A Church Anew Book Series: Interview with Rev. Paul Kittlaus, Author of “Organizing Justice Church”
Photo by Alyssa Kibiloski on Unsplash
Church Anew is delighted to continue a series that celebrates the books and contributions of leaders in our community. While we can’t share every book or article or milestone, feel free to nominate someone or some piece that you know by emailing support@churchanew.org. Pastor Eric Shafer has led a storied career across the church and is interviewing authors in this recurring feature. This week, we are happy to present Eric’s interview with Rev. Paul Kittlaus about his new book, Organizing Justice Church.
Please give a brief summary of your book:
Organizing Justice Church describes my work as a minister during the late 1950s to the end of the century, first years of turmoil and challenge to the political and cultural status quo and then years of a relative calm resting on a new status quo.
Why did you write this book?
I wrote this book because I want to recruit and encourage leaders of the church in building the justice church. I want to increase the capacity of the church to do its justice work. By justice work, I mean actions more challenging and dangerous than works of charity. I mean addressing the conditions that cause poverty and hunger.
Who should read this book?
Leaders of the church, both lay and clergy, are my intended audience. Today’s world is once again a time of turmoil. My hope would be that those who are engaged in bringing justice through the church would read this book as a metaphor for the lives they are living, using my experience as inspiration for the actions needed in a very different world of work, technology, family, social interactions whether in person or through social media and politics.
What do you hope your reader will take away from your book?
How to live a faithful life requires acknowledging that the role of the church is not only saving souls but equally important is the task of liberating the poor. We need leaders to free the captives, to empower the blind to see their oppression, to proclaim the year of the Lord, to tear down the walls of hostility, and to beat sword into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks.
You write about the California “Young Turks” from early in your career. Who were they?
Critical to my own experience, what shored me up as I took amazing risks, were colleagues who walked with me along my life path. An explosive disruption, the need to step back to find a workable plan, essential camaraderie in time of excitement and challenges, risk taking or acting according to existing norms or expectation, and recognizing the importance of the current reality: all of these were negotiated with a very close group of clergy colleagues referred by our Southern California United Church of Christ (UCC) as the “Young Turks.” These pastors and their families developed a deep bond that undergirded our ministries throughout our lifetimes.
Several of us were involved in planning an anti-war event at the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles. The purpose was to counsel and assist men who had decided to turn in their draft cards. A new federal law made it a felony to advise draft-age men to burn or turn in their draft cards. The Turks encouraged each other to participate in this experience. We met at our home in Pacoima to think through what this might mean. We wanted legal help alerted and available. If we drove down, we needed someone to take our cars back home. We hoped to locate someone who could arrange bail money. In another room, the wives were discussing how to live cooperatively if their husbands were in prison. Several made plans to move in together or to join families.
We arrived at the Federal Building to find well-armed police outside and guards inside a locked building. We left the cards in a pile by the door. No clergy arrests were made. Too boring for the media. Nevertheless the men who turned in their cards faced legal proceedings and prison time.
We organized support for urban ministry within the UCC in southern California and stood in support of each other in our separate ministerial projects. We stood against the Ku Klux Klan in southern California and went to Selma. We took many actions opposing the war in Vietnam. We supported youth as they stood opposite county sheriff officers on Sunset Boulevard. And we played together. Our families went to Red Rock Crossing in Arizona and to Ensenada Mexico for holidays. We also gathered at each other’s homes to relax and to plot. The deepened friendships supported our work, both as we made collective decisions and as we took individual risks.
During your time in Washington, you interacted with President Carter on numerous occasions. Tell us more.
Serving as the Director of the Washington Office of the United Church of Christ from 1974 to 1984 provided opportunities for lobbying and organizing on a national and even international scale. The death of President Carter brings to mind many stories recounted in the book, stories of times spent at the White House for social events as well as political ones, as Carter used faith-based values to shape his policy and called on our office to develop hospital cost containment, human rights, and other foreign and domestic policies. I had access to the White House, primarily through close working relationships with staff, during the Carter presidency.
One night just after midnight the phone rang. The White House switchboard was asking me to come immediately to the White House. Buses were waiting to take us to Andrews Air Force Base. President Carter had successfully completed shuttle diplomacy between Israel and Egypt. Air Force One was due to land at 1:45 am and we were to join the welcoming party to greet the president as he arrived in the middle of the night. We cheered as the president disembarked. News cameras rolled and flash bulbs flashed.
A few months later I was invited to the North Lawn of the White House as Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed the Middle East Peace Accords that won them the Nobel Prize for Peace. Of course President Carter was very aware of the shortcomings of these accords and worked the rest of his life to support the rights of Palestinians whose lives were to have been addressed through these two leaders, both of whom died shortly after the accord were signed.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
There is much to be done. I hope readers identify issues of their own and live into them actively and with passion.
Rev. Eric Shafer
The Rev. Eric C. Shafer is a regular contributor to Church Anew and serves as “Pastor in Residence” for Global Refuge - www.globalrefuge.org - which is now in its 85th year serving immigrants and refugees. He has served ELCA congregations in Pennsylvania and California and was the ELCA’s Communication Director, a synod bishop’s assistant, and an interfaith communication executive. He and his wife, Kris, live at Pilgrim Place in Claremont, California.
