Brethren Action Movement: Recollections and History


"Arrested for preaching the gospel"

    How could preaching a sermon on an assigned text from Isaiah ever be cause for arrest? Such was the experience of Samuel Garber in 1858, when he preached on Isaiah 58:6 at a Presbyterian church in eastern Tennessee. Garber, a former Tennessee resident who was visiting from Illinois, described the dramatic event in a report to The Gospel Visitor in April 1859.

    I attended at the time appointed and found a large concourse assembled. I took the. . . text and delivered a discourse. I spoke of the yoke and the bandage of sin in general terms, and of temperance, justice, and judgment to come and particularly against oppression in every shape and form. I held forth the law of love, mercy, and truth; showed that there was a time coming when every yoke of sin would be broken, intemperance banished from our sphere, oppression cease, contention, strife, and wars would be at an end; love, peace, good-will, union and fellowship would universally prevail throughout the whole earth, etc.

    About the close of my discourse, I said that among the yokes and oppressions might be named that of slavery. . .

    Here was the beginning of Samuel Garber's troubles—the application of his text to slavery. Immediately another minister announced that he would show that the text had no reference to African slavery. A newspaper article accused Garber of having the audaciousness to deliver an abolition sermon in the presence of master and slave. Garber was confronted with threats of lynch law, of being tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail. A few weeks later he was arrested with a state warrant for preaching an abolition sermon. Garber refused to appear on a Sunday, but the next day he was set free on $500 bail "to appear in the next term of court." Brethren in the area persuaded Garber, a Brethren minister, to leave the state, because they feared further agitation might lead to violence. They paid Garber's forfeited bail money.

    Though Garber learned later that many in his audience supported his stand, he eventually had to pay court costs and lawyer's fees amounting to $234. He commented, "A pretty round sum to be paid for preaching the gospel! Where is the boasted liberty of the pulpit and the press?"

    The Gospel Visitor not only told his story but encouraged readers to share the expense of his trial.

    –Cited in full from Kenneth I. Morse, Preaching in a Tavern and 129 Other Surprising Stories from Brethren Life, (Elgin, IL: Brethren Press, 1997), item 22.

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"Nonviolence is the only way"

    On the first weekend of May 1970, Dean Kahler, a freshman at Kent State University in Ohio and a member of the Church of the Brethren, was at home when student demonstrations protesting the U.S. invasion of Cambodia broke out on the campus. The Monday following, while on his way to class, he was seriously injured as soldiers of the Ohio National Guard opened fire, fearing student protest would become violent. Four students were killed. Kahler dropped to the ground for cover, but a bullet entered his body, nearly killing him. He lost the use of his legs and had part of one lung removed.

    The Center congregation, of which the Kahlers were members, and Brethren all over northern Ohio were supportive in the difficult months that followed. Because of the national publicity given the incident (one headline described Kahler as "the fifth victim of Kent State"), he received many "hate" letters accusing him of being a Communist radical. Influenced by his Brethren background, Kahler had earlier decided to be a conscientious objector and opposed the Vietnam War, but he had not been identified with the protest movement on the campus.

    As a paraplegic Kahler made a remarkable comeback, even learning to play wheelchair basketball. Eventually he returned to his classes at Kent State where he received his B.S. degree in 1977. He joined with other injured student and the families of the four who had been killed in bringing a civil suit against the public officials they believe responsible for the shooting. Kahler told an interviewer in 1975: "We were taught as Brethren to love everybody, even those who smite you, or your enemies. I just keep trying to remember that all the time." Speaking at a memorial service at Kent State, he said, "Nonviolence is the only way."

    –Cited in full from Kenneth I. Morse, Preaching in a Tavern and 129 Other Surprising Stories from Brethren Life, (Elgin, IL: Brethren Press, 1997), item 33.