A History of Jesus People USA

By Jon Trott

Part 7
Action -- Social and Political, I

Many intentional Christian communities began with a political vision, a pristine ideological commitment to freeing the oppressed, breaking the bonds of racism, or making war on poverty. Other communal experiments started by emphasizing community itself as the locus of Christian involvement, seeing their fellowship as a political light on a hill, a faithful remnant in prophetic protest against the powers and principalities. From our own standpoint, there was much to learn from such communities, and over the years we did listen and learn from our brothers and sisters.

Yet we began with no such overarching abstract agendas or intellectual viewpoints. We were Jesus freaks, not philosophers. Our beliefs came from the Scriptures, and our burning vision was not abstract, but rather a Person. We wanted to be disciples of Jesus Christ, going wherever He chose to lead us. We knew He wanted us to serve the poor; He said those who didn't would not be with Him in heaven ("Depart from me . . ."). We understood that the Bible challenged both conservative and liberal camps, refusing either side's political answers to man's moral dilemma.

To follow Jesus in the world, we had to engage the world where we met it, and engage it through scriptural eyes and hands. Whether witnessing on the street--"Jesus loves you, man, wanna paper about Him?"--or helping a homeless man find shelter for the night, we dared to believe that Christ was the center of our lives.

What we may not have wholly understood were the political ramifications of following Jesus. Though we were certainly no threat to the status quo on the level that our Master was, we were about to get some lessons in politics, Chicago-style.

When we first moved to Uptown, local residents approached us and informed us about the area's political landscape. Looking back at that era today, it seems apparent there were at least three forces at work in Uptown: the "regular" Democratic Party, with a legacy reaching back into the era of Richard Daley Sr.; the "progressive" Democrats, represented by Uptown resident and author Studs Terkel, among others; the populist/radical "Heart of Uptown Coalition," with roots in the sixties' Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and Black Panthers.

We didn't know who was who politically in Uptown. And we listened uncritically to particularly negative reports concerning the Heart of Uptown Coalition. Jerome Orbach, a local politician, befriended us, assuring us that his agenda was also to help the poor. When in 1983 he ran against a Heart-endorsed candidate for alderman, our votes helped defeat his opponent by a thin margin.

Heart of Uptown's Wilson Avenue offices were only two blocks from our 4707 North Malden address, and they viewed us as suspiciously as we viewed them. Because we had turned our old Paulina residence into condos in an attempt to pay for the Malden property, Heart denounced us in their meetings as reactionaries who had come to Uptown to speculate on property. We viewed them as radical opportunists who (it was alleged) ripped off the poor and government programs for the poor. These charges were untrue on both sides. Yet in this missed opportunity to communicate with one's neighbor, the greater error belonged to the Christians--us.

We believed the worst about Heart of Uptown without once sitting down and talking to them, grappling with their zealous rage at what was happening to Uptown's poor. Perhaps, like many "good" Christians, we tended to equate conservative politics with conservative morals. And we couldn't help but react to Heart's adversarial approach to politics. We also--and this hurts to admit--reacted to their harsh exteriors, their unpolished language and angry tone. But if we had listened, we would have learned.

Between the years of 1970 and 1985, nearly fifteen thousand units of low-income housing vanished in Uptown. Then-radical Todd Gitlin (who later authored a definitive book on sixties radicalism, The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage) wrote in 1970 of his group's efforts to stop gentrification in Uptown. ¹He thought they had succeeded in halting the construction of a community college which would have required the leveling of much of Uptown's core low-income housing. Heart of Uptown picked up the fight that Gitlin's group (JOIN) left behind, but by 1980, Truman College was a reality and 1,500 apartments were history.

This complex history was unknown to us even as we coped with the end result of the battle. A 1984 Jesus People USA mail-out referred to the housing crisis:

A mother losing her welfare check needs us to watch her five kids for three months, another mother having to move out of a bad living situation has to have a place for her two children until she can move. We continue to feed 200<->250 people from the streets each day; also many additional food baskets go out....

The need for emergency housing seems to be on the upswing with people coming nightly for a place to sleep. We will be helping with the overnight shelter when it opens again this winter. ²

Uptown's history was not unique. Both in Chicago and elsewhere, the one-sided struggle between the poor and building speculators has gone on for decades. Low-income neighborhoods fell into the hands of landlords who milked poor renters but didn't keep up the buildings.

Since moving to Malden in 1979, we had taken in a homeless family here and there, housing them in rooms of vacationing JPUSAs or our Magnolia building's living room. But the numbers began to increase. By the mid-eighties, homelessness had become not only a neighborhood but a national problem. This was glaringly obvious in Uptown, where in the best of times homeless men and women are easily visible, wandering down Wilson or Broadway streets. In the wake of budget cuts, homelessness became epidemic.

Our own resources were woefully thin, but without being naive, we believed God would provide a way to do his will: "Inasmuch as ye have done foe the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" (Matt. 25:40 KJV). In the early eighties, most of the homeless we encountered were single men, along with the familiar few "bag ladies." By the winter of 1986, that picture had begun to change. Suddenly, women with children were homeless in large numbers, and the city of Chicago simply didn't know what to do about it. It soon became a wry joke among JPUSAs that every time Chicago's Department of Human Services got a phone call from another homeless mother, their reaction was instantaneous: "Let's send 'em to the Jesus People!"

Near the end of 1985, we got a further wake-up call. We suddenly found ourselves no longer living in Uptown. Overnight, our neighborhood had been renamed Sheridan Park Historic District. A developer had purchased dozens of buildings around us with plans to turn Uptown into an upscale neighborhood, then used his connections to push through "Historic District" status for the area. The bottom line was simple: such a designation meant the developer received a 20 percent tax break.

The evictions began. On July 29, 1986, a building only six blocks from ours, housing nearly forty Laotian and Cambodian families, was marked for gentrification by the developer. Many of the families had come to America as "boat people," and most had fled nearly certain death at the hands of communist regimes. To our delight, a number of families had moved into the one large building at 4216-24 North Beacon and formed a sort of loosely-knit commune of their own. Doors were open to other families, children ran up and down the halls. We felt a kinship with them and befriended many of the families, tutoring parents and children in English, helping them understand this strange American culture they'd been thrown into.

The note under each door on July 29 was terse: "To all tenants, as new owners of your building we have been informed of many violations. We must ask that all tenants vacate their apartment by 9-1-86 to begin renovation. As of 9-1-86 all utilities, gas, water[,] electric service will be turned off. Sincerely, C.P.O. Management/Sheridan Park Associates." ³

This was the first any of the families had heard about being evicted. Fearful but determined, they told us about their plan to stage a march on the developer's offices. On August 16, 1986, we stood at the end of Malden and watched as a determined band of refugees holding signs came toward us. We added 150 JPUSAs to their number, armed with our own signs: "Uptown NOT Yuptown," said one. Seeing us, one of the march leaders burst into tears. "Many of us were afraid to come. The police in our country . . ." He didn't need to say more.

News coverage of the march forced the developer to clean up his image by giving each family one thousand dollars to relocate. But the Chicago Sun-Times touched on the deeper sadness, quoting Chris Abhey of Uptown's Lao Association: "We have started rebuilding our lives here . . . Sometimes I start feeling: What is the promise of America if hard work doesn't mean anything, if someone with more money can come and push you out." ⁴

As a result of the evictions and "price-outs" (rents suddenly being doubled so that poorer tenants would get out), JPUSA realized Uptown as we knew it was under attack. In early 1987 we joined a number of other religious and social service organizations to form the Uptown Task Force on Displacement and Housing Development. ⁵ Meanwhile, it was becoming apparent to us that Alderman Orbach had been involved with the developers.

Helen Shiller, a twenty-year activist and member of the Heart of Uptown Coalition, had nearly won against the Democratic regular for alderman back in 1975. ⁶ In 1987 she was running again, and on a "stop the gentrifiers" platform. But old ideas die hard. After all, she'd been a member of the SDS back in the sixties, and could cuss up a storm. Could any Evangelical really vote for such a woman? Finally, a roofer who knew some of our work crew members suggested, "Ya know, you guys and Heart of Uptown seem like you're on the same page about this housing thing. Why don't you guys sit down with Helen and talk?"

So we invited Helen Shiller for a visit to the Cornerstone offices, and she acted just about as nervous as we were. But the ice was broken when Helen, who published her own magazine, Keep Strong, began talking shop with our magazine's typesetter. She forthrightly confessed that we had been viewed as reactionaries by Heart up until our Cambodian march. We in turn brought up the issues that others had raised against Heart of Uptown. The air was cleared, but we had some talking among ourselves to do.

It became increasingly plain to us that as a community called to serve the poor, we had to take a stand against the speculators and wealthy interests aligned against Uptown's poor. A community meeting was held, and various pastors stood up to explain why they believed we should cast our votes for Helen. In most presidential and statewide elections, JPUSA leadership takes no strong role other than to vote and express their respective opinions. In this case, however, the pastors and older community members (including this writer) did urge everyone to vote as a block for Shiller. "This election is about the identity of Uptown and the call Jesus has put on our own lives," said pastor Tom Cameron. "I honestly don't think that anyone who votes against Helen Shiller understands the calling to the poor Jesus has given us." The issue wasn't Helen versus Jerry; the issue was whether or not we would stand with the poor. Our mood was somber as the community gathering broke up; we realized that Shiller running against party regular Orbach, would likely lose. But we knew what we had to do.

Not even Shiller's office was fully aware of our change of heart. Election night we voted, then gathered around the television's election coverage waiting for the punch line. Fifteen minutes earlier, the newscaster had said the forty-sixth Ward race was "too close to call." But suddenly he announced, "Jerome Orbach has conceded the forty-sixth Ward race after discovering that a religious organization called Jesus People USA has voted as a block for Helen Shiller." ⁷ In the end, our block of approximately 250 votes swung the razor-close election. ⁸ We cheered, amazed that our quiet political choice had just been "shouted from the rooftops" to the entire city of Chicago.

We also realized that we were in for it. And the backlash came. We had listened to the rumors about the Heart of Uptown Coalition. Now rumors began circulating about us. As David K. Fremon writes in his Chicago Politics Ward by Ward:

In the end, it might have been an unusual constituency which decided the election. Jesus People U.S.A., a religious group with many members living in the ward, supported Orbach throughout his career. They suddenly switched to Helen Shiller in the run-off. Orbach supporters charged that a city official had offered the Jesus People's construction firm city contracts if Shiller was elected--a charge the group denies. ⁹

The rumor was based entirely on thin air. By law, all Chicago's city construction must be done by union labor. JPUSA, as a partnership, is not involved with unions, and so our construction crews by default are disallowed from working for the city. This unfounded rumor allowed those opposing us to brand us as cynical opportunists; the cynicism, however, was their own.

When, in early June, Shiller supporter Mayor Harold Washington visited Uptown's Truman College for an open forum, the meeting went up for grabs. One of Mr. Orbach's campaign managers began screaming "Judas! Judas!" at JPUSA pastor Dennis Cadieux, who of all the JPUSA leadership had personally been the closest to the Orbach organization. Others took up the chant. Shaken, we realized we had become a lightning rod for those feeling thwarted in their development plans.

A neighborhood block club which, at one point, had elected Dennis Cadieux its president soon advertised a meeting entitled "What Can We Do about the Jesus People?" Deciding on a gently confrontational approach, one or two JPUSAs attended the meeting. It became clear that many new neighbors, and a few of the wealthy older ones as well, wanted JPUSA out of the neighborhood.

Wounds of Christian friends, however, were more painful than wounds of political adversaries. Weeks after that election in April 1987, this writer was asked by friends in the Lakeview Evangelical Association--a network of Christian churches in the Uptown/Edgewater area--to write an editorial for their newsletter about JPUSA's support of Shiller. Instead, however, the article was shelved for an unfavorable story on the election results. We realized that to many Christians our siding with "socialists" and rough street people was inexplicable.

In September, we got around to running the editorial in our own zany church bulletin, The Rev Rag. It offered both a Bible lesson and some homemade historical commentary:

Why did the members of Jesus People U.S.A. vote for Helen Shiller in the 46th Ward? This question has been asked us in perplexity by many long-time friends. Our answer has nothing to do with personalities; Ms. Shiller being a "good" woman as opposed to Mr. Orbach being a "bad" man. Our reasons are far more fundamental.

Jesus minces no words in speaking of the final criteria on the day of judgment: "Then the King will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.'

"The righteous will respond with amazement, 'Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?' "

And what will Christ's reply be? "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me."

Jesus People U.S.A. has lived in the Uptown area nearly a decade, and in that time we have attempted not only to understand God's will for us, but also to express that will through action. We began a dinner service to the neighborhood street people, not as a planned program, but at the request of the street people themselves. Likewise, when it became evident that housing was a problem in the area, we attempted with our limited space to help as we could.

It was not until this year that we became aware of a plan, at least 15 years in the making, to renovate Uptown into a wealthy neighborhood. Our first inkling of this came from Uptown's Laotian/Cambodian community, a large number of [whom] were displaced from an apartment house by building developers. After marching with the Laotians and Cambodians in their protest against such prompt and uncaring evictions, we began looking around us with new understanding.

The purchase of additional area buildings by developers, as well as the "renaming" of our Uptown neighborhood to Sheridan Park Historical District (a designation which gained building owners a tax break) made us acutely aware that there was a move to "relocate" Uptown's poor to other areas. The end result of this would be the creation of a white, upwardly-mobile "suburb in the city."

Unfortunately, our then-alderman was in favor of such development. We, however, could not accept the concept of "gentrification," or the continuing relocation of the poor to undesirable neighborhoods. Those struggling in poverty would again find their money going into the pockets of unscrupulous slumlords who milk the buildings until there is nothing left. Once again the developers would come in and push the poor out. This process, repeated over and over, is an untreated rottenness in Chicago. It could be compared to doctors attempting to remove brain cancer by giving the patient a lobotomy; the cancer of poverty remains while the patient is worse off than ever.

Jesus did not view the poor as worthless. Often our society views the needy as second-class citizens standing in the way of development. This idea is profoundly unbiblical, because it is based on things rather than persons.

In a meeting between the Task Force on Displacement [an advocacy group for Uptown's poor] and the Sheridan Park developers, one developer stated, "We're interested in buildings, not people." To us as Christians, that's not development. People define a community, not buildings.

Uptown does have needs. It needs factories, businesses, job training for unskilled or semi-skilled workers, daycare facilities for the children, safe housing for the elderly and those Uptown citizens who are mentally handicapped--in short, the development of the people of Uptown.

Some may respond, "Well, then, why don't you do it?" We are doing all we can, but we simply don't have the millions of dollars it would take to alter the entire picture positively. "Then why are you rocking the boat?" The Bible says we cannot serve two masters, God and Mammon. We are not some impersonal organization, but neighbors to the poor, and as neighbors we must respond as we believe Christ would in our situation. That means doing everything we can do with the limited means we have, putting compassion before comfort and responsibility before respectability.

We pray for those who have felt offended by our actions. Biblically, we have been called to be peacemakers, not peace lovers, and that means we must remain true to biblical principles.

We have a powerful vision for Uptown. Even now, it is known as one of Chicago's, and America's, most racially and ethnically diverse neighborhoods. What other neighborhood has Cambodian and Laotian refugees, working class whites, American Indians, blacks, Vietnamese, and Hispanics all living together? Not only is Uptown diverse ethnically, but it is uniquely located near the lakefront where poorer families have opportunities to use the parks for soccer and baseball, go swimming, even teach the children to fish. Uptown could become a sterling example of a community of cooperation and reconciliation. People wouldn't come here to develop, but to be developed. That is our vision and our prayer. ¹⁰

The negative fallout from our Shiller vote continued for months, even years, after. A swarm of building inspectors found all sorts of "violations" that seemed dubious, even idiotic. The bottom line was, however, no joke. The price for "fixing" the various violations climbed up into the thousands of dollars.

More important, our "unsightly" line of dinner guests and homeless women and children continued to irritate our new and upscale neighbors. Our free space was again filling to overflowing:

Winter is nipping at our heels; it may be discomforting for us now and then, but for others their very existence is at stake. This is one of the reasons we, as a community and church, provide emergency housing. Right now, our housing supplies (blankets, sheets, pillows, and other related items) are down to almost nothing; if you have anything you could give, please contact Bette Buras.¹¹

Searching for a better solution than our dining room for church and everything else we were doing there, JPUSA pastors had been scouring the neighborhood for buildings. Finally, near the end of 1987, we discovered a giant factory building hiding on the alleylike Clifton Avenue. Just north of the very center of Uptown--Wilson and Broadway--the building stood only one block from Truman College.

Our Rev Rag announced the good news:

JPUSA has agreed on a deal for a 2 story 21,000 sq. ft. industrial building on Clifton. We can take possession of the all concrete structure January 1st. We plan on using the building for the Sunday church services, the hot meal program, and a variety of neighborhood services. ¹²

As 1988 began, we opened our Uptown Crisis Pregnancy Center, located at the 939 Wilson building also housing the Cornerstone offices. The new CPC provided free pregnancy testing and counseling, and along with explaining the alternatives to abortion, we found ourselves providing informational and material aid to new mothers. We had created our own version of what later became known as the "seamless garment" of human life issues: protection for the unborn, food and housing for the homeless, resistance toward forces aligned against the poor, and a continuing effort to lead others to Him who is Life.

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