A Time for Burning

Each year the Library of Congress and the National Film Preservation Board name twenty-five “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant films� to be added to the National Film Registry. Films chosen cover many years and styles including feature films, cartoons, documentaries, and shorts. Among those named in 2005 to the Registry is a gem waiting to be discovered, A Time for Burning.

This 1967 documentary looks at what happened in a white, mainline church in Omaha, Nebraska, when the pastor sought to open the people of the church to the Black community around them. This was not an attempt to integrate the church or to be involved in the struggle for civil rights that was going on at the time. The program the pastor wanted to implement would have had ten couples (all volunteers) from Augustana Lutheran Church meet with ten couple from a Black Lutheran or Presbyterian church. The strife in the church over this problem gives us insight into the depth of the problem at that time, but also makes us aware that many of the attitudes people espoused forty years ago still plague the church as it tries to open itself to the world.

This is not to say that no progress has been made in civil rights over the past forty years. In watching the film, viewers will easily see many things that no longer take place. The blatant racism (even by well meaning people) would be much rarer in churches today. In a meeting of ministers, one relates a comment a woman made to him: “Pastor, I want them to have everything that I have. I want God to bless them as much as he blesses me. But I just can’t be in the same room with them.� It is hard to imagine a comment such as this being taken as seriously today.

But the church continues to be one of the most segregated institutions in our culture. The words of one of the proponents of the program continue to be true in our world: “You realize as a church we’re behind business…. What a ridiculous thing for a church, as a Christian body, to say on a moral issue ‘We’re behind business.’� Or consider this bit of a conversation: One member: “This church’s doors will never be closed to colored people.� Response: “In our hearts.� We have to wonder if things really have changed all that much in the last forty years.

Part of the film involves the pastor’s outreach to listen to black people in the community. We see him in a barbershop where the barber gives him an earful about the shortcomings of the white church. The barber, Ernie Chambers, went on to become a member of the Nebraska legislature where he has now served 35 years. His comments are not easy to listen to. They may be a bit exaggerated, but they certainly had a good amount of validity in the setting of the 1960s. They probably still have validity for today’s church if we allow ourselves to be open to hearing them.

In spite of the animosity that Chambers conveys, he was willing to speak to the pastor and other church members with openness. He, along with the pastor, offers a prophetic message that needed to be heard at that time. It may not seem quite as pressing today, but the basic message still speaks to a world that continues to have a strong foundation of racism and a church that still is struggling to find ways of addressing that racism.

One of the things that struck me as I watched was that many of the same things said about people of color in 1967 are now said about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people today. Look back at some of the quotes from the film. “I just can’t be in the same room with them.� “As a church we are behind business.� “‘The church’s doors will never be closed….’ ‘In our hearts.’� I wonder how many times such things have been said as churches struggle with how they should treat LGBT people.

In researching this film, I spoke with Augustana Lutheran Church’s current pastor, the Rev. Susan Butler. She said that when the film came out that the members felt that the editing made them look worse than they were, but it also helped them to recognize they weren’t the church they wanted to be. In the forty years since the film, Augustana has become a multi-ethnic congregation that Pastor Butler describes as the most liberal Lutheran church in the state. It is involved in various community ministries and is a Reconciling in Christ congregation (that is, one that is welcoming to LGBT people.) I expect the struggle from 40 years ago taught them lessons that helped them reach this position.

Perhaps this film’s being brought back to our attention through the National Film Registry will allow their pain and struggle to lead other churches in the struggles we still face as we try to be open and inclusive in our mission.