FOR and Black History (or "We need you like Fred needs Ginger")

A letter from the Chair of FOR’s National Council.

February 25, 2009

Dear friend,

Between September 1965 and May 1967, I was a student at Colgate Rochester Divinity School in upstate New York. Gene Bartlett was the Seminary’s President. I did not know then of Dr. Bartlett’s involvement with the Fellowship of Reconciliation, or that he was involved in creating a Baptist Pacifist Fellowship during World War II. He encouraged me, as he did others, working against the Vietnam War.

On April 4, 1967 in a now famous speech A Time to Break Silence delivered at Riverside Church in New York City, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., urged ministers to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors. Thus confirmed in the direction my newly formed pacifist beliefs were taking me, I finalized a decision. With needed support from the FOR, my future wife Nancy, and others, I took leave from seminary, appealed my draft board status, and did alternative service.

As much as any single twentieth-century figure, Dr. King has shaped my life and the lives of many FOR members. Inspired to seek peace in a war-wearied, war-worried world, we have not elevated Dr. King to iconic status. Dr. King’s ideas and words still matter. It matters that we continue his unfinished work, building a culture of peace.

We cannot do this work alone. As a result, FOR partners with other groups. Through the Olive Branch Interfaith Peace Partnership (OBIPP) we have connected with others. This partnership is a primary setting for FOR to work to end the United States-led war and occupation of Iraq, to support the troops, to support an Iraqi-led peace process and peace with Iran, to say NO to torture, and to say YES to justice.

& Ginger]" width="155" height="148" align="left" />Together, as members of many religious traditions, FOR is working this new year to shape a vision both for our work, and for the future of the world. Success or failure will ultimately determine if, in the words of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, we humans call off sharing life together on our planet earth.

In a memorable scene in their 1937 film "Shall We Dance," Astaire and Rogers wonder if they should call off their relationship. They dance on rollerskates and sing about their differences pronouncing certain words. Is it nEEther, or nIIther, tomAHto or tomEYto? They conclude, "We need each other so, it doesn’t matter."

What does matter, in words of a pledge card that I signed in Atlanta, Georgia, on the occasion of the first Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday in the United States, is that we recommit ourselves to living the dream by loving, not hating; showing understanding, not anger; making peace, not war. By your gifts, FOR is able to continue its work to the these ends. By your gifts, you recommit yourself to the vision of the Beloved Community for which Martin Luther King lived, preached, taught, gave witness and ultimately died to see realized.

Join Dr. King in signing our Statement of Purpose and becoming a member of FOR.
(Click to enlarge.)

Let us not leave his vision and teaching to be only high ideals and lofty words. Let us commit ourselves to concrete actions that will lead to the realization of life and culture for which humans hunger.

Please be generous. Your gifts are important. I thank you for your part in our Fellowship and its work, and I thank you for your gifts and contributions to enable Dr. King’s vision to kept alive.

Sincerely yours in peace,

Paul R. Dekar
Chair, National Council of FOR