Pastor Fights To Regain Streets

Pastor Fights To Regain Streets

(Philadelphia) The city of brotherly love. What an appropriate statement for this story. Tony Campolo is that rarest of rare Americans. He's a white pastor in a black church. He says his neighborhood and his church have nurtured him and embraced him and his "family" is everything he needs.

Professor Tony Campolo: Oh, how we need a cleansing in this nation.

Smith: At the prayer service last January, the morning of President Clinton's inauguration, a Baptist preacher from Philadelphia had a lot f Americans wondering, 'Who is this guy?'

Smith: His name is Tony Campolo. His approach in the pulpit is down home.

Prof. Campolo: Once a year in my church, we have a preach-off, see? Now you white guys don't know what that is. That's when you get a lot of preachers back-to-back to see who's best. You never say that. You say, 'It's for the glory of God,' but we know what it's about.

Smith: Campolo is that rarest of rare Americans, a white man at home in a black world.

Prof. Campolo: And the men in my church, when you are pumping on all cylinders, they don't yell 'Amen.' They yell, 'Keep going. Keep going.' Now you don't get that on Inauguration Day. They don't yell, 'Keep going.' They yell, 'Stop! Stop!'

Smith: We wondered if Campolo was for real. So we followed him to his neighborhood, West Philadelphia. It's one of those neighborhoods that looks like, and sometimes feels like, its tomorrows will never be as good as its yesterdays. It's a place most whites left a long time ago...

Prof. Campolo: All right. How are you?

Unidentified Woman #1: All right. This is good.

Prof. Campolo: God bless you.

Smith: ...but not Tony. Campolo is an associate minister at the Mount Carmel Baptist Church. Al Campbell is the senior pastor here.

Reverend Al Campbell (Mount Carmel Baptist Church): Tony's been around. He's one of us. And he has a place here, not just in Mount Carmel, but in our hearts.

Prof. Campolo: I meet people all the time that says, 'I don't think God loves me, you know? I lost my job. I don't think God loves me. We've had family troubles.' If he loved — the man died for you! I mean, what more could he have done? The people in my church are family.

Smith: Perhaps he is accepted here because he asks the same questions his black neighbors ask, like: Why can't the government keep the drugs out?

Prof. Campolo: I would argue that drugs have done for young African-American women in many cases what slavery could never do: It has made so many of them into bad mothers.

Smith: Campolo believes to save a neighborhood you must first save its people. So he and the folks at Mount Carmel started a private school...

Unidentified Teacher: Explain your problem, please.

Smith: ...where local kids can get a first-class education. The church also sposors its own housing complex. But Campolo has another mission.

Prof. Campolo: Cities are dying. They're falling apart.

Smith: He's on a crusade to convince white college students to serve in the city.

Prof. Campolo: You've been blessed. It's time for you to be a blessing. You've been privileged. It's time for you to fulfill the responsibilities that go with that privilege. People, that's good theology, amen.

Smith: Campolo says his neighborhood and his church have nurtured him, embraced him. He gets what he needs here.

Prof. Campolo: ...because I'm going to rise again! I'm going to rise again!

Smith: The chasm between black and white in America sometimes seems impossibly deep. Tony Campolo stands as a welcome bridge. Harry Smith, CBS News, Philadelphia.