The second incident at First Baptist Church in Bellflower that helped me on my way down into the Belly of the Whale actually occurred in 1960, shortly before I joined the Navy. I was in Graduate School at UCLA, but I came home regularly. I was selected as President of the Youth Council -- an over-arching team that oversaw all ages and aspects of our youth group; Jr. Hi through College. I actually functioned as a kind of Assistant Youth Director. One of our programs was an athletic program between churches; flag football, basketball and volleyball.
We had a winning flag football team was a rousing success because we were able to recruit a number of players from nearby Cerritos Jr. College -- they were the Junior Rose Bowl champions that year. Back in the old days, the local Two Year (Junior) Colleges actually participated in a Rose Bowl game called the Jr. Rose Bowl game. This recruitment of ringers not only helped us to win games, but this was an "evangelistic program." All participants in the game were required to attend church regularly. This seemed like a win-win situation to me.
The problem came when Basketball Season began. I had a friend who was a new Christian and had just begun to come to the church. He knew a lot of the people at Long Beach Jr. College. He asked me if he should try to recruit some of the basketball team. Wow, why not -- another potential win-win. He was successful, we got a few players who were willing to attend church and play on our team. Well, they showed up on Sunday morning. I received a call from the pastor! "You have to correct this situation. Those men can't be a part of the church. You have to tell them that they can't be on the basketball team." I asked why. Unfortunately those young men had the wrong skin color. They were black. I was appalled! Yet, to a shame that I still feel, I told those young men that they weren't welcome at our church. I was mad at myself, but I was also mad at the church. How could they.
I suppose that I should also tell about the context. The motto of FBC Bellflower was "A Friendly Church in the heart of a Friendly Town." Sounds good -- and to some extent true. The problem was that the town wasn't friendly if you weren't white -- although they did tolerate some Latinos. The town was a dairy town settled by the Dutch. My school was filled with Van this and Van that. Lot's of blond hair and blue eyes. Growing up I didn't even think about this. I don't think I ever personally came into contact with any black people. As a side note, one of my good friends in High School went to UCLA with me and pledged a fraternity. I asked him how he could get into that frat -- they are Jewish. Well, so was he. UCLA changed me and opened my eyes.
Bellflower is different now and so is the church. But, this event was one more thing that helped me to decide that I wanted nothing to do with a career in the church. I really did not want to be the pastor of a church.
