“I will not be attending,” said the Rev. Damon Lynch III, pastor of New Prospect Baptist Church and leader of the Cincinnati boycott. He urged the Rev. Billy Graham to stay away until race relations improve.

        But the Rev. Mr. Graham said his message of racial reconciliation is needed more than ever by Cincinnati. Many black ministers have repudiated the boycott.

        So who's right? What would Jesus do?

        The answer looks easy. While the Rev. Mr. Graham spreads the good news, the Rev. Mr. Lynch spreads bad news. While one preaches God's love and the peace of salvation, the other preaches about crippling hate and says, “No justice, no peace.”

        “There is just as much in the Bible about justice as there is about saving souls,” the Rev. Mr. Lynch said. “Billy Graham could have achieved as much by not coming.”

        I think he's wrong. But the answer to what Jesus would do is not so simple.

        Many of us want only to hear the good news about love and mercy and saving grace. But Jesus was a radical, tough and uncompromising. He died on the cross for truth as well as love.

        I think Christ would side with saving souls, not investing in bitterness. But I think he would also have more sympathy with those who demand justice and force us to face our failures and flaws, than with those who smugly dismiss protests and refuse to face uncomfortable truths about our city.

        The Rev. Mr. Lynch knows the boycott is losing air like a punctured blimp, but he also knows it still casts a large shadow over Cincinnati.

        “Boycotts do that,” he said. “Everything has its ebb and flow. One reason for our success is that we have targeted people outside this city. There is a complacency in Cincinnati.

        “As a city, we will be lulled to sleep again and we will allow the pot to simmer. We're still in a state of denial. We're moving in circles, and we think we're moving forward.”

        I disagree with his tactics. I deplore the way the boycotters spread lies.
       But I can't deny that the Rev. Mr. Lynch has a certain spiritual power, forged in the civil rights struggle, founded on faith and hope. What he says about complacency and denial is truth.

        Cincinnati is divided like some churches — all peace and love, or all fire and brimstone. I'm no theologian. I don't even know how much I don't know. But I think Christ called on us to be honest with ourselves, and honest before God. In confession, there is forgiveness; in truth, freedom.

        If we cover our ears and refuse to listen to the Rev. Mr. Lynch, we might not be able to hear the path to peace from the Rev. Mr. Graham.

        “The next Sunday (after the crusade) will be the most segregated hour in America again, even in Cincinnati,” the Rev. Mr. Lynch said.

        Let's hope and pray that he's proved wrong by thousands of whites and blacks who join hands and lift their voices in song — not just for a few days, but Sunday after Sunday after Sunday.

       
       E-mail pbronson@enquirer.com or call 768-8301.
       

Adamowski on leaving: Time is right
CPS launches superintendent search
Wanted: new superintendent with vision, energy, courage, commitment
Billy Graham mission brings message to jail
Local Jewish leaders hear direct apology by Graham
'This mission is for eternity'
Graham appears at stadium to outline mission
Summer weather wreaking havoc
Drivers coming to count on hot line
Legal costs warning raised over gun suit
Man gets 15 years in restaurant shootings
Much of country faces blood shortage
Taxpayers split Bengals' bills
Tristate A.M. Report
Violent ex-husband sought after calling former wife
BRONSON: Two crusades
HOWARD: Some Good News
KORTE: City Hall
SMITH AMOS: Our Music Man
Kim Gray returns to Franklin schools as superintendent
Leaders swap ideas for future
Poll: Townships want new library
Replacement for prosecutor in Warren Co. becoming hot topic
Sludge pit foes wary of compromise
Vote on new park toilets stalled
A.G.: Don't seal abuse lawsuits
Churchill Downs receives 30-year tax break from city
Dog in people cemetery legal
N.Ky. man helping fight Western wildfires
Owensboro man forms priest-abuse victims group