Social commentator, whose commentaries air on Minnesota Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” (91.1FM) and appear in print on MPR’s Public Insight Journalism, http://www.MinnPost.com, The Chaska Herald, Chanhassen Villager, The Star Tribune, and The Presbyterian Outlook. Pastor of Shepherd of the Hill Presbyterian Church in Chaska, MN; former Executive Director, Legal Rights Center, Inc., Minneapolis, MN.
Very early in life I was full of faith, but I was also Thomas, the doubting disciple. At the age of five I plunged to the bottom of the neighbor’s fish pond after the Vacation Bible School teacher told us that Peter could walk on water because he had faith. I’ve never read the Bible the same since that day! My mother rescued me with quick thinking when I ran home sobbing, soaked with muddy water. “Yes, dear, but Jesus didn’t tell YOU to walk on the water!” Nice save, Mom!
In college I again fell into the fish pond, thrown into it by my professor, Esther Swenson, in a course in contemporary philosophy. Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit and The Flies, Albert Camus’ The Plague, and Beckett’s Waiting for Godot pushed me back into the fish pond, despairing over God’s absence. It was also Esther’s hand that helped lift me out by introducing me to 20th Century theologians Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Karl Barth, Martin Buber, Paul Tillich, and the man who had most deeply influenced Esther and whose thought would most deeply influence me, Esther’s mentor and colleague, the Dutch theologian-philosopher Willem F. Zuurdeeg, Professor of the Philosophy of Religion at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago.
Zuurdeeg’s An Analytical Philosophy of Religion (Abingdon Press, 1958) makes the case that the human being, anxious and conscious of the limit of death, ”establishes his/her existence” by means of powerful convictions.The human being is Homo Convictus. Homo Loquens (man-who-speaks) is also Homo Convictus (man-who-is convicted/persuaded). Following Zuurdeeg’s untimely death at the age of 57, it was Esther who completed his unfinished work under the title Man Before Chaos: Philosophy Is Born in a Cry.
When I read the news or listen to a speech, I am always listening for the convictions, spoken and unspoken. I listen for the convictional utterances , taking “the term ‘conviction’ to mean all persuasions concerning the meaning of life; concerning good and bad; concerning gods and devils; concerning representations of the ideal man, the ideal state, the ideal society; concerning the meaning of history, of nature, and of the All” (An Analytical Philosophy of Religion, p. 26). with the ears Willem Zuurdeeg and his most respected and dearest friend. my college teacher and mentor, Esther.
Pastor, Shepherd of the Hill Presbyterian Church. Click “Leadership” page on the church website for more information.
I live and breathe theology, listening for the open and hidden convictions that hold us captive or give us life. The ”A Way of Seeing” and the “Sermons” page tell you more about how I construct, deconstruct, and reconstruct the world. If I could be anyone other than myself today, it would be Bill Moyers, Cornell West, or the late Daniel Schorr who spoke and name the spoken and unspoken “convictors” that grasp us and shape public and private life.
- Kay, Maggie, Sebastian
My life journey took me from Broomall to school in Tennessee and Chicago; to campus and pastoral ministries in Decatur, IL, Whitewater, WI, Canton, NY, Wooster, OH, Cincinnati, OH, and Minneapolis, MN to eight years as Executive Director of Legal Rights Center, MN, and to part-time retirement as pastor of Shepherd of the Hill Presbyterian Church.
I live in Chaska, MN in the greater Twin Cities Area where I’m slowly becoming a Minnesota Grumpy Old Man, loosened up by Kay (wife and addiction therapist), Maggie (our Westie-Bichon Frise), and Sebastian (our Shitzu-Brichon Frise who never stops smiling). Our family live in Bend, OR (son John), NYC (son Doug), and in MN (Kristin, Andrew) and son-in-law Christopher with whom we continue to mourn the death of his and our beloved Katherine (“Katie”) in 2000. Our grandchildren Jackson (“Jack”) and Amelia (who will always be”Mimi” to us!) split their time between KY and OR.
Gordon – your long ago comments on Dad rise again through his grandson:
Matthew T. Hall – The following is a facebook posting citing his San Diego Tribune column which is referenced below.
News that the site of the 19th-century Wounded Knee Massacre is up for sale got me thinking about my grandfather, who defended leaders of the American Indian Movement involved in the 1973 standoff there.
So I went looking and found a pair of posts featuring some poems and history that made me proud to be descended from the man. I put them on my Tumblr: http://sduncovered.tumblr.com/
One begins: “His dog Sparky/Resting against his leg,/His eyebrows hanging/Like willow branches.”
Another ends: “How can we keep from singing? Amen.”
Matt, What a wonderful surprise to see you comment. Your grandmother and grandmother became such great friends to Kay and me during my time at the Legal Rights Center. Both Doug and Mary would be so pleased by LRC’s strong move into restorative justice with juveniles through the Minneapolis School System. If you ever have reason to come to Wabasha, please let me know. We’d love to see you.
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Cheers!
Gordon, PJ and I wanted to wish you and Kay the happiest of New Years. It is one of the pleasures of Via Lucis that we have met people who have become so important to our lives. May we actually meet soon.
Dennis and PJ, Kay and I wish you the same at the dawn of 2013. I am so nourished and enlightened by your thoughtful commentaries and beautiful images of these great structures that continue to inspire awe and stillness in a “world” in love with shock-and-awe and meaningless noise and chatter. Thank you so much. I do hope we meet soon. I share the pleasure of your company.
If the presidential race is a dead heat, which it appears to be, then your comment about the stupidity of the electorate would refer to half of the voting population. Is it possible that the half which don’t agree with you could really be wrong, or could they just be in disagreement?
Greetings, Graham. The fact that there is a dead heat gives me no comfort. Thomas Acquinas called “willful ignorance” the great, pervasive sin. “Citizens United” opened Pandora’s box to unrestricted funding for ads that have flooded the airwaves, paid for by only-who-knows-who. If this avalanche of ads that twist and misrepresent truth and poison the political water table determine what we do in the voting booth, the issue will far greater than mere disagreement. It will be a victory for willful ignorance at the hands of those who understand all too well how to manipulate the American public to seize control of a democratic republic. I usually refrain from using the word ‘evil’ but I’ve seen ther shades of McCarhyism too often to reduce what’s happening to an informed disagreement. Anyway, I had decided to stay away from the computer this morning, except for preparing the liturgy for Sunday when the emai notice popped up. I probably should have maintained my commitment to silence.
Thanks for the quesion and comment.
You had faith Gordon , the heat is dead. So much for the avalanche of ads that twist and misrepresent truth and poison the political water table. The every day voter made the right choice to put our country back on a path for a more equitable society.
Willem, Thanks for coming by. Always good to hear from you.
Gordon, we are trying to correct weblinks. you have a link to St. Timothy’s Memorial Chapel and that web address has changed to http://www.sttimothyschapel.org we got rid of the hyphens., Thanks for your help
Nickola, thank you for the corrtection.
Today was a blue day and I decided to stop by your site for a pickup. Thanks.
Dennis, I’m honored that you dropped by. Sorry about the blue day. I’ve had lots of them lately as well. I’ve had writer’s block for quite awhile, but am back from vacation to coast of Oregon (beautiful) and the juices are starting to flow again. Grace and Peace. This too shall pass. Gordon
Merci.
Hello – did I hear you say you went to Harvard? tell me more? I remember you said something about staying in the very same room Emerson stayed in when he was attending Harvard, so I assume you attended there as well?
While serving at The College of Wooster (Wooster, OH), I took a sabbatical in 1981, after receiving a Charles E. Merrill Fellowship, awarded by Harvard Divinity School “for excellence in pastoral ministry,” although I was anything BUT excellent. The Merrill Fellowship gave Merrill Fellows a stipend, free access to any and all classes and facilkities of the university, a membership in the Harvard Faculty Club (for its (in)famous horse steak! and its pipe smoke), and a dormitory room, which happened to have been Ralph Waldo Emerson’s room in Divinity Hall. Pretty humbling to live in that room. Emersone was everywhere in that room. I felt very, very small. Great memory.
Gordon -
I just read your 02/21 piece in MinnPost: Current church debates are enough to make a pastor feel sad — and angry. And all the comments & replies since then. Amazing.
I hope you know that you speak for many of us who are also sad and angry, but do not have the time or inclination to speak/post publicly. Thanks for doing what you do.
(I don’t know if you saw Brian Rosenberg’s piece in the Strib this past Tuesday: http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentaries/140797643.html I think you might appreciate it.)
Jon
Gordon… Chaska Bob Perschmann here. What a gift your thoughtfulness is. I have thoroughly appreciated the experience. Funny how fully engaged people can miss each other as we pass at sea. I have a feeling that I will read all of this material. I wrote you a letter. Do you want it sent to an email address… or right here?
Hi Bob,
Either way is fine. If you write it here, it’s public. If you think it might contribute to the wider discussion, leave it here. otherwise, send by email.
Thanks!