By Lesley Barker
As a youth pastor or leader in a church, you may have had
conversations with teens that have experienced hypocrisy, manipulation and even
abuse at the hands of adults in the church. You may have heard them argue that
if this is how Christians behave, they don’t want anything to do with the
Christian God. It can be difficult for teens to separate the inexcusable
behaviors they may have witnessed by Christians from the character of God. The
Fuller Youth Institute even produced a guidebook to help youth pastors discuss
hypocrisy with their students[1].
Robert Velarde described hypocrisy as a core objection that people, in general,
raise against Christianity. He wrote: “Phrased
in many ways, the core of the objection is, “If Christianity is true, why are
there hypocrites in the church?” In other words, if Christianity is really
supposed to change people, then why do some who profess to believe in Jesus set
such bad examples?”[2]
This post proposes the life of Elisha Green, a famous Kentucky Christian
born in 1816 in Paris, Kentucky, as an example of a person whose vocation could
have been derailed had he clung to his childhood experiences with adult
Christians as the lens through he viewed the Christian God.
We know about his life because he wrote an autobiography
which is rich in details about his experiences as an enslaved child and
teenager and then about living as a free man in Kentucky which was a slave
state[3].
Green was a hugely influential nineteenth century African American pastor. He
purchased his own freedom along with that of his wife and two of his children.
He was instrumental in helping freed slaves become homeowners in Paris, Kentucky.
He worked for African American rights in post-Civil War Kentucky. He
simultaneously pastored two churches: one in Paris and the other in Maysville,
traveling between them on the train. A train derailment on the bridge at
Millersburg left him injured and walking with a limp. He was the victim of racial
violence on a train when he was 65 and successfully sued a white man in court,
becoming dubbed “the Rosa Parks of Kentucky” because of that suit.
When Green was just five years old, he was at Sunday School
at an African American gathering of Christians in Paris. He describes how a
look-out was posted down the road from the meeting to warn the people if the
Patrollers came. The Patrollers were a posse of white men sent to break up any gatherings
of African Americans to prevent the possibility that they might plot to run
away or revolt. Green watched when the Patrollers entered the meeting and began
to beat the adults. Green ran all the way home, a distance of about a mile. He
was forced, because his new mistress inherited him as if he had been a piece of
furniture, to move away from his family. Next he was sold to Mr. Warder who was
a pastor.
If the teens in your youth group put themselves in Elisha
Green’s childhood shoes, would they be enthusiastically ready to become Christians?
How do they account for Green’s decision when he was plowing a large field as an
enslaved sixteen-year-old to fully dedicate himself to Jesus Christ and, soon
after making that decision, to allow his owner to baptize him in a pond one
morning before breakfast? After he learned to read, Green studied the Bible. He
was licensed to preach and pastored until he was an old man. Does this story
lead your students to consider whether Elisha Green may have encountered the
God of the Bible to have been so compelling that he was able to discount what
he had experienced earlier at the hands of Christians? Does this man’s story shift the
attitudes that any of your students have about Christianity?
Each week we publish a post on this blog for children’s and youth ministry leaders in churches about a famous Kentucky Christian whose life made a difference to the history of Kentucky. In addition to the blog, a website, and a walking trail leading to a reimagined early nineteenth century camp meeting (coming soon), the Kentucky Faith & Public History Education Project is producing a series of high-interest easy-reader chapter books about famous Kentucky Christians. Elisha Green’s story is told in New Boots – the Story of Elisha Green, by Lesley Barker[4] available for sale as a paperback or an e-book on Amazon.
[1]
Fuller Youth Institute. Talking About Hypocrisy with Young People.
ONLINE at https://fulleryouthinstitute.org/assets/fyi-files/Hypocrisy_Convo_Starter.pdf.
ACCESSED 11/5/2020.
[2]
Robert Velarde. “What About Hypocrites in the Church?” in Focus on the Family. Jan.
1, 2009. ONLINE at https://www.focusonthefamily.com/faith/what-about-hypocrites-in-the-church/.
ACCESSED 11/5/2020.
[3]
Elisha Winfield Green. Life of Elisha W. Green, One of the Founders
of the Kentucky Normal and Theological Institute. Maysville, KY. The
Republican Printing Office. 1888.
[4]
Lesley Barker. New Boots- The Story of Elisha Green. 2020. A Kentucky Faith
and Public History Project Publication. Paris. Kentucky.
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