474 - Seminarian Movement for a New Congress

Seminarian Movement for a New Congress
By Rollin M. Steele, Jr.

THE Seminarian Movement for a New Congress on the Princeton Theological Seminary campus, took its name from her sister organization, the Movement for a New Congress, which was set up as a national organization at Princeton University.

One hundred and thirty-four students at the Seminary worked until the end of the school year in June for the SMNC. Many others who were seeking or beginning jobs in the church, or who had other commitments, added their moral and financial support. During the late spring there were many jobs for students to do: lobbying for legislation, supporting candidates in primaries, visiting various church bodies, and setting up a framework for our organization. A director was chosen and appointed to supervise and coordinate the organization, and during the summer he and fifteen other students and faculty began planning for the Fall elections. It was determined that the Fall activities would have a two-pronged emphasis, one educational, and the other organizational.

In the Speer Library of the Seminary, hundreds of articles about United States involvement in Southeast Asia were catalogued and placed in a prominent position for easy reference. A film series was instituted which included: All We Are Saying, Where the People Are, No Vietnamese Ever Called Me Nigger, and America Is Hard to See.

A speaker series was initiated. Robert Bilheimer of the World Council of Churches, Richard Fernandez of Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam, Stanley Kelly, a professor of politics at Princeton University, and Dudley Sarfaty of the Synod of New Jersey, spoke to groups of students about seminarian involvement in politics. A panel consisting of three faculty members discussed the topic "The Church and the '70 Election Issues." The culmination of the educational program was a chapel series which was done immediately before the Fall break.

The organizational work began with a mailing to all students, including incoming juniors, explaining the SMNC. At registration

Rollin M. Steele, Jr., a graduate of Defiance College, is a Senior at Princeton Theological Seminary and one of the organizers of the Seminarian Movement for a New Congress.

475 - Seminarian Movement for a New Congress

we gave packets to students with further explanations and cards which allowed them to indicate their support by volunteering their time. Workshops were planned and conducted to train students in the art of practical politics. About one hundred and twenty Students began actually working for candidates around the country. Almost one-half of these worked near Princeton in New Jersey congressional races.

While proportionately a great many students worked for the Seminarian Movement for a New Congress in the early stages, there was a noticeable absence in the Fall of many of the upperclassmen who had participated in the Spring. One valuable lesson that the SMNC learned was that it is difficult if not impossible to maintain constructive enthusiasm for a period of several months over an issue like the Southeast Asian war. This is analogous to what politicians have always known. It is the reason why political campaigns are waged at an intense level over a short period of time at the eleventh hour just before elections.

One student who had been active in the Spring but not in the Fall had a very different explanation. He saw the Cambodian incident as a cause for his final disillusionment with the political process. Not only did Cambodia indicate to him a widening of the war, but it also made him question the effectiveness of one more movement when all the others had been so obviously impotent. Richard Fernandez underscored this feeling by predicting that the SMNC would not only be ineffective but that it might even be damaging. He predicted student involvement could hurt the chances of peace candidates in the coming election. The only reason he seemed to think that students should participate at all was to keep the spirit of peace organizations alive in a period when there was no other activity planned.

Some seminarians have adopted another alternative. Their disillusionment is with movements in general. They have chosen to witness to their beliefs by passively resisting the Government. They have chosen to be apolitical. Their attitude compares with those who set up communes in reaction to established cultural patterns.

Most of the students at the Seminary never participated at all in the SMNC. They either disagreed with the propositions upon which we were formed, or they felt that activity directly associated with politics was inappropriate for a theological seminary. Un-

476 - Seminarian Movement for a New Congress

fortunately these students for the most part refused to participate in any of the programs, so their voices were mute in what could have been a rewarding dialogue.

There were other students who perceived the SMNC not as the end of a long frustrating struggle, but as the beginning of a healthy, promising way for them to become involved in bringing an end to the war. One student admitted that for the past few years there had not been any way in which he in good conscience could have opposed our Government's foreign policy. Our Movement provided an avenue for his participation in a dialogue with the Government. The director of the Seminary Movement for a New Congress, and those who ultimately became the most involved in the Movement, held similar views. Those who conceived the Movement tried to sell it as a responsible way for those concerned about the war to witness to the political life of our country.

An evaluation of the political effectiveness of the SMNC is difficult. If we can claim any success, it is in terms of the numbers of students that were mustered to help and who might not otherwise have participated in the election process. Here the Seminary Movement for a New Congress was at least partially successful.

The question arises how a movement of this kind fits into the educational experience of a theological seminary. In educational circles, political movements are often born out of a deluge of rhetoric and die in the graveyard of their own slogans. From the very beginning many members of our organization, even in the heat of debate, remembered that men of good conscience can disagree over specific issues. Because of our special constituency, the question whether seminarians should plunge into political action became a crucial one.

One of the most articulate reasons for entering the realm of politics was given in the last chapel service before the October break. It was pointed out that there are few acts, if any, done in our society which are not political. Even if a person ignores the political system, he is in essence making a political decision. In a country where so many relationships are political in nature, effective ministry means becoming, in some sense, a political activist.

The SMNC was born in May, 1970, for a specific goal, and it passed out of existence on November 4, 1970. The memory of a shared experience remains with those who participated. Hopefully it marks not the end of seminarian involvement but a step in the direction of becoming more effectively involved within the political system.