Author Archives: Richard Paul Poethig

Chapter 16 – The Shaping of a Socialist

In June 1948, Richard prepares for his upcoming study trip to Canada to see “democratic socialism” in action. The governing Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) party in Saskatchewan was holding its convention in Moosejaw. Before he leaves on his journey, Richard accepts an offer from the League for Industrial Democracy to serve as Student Secretary in the fall. Richard hitchhikes 1,000 miles from Greenwich Village in Manhattan to the Madison, Wisconsin, farm of Walter Uphoff, the Socialist candidate for governor. In Madison he meets up with a group of eighteen students. Richard decides to throw in his lot with three other men and travel the remainder of the way in E. Scott Maynes’s  Model T Ford half truck. At the CCF convention, Richard is moved by the down-to-earth nature of the delegates and their pragmatic concern about how the government programs were serving the people. In meeting one of the CCF’s founders, Richard receives validation of his conviction that there is a place for religion in social and economic justice.

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Seeking New Light Along the Road

After attending the recent  220th Presbyterian General Assembly meeting in Pittsburgh, a question was put to me: Who is winning the battle between those with a biblical literalist view and those with a wider interpretation of Scripture?  And how is this affecting the future of the Presbyterian Church?

First, this struggle is not new to the 220th General Assembly.  Its roots go back to the late 19th century and the advent of Bibiical criticism within the larger movement of scientific inquiry. In the background was the study of Charles Darwin and his work on the origin of species. The height of the controversy erupted in the fundamentalist-modernist struggle in 1925 in the Scopes Trial in Dayton, Tennessee.  The accused was John Scopes, a high school science teacher, who was charged with teaching evolution in a state funded school.  The fundamentalist point of view  for creationism was presented by William Jennings Bryan, a Presbyterian, and three times Democratic candidate for U.S. President.   Attorney Clarence Darrow took up the defense of John Scopes and evolution as being consistent with religion.

The  fundamentalist-modernist controversy  was a central issue in the Presbyterian Church in the 1920s and surfaced in the competition for Moderator of the Presbyterian Church General Assembly in 1923 when William Jennings Bryan, defender of creationism, ran against Charles F. Wishart, President of the College of Wooster  who supported  the teaching of evolution in the college.  Wishart won the election by a vote of 451-427.

The Presbyterian Church continued to be embroiled in the controversy through the 1920s into the 1930s when New Testament professor John Gresham Machen of Princeton Theological Seminary took up conservative cudgels to fight the modernist theology being taught at the Seminary.  In 1929 Machen  led a group of conservatives out of the Presbyterian Church to form the Westminster Theological Seminary.  In 1933, his efforts to organize an Independent Board of Presbyterian Foreign Missions brought on his trial and suspension from the ministry.  In 1936 he organized the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.  Since 1936 we have seen many divisions and  the creation of new denominations within  the Presbyterian family.  Like the Machen exodus, the divisions are rooted in differences in Scriptural interpretation and in theological points of view.

Second, in the struggle over Biblical interpretation between conservative and liberal folk, the dissidents who leave the denomination claim that the modernists or the liberals, however you want to call them, are not true to Scripture.  The modernists or the liberals  avow that the issue is the interpretation of Scripture and the new resources that have helped  bring greater light to Scripture.  It is this new light which energizes the modernists or liberals in their viewing  issues related to race, women and gender concerns.  These are the very issues that have created the splits in the denomination.  The new light brought to Scripture has opened us to see the Creator’s concern  for the well being of  all  created life.   Scripture  and the Gospel of Christ opens the door to the rights of all people no matter what their race or gender.

The splits which have come from a Biblical literalist interpretation of Scripture have centered on these issues.  We fought a Civil War and a church split, north and south, over the issue of race.  Women have struggled for centuries to be recognized as equal partners to men.  Children born into the human family have an equal right to a life free from prejudice because of their gender orientation.

Those who leave us because of our Biblical interpretation, disavow the new light that we have found which sees the Gospel’s openness to people no matter what their race, their gender or their sexual orientation.  We have fought these battles  within the Presbyterian denomination over the last century.  They have been hard fought battles, gaining small victories of justice for racial equality, for women’s ordination and for full acceptance of gays and lesbians in the church community.  But along the way those who have disagreed with this new openness have left us to create new  religious communities.

The Presbyterian Church, USA will continue on in its search for new windows on a Gospel which sheds a brighter light on the Creation into which we have been born.  Some will not agree with this venture into the future, and will leave us, but this is the road to which we have been called.

From Tar Beach to Green Roofs

Rooftops were part of the everyday life of tenement dwellers of New York City.  For those tenants who lived on the upper floors of a tenement, rooftops were as important as the sidewalks and the streets below.  Summer heat added high temperatures to the tight living in tenement apartments.  The rooftops became a respite after the sun went down.  Blankets and newspapers on rooftops provided places to sit and enjoy the early evening breezes.  During Spring, Summer, and Fall the rooftop played its role as a place for drying the laundry or for the newborn’s bassinet.  For those who could find the time, the rooftop, or tar beach as it became known, provided the place for a summer tan.    The rooftop also provided the space for tenant gatherings for conversation and partying.

Photo of Richard and his father and baby sister, Erna, on the tar roof of their tenement building

Richard, his father, and baby sister, Erna, on the tar roof of their tenement in 1934.

Time has changed the function of New York rooftops.  Urban growth, high-rise architecture and a diet conscious populace have provoked the greening of New York rooftops.   Urban agriculture and gardening  have changed the scenery of the roofs of New York.  A more imaginative and civic-minded generation have created a multitude of happier uses for  older structures.

Photo of roof garden in Manhattan

Photo of roof garden in Manhattan from The Daily Mail Reporter.

The High Line on Manhattan’s West Side has opened the door to developing a refreshing approach to the use of an abandoned railway line.

High Line on West Side

High Line Park on Manhattan's West Side.

The photos above are from an article  in The Daily Mail Reporter about green roofs in Manhattan: Green Roofs.

Welcome to “On the Sidewalks of New York”

This is a note of appreciation for all those folks who have found themselves reading or listening to “On the Sidewalks of New York.”  This website was the good work of my daughter Margaret.  The autobiography was originally written for the family, especially the offspring, who wanted me to put down my stories on paper two decades ago. Under gentle pressure, the stories have now been elevated to public listening via podcasts.

After some hesitancy, and lively conversation with Margaret, a theme for this blog was decided upon. Thinking back over time, it became apparent that the Depression years, which left a deep impact upon my consciousness, is in replay in this last decade. I came through my young adult years, after having chosen a religious course, realizing the close relationship between a prophetic religion and the equality and justice called for in our society. Today, most organized religion is seen as retrogressive in the cause of justice to bring balance to the inequalities evident today. So I decided that this website would engage the conversation about how the prophetic religion we have inherited from our Biblical heritage needs to come into play within this political season. So let the discussion begin.