Robert E. A. Lee, Who Made ‘A Time for Burning,’ Dies at 87
Robert E. A. Lee, a longtime head of communications for the Lutheran Church, who helped bring to the screen two highly regarded but controversial films — “A Time for Burning,” a landmark documentary about American race relations, and “Martin Luther,” a biography of the father of Protestantism that was banned in several places — died on Feb. 27 at his home in Baldwin, N.Y. He was 87.
The cause was cancer, his family said.
From 1954 until 1988, Mr. Lee was the executive secretary of Lutheran Film Associates, as the organization is now known. Run collaboratively by the church’s two main branches — the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod — the organization has created and distributed films and television programs on religious subjects since the early 1950s.
From 1969 to 1988, Mr. Lee was also the executive director for communications of the Lutheran Council in the United States of America, a pan-Lutheran organization.
Released in 1966, “A Time for Burning” was one of the signal documentaries about the civil rights movement. The film chronicled a searing chapter in the life of the Rev. William Youngdahl, the Lutheran pastor of an all-white congregation in Omaha. Seeking to promote fellowship between the races, Mr. Youngdahl proposed a program in which 10 couples from his congregation would visit 10 couples in all-black Lutheran churches in the area.
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The cause was cancer, his family said.
From 1954 until 1988, Mr. Lee was the executive secretary of Lutheran Film Associates, as the organization is now known. Run collaboratively by the church’s two main branches — the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod — the organization has created and distributed films and television programs on religious subjects since the early 1950s.
From 1969 to 1988, Mr. Lee was also the executive director for communications of the Lutheran Council in the United States of America, a pan-Lutheran organization.
Released in 1966, “A Time for Burning” was one of the signal documentaries about the civil rights movement. The film chronicled a searing chapter in the life of the Rev. William Youngdahl, the Lutheran pastor of an all-white congregation in Omaha. Seeking to promote fellowship between the races, Mr. Youngdahl proposed a program in which 10 couples from his congregation would visit 10 couples in all-black Lutheran churches in the area.