A Legacy of Building Bridges

by Russell Pulliam
December 13, 2003

Born in Louisiana 88 years ago, Baptist minister Rubin Fields, Sr. in his youth saw members of his race treated worse than animals.

Instead of being scarred for life, though, he used that experience to look for ways to reconcile people of different perspectives and backgrounds.

Fields, pastor of the predominantly black Ravenbrook Widow Missionary Baptist Bible Church, died a week ago.

He was a builder of bridges in Indianapolis, between blacks and whites, between police and citizens, between people in prison and the world outside.

In recent years he helped organize the Community Solutions Conference, which assembled officials from the Indianapolis Police Department and Indianapolis Public Schools with average citizens. Those with a complaint about the schools or police could get a fair hearing through the conference.

But the conference was not just a forum for grievances against the police or schools. Pastor Fields wanted those with different views to learn to listen to one another with respect.

“He didn’t seem to be on the attack but joined the struggle of what was going on,” said Marion County Juvenile Court Judge James W. Payne. “You can complain about the police, or you can join them in their struggle and bring to them a different perspective. What I saw in him was a very gentle spirit that still carried with it a sense of authority and urgency and passion. Usually when we have authority, urgency and passion, we tend to be critical.”

William Reardon, former IPD North District deputy chief, noted how Pastor Fields kept on working on both church and community matters to the end of his life. “I don’t think retirement was part of his vocabulary,” he said, remembering how Fields attended last month’s conference and helped organize a Love Thy Neighbor parade last summer.

“His mission was to bring people together of diverse backgrounds,” said Reardon, who now is police chief for the Indianapolis Airport Authority. “He was kind of like a referee. He laid down the ground rules. He would mediate the conversation.”

Fields also seemed to have a way of looking out for the forgotten person. Sometimes it was the police. Other times it was people in prison.

On occasion it led to controversy. He and other church members visited Gertrude Baniszewski in the Indiana Women’s Prison while she served a 20-year term for the murder and torture of teenager Sylvia Likens.

Eventually Baniszewski came to salvation in Christ. Controversy arose when the Indiana Parole Board granted her release in 1985. A white person, she found a home in Fields’ church, to help her in the transition from prison.

Fields’ death leaves a gap in the community. He quietly built bridges and looked out for the most difficult problems and people.

Yet he would not want any honor for himself. When he was recognized for community service a couple of years ago, he put it this way: “I cannot accept any honor until I honor my Lord. The world faces God in Christ for the answer to all her problems.”