By Glenn Dromgoole

It’s summer, and churches all over town are having Vacation Bible School — and that brings to mind the most memorable VBS of my life. And I wasn’t even a participant.

It was 60 years ago, the summer of 1965. In our little Southeast Texas town, where my dad pastored the Baptist church, the church decided to open Vacation Bible School to all the children of the community. The schools would be integrated in September. VBS would be integrated three months earlier.

That Monday morning when VBS opened, quite a few black children showed up. And several white teachers walked out. That afternoon their husbands were in my dad’s office demanding his resignation. When he refused to quit, they called for a vote of the church.

That was in June. The vote wouldn’t be until August. Anonymous letters criticizing my dad and calling for his ouster were mailed to church members.  Rumors circulated all summer. Dad had been the pastor there for 20 years. Members he had ministered to during family tragedies — or sat with in the hospital or baptized their children and conducted their weddings — turned on him. One of my mother’s best friends never spoke to her again.

I was working nearby and living at home for the summer between my junior and senior years in college, and I saw how the conflict hurt my parents deeply. My younger brother, too. He was playing Pony League baseball, and his coach was one of my dad’s most vocal critics.

Finally, on the night of the vote, the church was packed. The town’s postmaster, who knew everybody in town and how they felt about the situation, kept his own private tally as members arrived, predicting the outcome of the vote.

It turned out to be overwhelmingly in favor of my dad continuing as pastor – better than a 2-1 margin. The postmaster’s private tally missed it by just two votes. 

School integration that fall went smoothly. The issue had already been decided by the vote at the Baptist church. 

(A little humorous side effect: My brother, who was entering ninth grade in high school, was elected freshman class president. All the black students, knowing about his father, voted for him — as well as a good many of his white friends. He said he learned first-hand the power of the black vote! He was class president all four years.)

The ordeal our family went through that summer could have turned me off the church. But it had exactly the opposite effect. I had watched a man stand up for what he believed, do what he knew to be right, and put his faith on the line. That was a religious experience, a turning point in my own faith.

And there is one thing more. That summer long ago, my dad became my hero.

Glenn Dromgoole is the author of more than 35 books and has a new one coming out this fall — The Christmas Spirit: A Celebration in Word and Song. He and his wife Carol own Texas Star Trading Company in downtown Abilene.