"THE MACKINNON YEARS"

A sermon by the Rev. Bruce Clear

Sunday, November 16, 2003

All Souls Unitarian Church

Indianapolis, Indiana

There was no decade like the 1960s. Those who remember living through it still find it difficult to imagine the drama and trauma this nation and this society went through. There were the assassinations of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy. There was the growth of the civil rights movement, punctuated here and there with race riots in many major cities. The Cold War was at its peak, and by the end of the decade the threat of a nuclear holocaust hung like a cloud over every conversation of the future. The counter-culture was born with hippie flower children, hallucinogenic drugs, and youth "dropping out" of society, and the concept of a "generation gap" divided families more dramatically than at anytime before or since. Then there was, of course, the escalation of the Vietnam War, and the divisions within society that it brought. The protests dominated the daily news; some were peaceful and some were violent. The scars to our society are not entirely healed.

In the series of sermons I've been giving on All Souls over its 100 years of history, I have been impressed by how much the events of the world impact the story of this congregation. A visit to our church history immerses us in the events of the world around us. In many ways, this is exactly as it should be. After all, ours is a "this worldly" religion, one which aspires to address concerns of this life now, far above any concerns for a life yet to come. The Unitarian approach is, and should be, one which takes seriously how our values help us make a better world and a better life.

The weaving of local, national, and international events with the life of the church were never more significant than they were in the 1960s. The minister who served the church during those roller-coaster days was John MacKinnon, the fifth settled minister of All Souls since its founding in 1903. As a budding student of All Souls history, I might add that he was gracious enough to have his ministry begin and end almost as bookends to that pivotal decade: September of 1959 to January of 1969.

Much of American society suffered wounds during that time, some wounds cut very deeply. This church was not immune, and MacKinnon had the almost Shakespearean role of leading the church through a troubled time in America that he had no responsibility for creating. He did a noble job of it.

John MacKinnon was born in Hillsboro, Ohio in 1904. There is not a great deal of information about his early life, but he graduated from the University of Akron in 1926 with a degree in chemistry. (When I discovered this I wondered what fates brought him here to All Souls which may have the highest proportion of chemists in its congregation than any other in the country).

He did work briefly as a chemist, but he also was active as a circuit-riding preacher at three small Universalist churches around the Columbus, Ohio area. He soon determined this was the direction he wished to go in life, and entered the University of Chicago Divinity School, and the Unitarian seminary there, Meadville Theological School. He was ordained into the Universalist ministry in 1928 in Macomb, Illinois, and graduated from seminary in 1930.

His first church after graduation was in Wichita, Kansas, from 1930 to 1937. Next was Richmond, Virginia from 1937-1946. His longest and most significant ministry, before coming to All Souls, was in Wilmington, Delaware for 13 years, from 1946 to 1959. During that time, the Wilmington congregation almost tripled in size and a new building was planned and construction began just before he was called to All Souls.

Here at All Souls, a somewhat similar story was unfolding. This church had also grown to at least triple its size in the post-war years, but by 1959, this new building was nearing completion. The All Souls minister, Jack Mendelsohn, had submitted his resignation here to accept a call to the Arlington Street Church in Boston.

A Search Committee was formed, chaired by Dr. Robert Risk. The Committee spent many hours interviewing more than 50 prospective candidates, but seemed to be stuck. Then they heard that John MacKinnon of Wilmington, Delaware might be available, and after some inquiry, discovered he was interested. The work was done, and when he was presented to the congregation, he was accepted overwhelmingly.

All Souls had a new building and a new minister at the same time. The vote on him was in May, but he wouldn't begin his ministry until September, 1959. In between, in June, John MacKinnon joined Jack Mendelsohn to lead the dedication of this new church building.

MacKinnon was 55 years old at the time, what we sometimes call a "seasoned" minister. Dr. Bob Arnold, who was President of the congregation at the time, later wrote that MacKinnon arrived "at (the time of) his preaching maturity." It seems that was the case. He is remembered for his thoughtful sermons, but also for his activities in the community. When he announced his retirement almost 10 years later, the church honored him by publishing a book of his sermons under the title "The MacKinnon Years."

From the beginning, MacKinnon did not shy away from public controversy. For example, a month after he arrived the press gave prominent coverage of a Billy Graham Crusade at the Coliseum. At the time, MacKinnon was giving weekly radio addresses like the ministers before him, called "The Unitarian Hour." He decided to use that opportunity to critique the Billy Graham Crusade, and when WIBC pre-viewed his comments, they refused to let him deliver it. This censorship was reported in the paper, and MacKinnon announced he would expand his comments for a Sunday sermon the next week. A few excerpts from that sermon might give you a flavor of MacKinnon's view and style.

"People are attracted in mobs to hear him, because they have been sold a personality, not a message. . . . This was true, of course, of Billy Sunday, too. The difference between the two Billies is that Sunday's personality was his own, while Graham's is largely synthetic; the creation of his public relations department."

"The harm done by such an enterprise as the great revival - in addition to the waste of human resources to no really valuable end - is that it will convince many people that the problems of life are easily solved, when, as a matter of fact, they are not. The unequivocally authoritative pronouncements of the great evangelist may influence people to stop looking for answers to life's problems, or to relax in their search for practical ways to build a better common life together. If this happens; and insofar as it does happen, the great revival will have hurt us far more than it will have helped us."

I think this shows some of his homiletic style. Over the years, he continued to face controversial public issues. A few months later he spoke on the subject of "The Population Explosion," identifying the dangers of runaway population growth and the need to encourage birth control around the world. One sermon is about "The John Birch Society" (remember them?) and another entitled "What Should We Do About Berlin." On September 19, 1962, his title was, "A Case for Legalized Abortion." That was more then ten years before the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision.

But it was clear that his strongest passion was about race relations. Two of his sermons were published and distributed all around the city. One was called "Freedom's Centennial," to honor the one hundredth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. The other was called, "The Case for Open Occupancy." This was in support of the movement to repeal laws and other measures that restricted the rights of Blacks to equal housing opportunities. In August of 1963, he joined the Freedom March in Washington, D.C., which made famous the "I Have a Dream" speech of Martin Luther King. His sermon on that experience was delivered to an overflow audience.

Speaking of overflow audiences, Sunday attendance reached an all-time high, never yet to be repeated, when he spoke on the Sunday following the John F. Kennedy assassination to 735 people. The filling of churches on that Sunday was true the country over, and All Souls was not exempt.

Like the ministers who preceded him at All Souls, MacKinnon didn't hesitate to take on controversial issues. But also like his predecessors, the vast majority of his sermons dealt with religious, philosophical, ethical, and psychological human growth topics. He described himself as a Humanist and, also like his predecessors, was a signer of the 1933 Humanist Manifesto that launched the organized humanist movement in the United States.

A superficial understanding of humanism might equate it with atheism or agnosticism - that it denies the existence of God. For MacKinnon, it was far more complex than that. Though he very rarely spoke of God, he did give a sermon entitled, "My Belief In God." Here is part of what he said:

"Though I would rather not use the personal pronoun for him, what I believe about God is this: God is the sum total of all those phenomena, events, and relationships which we human beings judge to be good, helpful of achieving good, or able to serve as a basis or resource for achieving good. . . ."

"Some may say that my God is just an idea, that He has no objective existence apart from my thinking. This is not true, for the phenomena, events and relationships which comprise my God are very definite, real, and objective. They do exist apart from my thinking. The only subjective element is that I select these factors and call them God. . . ."

"I have a strong emotional orientation toward the conclusions of this philosophy. My belief in God is a way to express that emotional orientation. I not only recognize that I am related to the nature of things, but I feel warmly at home in the universe. I not only recognize that I, as a human being, am significant, but I feel that my life has a deep rich meaning."

MacKinnon's philosophy was quintessential Unitarianism, as it was expressed at its best in his day. His affirmation of freedom, reason, and tolerance in religion was a consistent theme in so many sermon's. He was extremely proficient in discussing religious issues, and provided a skilled voice in proclaiming the Unitarian view to the public.

Over the years, MacKinnon had been involved in quite a number of community concerns which was consistent with All Souls long-standing sense of itself as the church that is "A Religious Center With a Civic Circumference." Of all the concerns he had, improved race relations was at the top of his list.

He was one of the original founders of the Indianapolis Urban League, and active in the NAACP. He was a member and Vice President of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union, as well as a member of the United World Federalists and the American Humanist Association. From 1960 to 1962, he participated as one of five clergy on a TV panel show called "SCOPE." He served on the city's Human Relations Council. He even served as President of the Butler Tarkington Neighborhood Association, where he lived.

He served with distinction in Unitarian denominational offices. He was President of the Unitarian Ministers' Association and a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Unitarian Association.

There were several milestones within the church during his tenure that should be mentioned. All Souls has long had, and I think continues to have, a somewhat fragile understanding of its responsibility as an institutional voice on public policy issues, particularly controversial ones. If our highest value is respect for the individual, and the rights of individual conscious, then it is inappropriate for the church, as an institution, to take a stand on a controversial policy.

For example, it may be that 80-90% of Unitarians Universalists in general, or even UU members of this church, support the right of a woman's choice when it comes to the question of abortion. No one would question the minister's right - or even responsibility - to speak out on the issue in sermons. No one would question an individual members right or responsibility to work actively for the cause. But if the church as an institution declares a position on this issue, does it dismiss, insult, or even silence the voice of the ten percent of members in good standing that disagree? Abortion is just one issue. Others might include the death penalty or the war in Iraq, or even national economic policy.

One way to address this dilemma is an organization called the Fellowship for Social Justice. This is an independent organization for Unitarians who may wish to take a stand on a particular issue. They may speak as a group of Unitarian Universalists, but they may not speak for All Souls. John MacKinnon introduced and encouraged the creation of the Fellowship for Social Justice, allowing for an arm of activists who would not infringe on the right of other All Souls members to their own dissenting opinions. The Fellowship for Social Justice is still alive and well, and in fact is holding a meeting today following the service in the Beattie room.

Also under his tenure, the Frontiers of Knowledge Program flowered. This program was designed to bring to All Souls some top thinkers from all over the country to speak on issues that are, what we might call, cutting edge thinking. Though the program began a couple of years before his arrival, it peaked during his years. For example in 1959 Chauncey Leake, President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science spoke on "Science and Ethics., in 1962 Dr. Patrick Malin, Executive Director of the ACLU spoke on "The Strain and Strength of a Fee Society," in 1964, Whitney Young, Executive Director of the National Urban League spoke on "New Dimensions in Race Relations," and in 1966, Theodore Sorenson, for Special Counsel to President Kennedy (also a Unitarian) spoke on "The Ethical Dilemma of the Public Servant." In the ten years of his ministry, there were over 50 such presentations. I am glad to say that the Frontiers of Knowledge has been revived - Butler President Bobby Fong spoke to us a few weeks ago - and future presentations are expected soon.

MacKinnon also introduced the tremendously successful dinner discussion groups, where groups of eight people would bring pitch in dinners once a month to other members' houses for dinner and discussion on topics from book discussion or religion to current events. The dinner discussion groups facilitated personal bonding of friendships that continues today.

The 1960s also corresponded with the peak of church growth for all churches, including All Souls. The baby boom was booming, the children were multiplying, and in 1964, the Board appointed a special Committee to study the over-crowded conditions. The new church building was bulging with people, as were all churches everywhere. The result was a recommendation to hold two services on Sunday morning, a policy that lasted until the end of the sixties. In 1966, membership peaked at 846. Attendance at the two services peaked at 450. It was the golden days for churches everywhere. All that was soon to change.

The decade of the sixties was perhaps the mirror image opposite of what we say about the month of April. It began with the calm peacefulness of a lamb, and ended with the ferocious roar of a lion.

When John MacKinnon came to All Souls in the beginning of the sixties, the baby boom families were growing, and the concept of the nuclear family with working dad, stay-at-home mom, lots of children, and suburban bliss was real. By the end of the sixties many families were falling apart, the beginnings of feminism were luring moms into the workforce, and cities were dying, turning the suburbs into a fortress of armor against the threat of the city. At the beginning of the sixties, Martin Luther King, Jr. was preaching nonviolence, and the civil rights movement was challenging us to live up to our ideals as a free society. By the end of the sixties, King was dead, the inner cities were burning from riots, and the civil rights movement had transformed into something called "Black Power," which often threatened even white sympathizers by its confrontational style and the making of demands, rather than invoking ideals, for justice. The beginning of the sixties was Camelot, when the future looked promising, and the torch of leadership had been passed to a President who represented a new generation. We had rebuilt Europe after the war, and the whole world looked up to us for our leadership and vision. The Peace Corps, for example, represented American compassion and idealism. By the end of the sixties, Camelot was long gone, and King Arthur was dead. We were bogged down in a war on the other side of the world with no obvious end. Most of the world despised us for what it saw as our arrogance. Communism was making progress in the propaganda war, and the Cold War was quickly turning to hot and deadly. At home, there was rioting in the streets, colleges were becoming battlegrounds, and being shut down on one hand by protesters or on the other by repressive authorities and armed police.

In 1968, for example, I was a college freshman, and I remember a conversation with other students who told me they were going to vote for Richard Nixon in November. They were going to vote for Richard Nixon, they said, because he was so repressive that surely that would ignite the Revolution that this country so desperately needs. In music, in classes, in relationships, no young person was untouched by the spirit of protest and rebellion. It was a different world.

The transformation of society from the beginning to the end of the sixties had a profound impact on John MacKinnon, as well as on All Souls.

John MacKinnon was a gentleman, as well as a gentle man. He was committed to a civil society. From his point of view, society was becoming most uncivil. The decade was taking its toll. The violence was the worst part - the assassination of President Kennedy, and then of Martin Luther King. In the Selma march in 1965, Unitarian minister James Reeb was beaten to death by white racists. Reeb had been a longtime friend of MacKinnon's, and in fact MacKinnon had encouraged Reeb, years ago, to shift his affiliation as a Presbyterian minister to Unitarian.

But the violence that hurt him so deeply was even broader. He had been a devoted follower of Martin Luther King, who preached nonviolence. MacKinnon had, from his days in Wilmington, Delaware in the 1940s, been in the forefront of the cause of racial justice. He helped to create the Urban League in Indianapolis, and was active in the NAACP. With Dr. King gone, it seemed that the so-called "militants" were leading the cause of civil rights, and the language of confrontation, and even violence, seemed to be winning.

This was also felt within the Unitarian Universalist Association when, in 1968, the General Assembly in Cleveland confronted a demand by the Black Affairs Council for a million dollars in reparations to create an office in the UUA for Black interests. Though he opposed the move, MacKinnon nevertheless recruited a speaker who supported it to give a Sunday sermon explaining the move.

But the Vietnam War was perhaps the ultimate dilemma for him. In general, he supported the war, while the majority of Unitarian Universalists across the country were increasingly speaking out against it. He gave several sermons explaining his position that unless we stop the communists in Southeast Asia, we may not be able to stop them at all. More importantly, he was disturbed by what he perceived as the confrontational and uncivil behavior of many protesters who vocally opposed to the war. In a 1967 sermon entitled "The Protest Generation," he had this to say:

"In spite of the few benefits flowing from the protest generation, their impact is largely irrelevant. They are not going to remake the world into paradise because they don't know what paradise is (only what it is not) and because they have no idea what it takes to make or to run a paradise. The protest generation may have therapeutic value for the participants therein - a chance to work off their revolt against their parents in dramatic, satisfying and ego-feeding ways."

Over the years, John MacKinnon earned and deserved a lot of respect, not just from All Souls members, but from the wider Unitarian Universalist denomination. Those within the church who disagreed with him on some issues of the late sixties by and large continued to respect his voice.

By 1968, he was reaching retirement at 65. He wrote in an essay about the events of 1968 that he was feeling "despondent." In May, he submitted his resignation, to be effective by December 31, though he continued into 1969. His last day at All Souls was January 31, 1969.

In retirement, he served as an interim minister at Rockford, Illinois, and at a Unitarian Church in England. He returned to All Souls in 1975 to serve as interim while the next minister, Paul Beattie, took a sabbatical leave. He remained active for many years, preaching all over the country.

John MacKinnon died in August, 1983, at age 79. His passing was a quiet one at his summer home in Michigan. A memorial service was held both in Wilmington, Delaware and at All Souls. Bob Arnold, who was president when MacKinnon arrived, said at the service, "I can still see John, puttering around the church before an evening meeting, with his loafers, old gray trousers, un-matching scotch plaid tie, and the inevitable wreath of cigarette smoke encircling his head."

John MacKinnon did this congregation a great service. He gave unconditional leadership through perhaps the most tumultuous time in this country since the civil war. He earned the respect of all, including those who disagreed with him. He stood for his convictions, and never let go of his values.

He was particularly fond of poetry, and at his memorial service they read a poem he composed during the last days of his life. I will close with those verses.

Out of the rich resources of our earth

We've wrought, by honest toil of hand and brain,

The complex pattern needed to sustain

Our lives, and make them worthy of our birth.

Within the ways by which our spirits grow,

We've built by intermixing heart and soul,

The vision of a worth enhancing goal

Of life, much better than the life we know.

Through love and fellowship we celebrate

By work of heart and hand and soul and mind

We build a city worthy to adore.

The graceful gifts of life we dedicate

Unto the worth and weal of humankind,

And bless our noblest dreams, forevermore.