Saturday's Memorial

[bettyloy]

Friends,
I am smiling now because I finally figured out how to post a message. Jim would have found that to be hilarious I think, and ironic. People of fair intelligence wishing to share thoughts of the dear man and can't figure out how to do it. Were I smarter (note the subjunctive, Jim's favorite) I would have been here sooner to remark on the totally appropriate and moving memorial service last Saturday.
I am a religion student from the 1970s. I say student because although I graduated I have never stopped learning from what I was exposed to in that little religion department. I am grateful for the questions having only recently realized they are more important than the answers. I didn't believe that in 1970, my matriculation year. The title: "The search for meaning and value" sort of implies there is a destination (answers), at least to me then. Now, of course, it is clear they ( they being Taylor, Anne Marie Shannon, Werneke, Ford et al) wouldn't have used the term search if they hadn't meant search, right? Well, now that I think about it maybe they would have, you know, used a trick word to throw us off track..."...the title makes it LOOK like we ar searching but we really aren't. You may go search if you like and, please, if you will be so kind, let us know what, if anything, you find."
Oh well, as I was saying, I am trapped in many ways by what I learned at OCU. For example, the social gospel has all but been forgotten by today's loudest Christians and I don't recognize the church or its people much anymore. There isn't much demand for discipleship it seems. I subscribed to the idea that following Jesus had everything to do with caring and sympathy, action for the helpless and not judging, and denying our selves. I don't recognize these values very much in those christians who speak loudly today. But, as Jim would remind me then, and I hear him reminding me now, "don't be so hard on the church, Miss Loy. After all, what else do you have, the republican party?"
Perhaps, if it is alright, I will write again later. I just wanted to say thank you for all who made the memorial to Jim possible, and to say how proud I think he would have been of Janet and Peter and their children.
Betty Loy, BA in Religion 1973