Some perspective...

(Photo/Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, ARIZ,2-TOMB,7-1)

…for struggling non-profits. I’ve noticed how increasingly negative the news is lately. That’s why I can’t watch it anymore! Ironically, we could be a little more thankful for where we are as a society. Modern medicine has made amazing strides, and technology is making us more productive than ever, or so says my new laptop!

But if you’re convinced that the world has gone to hell in a handbasket, and it’s beyond saving, take some inspiration from how well a certain non-profit once did, in a time and place that could sometimes be much darker than our own.

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In 1882, Endicott Peabody suspended his seminary studies to save a struggling church in a small Western border town. The old building had burned down, and the former priest had given up because attendance was sparse to begin with: The town was largely populated by unchurched, illiterate people with very chaotic lives. While there were people with steady jobs and stable families, they were usually recent transplants from back East. Most locals were fugitives, miners, ranch hands and prostitutes. Even if they wanted to attend church (they didn’t), their jobs left little free time for services.

Social breakdown was total. Shortly after Peabody arrived, the local gang of cattle-rustlers murdered a policeman who wasn’t on their payroll. They planned to make an example of him by killing his family, so the fallen officer’s older brother chased the rustlers into the desert and shot them. Peabody, who had just started holding services in a courtroom, was one of many friends who supported the aspiring businessman’s vigilantism. Nobody believed they lived under the rule of law, so nobody bothered to pretend.

In this environment, Peabody’s outreach included house calls, refereeing baseball games, passing out a collection plate in any of 101 saloons, and conducting funerals. The best part of the job was that only three other churches were competing with the saloons for 10,000 souls. Yet people didn’t always visit Peabody’s services. Those who did were more often convinced of his charisma and sincerity than the faith he preached. He was, however, clever enough not to referee the miners’ ball games until the players attended his services.

In six months, local Episcopal church membership had climbed to over 100 (unbelievable for that place and time), an excellent choir had formed, and funding for a building was secured. Core membership had not expanded quite as much as hoped outside of born-and-raised church members and the town’s more mainstream citizenry, but Peabody and his church had earned the goodwill and maybe even the prayers of many. Peabody returned to seminary, became a priest and founded a school.

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These stories were first reported in the local paper, the Tombstone Epitaph. The murdered officer was Policeman Morgan Earp; Wyatt, who avenged him, was among the donors who contributed to the construction of St. Paul’s, Tombstone, Arizona, pictured above. Locals still take pride in having the only adobe Gothic church ever built. Peabody founded Groton School, a renowned prep school, on a model of muscular Christianity and public service (The Boy Scouts were poster boys for the movement) that we would do well to imitate.

Allow me to add that St. Paul’s is still active today. It even has a website and a Facebook page!

Sources:

“Religion Arrives in Helldorado”
“Tombstone Memories”
“Boot Hill”