New Call to Peacemaking" campaign, which was first launched in 1979, stressed the role that churches had in the peace process and encouraged mainline churches to become more involved in this crucial issue. In 1982 the Reverend Billy Graham, the respected Baptist minister and friend to several U.S. presidents, became involved in the antinuclear movement despite being urged not to by the Reagan administration. Graham traveled to the Soviet Union to attend the World Conference on Religious Workers for Saving the Sacred Gift of Life from Nuclear Catastrophe, sponsored by the Russian Orthodox Church. This event brought together more than six hundred religious leaders from around the world to denounce nuclear weapons as immoral. In 1983 the United Church of Christ (UCC), long a peacekeeping church, decided to endorse the pastoral peace letter adopted by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. Many mainline Protestant laity participated in antinuclear demonstrations held throughout the early and mid 1980s. One of the firmest stances to be taken by a mainline church was in 1986 when the United Methodist Church approved a pastoral letter calling on all Methodists to say no to and rally against weapons of mass destruction.

Controversy

The United Methodist Church found itself embroiled in controversy in 1983 over its liberal political stances on issues and its use of membership funds. A neoconservative group called the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) charged that the church had Marxist and Communist leanings and had diverted some NCC funds to those causes. The issue made national attention when the television news show 60 Minutes and the magazine Reader's Digest ran stories on the allegations. The NCC president, United Methodist bishop James Armstrong, denied the charges that the group had funded Communist governments, but he did state that the UMC gave money to progressive social groups working to better the living situation for people in Third World and in Communist nations. The NCC wrote off the attack as an attempt by conservative religious groups and the conservative press to discredit it.

Social Gospel

Direct social action was used at various times throughout the 1980s by liberal Protestant groups who felt that some U.S. laws were dramatically wrong and had to be corrected by acts of disobedience. In 1984 the Denominational Ministry Strategy, a Pennsylvania clergy group largely made up of radical Lutherans and Episcopalians, joined with some militant labor unions in an attempt to force U.S. Steel and the Mellon Bank to invest more money back into the local economy. Encouraged by Lutheran activist minister D. Douglas Roth, the groups went on a crusade to harass the executives of these corporations at their homes, offices, and places of worship. Roth was ordered by the regional bishop, Kenneth May, and the Lutheran Church in America to cease his involvement in this militant effort. He refused and was ousted from his post, but instead of vacating the church Roth barricaded himself inside until he was finally removed forcibly by the police. He was later sentenced to ninety days in jail and fined for contempt of court. Upon release from jail in 1985, Roth was immediately defrocked by the Lutheran Church in America, as they claimed that he had acted in "willful disregard and violation" of church law when he refused to vacate his pulpit.

Foreign and Domestic Causes

In terms of foreign policy, mainline churches vehemently decried the injustice in South Africa and called for an end to the system of apartheid and continued U.S. sanctions. Several churches held demonstrations, protested, and divested whatever interests they had in South Africa. The efforts of Nobel Prize winner and South African Anglican bishop Desmond Tutu were fully supported by the majority of his counterparts in the United States. More direct action was also deemed appropriate by some church members. The case of the Sanctuary Movement, a liberal religious group that smuggled Central American refugees into the United States, was resolved in 1986 by a U.S. District Court in Tucson, Arizona. Sanctuary saw six of its members sentenced by the federal government for conspiring to bring Salvadorans and Guatemalans across the border. Two more members were found guilty of harboring and transporting illegal aliens. Despite being sentenced, members of the group claimed that it was their moral obligation to help save lives and asserted that they would continue with their activities. More than three hundred churches and synagogues were involved in this movement. In another development, by the end of the decade more than 240 religious leaders declared their support in a written statement to the United Mine Workers, who were on strike in West Virginia against the Pitts ton Coal Group. The mission of a social gospel still remained at the core of many mainline churches.

The Role of Women

Women, both clergy and lay, took bold strides forward in mainline Protestant churches. Mainline denominations traditionally opposed the ordination of women, but between the years of 1956 and 1977 the five major denominations—Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and Lutherans—reversed their stance on the issue, which opened the gates for major changes in the 1980s. By the mid 1980s more than eighty Protestant denominations in America allowed for the ordination of women. The first woman bishop in the United Methodist Church (UMC), Majorie S. Matthews, was elected in 1980. By 1985 two more women were elected as bishops in the UMC. Bishop Leontine Kelly was appointed to San Francisco, becoming the UMC's first black woman bishop. Bishop Judith Craig was appointed to Detroit. If not for the growing influence of women in the UMC, events like this would not have been possible. The UMC had the largest number of women in pastorates and provided more opportunities for women than most other denominations. Both female and male mainline Protestants worked for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in 1982, seeing it as an important step toward ending sexism and promoting equality and fairness in our culture. Other mainline churches also joined in the new trend to elevate the status of women in their denomination. Sandra Antoinette Wilson became the first black female priest of the Episcopal diocese of New York in 1982, and Barbara Clementine Harris was elected to the title of bishop in the Episcopal Church on 11 February 1989. Harris became the first woman bishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion. Her elevation was heralded by most as a crowning achievement of equality; yet some in the church, including Robert Runcie, the archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the church of England, said he would not recognize women bishops in England.

Quest for Equality

The significance of women's influence in the church in the 1980s is still an issue of considerable debate. Though many women chose to pursue a career in religious service and entered programs in record numbers a "glass ceiling" still existed throughout the period. Surveys in the early 1980s revealed that on average one-third of seminarians in the UMC, Lutheran Church in America, or the United Presbyterians were women; yet the majority of women ordained remained in lower status positions, such as assistant pastor or educator as opposed to pastor or bishop. Overall this quest for equality has been met without any major repercussions.