There is an oxymoronic quality to this essay which I hope will meet with your favor. The oxymoron has to do with a writer whose belief is in non-belief, who then publishes an essay in praise of preachers. But that is what I intend to do in this essay about preachers.
For more than 66 years, I have paid attention to preachers who provided intelligent thoughts. It may well have started when, in my 18th year, I became an avid listener to the Mormon Hour Broadcast on Sunday morning radio. There was a speaker there named Richard Evans, who delivered a five-minute sermonette that was not sectarian in nature. At the time, I was paid $17 per week by Ed Williams, the owner of a filling station, but I devoted part of my wages to buying the works of this Mormon fellow, Richard Evans. From that time forward, I have continued my interest in preachers who tended to make sense. From my point of view, a goodly proportion of preachers preach nonsense. This essay is dedicated to those who speak in logical terms that can be accepted by thinking listeners.
John Shelby Spong was the former Episcopal Bishop of Newark, New Jersey. Bishop Spong has authored perhaps 35 books on religious matters. His writings are believable because he does not contend that the Bible is the unmistakable inspired transcript of God’s remarks. Bishop Spong points out that the Bible was written over a period of 300 to 400 years and that in some cases it became a political instrument, as in the case of the King James Version. There are those who have said that Bishop Spong is not really a Christian because he does not accept all of the biases and superstitions of that faith. But for my money, Bishop Spong is an intelligent speaker and preacher, which is why he is included in this essay.
There is a schism in the Episcopal Church having to do with the Bishop in New Hampshire named Robinson who has been living for many years in a homosexual arrangement with his lover. Bishop Spong argues that Bishop Robinson’s conduct has no bearing on whether Episcopalians will be admitted to heaven. I agree with Bishop Spong, but in passing I must state that my lowly social status never qualified me for membership in the Episcopal Church.
Next among intelligent preachers we come to a pair of Presbyterians. The first is Benjamin Franklin Hall, who was the pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church in Clayton, Missouri when I became aware of him. Dr. Hall became famous in the St. Louis area because he delivered cogent sermons and he finished the business at hand by the stroke of noon on Sundays. In the winter of 1941, I invited a young woman to attend a service at Dr. Hall’s church. That was what we call a “two-fer” in baseball parlance because it impressed her as well as her mother. Before long, this young woman became a singer in the choir at the Central Presbyterian Church.
As time went on, I joined the American Army and in August of 1945, I was given a short furlough prior to my leaving for Greenwood, Mississippi to prepare for the invasion of Japan. Fortunately the war ended before my departure and it was many years before I was able to see the beauty of Japan. Upon this furlough, before we knew that peace would be declared in the war with Japan, it was determined by my prospective wife, her mother and, most forcibly, my sister that we were to be married by Dr. Hall on August 16. Dr. Hall was attending a conference in Holland prior to this great occasion when he received an urgent message from his church. It seems that one of the choir sopranos had concluded that she was pregnant by Dr. Hall and she wanted the world to know about it. Unfortunately, Dr. Hall panicked and resigned the pastorship that he had worked so hard to achieve. As a result, our wedding was conducted by Herman Schusler who could most aptly be described as a lost ball in tall grass.
As it turns out, the choir soprano misinterpreted the feelings in her womb. There was no child there at all. But the cat was out of the bag and Dr. Hall had resigned with his reputation in tatters. He returned to his native North Carolina where he began to sell books to the school boards there. Legend has it that he became a champion book seller and probably earned much more than the Presbyterians would ever pay him. But the moral is clear and consistent. Never trust a soprano on affairs of the heart.
The second Presbyterian is Peter Marshall. Dr. Marshall had the pastorship at the Presbyterian Church on New York Avenue in Washington DC. In the 1940s, the Republicans invited him to become a Chaplain of the United States Senate whose duty it was to recite a prayer before each session.
I became aware of Dr. Marshall and followed his remarks as closely as I could, given the distance between Washington and St. Louis. But, fortunately, his remarks were published in several books, all of which I bought. In one prayer to the United States Senate, Dr. Marshall used these words: “Save us from the sin of worrying lest stomach ulcers be our badge of lack of faith.” Dr. Marshall uttered those words more than 50 years ago, but they aptly describe the situation we find ourselves in today, facing a downturn in the American economy that rivals the Hoover depression of 1929.
Peter Marshall was an intelligent man whom I suspect Bishop Spong would have liked. Time Magazine did a piece on Dr. Marshall in 1949, which is attached to this essay. I hope you will take time to read it because the writers at Time Magazine produce prose that is clearly superior to my own.
Thus far, we have introduced my readers to a Mormon, an Episcopalian and two Presbyterians. Now, it is time for the Catholics. When it comes to intelligent expressions, few people spoke more lucidly than Pope John XXIII. It was John the twenty third who dragged the Catholic Church from pre-historic times into the late 19th or early 20th century. Among other reforms, Pope John authorized the Masses to be said in local languages rather than in Latin. Pope John XXIII was an exceedingly bright man who could laugh at himself and whom I hope is well on his way to sainthood.
There was a second Catholic named Monsignor Fulton Sheen. At the end of his career, I believe that the Pope promoted Monsignor Sheen to a bishop. Some of you with long memories will recall that Bishop Sheen always wore a floor-length cape and that his midriff was covered by a black satin cummerbund. I liked Bishop Sheen’s comments because they were delivered with a bit of a flair and showmanship. He did not persuade me to abandon my efforts at birth control, but Sheen had the Irish ability to laugh at himself. For all of his showmanship, Bishop Sheen was an intelligent man who represented the best that the Catholics could offer.
In more recent times, I found that there was a program originating in Birmingham, Alabama on the The Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN). The glue that held the ETWN broadcast together was a woman in her sixties or seventies called Mother Angelica who headed an order of nuns. She never thundered at her audiences that unless they paid attention to her, they were all heading for Hell. She said simply, “Here is the right thing to do. I hope that you do it.”
It seemed to me that Mother Angelica must have had as much as five hours of face time on the ETWN broadcasts. Between her sermons, she also sold religious articles such as bookmarks and other paraphernalia that were associated with the Catholic Church. But most importantly, while I did not become convinced of her theology, she was able to laugh at herself. Although she was in her seventies, Mother Angelica was a giggler. I was not about to adopt her theology, but from time to time I found her fascinating.
The unfortunate part is that five or six years ago, Mother Angelica had a stroke which left her totally speechless. She is now confined to a nursing home where performers from EWTN regularly visit her room to console her. For a woman who was gifted when it came to communication with others, the stroke must have come as a very cruel blow. But, again, she was an intelligent person because she could make fun of herself.
Well, there you have a Mormon, an Episcopalian, two Presbyterians, and three Catholics. Their speeches did not inspire me to take up their theology. For example, the Presbyterians used to believe that the instant a child was conceived, it became the subject of predestination. Before the lovers could depart from the bed or the back seat of a car, the child that they had conceived was headed to Heaven or to Hell and nothing could be done about it. That was the essence of predestination which Presbyterians adopted. I thought a great deal of Peter Marshall and Benjamin Franklin Hall, and I never heard them preach on this subject. But that’s what always lurks in the back of my mind.
On the other side of the coin, there are preachers that are instant turnoffs. Consider Jerry Falwell from Lynchburg, Virginia and Pat Robertson, who is given to announcements straight from God. Robertson announced after Hurricane Katrina that it was God’s answer to women appearing with their breasts exposed during the Mardi Gras parade that year. Perhaps the most sinister is James Dobson, who has a radio program from Colorado, and bragged during the Bush administration that Karl Rove had him on his speed-dial telephone.
Taking one thing with another, it would appear fair to a person such as myself that preaching in this country comes from only a handful of intelligent men. What disturbs me most is that a good many preachers do not respect the dividing line between church and state. That is eminently true of the Falwell, Robertson, and Dobson trio. They are sinister men whom Barack Obama ought to ignore.
In this essay, I have not quoted any remarks by people who subscribe to the Jewish faith. I have neglected to do so because I am not as familiar with that faith as I should be. That faith has existed for more than 5,000 years and its wisdom is completely undeniable. I am a non-believer in religious affairs. On the other hand, if I were ever to become a believer, I trust at the moment that the Jewish faith might be an appropriate place to go. In the meantime, I am being schooled by two excellent teachers. They are Mrs. Frances Licht and Mrs. Eva Baker.
When I am ready for my Bar Mitzvah, I will let all of you know so that you can come and celebrate with me.
E. E. CARR
February 23, 2009
Essay 369
~~~
Kevin’s commentary: I actually went to church with my girlfriend the other day because she was going to a new one for the first time, and the preacher there had some really reasonable things to say. She was also a women, so I would contend that the “handful of intelligent men” statement isn’t entirely accurate. Of course this sermon was immediately followed by the kinda cultish chanty baptism of a 3 year old — boo — but the sermon itself was well done.
The Pope mentioned in this essay and the current Pope are also pretty great, as far as Popes go. The current one is even okay with atheists, which is neat.