wfn.org | The Fall of Camelot

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24-March-1999 
99121 
 
    The Fall of Camelot 
 
    Commentary by J. Houston Hodges 
 
(Editor's Note: The following essay is part of an address given by Houston 
Hodges, recently retired editor of "Monday Morning" magazine, at the 1999 
Churchwide Staff Meeting in Louisville on March 13 and has provoked much 
discussion on PresbyNet, the church's computer communication network. - 
Jerry L. Van Marter) 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.-The story of the twentieth century is the story of the rise 
and fall of the corporate model of the church. 
 
    The growth took place early in the century along with the growth of 
General Motors, Ford, General Electric, Kodak, and the U.S. Government.  It 
is no accident that the same people were involved in the construction.  The 
rise of corporate America provided the framework: World War II provided the 
energy, the people, and the money. 
 
    When G.I. Joe came back home to Rosie the Riveter, they joined a 
church.  They wanted stability, fellowship, belongingness, and help in 
doing something with that 3-year-old. 
 
    The church absorbed Joe and Rosie and the little Rivets gladly, made 
Rosie a deacon and Joe an elder, and loved their money.  It sent lots of it 
off to the national office.  No one asked what it was for, but churches 
were judged by what percentage they sent off. 
 
    The denomination tilted on its axis, the scale moved, and what had been 
a service module became a headquarters.  It needed people and money to do 
its mission, and Joe and Rosie were providing both. 
 
    People listened in the 50s and 60s!  John A. Mackay opposed 
totalitarian McCarthyism with a letter from the General Council of the 
Presbyterian Church in 1953 and it helped tilt public opinion against 
McCarthy. 
 
    Europe needed food, and the Marshall Plan was adopted.  CARE packages 
and CROP were begun, at the urging of church folk at home and in Congress. 
 
    A Senate gallery "packed with clergymen" ("New York Times") passed the 
Civil Rights Act of 1964.  The "Times" religion reporter joined the "TIME" 
magazine religion editor at the press party of the General Assembly of the 
Presbyterian Church.  In 1958 the PCUSA adopted a plan to build a church a 
week for five years, 1958-63. Membership was at an all time high. 
 
    The high water mark -- and the start of the ebbtide -- also occurred in 
1963, in Baltimore, when the Stated Clerk of the UPCUSA -- the Rev. Eugene 
Carson Blake -- was arrested during efforts to desegregate an amusement 
park.  He was greeted at the following Assembly with a standing ovation, 
but many Presbyterians never forgave him. 
 
    Then followed four societal waves -- Civil Rights, Vietnam, Women's 
Rights (including the Right to Life), and Gay Rights -- each causing 
massive beach erosion, increasing the distance between the national church 
and the local parish. 
 
    The top-heavy ecclesiastical castle began to quiver, shiver, and shake. 
In "Prince Valiant" the castle of Camelot fell when the enemy undermined 
it, then burnt the timbers holding up the tunnels. 
 
    The PC(USA) castle has fallen, aided by forces without, enemies within, 
and our own ineptitude. 
 
    So here we are with nothing before us but God and the future: the 
question mark of Century 21. 

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