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Breaking Faith: Religion, Americanism, and Civil Rights in Postwar Milwaukee

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2018

Kevin D. Smith
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Abstract

This article employs an in-depth examination of 1950s confessional Lutherans and Congregationalists in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to argue that the roots of the late-twentieth-century “culture wars” can be found at the local level in Americans’ response to the international and domestic challenges that arose during and after World War II rather than in the 1970s rise of a politically active Religious Right. The fight against Nazi and Soviet totalitarianism, along with the postwar struggle for racial equality, forced Americans to redefine the moral principles for which their nation stood. The result was the development of broad-based, intradenominational divisions between those who argued that individuals should accommodate themselves to prevailing religious, political, and socioeconomic structures and those who urged the accommodation of these structures to the needs of diverse individuals. This new religious alignment turned less on denominationally specific tribal, liturgical, and theological differences than on polarized understandings of the sacred and the secular.

This realignment operated on two planes. On the right, the Missouri Synod joined other denominations, such as the founders of the National Association of Evangelicals, in attempting to overcome sectarian strife among orthodox believers and to inject their religious faith into the public discourse. On the left, as Congregational proponents of faith-based social action and ecumenism helped to lay a foundation for liberal religion's leading role in the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s and 1970s, they alienated more traditionalist members who viewed these activities as inappropriate for a religious institution.

Type
Research Article
Information
Religion and American Culture , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , Winter 2010 , pp. 57 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture 2010

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References

Notes

I would like thank Andrew Preston and Leo P. Ribuffo for inspiration and encouragement, as well as Thomas N. Baker, James D. German, M. J. Heisey, and Steven M. Stannish for making possible the publication of this article.

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3. The official name of the Wisconsin Synod is the Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Wisconsin and Other States and that of the Missouri Synod is the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

4. “Record Gains Shown in Church Activities,” Milwaukee Journal, November 20, 1949. Synodical Conference Lutherans included 40,000 members of the Wisconsin Synod and 38,286 members of the Missouri Synod.

5. The terms conservative and liberal, like right and left, are, of course, ambiguous. Their meanings differ when applied in religious and political terms, and, although these categories often overlap, they are not synonymous. When using the terms in the context of political issues, this article identifies them as such, following the definitions applied by the majority of the literature concerning the period. The article uses the terms to identify religious positions only in the widest sense, takings its bearings from Beacon Press's Voices of Liberalism, which provides an early postwar comparison of religious conservatism and liberalism, as well as Joel Carpenter's Revive Us Again and George Marsden's Reforming Fundamentalism. Summing up the views of these works most broadly, Voices of Liberalism divides the faithful between conservatives, who rely on the “institutions of the present and the forms of the past,” and liberals, who reject revelation as the final word of God. See Carpenter, Joel A., Revive Us Again: The Reawakening of American Fundamentalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997)Google Scholar; Marsden, George, Reforming Fundamentalism: Fuller Seminary and the New Evangelicalism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987)Google Scholar; and Voices of Liberalism, vols. 1 and 2 (Boston: Beacon Press, 1947– 1948), 11–14.

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17. See Hirsch, Making the Second Ghetto; and Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis.

18. “Milwaukee,” Published Reports, 1968, Mss. 1776, Fld. 10, Box 2, African American History Collection, Milwaukee County Historical Society (henceforth referred to as MCHS), Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Milwaukee's black population grew from 8,821 out of 587,472 in 1940 to 62,458 out of 741,324 people in 1960, rising from 1.5 to 8.4 percent of the total inhabitants.

19. See, for example, “Zeidler Unmasked,” Newsletter of the Certified Rental Operators’ Alliance, March 3, 1956, Fld. 9, Box 196, Zeidler Papers, Milwaukee County Public Library (henceforth referred to as MCPL), Milwaukee, Wisconsin; see also Smith, Kevin D., “From Socialism to Racism: The Politics of Race and Class in Postwar Milwaukee,” Michigan Historical Review 29 (Spring 2003): 71–95 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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31. Ibid.; Waldemar O. Pless, “Historical Background of the Present Issues between the Missouri and Wisconsin Synods,” paper presented at the Northern Wisconsin District Conference of the Wisconsin Synod, Reedsville, Wisconsin, October 5, 1953, unpaginated.

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39. “The History of the Lutheran Men of America in Wisconsin,” 16. Although officially forbidden from joining the LMAW, members of the Wisconsin Synod did so anyway, even at the risk of excommunication.

40. The LMAW held monthly meetings that often featured prominent speakers, such as O. A. Geissman, whose speech was reprinted in the Milwaukee Lutheran; see Geissman, O. A., “World Divided behind Two Armies,” Milwaukee Lutheran 1 (January 1949): 5, 24Google Scholar.

41. Beyersdorf, E. A., “Allegiance to the Flag,” Milwaukee Lutheran 2 (May 1949): 3 Google Scholar; E. A. Beyersdorf, “Why Do You Belong to the Church?” editorial, Milwaukee Lutheran 6 (May 1953): 3.

42. “Socialism and Religious Freedom,” editorial, Milwaukee Lutheran 2 (April 1950): 3; for examples of advertisements extolling the American way, see Milwaukee Lutheran 4 (May 1951): 2, 32.

43. Jonathan Rupprecht, “How the Mighty Have Fallen: St. John’s, Eighth and Vliet, Milwaukee, Wisconsin” (unpublished paper, 1978), 5, 7–18, Church Pamphlet Collection, MCHS; Suelflow, Roy A., A Plan for Survival (New York, 1965), 80–82 Google Scholar.

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52. Ivid B. Blix and others, eds., 1847–1947, One Hundred Years of Christian Service: A Commemorative and Historical Account of Our Church together with Historic Documents, Honor Rolls, Roster of Present Officers and Other Selected Data, 5–27, church pamphlet published February 4, 1947, Records of Grand Avenue Congregational Church (henceforth referred to as GACC), Milw. Mss. 128, Fld. 1, Box 1, Milwaukee Urban Archives, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (henceforth referred to as MUA); James E. Ingbretson, “A History of Grand Avenue Congregational Church, 1947– 1981,” 1–3, n.d., Church Pamphlet Collection, Mss. 1867, Box 6, MCHS; “A Sesquicentennial History, 1842–1991,” First Congregational Church of Wauwatosa, http://www.firstchurchtosa.org (accessed June 16, 2006).

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54. Avery, Perry D., “We Must ‘Wage the Peace,’” letter to the editor, Milwaukee Journal, July 19, 1951 Google Scholar.

55. Flucke, Paul, Plymouth: A Church and Its World: A History of Plymouth Church, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Milwaukee: Plymouth Church, 1984), 60 Google Scholar.

56. Schmitter, Walter, “Walter Schmitter Suggests Abolishment of C.S.A.,” Free Church Messenger, June 6, 1952, 1, 4, FldGoogle Scholar. 10, Box 34, GACC; “Laymen Fight ‘Social Action,’” Milwaukee Journal, June 30, 1952; “Report of the Committee on Social Action to Grand Avenue Church,” n.d., Fld. 6, Box 7, GACC.

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59. Minutes of Official Board Meetings, January 7, 1955, February 4, 1955, Mss. 224, Fld. 4, Box 1, United Church Women of the Milwaukee Area, Records of United Church Women (henceforth referred to as UCW), MCHS.

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61. “Christian Social Action Group Organized.”

62. United Church Women of the Milwaukee Area, Yearbook, 1953/54, 15, Fld. 2, Box 1, UCW, MCHS.

63. “Churchwomen Vote Housing Study,” Milwaukee Journal, September 27, 1956.

64. “Churchwomen Study Blight at First Hand,” Milwaukee Journal, November 6, 1956; see also “City Blight Areas Seen by Women,” Milwaukee Sentinel, November 6, 1956.

65. Minutes of Official Board Meeting, April 5, 1957, Fld. 9, Box 1, UCW, MCHS.

66. Minutes of Official Board Meeting, February 7, 1958, Fld. 9, Box 1, UCW, MCHS.

67. Frank P. Zeidler to Mrs. Walter C. Candy, President, United Church Women of the Milwaukee Area, March 5, 1958, Fld. 3, Box 197, Zeidler Papers, MCPL.

68. Cavert, Samuel McCrea, On the Road to Christian Unity: An Appraisal of the Ecumenical Movement (New York: Harper, 1961), 26 Google Scholar; see also Berdyaev, Nicholas, “The Unity of Christendom in the Strife between East and West,” Ecumenical Review 1 (Autumn 1948): 12 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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71. Church Report on Basis of Union with Evangelical and Reformed Church, March 17, 1948, Fld. 2, Box 22, GACC.

72. “Law Says ‘No’ to Merger, Churches Seek Solution,” Milwaukee Journal, February 11, 1950; Avery, Perry D., “Must Re-Think Congregationalism,” Free Church Messenger, April 21, 1950, 4, Fld. 8, Box 34, GACCGoogle Scholar.

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77. Sheldon, “Shall Evangelical and Reformed and Congregational Christian Churches Unite?” 1; “What Does the Proposed Constitution Say?” (New York: General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches, 1959), Fld. 4, Box 22, GACC.

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80. “Reisner Warns Churches on ‘Birch Tactics,’” Milwaukee Sentinel, March 29, 1963. This may have been a regional phenomenon. In some areas, such as New England and the West Coast, merger opponents feared that centralized control might prevent them from engaging in social action. Still, the association of the merger with “left-wing” politics motivated many opponents nationwide. See Lee, , The Social Sources of Church Unity, 117 Google Scholar.

81. Walter P. Schmitter to Willard A. Young, February 3, 1955, Fld. 1, Box 41, GACC.

82. “DGH to You,” Free Church Messenger, May 12, 1961, 4, Fld. 7, Box 35, GACC.

83. Ingbretson, “A History of Grand Avenue Congregational Church,” 6.

84. Ibid.; Flucke, Plymouth, 64, 66.

85. Young and Young, “Let's Look before We Leap,” 2.

86. Lagerquist, , The Lutherans, 153 Google Scholar. A small minority of American Lutherans remained in smaller synods, which included the Wisconsin Synod, the Lutheran Brethren, and the American Association of Lutheran Churches.

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91. See Lucille R. Krug to the Rev. R. L. Lathan, March 3, 1958, 2, Fld. 5, Box 156, Zeidler Papers, MCPL; Harold Mason, interview with author, June 27, 1996; “Negroes to Hold Mass Prayer as Protest against Bell Death,” Milwaukee Journal, March 18, 1958; “Pastor to Get Plea to Cancel ‘Protest,’” Milwaukee Journal, March 20, 1958; “Pastor Still Plans March,” Milwaukee Journal, March 24, 1958; and Frank P. Zeidler, “Notes on Meeting of March 19, 1958, On Lathan Incident,” March 19, 1958, 2–5, Fld. 5, Box 156, Zeidler Papers, MCPL.

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