From Exodus To Exile

Second Quarter 1999

A New Mind-Set for Churches Partnering with Government

On December 8, 1998, The Rev. Dr. Dean Trulear, addressed a conference in Philadelphia titled "Making a Difference: Working Together to Serve the Needy," organized by the Center for Public Justice and funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts. The conference brought together public officials and social service providers to consider new ways government and religious groups can work together. Dr. Trulear is the director of the Partnership for Research on Religion and At-Risk Youth at Public/Private Ventures in Philadelphia. The following edited excerpts are drawn from his speech, which will be published by the Center for Public Justice this summer.

Those of us who are African-American Christians frequently interpret our experience in terms of the exodus paradigm of the Bible: God's liberation of Israel from Egypt. In relation to our present experience, however, we need to consider a shift from liberation to transformation as our goal for the poor. I would argue that instead of talking only about exodus, exodus, exodus, we should look at what the Scriptures say about the exile—Israel's exile in Babylon—because conditions have changed.

In the exodus, the poor are liberated and brought to a new land. The poor clearly see Pharaoh as the enemy. The poor clearly see Egypt as a foreign nation. The poor clearly see that the best thing God can do for them is to get them out of there.

In the exile, however, the poor are given another challenge. Jeremiah tells the captive Jews to seek the welfare of the city to which they have been carried away into exile and to pray to the Lord on its behalf, "for in its welfare you will find welfare." It is literally in the partnership with Babylon that Jerusalem will find its salvation. It is in partnership with Babylon that the children of the exile will rebuild their community.

All of us are infatuated with Nehemiah. If there were a sitcom on television about inner city churches, it would be called "Everyone Loves Nehemiah." Every church has a Nehemiah project. Every town has an Operation Nehemiah, Nehemiah 2000, Nehemiah this, Nehemiah that. However, we fail to recognize that Nehemiah was a layman—that's threatening to us preachers. Nehemiah was middle class and a government employee, probably a GS12. And Nehemiah's role was to take the resources of Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem. I once served under a pastor who said, "I don't want any of Pharaoh's money," and I learned to ask the question: "What about some of Nebuchadnezzar's money?"

We have a theological hurdle in some of our traditions. We say government is "them," and "we" should not use government money. However, if you are in love with Nehemiah, you are in love with the idea of using government money. That's how Nehemiah rebuilt Jerusalem.

So the theological shift from Exodus to Exile calls us to use the resources of Babylon. It also calls us to a different understanding of the role of the middle class. Most of our larger inner city congregations are middle class congregations. Most are not churches of the poor. We don't like to say this in public places. When public television pays attention to our churches in February, when they do specials on the black church, they do not explain that most of them are made up of commuters. If 20 percent of the membership of a church lives within walking distance of it, that church has a higher percentage of indigenous membership or resident membership than the average middle class church.

Therefore, middle class churches have to recognize that there is a different role for them to play. Part of their role is to look within their own congregations and identify the public servants—the Nehemiah's, the GS12s—in their midst, for in most black churches, most middle class members are on the public payroll. Let me say that again. In most African-American middle class congregations, the majority is on the public payroll. In New York City, for example, 70 percent of all black church goers work for the government—local, state, county, or federal. Seventy percent of all black Christians in New York City get their checks from the same people that welfare folk do; they just have to show up for work.

Now, since many, if not most of you are on the public payroll, the question is how to mobilize the resources at your disposal on behalf of the poor. This requires a shift from thinking about service delivery within the congregation to thinking about Nehemiah's strategic location as public employee. Some of you GS12s and GS13s have the ability to influence policy on behalf of the people who live in the neighborhood where your church is located.