Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 20, 1994 TAG: 9408220066
SECTION: RELIGION PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ESTES THOMPSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: FAIRMONT, N. C. LENGTH: Medium
At a recent tobacco warehouse opening, the Rev. Herman Winberry, pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church, prayed for a prosperous year and urged that there be ``no secret dishonesties ... but open fairness'' during the tobacco sales.
Then he made a pitch directly to heaven: ``Jesus, we know you spent a lot of time outdoors when you were in the flesh, so appreciate the people who work the land.''
Prayer at the tobacco warehouse is as much as part of the opening day ceremony as the thick, sweet-smelling dust rising from the deep golden piles of cured tobacco.
``I have a great respect for the tobacco farmer. The farmer badly needs some self-esteem about his life and his work,'' Winberry said. ``My salary has been paid by tobacco all my ministerial life.''
Winberry, who grew up on a tobacco farm in Onslow County, said a member of his church had asked him if there was anything wrong with growing tobacco. Winberry suggested the man seek an answer through prayer.
``It's a concern on the minds and hearts of many farmers,'' he said.
Some religion experts say the ministers should be working actively to end tobacco farming because of mounting scientific evidence that it harms smokers. That isn't a popular position in tobacco towns, but it shouldn't stop ministers from speaking out, said Stanley Hauerwas.
``We Christians worship a savior who got run out of town,'' said Hauerwas, professor of theological ethics at Duke University, which was founded by a tobacco baron. ``Christianity wasn't meant to make you happy.''
Hauerwas also said he's reluctant to judge other ministers.
``I think the great agony of people who grow tobacco is the agony of so many of us,'' he said. ``When they started growing it, they didn't know it would kill anyone. And now you're stuck with it and what do you do?''
Prayers over the crop may surprise some people. Hauerwas said he had never heard of it. Neither had the Rev. Collis Kilburn, executive director of the North Carolina Council of Churches.
The council is an interfaith group representing 25 denominations in North Carolina, where tobacco is the largest single agricultural commodity. Last year, tobacco accounted for $1.03 billion of the state's $5.5 billion in agricultural receipts.
``I would be reluctant to pass judgment. I've given prayers over the opening of shopping centers,'' Kilburn said.
``It might be appropriate for a minister to pray, expressing respect for the human beings involved. At the same time, I think we've got to advocate for a change in the system.''
The council studied the interaction of churches and tobacco in 1984. Its report, entitled ``Moral Dimensions of Tobacco,'' urged the state to study ways to phase out tobacco.
``There's no likelihood of that happening anyway,'' Kilburn conceded.
In Smithfield, the Rev. Edmund Gonzalez, pastor of Hopewell Free Will Baptist Church, prayed over the opening of another warehouse. It's the fourth or fifth time in the past 20 years he's been asked to pray.
``I'm a part of this community. I know them. For that reason, I think it's important to be here,'' Gonzalez said. ``I asked the Lord to bless the farmer and his family because what would we do without the farmer?''
Pursuing the issue of health, morality and tobacco in communities dependent on the crop would take bravery on the part of a minister, said Dan Hiembach, ethics professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest.
``I do think it's sort of a conflict of interest,'' Hiembach said. ``From the Christian tradition, we're taught to regard the body as the temple of the Holy Spirit.
``If a minister is going to be a moral leader and not just a mirror of the surrounding community, they have a responsibility to speak to it. But it's difficult.''
by CNB