Journal of Pastoral Theology | 2019
Impractical? The curious life of a scrappy pastoral theologian
Abstract
Four decades and \uf644 year ago, I breathed my first breath just \uf644\uf646 miles from where we stand. As the sun set on the hills of Atlanta, the shadows of the King legacy fell upon my household. My parents moved from the Midwest to this city to participate in the Civil Rights Movement. My mother, a Special Education teacher with a masters in learning disabilities began her \uf646\uf646-year career in public education by teaching special needs students in a basement boiler room with no windows. In her poorly insulated makeshift classroom, she taught students who were drenched in sweat in the summer and shivering during the bitter chill of winter. Regardless of the season, at our dinner table, mom lectured me on marginality and difference. She engrained in my young mind that every human being regardless of their status in society was deserving of respect and love. It comes as no surprise to me that countless Saturday mornings of my childhood were spent downtown on Auburn Avenue at the SCLC headquarters where my mother championed issues of educational equality. My father the accountant, God rest his soul, served the Movement in an unorthodox fashion. Gifted with the skill of making numbers tell a story, he participated in the struggle by keeping the books clean for some of Atlanta’s most iconic Civil Rights Leaders. He kept close watch on the accounts of three of this city’s African American mayors, our nation’s first Black surgeon general, and several of the college presidents in the Atlanta University Center. While my father managed an esteemed clientele of politicians, movement leaders and large corporations, in the early \uf64b\uf643’s he strategically moved his offices from downtown to a black community on the public transit line so that he could offer his services to ‘the least of these.’He, like my mother, believed that every human being regardless of their status in society was deserving of excellence and care. I offer this extended introduction of my lineage because like my parents I believe that every human being regardless of their status in society is deserving of respect and love. Whether I am in the classroom, the church or the community, I must model excellence and care with those on the margins and those in seats of power. This mission implanted in me long ago, grounded me during my doctoral days at Princeton Seminary. On day one of my program in Pastoral Theology, I vowed to not become an ‘impractical’ practical theologian. To stay true to my roots, I