Emory Report
January 28, 2008
Volume 60, Number 17

   
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January 28, 2008
Soundbites

Manifesto’ decried intolerance
Retired United Methodist Bishop L. Bevel Jones III was one of 80 white pastors from the Atlanta area who challenged segregationists in the deep South by signing what came to be called “The Ministers’ Manifesto.” Jones helped write the appeal for peace, issued on Nov. 3, 1957, after a segregation showdown at Central High School in Little Rock, Ark.

“The work of human relations is forever foremost on the agenda of history – never finished, and in constant need of repair and reconciliation,” said Jones, trustee emeritus and Candler’s bishop in residence, at a King Week worship service Jan. 27. — Kim Urquhart

Culture, identity on table at King Week
“Issues of culture and identity are close to the heart” and people find it difficult to talk about them, said Emory Counseling Center Associate Director Pamela Epps, who facilitated “Women Talking with Women,” the 13th annual open discussion Jan. 23, celebrating King Week.

Career women and students shared when they first became aware of their culture, what sparked pride and strength from it, the persistence of stereotypes, and what people of one race admired about another.
One participant said stereotypes were like an unseen structure that keeps a discourse alive, “to keep some locked in to the discourse and some locked out.”

Another participant said cooking created cultural pride for her. Having learned from her grandmother, “there was a cultural piece to everything she cooked…I’m really proud …to have that knowledge of how to prepare foods that clog your arteries but taste amazing,” she said, prompting laughter. — Leslie King

True wealth cares for God’s creation
Jon Gunnemann, professor of social ethics at Candler School of Theology, addressing the attendees of the Spring 2008 Convocation at Cannon Chapel Jan. 17, said: “True wealth is created by an economy that is responsible to the holiness of life [which means] working for a common well-being in which we are responsible to and for each other, and responsible to God’s creation.”

In his address, titled “Take No Thought for the Morrow,” Gunnemann spoke of the importance of understanding abundance, not as a means toward wealth, but as a means for caring for God’s creation in all its many forms. — Kelly McLendon