Books | Telling the Truth

August 27, 2020

Jesus and the Disinherited | Howard Thurman

His days were nurtured in great hostilities
Focused upon his kind, the sons of Israel.
There was no moment in all his years
When he was free.

Poem fragment quoted on p. 34 of Jesus and the Disinherited. From Thurman’s privately published volume of poems, The Greatest of These, p. 3.

This summer I’ve been reading Howard Thurman’s relatively short book (less than 100 pages), Jesus and the Disinherited. It’s more relevant today than ever before. A sad commentary on our nation’s untenable situation, past and present.

Thurman’s book describes

What happens inside the disinherited
What their most difficult struggles are about, daily
And why Jesus (not Paul) is the person to whom they are drawn when it comes to real life as they know it.

Like the disinherited of today, Jesus faced fear, deception, hate, and the command to love one’s neighbor as oneself. This didn’t happen one challenge at a time, but every day, no matter the circumstances. In addition, Jesus was one of the disinherited. He was not a Roman citizen, or an official religious leader of Judaism.

It’s one thing to study our history as a nation (which we must), or the history of slavery in this country (which we must), or our individual backgrounds that led to the prejudices and blindness that shape our lives today. All of this is important.

Still, one thing has eluded me. I’m finding it in Howard Thurman’s book, even though he didn’t write the book for me or other white people. He’s clear about this: This book is for people who are black and disinherited, every day of their lives. What white people will do or think when it comes to the disinherited of today is up to them.

I highly recommend Thurman’s book as a way of recognizing everyday racial realities from the inside out. For me, it makes crystal clear what I’ve lived with all my life. This isn’t just about different approaches to life. It’s about the disinherited, and what it takes for them to survive in this country.

I hope you’ll consider reading it. It won’t change everything overnight. It can, however, strengthen our understanding of what our black and brown citizens and church members are up against every day of their lives. It also shows the importance of listening. Silently. Without attempts to explain or justify ourselves.

Elouise♥

6 Comments

November 30, 2015

unread mysteries all of us

unread mysteries all of us,
tantalizing and elusive

Several days ago I read a beautiful, evocative poem Read the rest of this entry »

9 Comments

November 18, 2015

Going to Seminary | Part 1

The Garth — meeting place, lunch plaza, outdoor office, place to hang out. The Library gleams at the far end. Not much has changed in The Garth since 1973.

It’s late spring 1973. I’ll turn 30 this year. After 8 years of marriage and nearly 5 years of motherhood, including 4 years as a Faculty Wife, I don’t know who I am!

How do I know this? Because I have to send a personal essay with my application, and I don’t know how to answer all the questions.

Other people don’t have a problem knowing who I am:

D’s wife, Faculty Wife, part-time instructor of music and piano
Hostess, mother of cute son and cute daughter
Intelligent, laundress, caretaker, seamstress, cook, gardener, house cleaner and dish washer.
Also graduate of the Bible College, Diane’s sister, and preacher’s kid.

Even if I figure out who I am, I still have to write an essay about MY goals, including MY vision for MY life beyond seminary!

My goals are simple: Get through one day at a time without too much drama, heartache, disappointment or quarreling. Did I write this in my essay? No.

My vision for my life beyond seminary is even more difficult. The easy answer: Follow D wherever he goes!

Not very original, I know, but I’m clueless. Furthermore, I don’t feel fire in my bones about anything in particular beyond the needs of today. Is that so bad?

I got through the getting-to-know-you questions. They were easy. Something about my family, my church, my education up to then, my hobbies and things like that.

But then came the biggie: Why do I want to go to Seminary?

What I actually said was something like this:

I want to read and study, especially theology and the Bible.

True enough. It fit the pattern of my life so far.

What didn’t I say? It was also true. I thought it in my head, and I’m going to tell you right now what it was:

My Bible College degree isn’t accredited. If I ever want to do further study beyond seminary, a degree from an accredited seminary would validate all academic work I’d completed up to then.

Brilliant, true and pragmatic! Like I said, though, I didn’t write this in my application.

Another question was also difficult. They wanted to know about major growth in my life in the last several years. I wrote a harmless surface answer that didn’t communicate much substance at all. Nevertheless, it was true.

More interesting is what I didn’t write. Here it is:

I’ve grown in skills—the kind needed for being a mother, housewife and hostess.
I’ve also grown in practical knowledge–the kind needed to care for sick babies and young children, and how to make homemade yogurt, jam or bread. Or stretch dollars to last as long as possible.

Then there was the spiritual growth question. Yes, I’d grown there, too. Mainly in my ability to be a servant, not a leader. I don’t look down on being a servant. It just means I’m there to help you be the best person you can be. Often without attention to my own preferences or needs.

One other tough question: When did you become a Christian? I don’t know. I grew up being one. I can’t tell you when, where or how it happened. I can’t remember how I finessed that one.

It’s a good thing they didn’t ask me what books I’d read recently. Would they count Dr. Seuss books? Babar the Elephant books? The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe? Dr. Spock? Adelle Davis?

Is there a point to this rambling? Yes!

We have a twofold mismatch here that happily became a match. I wasn’t the kind of student they were looking for, and they didn’t have a clue how to deal with women who were entering the seminary.

When I entered seminary in fall 1973, there were 500 students total. Of these, 30 were women.

To be continued….

© Elouise Renich Fraser, 17 November 2015
Photo thanks to Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California

6 Comments

October 13, 2015

In a Ferment about Writing

I’ve been in a ferment since Sunday evening. The kind that begins with strange dreams I can’t remember when I wake up. They aren’t frightening or foreboding, though they’re regularly about circumstances that Read the rest of this entry »

4 Comments

May 12, 2015

Early Marriage | Part 8

View behind our Cambridge apartment 1967

Cambridge, winter 1965-early spring 1966. I’m driving without a manual or a map. The noisy 24/7 auto shop across the street captures my imagination, especially in the evenings Read the rest of this entry »

7 Comments

March 31, 2015

First Apartment | Photo Tour

Lovely, isn’t it? I thought so, too. One small fact: Ours is the red stairway, not the white stairway with the lovely climbing roses!

We arrived in late September 1965, days before D began his graduate program, and a few weeks after our wedding. During that fall we worked our hearts out getting our little space the way we wanted it.

I married a man who loves to take photos. Back then they were all slides. I thought it excessive. Just like my father who never missed a chance to take a photo. At this time in my life, however, I’m grateful for the slides and photos we’ve amassed over the years.

Which leads to a small fact I didn’t fully appreciate until I looked at these old photos. Bookshelves and books have been our go-to interior decorating strategy ever since we got married.

Here’s evidence that we’re already headed in that direction. Not very elegant, but the picture shouts out to thousands of books to come, “You are so very welcome in this house!”

Notice the towels stacked on a box by the bed, stuff all over the bed and adjacent chair, lamp not in the right place, and who knows what on the front half of the dresser and on the floor. But the books? Safely put away in their place of honor, on top of the dresser in their brand new bookshelf.

Here’s a better picture of our bed, all made up just for this photo. Notice the bird prints on the wall, long before we became amateur birders. I like the blues and greens in the bedspread. Yes, that’s a garter belt on the right head-post.

OK. That ends the bedroom tour. Now to the front living room area. Here we have evidence of Cambridge grime. Nasty stuff that had to be scrubbed off before we could paint anything. I’m especially taken by the luxurious amount of hair I had on my head back then. Amazing.

We worked on this as often as possible during the first couple of months. Mostly on the weekends. It was exhausting. Here’s proof of how exhausting it was. It’s my ‘don’t you dare take this photo’ pose, which I’ve perfected over the years. I almost didn’t include it. But…

Here’s the outcome in our living room. I see I made a mistake in my post yesterday. We had two large windows in the living room, not just one. And there’s no clock on the mantel. Oh well. The photo on the mantel is Sister #3, Diane! That was a nice surprise for me.

The record player and radio were our total entertainment center for years. No TV. No internet, of course. Exorbitant (for us) costs for long-distance phone calls. Snail mail that brought real letters and real bills.

Here’s another living room shot–this time of me sitting on the old sofa that came with the apartment. I’m facing the fireplace. Looking like a lady, all relaxed and reading something. No shoes. Just home from work. Notice the turned-over sofa cushions. The wrong side looked better than the right side.