Craven Williams, Greensboro College
August 13, 2004
In an election year we hear a lot of political speeches. The closer
we get to election day, the speeches become louder and more vicious. It
must have been an election year when philosopher Alistar McIntyre said:
“There seems to be no way of securing moral agreement in our society.
We appear to have only rival claims, and rival premises and no rational
way of weighing the claims one against the other.”
The July 12 issue of “The Wall Street Journal” carried an
editorial talking about “lies and weapons of mass destruction.”
The editor writes, “If President Bush was lying about weapons of
mass destruction, then so was Jay Rockfeller … .” He went
on to say that also lying at the time were John Kerry, John Edwards, Bill
and Hillary Clinton, and seven other prominent Democrats.
I don’t care which side of the political fence you are on, it is
not good for us to call each other liars. I think our culture, and our
country are badly damaged by people who stand up and call each other liars.
And so, as this academic year begins, I want to make a political speech.
Last April, the president of Occidental College shut down the student
senate because it was so divisive. He believed the fierce fighting among
the students was damaging and dangerous to the college as a whole. I wonder
where those students learned their political manners. How can we expect
people to behave any differently when they watch what is happening on
the political platforms every day?
The president of Seattle Pacific University reported in a speech to his
Chamber of Commerce that he recently saw a girl at an airport wearing
a
T-shirt that said, “Deny Everything!” What kind of a world
view is that? What kind of citizenship is that?
Dr. Philip Eaton reminds us of the Jewish novelist Chaim Potok who said,
“We live in a world of colliding maps.” His point is that
each of us has our own little map in our heads that guides our lives and
gives us direction in what we do and how we make choices. But those maps
bump into one another, and he claims there is no larger map that tells
us how it all hangs together. This is where I disagree with Mr. Potok.
I think there is a larger map that can keep our separate maps from colliding.
Those of us in the United Methodist Church have a wonderful term we like
to use. The word is “Connection.” The term really has its
roots in Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church. Like today’s
political combatants, the Corinthian church was beset by divisions. Paul
tells them they cannot go their separate ways alone. He says you not only
belong to each other, you are organically connected. This connection is
not some loosey-goosey bump into each other now and then affair. Paul
says: “You are connected to each other the way your eye is connected
to your head, the way your hand is connected to your wrist. You cannot
simply say to each other, I have no need of you.” You cannot say,
“Deny Everything!”
I once visited a monastery near Aspen, Colorado. At that monastery lived
a modern mystic monk named Theophane. He wrote a book entitled “Tales
of a Magic Monastery,” in which various people visit the Magic Monastery
and report what happens to them. One man tells of a conversation he had
with one of the Magic Monks. “Father, could you tell us something
about yourself?” The Monk leaned back. “Myself?” he
mused. There was a long pause. “My name … used to be …
Me …. but now ... it’s You.”
According to Paul, we don’t choose who we are to be in communion
with the way you might choose a foursome for golf or bridge. We are grown
to each other. We are more like Siamese twins than tennis partners. Like
it or not, since you have chosen Greensboro College, you and I are welded
to each other. I am yours and you are mine.
The historian George Weigel made the case that “Poland prevailed
against the crushing occupation of Nazism and Communism because of an
enduring conviction: that the deepest currents of history are spiritual
and cultural … .” He says history is driven by culture; by
what people honor, cherish and worship; by what society deems to be true
and good; by the expressions they give of those convictions in language,
the sciences and the arts; and on what individuals and societies are willing
to stake their lives.
What are you willing to stake your life on? When you are ready to answer
that question you will know a great deal about yourself. This is where
you will get a vision for a decent society. You will get that vision down
there in the deepest currents of culture. Down there where we ask the
biggest questions about what is true, good, honorable and beautiful. Down
there in the roots of culture. Today you begin an in depth study of the
roots of culture.
Okay, that’s my political speech for today. Here it is in summary
form:
1. Each of us has little maps in our heads that guide our actions.
2. There is a large map available to each of us to keep our separate
maps from colliding with each other.
3. We have chosen you to come to Greensboro College. That means I am
you. You are me. What hurts you, hurts me. What fills you with joy fills
me with joy. Or, as Paul puts it, “If one member suffers, all
suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”
At Greensboro College you cannot wear a T-shirt that says, “Deny
Everything!” You cannot shout “Liar!” every time you
hear someone say something with which you disagree. You cannot look only
at your own little map; you also have to look at my map and the little
map inside each one of us.
This faculty will help you follow those maps and get down deep to the
roots of our culture. They will help you read your separate little maps,
and they will give you a perspective and a better understanding of the
bigger map. They will help you keep your map from bumping into others
as you travel along your journey. And what a splendid journey it will
be! Let’s get started!
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