Edward Earl Cleveland

don · 03-05-09 12:56 pm

Edward Earl Cleveland <a href="http://www.google.ca/url?sa=U&start=1&q=http://qod.andrews.edu/docs/05_ciro_sepulveda.doc&ei=tv6vSYShN5DMnQe0wbDhBQ&sig2=NmeiSlZQycwf8tT3UOf5tw&usg=AFQjCNFI2stVgHPp25Mj4Xm5t2DYUVHMNw" target="_blank">The Tent and the Cathedral</a>: (a Word Document) White-Collar Adventists and Their Search for Respectability Author: Ciro Sepulveda<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!>quote:The squad cars drove up to the tent on the corner of Smythe and High Street, across the street from the Tijuana Night Club, in Montgomery, Alabama, the summer of 1954. (1) The officers walked through the aisles of the tent as a thousand or so African-Americans listened to evangelist Edward Earl Cleveland. Initially few noticed. In time, however, the audience became distracted and Cleveland calmly stated, “No need to worry; let the officers do their jobs.” Someone reported that Adventists were violating Alabama ordinances by allowing Whites and Blacks to commingle at a public meeting. Cleveland had publicly insisted such ordinances need not be obeyed since all are children of one God. The tent in the infested (2) district of Montgomery received two more visitors that summer when the Reverend Ralph Abernathy, pastor of the largest Black congregation in the city and the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., canceled their vacations because the Adventists were stealing their sheep. A seamstress named Rosa Parks from the local Lutheran congregation, along with members from other denominations, attended the meetings regularly. Abernathy and King came to investigate. (3) King told Cleveland: “I was informed that a Black Billy Graham was preaching the Gospel, but all I heard was ‘the Law, the Law and the Law.’” Cleveland, unimpressed by theological discourse, responded; “You must have arrived late because all I preached was ‘the Lord, the Lord, and the Lord.’” For a century, tents, like the one in Montgomery run by Adventist itinerants, popped up all over the world: the Philippines, Africa, Central and South America, the Caribbean, etc. In 1854 Adventists pitched their first tent on the corner of Van Buren and Tompkins Street in Battle Creek, Michigan.(4) When Adventist numbers grew to a couple of thousand, ten years later, a dozen or so tents appeared in the infested districts of the Old West. By the end of the century tents surfaced from California to New York. When E. E. Cleveland confronted the civil and religious authorities in Montgomery, Adventists had grown into hundreds of thousands, and tents continued to be centerpieces of Adventist ethos… __________________________ (1) The details from this story came from a research paper written by a student in my History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church at Oakwood College. The author, Arthur Jennings, who wrote a history of the Adventist Church in Montgomery, Alabama interviewed E. E. Cleveland and several of the members of the Montgomery Alabama Seventh-day Adventist Church. E. E. Cleveland, in his autobiography, Let the Church Roll On (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1998), also mentions some details from the same incident. (2) I use the term “infested districts” to refer to sections of urban cities that are usually considered the most run down and neglected by city fathers. The infested district is usually the place where the last-to-come-migrants and immigrants find housing. The new immigrants are usually unable to pay the rent in the more affluent sections of town so the infested district becomes home, at least until they get on their feet and are able to move out. It is usually in this section of cities that Adventist have traditionally set up their tents. For a more thorough discussion of this idea see my book: On the Margins of Empire: A History of Seventh-day Adventists (Huntsville, Ala.: Oakwood College Press, 2007). (3) For a good understanding of what was happening in the Black Protestant Churches in Montgomery Alabama in mid twentieth century see, Taylor Branch, Parting of the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988), 1-205. (4) John N. Loughborough, The Great Second Advent Movement: Its Rise and Its Progress (Nashville, Tenn.: Southern Publishing Association, 1905), 327; Arthur White, Ellen White: The Early Years, vol, 1 (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1985), 293-298. <!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote> .

bob_2 · 03-05-09 2:40 pm

OK, so that was then, this is now. What needs to be done to heal white/black relations now. How do behaviors have to be modified. Are the spiritual needs of the Black versus White different. Doea a style need to be used with Whites that offends Blacks or doesn't meet their spiritual nees or vice versa. Don, you have hearf of the AME church in the US, <a href="http://www.ame-church.com/" target=_top>http://www.ame-church.com/</a> What would be wrong with an ASDA Church to exist. Is it because it could not support itself or .....

bob_2 · 03-05-09 3:00 pm

Don, In some SDA African American Churches is this an issue that Whites might not enjoy: <blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!>quote:History To make them easier to control, white slave owners systematically stripped African slaves of their Muslim and animist cultural heritage, sometimes passing laws prohibiting native African and Islamic African religious practices.[citation needed] Despite these efforts, slaves managed to retain elements of their culture. In the context of religion, expressive and ritual elements included call and response interactions, shouting, and dance.[4] <!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_church" target=_top>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_church</a> Call and response I have still seen on TV when Black Churches are televised. I didn't know it had a name, but I would probably find it distracting, myself.

don · 03-05-09 7:28 pm

Is it because it could not support itself or ..... I am not aware of the economics of the various ethnic churches. African American Adventism has been successful; a success story. In our part of the country, one's economic status seems unrelated to color. There are many successful Black members of society. .

don · 03-05-09 7:34 pm

OK, so that was then, this is now. What needs to be done to heal white/black relations now. The healing must start with me, with you. At our school we have students from various ethnic backgrounds. As a teacher, it helps to be unaware of color. The Christian should not treat people differently based on such characteristics. Character is what's important. .

bob_2 · 03-05-09 9:05 pm

Character and behavior. If there is a match with race, then the match is there. If a black man robs a convenience store, and is caught on the security camera, we don't go looking for a Chinese man, to even out things, and to avoid racial profiling.

bob_2 · 03-05-09 9:35 pm

Here is an example of one Regional Conference not handling their obligations properly: <blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!>quote:Lane first became involved with the Continental Plaza Shopping Center property in the mid-1980s when the property was purchased by Continental Commercial Partners ("Continental Partners") from Loyola University of Chicago ("Loyola"). Continental Partners was a limited partnership with general partners Full Life Inc., a corporation controlled by the Lake Regional Conference of Seventh Day Adventists ("Seventh Day Adventists"), and LSM Venture Associates. LSM and the Seventh Day Adventists each owned 49.5% of Continental Partners, while Lane, in his individual capacity, owned a 1% limited partnership. Lane handled all of the issues relating to the financing of Continental Plaza on behalf of Continental Partners. <!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote> <a href="http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F3/323/323.F3d.568.01-4084.html" target=_top>http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F3/323/323.F 3d.568.01-4084.html</a> Wonder if this story is linked to this one; Lake Region Church Area Meets After Audit Finds Irregularities <a href="http://news.adventist.org/2005/07/orth-america-lake-regio-church-area-meets-after-auit-fis-irregularities.html" target=_top>http://news.adventist.org/2005/07/orth-america-lak e-regio-church-area-meets-after-auit-fis-irregular ities.html</a> If you check Regional Conference history, the Lake Region was the first one developed.

don · 03-06-09 6:42 am

If a black man robs a convenience store, and is caught on the security camera, we don't go looking for a Chinese man, to even out things, and to avoid racial profiling. Also, I don't forget that my neighbor, the other black man, would not ever rob a convenience store and is as steady as the day. He just came in and helped me with class and taught important principles to my students. Or, I don't forget my student who grew up in a troubled part of town, his cousin a drug dealer. "Did you ever get into that kind of lifestyle," I ask him. "No," he replies, "Doing drugs and stealing never made sense to me. I didn't need to do those things to be happy." Racial profiling seems so inaccurate and unnecessary in my job; counter-productive actually. Consider some of the black people in my life:<ul><li>Our chief financial officer worked in the corporate world before coming to our school. His sensitivity and gifted explanations of financial matters helps us. <LI>Our band director, a close personal friend, brings talent and awareness, skill and passion and conservative Christian thinking to his task. We are blessed with his combination of creative musical life, composition and performance skills, and sound standards of living. <LI>Our science teacher; quiet, aware, consistently caring, a master of her craft, always with a cheerful word. <LI>A friend of mine; a public school ESL teacher; Sabbath School teacher; father of one of my students. <LI>A columnist for a major Canadian newspaper; insightful, opinionated, thoughtful; a community leader; a quiet member of the church. <LI>An executive on Bay Street working for a major Canadian bank. A quiet, organized man with an eloquent demeanor; a capable Sabbath School teacher. <LI>A weight-lifter, soloist, and gym instructor; loves the Lord, obviously cares, good friend. <LI>A provincial health inspector; effectovely helped the province face one of the worst epidemics in its history; mother to one of my students. <LI>The wife of the conference president; insightful; good friends of mom; respectful; eyes wide open; authentic; wise.</li></ul>Need I go on. Each of these people provide examples of why racial profiling casts too wide a net. Lake Region Church Area Meets After Audit Finds Irregularities To raise the problems of a Black conference as though it is the result of racial origin is unfair. My father-in-law, at the end of his career, blew the whistle on a very white conference administration, misusing trust funds. Didn't a white General Conference president have to resign because of irregularities? Racism points to the "other" race as the cause of sin. In reality, being a member of the human race is the cause. .

bob_2 · 03-06-09 10:53 am

Don, accusations of racial profiling are used by races when they should be helping find such criminals, especially when there are other distinguishing characteristics, like a tatoo, large ears, distinctive nose, girth, etc. Racial Profiling just because they are black I believe is wrong, but I sure wouldn't be looking for a Chinese man with security camera evidence. I am not making a blanket statement about all blacks are into drugs, but when you find out they are, don't let your compassion keep you from abiding by the law, eh?? Or because you like the guy.

cadge · 03-06-09 12:30 pm

I don't forget my student who grew up in a troubled part of town, his cousin a drug dealer. "Did you ever get into that kind of lifestyle," I ask him. "No," he replies, "Doing drugs and stealing never made sense to me. I didn't need to do those things to be happy." ---------------------- YO, Don (ha ha), I volunteered to help out on a van ministry that went into the inner city areas of Baltimore some years ago. On this ministry was a SDA member, Baltimore police officer, volunteering also. He said to me one time, "you know what's sad, a lot of these same kids that we are giving these soup and sandwiches to today are going to be the same kids I'll have to arrest tomorrow" He went on and alluded to the fact that they were under such an influence of crime, and already into hustling, deception as an everyday way of life that few would be lucky to escape it. The best chance that these "losers" have is for more Christians to sacrifce their time, like that good cop does, to be there for a influence to as many as we can. The more that Christians get "the world" out of their free time, the more souls that are captivated by the results of sin, "losers", will be saved. If anybody loses heart and becomes unproductive and contrary to being beneficial to themselves and society in this life, then it is a result of, in the final analysis, of being in captivity to the power of sin. It's not the job of the courts and jails to bring deliverance and correction to these lost souls(doesn't work), it's our job. We need to quit condemning the blind for their inability to see. Were the circumstances different in our lives, we very well may have been, or yet could be, the man living under the bridge. We're all still blinded by our sinful natures in one capacity or another, and being grateful for the grace of God for what we do see and get to overcome we need to be careful not to confuse better off with better than.

elaine · 03-06-09 4:53 pm

Call and response I have still seen on TV when Black Churches are televised. I didn't know it had a name, but I would probably find it distracting, myself. Please don't travel overseas or mingle with anyone different than you are. It is a new experience, this "call and response" but is a form of praise developed during slavery. Just as much of Christian liturgical practice was developed many centuries ago, and often, no one can explain its derivation. Where did the stilted practice of the elders marching in, kneeling silently, before the service? It's simply tradition, and in no way means that without it we would be dishonoring God, would it? So much of our daily lives is filled with tradition that we are unable to explain, and yet it has meaning, often simply because it brings a security to what we do.

bob_2 · 03-06-09 11:46 pm

Elaine, what ever you are comfortable with. I was trying to discover if style was part of what is keeping the various conferences from uniting. I will guarantee you style is part of it.

don · 03-07-09 7:37 am

If you are used to driving the car, is it easy to be a passenger again?

cadge · 03-07-09 11:37 am

"If you are used to driving the car, is it easy to be a passenger again?" No, unless you are wise enough to realize that sometimes it,s most prudent to yield and submit to a more qualified individual or program for the betterment of the whole. Sometimes we're the teacher; sometimes we're the student. And then again, sometimes we have to submit to what we would consider to be lesser qualified or lesser knowledgeable supervisors. I once had a position where I was the overseer of a company where I had the responsibility of orchestrating and coordinating the recieving of raw materials, manufacture, packaging and shipping of items and those individuals involved in all these variations of the process. After having been used to people coming to me for all the answers for their instructions and resolving of problems pertaining to all things involved in this system, it was very trying to have to adjust to submitting to others in the course of further employment at other institutions. It's tough when you "know it all"<img src="http://www.atomorrow.net/discus/clipart/happy.gif" border=0> and have to work under others directions when you used to be in their position. Especially when you can see how they can make their system more effecient and they aren't interested in your imput. Cadge

elaine · 03-07-09 7:55 pm

There is no problem of which I'm aware in the Pacific Union. Today we had a visiting conference employee, ministerial secretary, to preach and his wife sang. Both blacks. No one cared--makes no difference whatsoever. But then, California is far more tolerant than most states. (We even once allowed gay marriages!)

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