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Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-787.mp3
This is tape number ET43 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. Two
meditations by Howard Thurman-- this is side one entitled, "Resistance to the Social Order."
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my Strength and my Redeemer.
I'm reading this morning two paragraphs from Olive Shreiner's "From Man to Man." These
words are very appropriate for this season. On that broad road of opposition to law and authority,
along which stream the millions of humanity too low to grasp even the value of laws and
institutions about them, resisting them from an ignorant and blind selfishness which makes them
believe they are improving their own condition by violating them.
There are found walking men of a totally different order-- white robed sons of the gods with the
light on their foreheads, who have left the narrow paths walled in by laws and conventions not
because they were too weak to walk in them or because the goals to which they led were too
high, but because infinitely higher goals and straighter paths were calling to them-- the new
pathfinders of the race. These men, who rise as high above the laws and conventions of their
social world as the mass who violate them fall below, are yet inextricably blended with them in
the stream of souls who walk in the path of resistance to law.
From the monk Telemachus, who, springing into the Roman arena to stop the gladiatorial
conflict, fell violating the laws and conventions of his society-- a criminal, but almost a god. Up
and down all the ages man has been on earth, there have been found these social resisters and
violators of the accepted order-- the saviors and leaders of men on the path to higher forms of
life. It is true that if persistently and with the rigor from which none escaped alive you could in
every land exterminate the resisters of social law, you might at last produce a race on earth in
which even the wish to the power to resist social institutions will have died out.
Your prisons might be empty, your hangman and judges without occupation, but what would you
have done? Seeking to cut out humanity's corns, to remove its cataract, to amputate its diseased
limbs-- your world would have put out its eyes, cut off its tongue, maimed its legs-- unable to see
or move or express, its heart would beat slower and slower and death would come. There is no
net which can be shaped to capture the self-seeking, ignorant violator of law which shall not also
capture in its measures the hero, the prophet, the thinker, the leader, the life of the world.
The year is 1935, the place is a small village in the native state of India called Bardoli. The
setting is a tent in an open field, over which flies the flag of the Indian National Congress. And
in this tent, a small group of people are gathered together-- Mahatma Gandhi, his secretary, two
of his most trusted leaders, and three Americans representing a delegation of friendship to the
students of India, Burma, and Salam.
We had been talking with Mr. Gandhi for 3 and 1/2 hours. At the end, when we were ready to go,
he said, will you do me a very special favor? And, as spokesman for the group, I said, yes, if it is
within our power to do it. He said, I'd like for you to sing a song for me. And I said, I don't sing,
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but I'll try for you. What song do you want? He said, will you sing, "Were You There When
They Crucified My Lord?"
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Because, he said, I feel that in this spiritual-- and here I speak as a Hindu-- in this song, there is
an insight about Jesus of Nazareth, which has been a source of comfort and inspiration to me
through all the years of my life since I first encountered his life on the pages of the gospel.
We sang the song. And, as we sang, this group of Hindu men sat with their heads bowed and
their hands in the attitude of prayer or greeting. And, when it was over, for some three or four
minutes, there was no sound, only the feeling of the quality of the prayer which was surrounding
us. I have thought about that many times since-- that the experience that is being enunciated or
underscored or felt or talked about all over the Christian world today is an experience that stands
at the center of human life, that transcends the categories of doctrine and dogma and theology,
even the categories of any particular faith.
And that is that society takes two attitudes which really, in some, are one attitude towards two
groups of people with which it has to do. Those who violate the law, who stand over against the
established order, and who feel that the things that they do represent their strength as contrasted
with the weakness of the order by which they are surrounded-- they regard the whole order as
their enemy. And anything that they can do in order to level things out, they are under some
judgment to do.
And we classify these people as criminals-- as people who have no respect for law and order.
They are positive and destructive. And over against them, or along beside them, there is another
group of people who also are violators of the law, but they transcend the law. They are always
thinking about a time when the contradictions of the society by which they are surrounded will
be wiped out. They're thinking of a time when all of the tensions by which men are surrounded-tensions created by their collective arrogances and bitterness and hostilities-- will be resolved.
And they stand out on the horizon and, each is a threat to the society, so that the society tries to
lift the valleys-- to fill it in so that these people who are regarded as anti-social in that sense will
be lifted up to a sense of community. And it also tries to scale down the peaks-- those people
who are always on the horizon pointing to a better day whose judgment stands over against the
society. Now, these are the two.
So along beside the very good man who is being killed by his society because he disturbs the
conscience and makes the mind uneasy and jolts the spirit and gives to the society a sense of
collective guilt-- and those who are the reckless violators of all the decencies of life-- and a man
must make up his mind. And this is the meaning of today, in essence.
A man must make up his mind the things for which he is willing and able to stand with his life
and the thing against which he is willing and able to stand. And when he makes up his mind and
takes his position, he must be prepared to absorb all the violences that will be poured out upon
him because of his position. It is then that he discovers one of the most important and intimate
secrets about human life-- and that is that death is not the worst thing in the world.
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There are some things in life that are worse than death, and one of those things is to be unwilling
and unable-- because of fear or because of weakness-- to stand by the thing which you know to
be true and right, and to take the consequences for it. For, if a man does not do that-- if he is
unwilling to do that, then something within him begins to disintegrate, and his very heart begins
to rot.
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For what do you stand, really? And are you willing to back the thing for which you stand with
your mind, with your heart, with your resources, with your life? If you are, you join the great
army of those who stand as the pathfinders and in the ranks of those who are the redeemers of
the world.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my Rock and my Redeemer.
This is tape number ET43 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. This is
side two, entitled, "Self Realization and Acceptance."
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my Strength and my Redeemer.
I'm reading from "The Inward Journey." Fierce, indeed, is the grip by which we hold on to our
lives as our private possession. The struggle to achieve some sense of individuality in the midst
of other people and other things is very grim. We are always surrounded by persons, forces, and
objects which lay siege to us and seek to make of us means to their ends-- or at least to their
fulfillment. The demand is ever present to distinguish between the self and not self.
There are moments of enthusiasm when with mounting excitement, we absorb ourselves in
something beyond ourselves. But, after this happens, we fight at length to get back home to come
again into the familiar place-- to be secure and our own boundaries. Again and again, the process
repeats itself, wearing down the walls that shut us in. Of course, a man may, by early resolution,
frustration, or bitter experience, withdraw more and more from all involvement.
By this process, he seeks to immunize himself against hurts, and from what seems to be certain
disaster. Behold such a man-- his spirit shrinks, his mind becomes ingrown, his imagination turns
inward. The walls surrounding him become so thick, that deep within he is threatened with
isolation. This is the threat of death. Sometimes his spirit breaks out in reverse by giving voices
to inward impulses, thus establishing by the sheer will to survival a therapy for the corrosion of
his spirit.
For all of this, religion has a searching word. Deep within are the issues of life, it says. The rule
of God is within, it says. If thou hast known the things which belong unto thy peace, it says,
there is a surrender of the life that redeems, purifies, and makes whole. Every surrender to a
particular person, event, circumstance, or activity is but a token surrender-- the temporary
settling of the life in limited security.
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Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
These are not to be ignored, but they are all passing and transitory. They end in tightening the
wall of isolation around the spirit. They are too narrow, too limited, and, finally, unworthy. The
surrender must be to something big enough to absolve one from the little way and the meager
demand. There can be no tranquility for the spirit unless it has found something about which to
be tranquil. The need for a sense of peace beyond all conflict can be met only by something that
gathers up into itself all meaning and all value.
It is the claim of religion that this is found only in God. The paths to him vary, but the goal is
one. One of the contributions of which we are aware as coming from modern sociology is the
notion that we are not born human-- that we become human in a human situation. It is in the
moment when the individual finally is able to distinguish not merely between the self and the not
self-- between the this and the that-- but when he is able to see in the not self, which is maybe his
mother, his nurse, or his sister or brother, to see himself and to discover himself in the other
person-- as if he moved quite without awareness or without self consciousness, as it were, into
the life of the person closest to him.
And then, standing there, looks back upon himself and says, oh, that is I. Now, this is the
process-- so that we need each other in order that we may be ourselves. This idea that the human
spirit can abide functioning in isolation is one of the great delusions. We cannot abide isolation.
Even when we become emotionally disturbed so that more and more we withdraw from life and
there is what may be regarded as a kind of inward turning of the mind and the gazing of the self
on the inward parts-- so much so that there is no contact with the outer world-- no contact with
other human beings.
And the phrase that is used is that the person has withdrawn from reality. The person has
somehow, because of his malady, has become disassociated from the external factors in his
environment which confirm him. Now when this happens, and all the doors of the cells seem to
be completely closed and sealed, then a miracle takes place. Deep within the psyche of the
individual, a therapy begins to move. And what happens? The individual hears voices. This
keeps him somehow in communication.
Even though he's out of contact with all reality and out of contact with every other person, and
he's all pulled within himself-- when he gets deep in the center of himself, here he hears voices.
And these voices establish what? Establish a sense of community for the sick psyche. And, if this
keeps on and if this holds its place until at last these voices can be stilled by the sounds of voices
that are outside of him, he is cured.
Now, we cannot abide in isolation. I remember when my younger daughter was a baby and she
decided one day that she would express her hostility towards my sister by hitting or doing
something. And my sister did not respond in any way, she just looked at her and took it. And
then my daughter became almost hysterical. She said, why don't you fight me back? Why don't
you hit me? Why don't you do something to let me know that you know that I'm here?
For, if you let me know that you know that I am here then, in that knowledge which you have, I
can find the clue to the knowledge of myself. We cannot abide isolation. We must find ways to
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break down the barriers that shut us in, because we need the acceptance of the other in order that
we may be able, at last, to accept ourselves.
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This is the word of religion that this is how God relates to man-- as one of the wonderful minds
of the past expressed it-- thou hast made us for thy self, and our souls are restless till they find
their rest on thee. And, in fact, it may be that the Greek god himself cannot abide the splendid
austerity of isolation. And it may be that in order for God to be God in his world, he must come
to himself in me and in you and in others.
And when he comes to himself in me, then it means, at last, that I can find my way into the
meaning of myself in him. We cannot abide isolation. We are made for each other. We are made
for community. We are made for God, and I cannot be what I must be without him, and he
without me.
Let the words out of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh,
Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
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Dublin Core
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Title
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We Believe (Television Series, 1958-1965)
Description
An account of the resource
<em>We Believe</em> was a color television program that aired on WHDH-TV, Channel 5, in Boston on weekday mornings at 11:15. From 1958 to 1965, while Howard Thurman was Dean of the Chapel at Boston University, he was the host of the Friday morning show. Each message has a brief introductory section with bells and music before Thurman delivers his short meditation. Some recordings have been edited to remove the intro. In some cases, the Howard Thurman Educational Trust produced tapes with two messages on one recording.<br /><br />"These meditations are no longer than 15 minutes, but highly representative of his style, influence, and search for common ground." - <a href="http://archives.bu.edu/web/howard-thurman">the Howard Thurman and Sue Bailey Thurman Collections at Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University.</a><br /><br />
<p style="text-align: right;"><em>We Believe</em> program listing in the TV Guide, March 29, 1958</p>
<img src="http://pittsviva.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/webelieve-whdh-boston.png" style="float: right;" alt="webelieve-whdh-boston.png" />
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Descriptions by Dustin Mailman
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Audio with Transcription
<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-787.html" ></iframe>
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
Resistance to the Social Order; Self-realization in Acceptance (ET-43; GC 11-30-71), 1971 Nov 30
Time Period
The decade in which the recording was produced.
1960s
Location
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WHDH-TV, Boston, Massachusetts
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The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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394-787
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Thurman, Howard
Title
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Resistance to the Social Order (1962-04-20); Self Realization and Acceptance (1963-11-08)
Source
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<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
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audio
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<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
Date
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1962-04-20
1963-11-08
Description
An account of the resource
In this recording within the We Believe series; Howard Thurman reflects upon Olive Schreiner's "From Man to Man," and his time spent with Gandhi. Each of these reflections speak to Thurman's conception of truth, namely, what happens when one is forced to reject truth. For Thurman, justice, resistance, prosperity, etc. all find themselves hubbed in a longing for the truth to be manifested.
In this recording within the We Believe series; Howard Thurman reads and reflects from his work, "The Inward Journey." He notes that all of humanity is on a journey towards God, and that on this journey one cannot travel alone. He notes that one can never abide when experiencing isolation. It is through one another that one finds themselves and God, and vice-a-versa.
Contributor
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Dustin Mailman
Bardoli
death
development
From Man to Man
Gandhi
George Cross
heart
Hinduism
inclusivism
India
individuality
Isolation
justice
life
mysticism
odyssey
Olive Schreiner
oppression
personalism
prayer
process
prosperity
protest
reality
resistance
satyagraha
spirituals
Telemachus
The Inward Journey
truth
universalism
Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?