Samuel D. Cook - "Do We Really Believe in the Value and Dignity of the Human Person?" (October 11, 1970)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(choir singing) | 0:38 | |
(upbeat organ music) | 2:20 | |
(energetic organ music) | 3:39 | |
(choir singing) | 4:22 | |
(lively organ music) | 4:39 | |
(gentle organ music) | 5:37 | |
(choir singing) | 5:39 | |
(choir singing) | 5:49 | |
(choir singing) | 6:01 | |
(energetic organ music) | ||
- | All of us are in need of being made acceptable | 6:20 |
as we come before the presence of God, | 6:23 | |
by reason of our imperfections | 6:27 | |
and those things in our lives, which make us unworthy. | 6:30 | |
The way we become acceptable to God | 6:35 | |
is to acknowledge our need of his forgiveness, | 6:38 | |
to acknowledge the fact that we are unworthy people | 6:42 | |
and that we need to have a healthy relationship | 6:46 | |
to our heavenly father. | 6:50 | |
May we therefore unite our hearts and our voices | 6:53 | |
and our unison prayer of confession and for pardon. | 6:57 | |
Let us pray. | 7:00 | |
Most merciful, heavenly father, | 7:02 | |
we have done a little too advanced that I kingdom on earth | 7:05 | |
to cultivate a true brotherhood of man or to live by love. | 7:08 | |
We have allowed selfishness and crudeness to blind us. | 7:13 | |
We have sucked holidays from the | 7:17 | |
ethical principles of Christ. | 7:19 | |
We have tried to believe that we could so evil | 7:22 | |
and not reap evil. Forgive our sinful stupidity, oh God. | 7:24 | |
And restore us to righteousness in Jesus Christ. | 7:29 | |
Amen. | 7:34 | |
The scriptures say to us and to all man, | 7:37 | |
that as far as the east is from the west so far, | 7:40 | |
has he removed our transgressions from us. | 7:44 | |
Amen. | 7:49 | |
(organ music) | 7:52 | |
(choir singing) | 9:06 | |
(choir singing) | 10:38 | |
And do not fear those who kill the body, | 12:19 | |
but cannot kill the soul. | 12:21 | |
Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. | 12:23 | |
I'm not two sparrows sold for a penny and not one of them | 12:27 | |
will fall to the ground without your father's will. | 12:31 | |
But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. | 12:34 | |
Fear not therefor you all have more value | 12:38 | |
than many sparrows. Matthew 10:28-31. | 12:41 | |
(organ music) | 12:50 | |
(choir singing) | 12:56 | |
(energetic organ music) | 13:12 | |
(choir singing) | ||
- | The Lord be with you. | 13:30 |
Let us pray. | 13:33 | |
All mighty God by whose wisdom the earth was founded. | 13:42 | |
And the heavens established | 13:46 | |
now has taught us that wisdom | 13:49 | |
is more precious than rubies. | 13:51 | |
That it is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon it. | 13:54 | |
We therefore gather here, | 13:59 | |
do now pause to give these thanks | 14:02 | |
that the founders of the church | 14:05 | |
and of the university | 14:06 | |
fulfill their obligation to impart the treasures of faith | 14:09 | |
and knowledge to succeeding generations, | 14:12 | |
and that they gave us a place whereby searching wisdom | 14:16 | |
and faith may be found. | 14:22 | |
We thank thee that by their planning and sacrifice, | 14:25 | |
we have come into a great inheritance of truth. | 14:29 | |
We thank the specifically that we can go to the library | 14:35 | |
and check out a book and read it, study it, | 14:39 | |
and know the truth, the facts, the knowledge, the wisdom, | 14:44 | |
which the author has labored | 14:49 | |
and put into that book. | 14:52 | |
And that we can check out another book, | 14:56 | |
and yet another and another. | 14:58 | |
2 million of them. | 15:00 | |
Oh Lord, we have been blessed. | 15:04 | |
We thank the for teachers who can help us to understand | 15:08 | |
these books and more than what is in books, | 15:10 | |
but we thank the old God that thou are personally the | 15:17 | |
fountain of all truth, | 15:21 | |
whether the truth of biology or the truth of theology. | 15:24 | |
And we are delighted that we are free to learn any | 15:29 | |
and all truth without being afraid | 15:34 | |
that this truth or that truth will be irreverent | 15:37 | |
because now art, the author of all truth, | 15:42 | |
we thank for you God | 15:47 | |
or enough uncertainty about what is | 15:50 | |
going to happen tomorrow, | 15:53 | |
so that we can greet each day with | 15:55 | |
fresh expectation. | 15:58 | |
But we thank thee for enough certainty | 16:02 | |
about they providential care of the future | 16:04 | |
so that we can face the future with faith and with hope. | 16:08 | |
Our heavenly father, | 16:18 | |
we offer under the, our intersessions or our fellow man, | 16:19 | |
we pray for all sorts and conditions of people, | 16:26 | |
those whom we know, and those whom we have never seen, | 16:30 | |
never shall meet in this life, | 16:33 | |
but who are also the objects of thy love and care | 16:36 | |
and who therefore have a claim | 16:41 | |
upon our concern and our prayers. | 16:42 | |
We thank to the, | 16:47 | |
that we can come to the end prayer for them, | 16:48 | |
knowing that I love of them as far greater than ours. | 16:52 | |
And so we pray for the wives and the children, | 16:58 | |
parents, the brothers, and the sisters | 17:01 | |
of all who have been killed in Vietnam, | 17:04 | |
whether of our nation or of any other nation. | 17:09 | |
We pray for those who are still alive, | 17:14 | |
that they may remain alive. | 17:18 | |
We pray the two so work in the hearts of all men, | 17:23 | |
that the hostilities, the killing, the hatred, | 17:29 | |
they come to a swift end. | 17:33 | |
Our father, we pray for the alcoholics, | 17:39 | |
for the members of their family, of their employers, | 17:45 | |
those who meet them on the highways | 17:50 | |
or the drug addicts, | 17:56 | |
and those about to become addicted to drugs | 17:58 | |
that they may have wisdom and grace to be wise. | 18:03 | |
We pray for those who, | 18:11 | |
because of decisions they have made or have not made, | 18:12 | |
have now lost their self-respect. | 18:15 | |
Grant that they made through thy grace, | 18:20 | |
and through thy support regain the respect of themselves. | 18:24 | |
We pray for those who are confused by unexpected situations. | 18:32 | |
Those who are confused by unwanted temptations, | 18:37 | |
we intercede for those who are so sick, | 18:44 | |
that they oppose all social change. | 18:47 | |
For those who are so sick, | 18:51 | |
that they feel they must destroy society. | 18:54 | |
May all sick people find health in the. | 18:59 | |
We pray for those who have not yet found anything to worship | 19:06 | |
greater than themselves. | 19:10 | |
Granted, they may get a vision of the, of Jesus Christ. | 19:14 | |
Oh Lord. There are so many people for whom we should pray. | 19:21 | |
Those who are overworked, | 19:27 | |
those who have more responsibility on their shoulders | 19:30 | |
than can be discharged by any one person | 19:33 | |
and yet who are expected to fulfill | 19:36 | |
those responsibilities regardless. | 19:38 | |
Give them grace to be faithful | 19:42 | |
and to forgive those who put | 19:45 | |
too much responsibility on them. | 19:47 | |
We pray for those who are poor | 19:51 | |
and therefore whose ideas are not listened to | 19:54 | |
because their financial weight is not impressive. | 19:58 | |
We pray for those who are discriminated against | 20:04 | |
because they are wealthy. | 20:06 | |
Whose dedicated labor and sacrifice are seldom appreciated | 20:10 | |
because of our blind prejudice against anybody | 20:14 | |
who has more of this world's goods than we have. | 20:17 | |
Grant them grace, to forgive us. | 20:21 | |
The patience to continue their dedicated labors. | 20:24 | |
Oh, God help all of us to be less critical of others | 20:29 | |
and more critical of ourselves, less prone to generalize, | 20:32 | |
more inclined to be helpful. | 20:37 | |
Oh God, we are in need of prayer ourselves. | 20:44 | |
Keep us from assuming that this year is going to be just | 20:52 | |
like every other year. | 20:58 | |
Keep us from presuming that our professors | 21:02 | |
are supposed to do for us, | 21:06 | |
what we should do for ourselves. | 21:08 | |
Keep us from getting preoccupied with things | 21:13 | |
that are of surface value | 21:19 | |
and not of intrinsic and internal value. | 21:21 | |
Oh God. | 21:26 | |
As we think of thy son, Jesus Christ, | 21:27 | |
and of his dedication and his courage. | 21:32 | |
We know that he had the courage to commit | 21:37 | |
his spirit under the, | 21:40 | |
and we wonder how fully | 21:43 | |
or completely we have ever done that ourselves. | 21:44 | |
Or even if we actually did it at some time in the past, | 21:49 | |
how much of that commitment has eroded away | 21:53 | |
between then and now. | 21:55 | |
How much of that commitment has not been explored | 21:59 | |
in terms of its meaning or society. | 22:02 | |
Help us to face our own predicament. | 22:07 | |
Squarely and honestly, | 22:09 | |
in this hour of worship. | 22:10 | |
To see our escapes and dodges for what they are, | 22:13 | |
and to understand the selfishness | 22:15 | |
behind our rationalizations | 22:17 | |
and to acknowledge with new candor, | 22:20 | |
how uncommitted our spirits are, | 22:22 | |
but how committed they must be. | 22:25 | |
If our lives finally are to have any meaning, | 22:28 | |
We make this prayer in the name of him | 22:34 | |
who has taught us that better prayer to say, | 22:36 | |
when we pray our father who art in heaven, | 22:40 | |
hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, | 22:44 | |
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 22:48 | |
Give us this day, our daily bread. | 22:52 | |
Forgive us, our trespasses | 22:55 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us, | 22:57 | |
and lead us not into temptation, | 23:01 | |
but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom | 23:03 | |
and the power and the glory forever. | 23:07 | |
Amen. | 23:11 | |
- | My dear friend, Dr. Wilkinson | 23:34 |
and my other friend, the duke. | 23:38 | |
Perhaps you'll understand how the delighted my wife | 23:42 | |
and I are to be in your presence again. | 23:45 | |
Thanks for all your sense of community. | 23:49 | |
We are delight to be home again. | 23:52 | |
No age said Heidegger | 23:59 | |
has known so much and so many different things | 24:02 | |
about man as our own. | 24:07 | |
Yet no age has known so little about what man is. | 24:11 | |
A new principle of Western culture | 24:19 | |
is that our belief in the dignity | 24:24 | |
and value of a human person. | 24:27 | |
It is a belief that is old, | 24:32 | |
but ever young. | 24:34 | |
Conservative, | 24:37 | |
but revolutionary. | 24:38 | |
Liberal, but radical. | 24:40 | |
Progressive, but expressive of the deepest longing | 24:44 | |
of the human heart and spirit. | 24:48 | |
The most relevant to the human condition is not necessarily | 24:52 | |
the newest, nor that of the widest currently. | 24:58 | |
Now, belief in the value and dignity of a human person | 25:04 | |
is one that is honored more in breach | 25:10 | |
than in observance. | 25:13 | |
Most of us pay lip service to it. | 25:16 | |
Few of us take it seriously, | 25:19 | |
a few of us to make it a part of our being | 25:22 | |
in the daily encounters of life. | 25:25 | |
One thinks our own, | 25:31 | |
Something Camus said about | 25:33 | |
giving generosity and justice to the dead, | 25:38 | |
but do you know why we always more joshed and generous | 25:43 | |
towards the dead, asked Camus, | 25:48 | |
the reason this simple. | 25:52 | |
With them, there is no obligation. | 25:55 | |
They leave us free and we can take our time. | 25:59 | |
Fit the testimonial in between a cocktail party | 26:04 | |
and a nice mistress. | 26:08 | |
In our spare time. | 26:11 | |
In short. | 26:13 | |
In a sermon's priest enlist chapel on September 27th, | 26:16 | |
the reverend Dr. Wilkinson asserted | 26:22 | |
that in terms of actions, | 26:27 | |
the actual encounters of life, | 26:30 | |
Christians, are | 26:33 | |
and I've always been a Monarch. | 26:35 | |
John's by that same standard. | 26:39 | |
Those of us committed to believe in the value, | 26:41 | |
and dignity of the human person | 26:45 | |
and an infinite of tests (mumbles). | 26:49 | |
Abstract fidelity, is no fidelity at all. | 26:53 | |
For it costs us nothing. | 26:58 | |
It generates and nourishes, no restraints. | 27:01 | |
It imposes no concrete obligations. | 27:05 | |
The vast majority of us have selected particular | 27:10 | |
realistic and exclusive views of the value and dignity | 27:15 | |
of the human person. | 27:21 | |
We made belief in the value of the human person, | 27:24 | |
a function of income, social status, race, | 27:27 | |
and other forms of power. | 27:32 | |
We affirm the dignity and value of this man or group. | 27:35 | |
And we deny the dignity and value of that man, or group. | 27:41 | |
The proof of our beliefs is not in our professions, | 27:47 | |
but in our actions, not in our creeks, but in our beings. | 27:52 | |
We tend to respect the value and dignity of man as person | 27:59 | |
only when it is convenient, self-serving, or in quote, | 28:05 | |
"Prudent or practical." | 28:12 | |
Now, what is the meaning of | 28:16 | |
the value and dignity of a human person? | 28:17 | |
Is a proposition about self being, | 28:22 | |
about self containment on the deepest level of life. | 28:24 | |
It is to assert | 28:30 | |
that the solitary individual | 28:31 | |
is an intrinsic residency of meaning, | 28:34 | |
and worthwhile ness. | 28:37 | |
Independent station, | 28:39 | |
achievements, social processes and evaluations | 28:41 | |
and institutional configurations. | 28:45 | |
The doctrine of human dignity and worries | 28:48 | |
points to a level of meaning and being | 28:52 | |
beyond historical calculations. | 28:56 | |
Beyond our acts of good and evil beyond our utility, | 28:59 | |
beyond our moral ambiguities, human dignity is what is left. | 29:03 | |
When man has been stripped of all | 29:11 | |
that on which he is strippable. | 29:13 | |
when he has been reduced to his irreducible minimum, | 29:15 | |
the essential self is that quality | 29:19 | |
or essence, which remains | 29:20 | |
when the human person is naked | 29:26 | |
before the all tell being itself. | 29:28 | |
Is that which stands when all else has fallen. | 29:31 | |
For human dignity and value are written in the constitution, | 29:37 | |
of the universe, | 29:41 | |
the very nature of things. | 29:43 | |
Here's the prime old ethical ground | 29:46 | |
on which we all stand as level. | 29:49 | |
There are no hills, and no violence. | 29:52 | |
We are all on the mountain top of human dignity | 29:54 | |
and worries. | 29:58 | |
Well, there are no elect, and no condemned, no high, | 30:00 | |
no low, no masters and no servants. | 30:02 | |
No whites, and no blacks. | 30:06 | |
No privileged and no deprived. | 30:09 | |
No rich, and no poor. | 30:11 | |
No celebrity. | 30:14 | |
The ground on which we stand is level. | 30:17 | |
We are all just persons, just simply human beings. | 30:21 | |
Our value as person therefore | 30:27 | |
is general, but unique. | 30:33 | |
Common to all, but special. | 30:34 | |
Universal, but particular. | 30:36 | |
Inclusive, but exclusive. | 30:37 | |
Human, but divine. | 30:39 | |
But to achieve moral requirement, | 30:42 | |
it's universal respect for human beings. | 30:45 | |
When we treat man and our daily encounters | 30:47 | |
as ends of themselves. And not as me. | 30:52 | |
As Con put it, in his categorical in Paris. | 30:58 | |
So ask to treat humanity whether in your own person | 31:03 | |
or in that of any other. | 31:07 | |
In whatever it takes as an end | 31:10 | |
and never as merely a means. | 31:15 | |
Now the intellectual and spiritual sources, | 31:20 | |
I believe in the, | 31:22 | |
worth and value of a human person are million. | 31:23 | |
Various systems of philosophy have elaborated | 31:30 | |
the meaning and structure of this belief. | 31:32 | |
What Christianity, like Judaism, | 31:36 | |
has the great virtue of grounding, | 31:39 | |
the dignity and value of the human person | 31:44 | |
in the transcendent realm, beyond the space, time continuum, | 31:49 | |
anterior to when independent all the relativizes | 31:55 | |
and contingencies of existence beyond the flux and flow | 31:59 | |
of historical phenomena. | 32:05 | |
Christianity anchors | 32:08 | |
the value and dignity of the human person. | 32:10 | |
In the untold logical rail | 32:13 | |
in the character or being itself. | 32:17 | |
According to the Christian faith, | 32:22 | |
the worry about value and dignity of the human person | 32:26 | |
are rooted in the creative and redemptive love of God. | 32:32 | |
(mumbles) | 32:40 | |
It's not to be found by looking at him. | 32:44 | |
But by looking at his creator. | 32:48 | |
Men therefor are not required | 32:51 | |
to merit that value and dignity, | 32:53 | |
they inherit them. | 32:56 | |
They all presuppositions of what it means to be human | 32:58 | |
and what it means to be a child of God. | 33:02 | |
Thus man, dignity is thy received. | 33:06 | |
Dignity. It is a gift of him. | 33:09 | |
The dignity of man is conferred. His worth is bestowed. | 33:12 | |
Says that God | 33:19 | |
the creator does not create humanity, | 33:20 | |
but he creates each individual separately. | 33:23 | |
He has called the by name. | 33:27 | |
He knows you personally, | 33:31 | |
especially as you are not an example, but a person, | 33:33 | |
a self which cannot be exchanged for any other. | 33:39 | |
Thus, we are not creatures of mass-production, | 33:44 | |
or the craving for expanded technological efficiency. | 33:47 | |
Ah, the product off and obsession with increasingly | 33:54 | |
cost making equivalent of the GNP. | 33:58 | |
Qualitative and unity in consideration to | 34:01 | |
govern our creation, | 34:03 | |
and they call us by name. | 34:07 | |
Not nearly Howard, | 34:09 | |
but Howard Wilkinson. | 34:11 | |
Not nearly Silia, | 34:14 | |
but Silia Fields. | 34:16 | |
He call us by name. | 34:19 | |
To be a person is to have a name. | 34:23 | |
Individuality means in essence, | 34:26 | |
that we know our name. | 34:30 | |
What is a human person anyway? | 34:35 | |
What is the difference between a person and a thing? | 34:38 | |
It is impossible to think deeply of the human person without | 34:43 | |
a profound sense of awe and wonder. | 34:47 | |
To begin with, | 34:51 | |
a person is an awesome unity of mystery, | 34:52 | |
meaning and infinite possibility, | 34:55 | |
but he's an ultimate mystery about the human person. | 35:00 | |
After reason has exhausted his labor of analysis, | 35:03 | |
explanation, and evaluation. | 35:08 | |
That is always a call called mystery, | 35:11 | |
and wish the human person is shrouded | 35:16 | |
some elusive quality. | 35:19 | |
Some element that is defiant of rational intelligibility. | 35:23 | |
A person of calling possesses self-consciousness, | 35:30 | |
self knowledge, self identity. | 35:33 | |
A person said is also capable of self transcendence, | 35:37 | |
he can stand outside himself and make him serve | 35:41 | |
an object of knowledge. | 35:44 | |
Therefore becoming subject of knowledge. | 35:45 | |
Knowing and known, creator and creature. | 35:47 | |
By the moral and intellectual autonomy and | 35:53 | |
authenticity about the human person, | 35:56 | |
a radical freedom about man. | 36:01 | |
A freedom which stands above, | 36:05 | |
and in a sense defines all the structures of life. | 36:07 | |
Person hood is a given of existence. | 36:14 | |
One does not, one cannot prove one's humanity. | 36:17 | |
Personhood is a qualitative category | 36:23 | |
rather than a quantitative one. | 36:26 | |
It is incommensurable and beyond quantification. | 36:29 | |
One cannot be more or less of a person than another. | 36:33 | |
To fail to appreciate the equal selfhood of another. | 36:40 | |
Is in the end | 36:45 | |
to fail to appreciate the full dimensions | 36:46 | |
of our own self worth. | 36:49 | |
In contemporary American culture, | 36:52 | |
there are several major forces militating | 36:54 | |
against the dignity and worth of the human person. | 36:57 | |
Into mind, quickly calm | 37:02 | |
blind and insidious technological forces, | 37:04 | |
but he rose into the rights of privacy. | 37:07 | |
The Bob Rick appeal | 37:10 | |
to irrationality for not her season | 37:13 | |
primitive instincts and fears, | 37:16 | |
and force and violence by some defenders | 37:18 | |
and some attackers of the establishments. | 37:21 | |
The mind is the man for conforming. | 37:26 | |
Orthodoxy of one kind or another, and standardization. | 37:30 | |
Worthy of special emphasis on racism, poverty, | 37:36 | |
neglect, and subordination of students | 37:40 | |
by colleges and universities | 37:43 | |
and the parallels weakling | 37:45 | |
of the fragile bonds of community. | 37:47 | |
These phenomena are of course vital and linked, | 37:51 | |
and they feed upon each other. | 37:54 | |
Reference must also be made to the oppression | 37:58 | |
of Indian Americans, Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans. | 38:00 | |
Racism means irreverence, contempt and scorn | 38:06 | |
for human life. | 38:11 | |
It is forever at war with any belief in | 38:13 | |
the dignity and worth of the human person. | 38:17 | |
Racism falsifies existence by amazing the particularity | 38:22 | |
of one group. | 38:28 | |
The center and source of meaning and value for all of | 38:30 | |
human life. | 38:33 | |
Racism, and war. | 38:35 | |
Support in age human life to human life. | 38:38 | |
The one, the right own evil caused racism. | 38:43 | |
One form of original sin. | 38:46 | |
Raise your later alienation said Kelsey. | 38:51 | |
Stands alone among | 38:55 | |
the forms of human conflict founded | 38:58 | |
in the question of being itself. | 39:02 | |
You see original sins | 39:05 | |
seems much more than a political economic | 39:06 | |
and sociological theory. | 39:09 | |
Ray sees them either radical, doctrine of man. | 39:12 | |
A philosophy of human existence, | 39:16 | |
the quest for meaning. | 39:19 | |
It's also an anthological prayer. | 39:21 | |
Racism is the prototype of all human alienation, | 39:25 | |
because it is the one form of social conflict | 39:28 | |
that separates human being as human being | 39:33 | |
at the level of being itself. | 39:38 | |
But the ultimate evil of racism is that it makes white life | 39:42 | |
precious and sacred, | 39:46 | |
and black life cheep and propane. | 39:48 | |
Racism therefore makes normative and obligatory. | 39:52 | |
Reverends for white humanity. | 39:56 | |
Had he reverenced for black humanity. | 40:00 | |
The logic of racism is genocide. | 40:04 | |
Now the existence of poverty, starvation and malnutrition, | 40:11 | |
in this rich land, | 40:15 | |
the gross national product of almost a trillion dollars | 40:18 | |
is on a front to the daily demand, | 40:24 | |
and to the conscience of a conquerer. | 40:27 | |
Respect for the worth | 40:30 | |
and dignity of persons require the elevation of | 40:32 | |
the rights of person over those of property. | 40:37 | |
The rights of persons are primary, | 40:42 | |
those of property secondary and derivative. | 40:44 | |
The rights of property are not self-justified. | 40:49 | |
The rights of persons are. | 40:53 | |
The rights of property | 40:54 | |
received that justification. | 40:56 | |
Only entering the vast abilities, | 41:00 | |
ability to the rights of the human person. | 41:02 | |
We need bread for the body as well as roses for the soul. | 41:07 | |
Now on the whole, | 41:15 | |
students have justifiable complaints | 41:17 | |
against colleges and universities, | 41:20 | |
as well as the larger society. | 41:22 | |
For the most part, | 41:27 | |
institutions of higher learning have treated students | 41:28 | |
more as things than as persons. | 41:31 | |
More as means that as in | 41:35 | |
more as objects than as human beings, | 41:37 | |
more as passive receptacles, | 41:39 | |
then as creative participants in the life of the dialogue. | 41:41 | |
Not always, but all too often, | 41:46 | |
they have been depersonalized and dehumanized. | 41:49 | |
At least at the basic level of being and self hood. | 41:54 | |
Instead of making students the center | 41:59 | |
of the educational process, | 42:01 | |
we have tended to make them the periphery. | 42:04 | |
Indeed, they have been perceived | 42:09 | |
by a few of us professors as intruders outside of, | 42:11 | |
or detract us from the real enterprise | 42:17 | |
of learning and scholarship. | 42:21 | |
Institutions of higher learning, | 42:24 | |
on the whole, have assumed | 42:27 | |
about the role of students, either exhausted, | 42:29 | |
then the acknowledgement of and subservience | 42:33 | |
to the in exhaust of a knowledge of professors, | 42:35 | |
the infinite wisdom of administrator | 42:38 | |
and the divine revelations aboard the trustees. | 42:42 | |
That day is gone, | 42:47 | |
and all to have a good. | 42:49 | |
Learning, freedom, growth, responsibility, and maturity, | 42:52 | |
requires significant participation in these | 42:57 | |
central decisions and encounters, | 43:00 | |
affecting the content direction | 43:02 | |
and variety in form of human experience. | 43:03 | |
The exclusion of students from meeting full participation | 43:07 | |
in the total life of institution of higher learning | 43:12 | |
does more than demean and under prime them of their view. | 43:16 | |
It also demeans, diminishes, | 43:21 | |
and falsify the life of reason, | 43:25 | |
as well as the adventure raw, | 43:29 | |
the liberation and cultivation all the human mind. | 43:32 | |
And we're all losers therefore. | 43:36 | |
Reform to give students the right out participation | 43:40 | |
in the structure and process of governance | 43:43 | |
is a rational imperative, | 43:47 | |
but the sharing of power is also necessary | 43:50 | |
to the transformation of colleges and universities, | 43:55 | |
into genuine communities for the pursuit of learning | 43:59 | |
and experimentation in morally and social ambiguous culture. | 44:02 | |
I am not asserting. | 44:08 | |
Please note, | 44:09 | |
that students all do have an equal votes. | 44:11 | |
Or veto power. | 44:15 | |
The largest social concerns of students | 44:18 | |
and other young people are fully justified. | 44:20 | |
By humanism, idealism and commitments | 44:24 | |
are the best hope for a better world. | 44:28 | |
They not simply telling by ill of something. | 44:31 | |
They are saying something which will enrich | 44:33 | |
and enlarge the quality of human life, | 44:36 | |
but meet the sometimes angry voices | 44:39 | |
and violent rhetoric our sensitivities and vision. | 44:42 | |
Suggestive of something precious and redemptive. | 44:48 | |
They are insisting among other things | 44:53 | |
that we declare war on social and moral hypocrisy. | 44:56 | |
That we take seriously, | 45:02 | |
our ideals of freedom, social justice, dignity, | 45:03 | |
and quality, equality, the value of the human person. | 45:08 | |
We have wondered in the desert | 45:14 | |
of collective and individual hypocrisy. | 45:16 | |
We will find fresh water to satisfy our foods | 45:20 | |
in the backyard of our national ideals. | 45:23 | |
We will be at home with integrity. | 45:26 | |
Fortunately, | 45:30 | |
a lot of young people have the courage | 45:31 | |
of their parent's conviction | 45:33 | |
and this accounts for much of the generation counting. | 45:36 | |
During the vigil here at duke in 1968 | 45:42 | |
and out of Monmouth king, | 45:44 | |
one of my students called me | 45:47 | |
and asked me to call her parents | 45:50 | |
to talk to them because they were upset. | 45:54 | |
Very upset by her participation. | 45:58 | |
The vigil, you will recall, | 46:02 | |
was concerned with making life better | 46:04 | |
for the least that they were do. | 46:06 | |
At the end of the conversation | 46:10 | |
this sensitive young lady said to me, almost pathetically, | 46:12 | |
"Dr. Cook. | 46:18 | |
I am only trying to do | 46:21 | |
what my parents have always taught me to do." | 46:24 | |
Now, the vigil was, I think, | 46:31 | |
a model of creative protest | 46:33 | |
combining rational or non-violent methods | 46:34 | |
with a passion for social justice. | 46:37 | |
I shall never forget Isarob, 1968. | 46:42 | |
When 12 or 1500 duke university students | 46:48 | |
were on the court. | 46:52 | |
Dressed in their Sunday best. | 46:53 | |
The fellow came out and prayed. | 46:56 | |
Harman Smith delivered a talk. | 46:59 | |
Harmon said, | 47:04 | |
"God is not fair. | 47:05 | |
He is alive, and well. | 47:09 | |
He owned the court. | 47:11 | |
I've always thought about that. | 47:14 | |
I walked across that court numerous times. | 47:16 | |
After this place, | 47:18 | |
this, this land is holding. | 47:19 | |
But I had to laugh too about Harmon too, I said to myself, | 47:22 | |
the best proof Harmon | 47:25 | |
that God is not dead | 47:26 | |
is that you came from Mississippi. | 47:28 | |
Oh, | 47:32 | |
Harmon tell God that if he wants to stay alive and well, | 47:33 | |
he'd better stay out of Mississippi. | 47:38 | |
When I witnessed, the commitments, | 47:43 | |
the idealism and the humanism of some of these young people, | 47:46 | |
I knew that there's hope in the world. | 47:53 | |
I got a better understanding of human love | 47:56 | |
and human actions. | 47:59 | |
And sometime I want to say glory, glory, hallelujah. | 48:02 | |
But in seeking to make this world better, | 48:07 | |
students and other young people, | 48:11 | |
must avoid the very hypocrisy and humanistic pretension | 48:13 | |
that they are properly rebelling against. | 48:17 | |
Some of them are guilty, | 48:21 | |
of their own special brand of apocalyptic hypocrisy. | 48:24 | |
More or all nothing humanistic to see. | 48:29 | |
The old game is to respect the value and dignity of man | 48:33 | |
in the abstract and in general, | 48:37 | |
and to ignore them in the flesh and blood | 48:41 | |
of concrete encounter | 48:45 | |
in the day to day struggles, and engagements of life, | 48:47 | |
but I have no significant and meaningful respect for | 48:52 | |
man in general or in the abstract. | 48:55 | |
But test is how we treat and respond to this man | 48:59 | |
and that man, in our daily engagement. | 49:03 | |
Pho, as well as friend, | 49:08 | |
opponent, as well as supporter, | 49:11 | |
others who shout a different vision, | 49:14 | |
fellow students, professors, deans, presidents, | 49:17 | |
trustees, | 49:21 | |
and other defenders of the status quo | 49:24 | |
are equally human beings. | 49:27 | |
And therefore on the same | 49:29 | |
qualitative plane of significance. | 49:31 | |
It is outright hypocrisy to offend the dignity of man | 49:37 | |
in the abstract, | 49:41 | |
and to ignore it in the concrete. | 49:43 | |
That is perversion. | 49:45 | |
And as William Earnest Hawkins said, | 49:48 | |
"Perversion of the best | 49:50 | |
is the worst. | 49:53 | |
Violence, senseless destruction, | 49:56 | |
other forms of naked coercion, fanaticism, | 50:00 | |
and aimless disruption than confrontation or self-defeating. | 50:03 | |
I am aware of course of the violence, | 50:08 | |
the overt and covert coercion, | 50:12 | |
and the intransigence in justice, | 50:14 | |
insensitivity and moral hypocrisy of the status quo. | 50:16 | |
Young people must offer us something back, | 50:23 | |
something higher, something nobler. | 50:26 | |
Reason, integrity, conscience holdings. | 50:31 | |
People love their community. | 50:36 | |
Violence introduces moral ambiguity | 50:38 | |
in the struggle for a more humane society | 50:43 | |
and thou for give the status quo an unnecessary | 50:46 | |
moral propped diversion and camouflage. | 50:49 | |
It plays into the hand of the forces, | 50:54 | |
of reaction, oppression, and repression | 50:56 | |
as Martin Luther king said, | 51:00 | |
"Increases tragic bitterness and as deep | 51:03 | |
but darkness to a night already devoid of stars." | 51:07 | |
All of us and especially young people | 51:13 | |
should learn something from the tragic fade off | 51:18 | |
the Kennedys and Dr. Kings, | 51:21 | |
three men who embodied the best idealism and humanism, | 51:23 | |
America has known. | 51:27 | |
Violence simply is not the way of humanism | 51:31 | |
and idealism. | 51:33 | |
Is not the way to a better America. | 51:36 | |
We are in danger of failing to recognize certain | 51:40 | |
unities and continuities of life. | 51:43 | |
We, all of us, | 51:47 | |
must recognize one, | 51:49 | |
the unity and continuity of means even is. | 51:52 | |
The means William Paul, | 51:56 | |
and Martin Luther king used to say so eloquently, | 51:57 | |
effect and reflect the quality of our ends. | 52:01 | |
Unity and continuity of protest and affirmation, | 52:07 | |
the CNN construction, | 52:13 | |
the fence and quality | 52:15 | |
protests for what? Defense of the status quo for what? | 52:16 | |
Action, reaction, and repression for what? | 52:20 | |
The unity and continuity of rhetoric and reality. | 52:25 | |
Word and deed. Tongue and consequence. | 52:29 | |
Epithets, stereotypes, and character too are | 52:32 | |
the forms of dehumanization | 52:34 | |
and an invitation to wax off inhumanity. | 52:38 | |
And call men fastest pigs and snobs, thugs. | 52:42 | |
Long haired animals, bums. | 52:47 | |
Just to dehumanize them. | 52:50 | |
Persistence to preach hate and expect love. | 52:53 | |
Division and polarization and respect, | 52:59 | |
unity and reconciliation | 53:01 | |
raises a man and respect law and order | 53:03 | |
for social climate is crucial. | 53:06 | |
Words invite trigger, and stimulate deeds. | 53:10 | |
And finally, | 53:17 | |
we must recognize the unity and continuity | 53:17 | |
of belief in the value | 53:21 | |
of the human person and the beloved community. | 53:23 | |
Our country is in deep trouble, apprehensions | 53:29 | |
and doubts, and despair, | 53:33 | |
drive in and haunt us like angry and vengeful ghosts. | 53:38 | |
Various forms of polarization, fragmentation and tolerance, | 53:43 | |
fanaticism, insensitivity, | 53:47 | |
and alienation signify | 53:49 | |
the weakening of the sense of community. | 53:50 | |
The feeling that we belong to each other, | 53:54 | |
the sense of human solidarity, | 53:58 | |
mutuality and essential relations. | 54:01 | |
In times of crisis, | 54:05 | |
we are apt to forget the common basis of human life. | 54:06 | |
Our differences are trivial in comparison | 54:10 | |
with our similarities | 54:14 | |
and common needs and aspirations. | 54:16 | |
Man belongs to man. | 54:18 | |
And Paul Tillich was right when he said | 54:21 | |
that means a reunion of the separated, | 54:24 | |
but healing the wounds, the reconciliation, | 54:29 | |
of the fragments of our society, tolerance, | 54:34 | |
the repairing of torn tissue | 54:37 | |
and the elimination of tragic injustice. | 54:41 | |
Our desperate need of the land. | 54:45 | |
Brief is the life of man. | 54:49 | |
We are rather dense of this world for only a moment. | 54:52 | |
And our brief moment is simply too precious | 54:58 | |
and too uncertain. | 55:03 | |
To spend it on ill and hate, | 55:06 | |
and estrangement from our fellow, | 55:11 | |
we simply cannot go wrong, | 55:16 | |
the way we are in this country. | 55:19 | |
Genuine community must be built upon the bedrock | 55:23 | |
of respect for human value and dignity. | 55:26 | |
Genuine community is a living situation of persons. | 55:31 | |
Only men who are capable of true less than | 55:36 | |
vow to one another. | 55:40 | |
Can truly say we with one another. | 55:45 | |
The essence of community, | 55:49 | |
The union of persons in love, | 55:53 | |
there is no genuine community, | 55:56 | |
except a community of love. | 56:00 | |
Genuine community enriches, deepens, | 56:04 | |
and complete self hood. | 56:07 | |
What frees us from solitude said Gaspar, | 56:10 | |
is not the world, | 56:14 | |
but the serpent was in as in to our ties | 56:17 | |
with others. That is why Martin Luther king said | 56:21 | |
that injustice anywhere is threat to justice everywhere. | 56:25 | |
We are called in on an inescapable network | 56:32 | |
of mutuality tied in a garment of our destiny | 56:36 | |
What affects one directly, | 56:38 | |
affects all indirectly. | 56:41 | |
The crisis in our land | 56:46 | |
threatened both self hood and community, | 56:49 | |
but we are not the conspiratorial victims | 56:54 | |
or the forces of evil and dones. | 56:58 | |
Lawrence Cohen once said, | 57:03 | |
"While history shows many cases of the defeat | 57:07 | |
of good causes by brute power. | 57:12 | |
It also shows | 57:16 | |
that good causes are more often defeated by neglect. | 57:19 | |
In the pursuit of the right, | 57:24 | |
than by the positive forces of evil. | 57:30 | |
The Supreme tragedy of our time | 57:33 | |
is not the power of the forces of evil, | 57:38 | |
but the failure of men of goodwill | 57:42 | |
and the bankruptcy of positive forces, | 57:46 | |
but any profound sense, | 57:50 | |
perhaps this is the best of all possible worlds. | 57:52 | |
Royce Roy once said, | 57:57 | |
the best world for the moral agent | 58:00 | |
is one that needs him to make it back. | 58:05 | |
Let us pray. | 58:12 | |
Heavenly father from who to turn is to fall | 58:16 | |
towards whom to turn is to run of the game. | 58:19 | |
In whom to dwell is to find peace, dignity and value. | 58:23 | |
Help us in our daily lives | 58:29 | |
and constant environments. | 58:31 | |
To respect and to cherish all of our children. | 58:35 | |
Help us to take seriously | 58:40 | |
the simple and compelling fact | 58:41 | |
that human value and dignity | 58:44 | |
are rooted in thy creative and redemptive love. | 58:47 | |
And as we crush the fallen wound, | 58:50 | |
the least of our fellow, the man father's down. | 58:54 | |
We have Christ the defined and wounded lead. | 58:59 | |
Name of the father men, the son, and the holy ghost | 59:06 | |
even Jesus Christ, our lord. | 59:10 | |
Amen. | 59:16 | |
(lively organ music) | 59:19 | |
(choir singing) | 59:41 | |
(upbeat organ music) | 1:00:09 | |
(choir singing) | ||
(gentle organ music) | 1:01:48 | |
(choir singing) | 1:02:08 | |
(choir singing) | 1:04:11 |