Category Archives: Faith and Social Justice

items from Not in Our Town Princeton (http://niotprinceton.org) and Princeton United Methodist Church (http://princetonumc.org)

Whites see “incidents” of bias

Faith and Social Justice, , , , ,

Optimists about race are more likely to be white, writes Howard Ross, a diversity consultant. Here is a link to my post at the Not in Our Town Princeton blog, quoting Ross,  who reviews Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me.

This hit home to me. As someone who works against racial bias at Not in Our Town Princeton, I encounter some white people who deny racism exists here. Others insist on recounting their own progress toward wiping out bias and cast an optimistic light on the nation’s progress.

Ross does not call for whites to feel shame or guilt. He just asks whites to admit that they cannot possibly understand the black experience and that we are all part of a system “that is bigger than any of us.”

Writes Ross: “When even those who “make it” suffer indignities that no one else has had to suffer before, as when a President of the United States is the subject of active attempts at humiliation, or the greatest tennis player of her time is called “too aggressive,” or when hundreds of studies show that we still subtly exhibit bias in every area of life. It is natural for those in the dominant group to see incidents. Those who are impacted see an entire system that is designed to undermine them in every way.”

He tries to remain optimistic believing that, as Dr. Martin Luther King said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

“But I can afford that hope,” says Ross. “I am white.” Here is the link to Ross’s complete text.

To gain a deeper understanding, here is last year’s Bill Moyers’ interview with Coates.

You can trust a human being with grief

Faith and Social Justice,

Thanks to my daughter I found this monologue from a chaplain, Kate Braestrup, on dealing with grief. We all are trying to help others with loss, or help ourselves with loss, so this might be helpful… 

And here’s another one, entitled “When I’m Gone.”  Don’t worry, it won’t make you cry.

Privilege: Giving back

Business, Faith and Social Justice, , , ,
-Sy-Stokes
The Black Bruins video

Robert Carr

“Those with less opportunity are fighting for position, trying to find their place, but those with privilege are hitting triples, when they were already on third base.” 

This succinct description of white privilege came from the video The Black Bruins, by Sy Stokes, which went viral in 2013. An article by Eric Hoover in the Chronicle of Higher Education, tells how the video challenged and changed UCLA:

At right, Robert Carr is an example of using privilege to help others find their place. He was not born rich, but as founder of Heartland Payment Systems, he made millions, and is donating $20 million through the Give Something Back Foundation to help low-income students get through college.

(A version of this post is at NIOT Princeton).

SCOTUS on fair housing

Faith and Social Justice,

Affordable (fair) housing is in the news all around the state, and especially in Princeton. Here are guidelines, set out by the Supreme Court

bfiggefox's avatarNot In Our Town Princeton

The four things we need to know about this week’s Supreme Court decision, a blog post by Eric Halperin and Deidre Swesnik of the Open Society Foundation

1. The court recognized that unconscious or implicit bias is a form of intentional discrimination.

2. The FHA should be used to break down structural barriers to racial integration, not merely to prevent current discrimination

3. Where you live impacts the education you receive, how you are treated by the police, and your access to economic opportunity

4. The Court’s decision extends beyond segregation to our financial markets

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Mr. Ahmed Goes to Washington

Faith and Social Justice, , , , , ,

Ziad Ahmed, whom I know as a youth member of the board of Not in Our Town Princeton, was invited to the White House for dinner with the president. Reason: he had been inaccurately targeted, as a child, for the “do not fly” list. He responded to that experience by founding an anti-bias organization.

Ahmed, now a rising junior at Princeton Day School, established ziad photo ReDefy to “boldly defy stereotypes, embrace acceptance and tolerance, redefine our perspectives positively, and create an active community.”  He has also made many valuable contributions to the NIOTPrinceton organization as well. He is doing important work. Here is the link to Nicole Mulvaney’s coverage in the Times of Trenton.

Writing as Sacrament: Frederick Buechner

Faith and Social Justice, , , ,

Surely I am the only writer at this week’s Frederick Buechner writers’ workshop who had never heard of Frederick Buechner until nBuechnerow. More than 200 other writers are attending the four-day workshop at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Even without the event, Buechner had enough Princeton connections for me to write about him here. He graduated from Lawrenceville School  in 1943 and, after a hiatus for military service, from Princeton University in 1948.

Virtually all the other attendees, mostly clergy or retired clergy, are avid fans of Buechner, who influenced several generations of seminarians. One attendee described him as an American C.S. Lewis. Buechner did not achieve Lewis’s phenomenal popularity, yet somebody found the money to establish a Frederick Buechner Institute, based in Tennessee at Kings College.

Belatedly curious, I wondered how the attention to Buechner is being funded. As a business reporter, I feel impelled to answer that question. The puzzle became clearer when I discovered that Frederick Buechner’s father-in-law was the son of the founder of the American branch of the pharma company, Merck. The source was my favorite trove of personal information about business executives who omit personal info from their biographies: a wedding announcement in the New York Times. 

Perhaps the institute and the workshop are funded solely from royalties and not from a Merck legacy. Doesn’t matter. Either way, I am profoundly grateful for the insight that, in Buechner’s words, spiritual autobiography is a form of prayer. 

Craig Barnes: The Writer and the Whirlwind

Faith and Social Justice, ,

seminary photoDespair is always at hand and it is the demon most difficult to exorcise.

Words haunt you from the basement of your soul. Angels or demons make their way into the souls of your readers, carried by your words.

In the encounter with Job, God took Job’s preoccupation with Why and replaced it with WHO.

God refuses to be accountable to us. God is determined NOT to give us hope. Hope comes from the turn in the plot, because we have dropped the question Why — because our hearts are so full of WHO.

So said Craig Barnes, president of Princeton Theological Seminary at the opening worship for the Frederick Buechner writing workshop at Princeton Theological Seminary. He used two texts (Job 38: 1-7 and Psalm 119: 105-112) for his sermon entitled “The Writer and the Whirlwind.” Several at this workshop asked for my notes, so here they are, as much of what Barnes said as I could write down. (Corrections welcome). Barnes’ audience was 250 plus writers (some clergy, some lay people) from around the country. 

CRAIG BARNES: . 

Job has two chapters of narrative followed by 35 chapters of lament. When it is your life that is interrupted, the chapters are long. Grief, hurt, anger returns.

Words were used by the . . . .

Messenger: disaster

Friends: judgment

Elijah: anger at bad theology

Job: wanting to prove his integrity, Job asks “why?”, complains he does not deserve this fate, he is devoted to a capricious God who makes no sense.

When YOU write, yours are not the first words people encounter.

People are hurt by words, people are inspired by words.

Angels or demons make their way into the souls of your readers, carried on the backs of your words.

As children, we learned that “Sticks and stones don’t break my bones.” What a crock.

Words haunt you from the basement of your soul.

Writers know the power of words.

Ps: 119: words have power to lead us to hope and to salvation.

Your word is a lamp for my feet,  a light on my path.

But even God’s words have a modest intention: lamp to feet, light to path — he gives us just enough to take the next step. Mary at the Annunciation — it was Grace that she did not know the future. Job did not have much light.

Job lost everything, including his former vision of God. But he is not in despair — he refuses to curse God and live (despite the encouragement of his wife!)

Despair is always at hand and it is the demon most difficult to exorcise.

 There is a “designer despair” shown by Tarantino, Manson, Jerry Springer, and the models for J Crew who seem to show “all the cool people are sad.” Versus the old-time Sears catalog with a model that smiled, selling jeans.

Message to teens: “there is no such thing as a bad idea” is one of the worst ideas. Despair is a bad idea.

Someone who knows how to write needs to interject words of hope and light that can take on despair!

In the desert, the Hebrews could not go back. They had to move forward to the Promised Land, but they needed a new vision of God.

Where is your own Promised Land? Do you have wrong numbers, wrong expectations, walls crumbling or at least leaking? What God most wants to give you — and your reader — is God!

God talks. God does not answer “why.” God says ‘remember who you are, remember who I am.”

In the encounter with Job, God took Job’s preoccupation with Why and replaced it with WHO.

So much of what people need in 35 chapters of WHY is, they need a better question. Job drops the Why. Explanations, justifications of integrity, don’t matter. Salvation — especially from despair — requires a new vision of God.

But the human side of it is that you have to struggle through it to be authentic. The story curve, is down, then up. After two chapters of telling how Job got there, the rest of the book is the recovery plan, a reoriented life and  anew vision of God is the turning point.

God refuses to be accountable to us. God is determined NOT to give us hope. Hope comes from the turn in the plot, because we have dropped the question Why — because our hearts are so full of WHO.

Solo Handbells — A Musician’s Dance

Dance and the other arts, Faith and Social Justice,

2014 Duo Grazioso 2(1)
Fewer than a dozen solo handbell artists using four octave handbells concertize in the Eastern United States. To watch a soloist is to watch a musician dance.

This rare kind of concert will be held on Sunday, June 7, at 4 p.m., at Princeton United Methodist Church, located at Nassau and Vandeventer (609-924-2613). PUMC’s music director, Hyosang Park performs. Hyosang (left) and pianist Akiko Hosaki comprise Duo Grazioso, and they attract wide renown.

Hyosang directs the PUMC handbell choir, which plays for worship on second Sundays. Four ringers from that choir == Anna Gillette, Alex Farkas, Robert Scheffler, and Bill Gardner — will contribute to the June 7th program.

So come and bring your friends and those who love handbells! This concert is free, and the freewill offering will benefit the Ministry Fund.

P

Faith and Ethics in the Executive Suite: Staying Grounded while Flying High

Faith and Social Justice, , ,

faith and work

Staying Grounded While Flying High: Marc Allen — a press release

This Friday is the spring finale of the “Faith & Ethics in the Executive Suite” series, hosted by the Princeton University Faith & Work Initiative. The Princeton Faith & Work Initiative will host a conversation with Marc Allen ’95, Senior Vice President at The Boeing Company and President of Boeing International, on May 29, 2015 at 3:00 pm, in the Frist Campus Center, in the lower ground Multipurpose Room A. The event is scheduled as part of Princeton Reunions Weekend; it is free and open to the public.                                                       

Professor David W. Miller, director of the Princeton University Faith & Work Initiative, will interview Allen about his perspective on issues related to business ethics and leadership, particularly in today’s highly global and competitive marketplace. They will also explore what role his faith tradition plays in shaping and informing his leadership style, ethical foundation, and approach to business.                                                                                                        

Prior to joining Boeing, Allen graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1995, earned a J.D. from the Yale Law School, practiced law at Washington, D.C.-based law firm Kellogg Huber, and clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antony Kennedy.

The Privilege of Pedigrees

Around Town, Faith and Social Justice, , , , , , , ,

17WIVES-blog427.No surprise — social status can matter when it comes to getting fabulous jobs. Now a sociologist, Lauren A. Rivera, has ‘proved’ it, in a new book, Pedigree. Here is an excerpt from the publisher, Princeton University Press: “Displaying the ‘right stuff’ that elite employers are looking for entails considerable amounts of economic, social, and cultural resources on the part of applicants and their parents.” 

Those of us who have benefited from a generous amount of privilege are still curious to imagine the lives of women at the very top of the heap. To read Susan (Susie) Wilson’s memoir, Still Running, is to take a crash course in the lifelong advantages of those born wealthy. Wilson candidly acknowledges the advantages she had. And — unlike the Kardashians of this world — she put her privilege to excellent use, to advocate for many good causes, including honest sexuality education in the public schools. Wilson launches the Phyllis Marchand lectures at the Princeton Public Library on Tuesday, May 26.

Today, anthropologist Wednesday Martin scorched the pages of the New York Times with Poor Little Rich Women, a formal study of the wealthy moms of the Upper West Side, a “glittering, moneyed backwater.”

I was a pretty intense mother myself, entering the full-time work force only in my ’40s. But Martin spares little sympathy as she describes the mostly 30-somethings with advanced degrees from prestigious universities and business schools. They were married to rich, powerful men. . . exhaustively enriching their children’s lives by virtually every measure, then advocating for them anxiously and sometimes ruthlessly in the linked high-stakes games of social jockeying and school admissions.

Though Martin claims to have informed these women that she was studying them, I hope she moves out of the neighborhood before her book, Primates of Park Avenue, gets published.

(New York Times illustration by Malika Favre)