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Pitts Theology Library
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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.
Pitts Theology Library
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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
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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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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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<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?
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Pitts Theology Library
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394-786.mp3
This is tape number ET 42. From the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust, two
meditations by Howard Thurman. This is side one, entitled "Intentional Living."
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord,
my strength and my [? Redeemer. ?]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I'm beginning this morning by reading a meditation from my book Meditations of the Heart. "No
man is an island. No man lives alone. These words from a poem by John Donne have been set to
music and have become the theme of a variety of radio programs which are concerned with
aspects of social responsibility.
It is of crucial importance for each person to consider how he relates himself to the society of
which he is a part. For many people, and at times for most of us, it is a part of our dreaming to be
let alone, to be free of all involvements and the responsibilities of life and for others. This is but
natural. Often, the mood passes. Sometimes we say that our personal load is so heavy that it is all
we can do to look after ourselves, with all that that entails.
Even as we express such ideas, we are reminded of a wide variety of events that we are never
ourselves alone. We are not an island. We do not live alone.
There is no alternative to the insistence that we cannot escape from personal responsibility for
the social order in which we live. We are part of the society in which we function. There can be
no health for us if we lose our sense of personal responsibility for the social order.
This means that there must be participation in the social process and that, quite specifically, such
participation means that wise and critical use of the ballot must be made, the registering of our
intent to share responsibly in government. The moral inference is that there must not be a
condemnation of the political process of society if we have been unwilling to stand up and be
counted on behalf of the kind of government in which we believe and to which we are dedicated
and for which we are willing to work and sacrifice. Where social change seems to be urgent, we
must share in that process as responsible, law-abiding citizens. The ethical values by which we
live must be implemented on the level of social change.
This calls ever for a careful evaluation of the means to which we give our support. The means
which we are willing to use must not be in real conflict with the ends which our values inspire.
Practically, this means that if we believe in democracy, for instance, we must not be a party to
means that make use of bigotry, prejudice, and hate. We must search and find the facts that are
needed for judgment and cast our lot on the side of the issues which we are willing to embrace as
our private and personal ends.
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In working on behalf of such ends, we are morally right as we see the right. We shall not
cooperate with or be a party to means that seem to us evil, means that we would not use in our
personal and private life. In this sense, then, we are our brother's keeper, for we will not demand
of any man that he do on behalf of society as a whole what as persons we would be loath to do
ourselves if we were in his [? place." ?]
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
It is a matter of very great and searching importance, as we think about our own private and
personal working paper, to make a decision or decisions which will render our position with
reference to life and its values very clear. There is one fundamental option available to all of us,
and that option is this. We can decide the things for which we will stand with our lives, with our
resources, with our mind, with our will, with our dedication, and the things against which we will
stand.
Now, this is a very crucial and intimate area of life. I'm not talking about the things that we do as
a part of the facade of our lives. I'm not concerned about the things that we do that are prestigebearing, that will cause us to be seen in the proper light so that our private commitment will not
interfere with the kind of public advance or social advance which we wish to experience either
for ourselves or our children or our families. But rather, am I thinking about the fundamental
decision of a man's life in which he comes to a point of focus with reference to the things in
which, most fundamentally, he believes and for which he is willing to work, to make sacrifices,
if need be, to suffer, if need be, to live.
Now, this is the important thing. Have you decided the things for which you will stand with your
life and the things against which you will stand? Do you know the sense in which you wish to be
counted on the side of the things which to you are most meaningful? Or have you left this to
someone else to decide for you?
There is something very thrilling and exciting, exhilarating, about taking a stand so that you
announce that it doesn't matter where anyone else stands; this is my position. And on behalf of
my position, I am willing to act, to think, to live. Now, you may say, with reference to the great
world in which you are living, that there are so many issues, so many demands, that it's hard to
get the facts. It's hard to know. It may be that the social process is so very complex and
complicated and the way that responsibilities are delegated in our society just you, John Doe
Citizen, may not be able to give expression to any fundamental conviction.
My only reply to that is suggested perhaps by something that was written many years ago by
T.R. Glover. He was discussing the decline of the Roman Empire. And he insisted that the
Roman Empire did not fail, did not collapse, because there were no crops or because of a lack of
rainfall or even because of the mass pressure of the barbarians on the frontiers.
But he said, rather, that the Roman Empire fell because the average Roman citizen had lost his
sense of personal responsibility, personal involvement, in and for the Roman society. They had
abdicated the private and personal prerogative to count, to throw the weight of their little life on
the side of the values which had meaning for them. And in the absence of this kind of positive
declaration, those persons who carried the large responsibility for the society were free to do as
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they please. And yet the decisions which these persons made became binding on those same
people who had abdicated their own personal responsibility.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Therefore, if life is to be meaningful to you, if you are to have a fundamental self-estimate, if
you are to seem to yourself to count, to be essentially independent, then it follows that you must
make up your mind where you are, as you are, in your little world, with your little
responsibilities, with your little life, as it were, the things for which you will stand so that you
can be counted. And when you are counted, then this in itself is its own reward whether or not
the things for which you stand can in your lifetime find fulfillment.
It is madness to seek a land that has never been found before across an ocean that has never been
charted before. If Columbus had reflected thus, he would never have weighed anchor. But with
this madness, he discovered a new world. And so will you.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O lord,
my rock and my [? Redeemer. ?]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
This is tape number ET 42, from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. This is
side two, entitled, "Man's Relation to the Social Order."
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord,
my strength and my [? Redeemer. ?]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I'm reading a meditation from my book Meditations of the Heart. "No man is an island. No man
lives alone. These words from a poem by John Donne have been set to music and have become
the theme of a variety of radio programs which are concerned with aspects of social
responsibility.
It is of crucial importance for each person to consider how he relates himself to the society of
which he is a part. [AUDIO OUT] of us. It is a part of our dreaming to be let alone, to be free of
all involvements and the responsibilities of life and for others.
This is but natural. Often, the mood passes. Sometimes we say that our personal load is so heavy
that it is all we can do to look after ourselves with all that that entails.
Even as we express such ideas, we are reminded of a wide variety of events, that we are never
ourselves alone. We are not an island. We do not live alone.
3
�Pitts Theology Library
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Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
There is no alternative to the insistence that we cannot escape from personal responsibility for
the social order in which we live. We are part of the society in which we function. There can be
no help for us if we lose our sense of personal responsibility for the social order.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
This means that there must be participation in the social process, and that quite specifically. Such
participation means that wise and critical use must be made of the ballot, the registering of our
intent to share responsibility in government. The moral inference is that there must not be a
condemnation of the political process of society if we have been unwilling to stand up and be
counted on behalf of the kind of government in which we believe and for which we are willing to
work and sacrifice. Where social change seems to be urgent, we must share in that process as
responsible, law-abiding citizens. The ethical values by which we live must be implemented on
the level of social change.
This calls ever for a careful evaluation of the means to which we give our support. The means
which we are willing to use must not be in real conflict with the ends which our values inspire.
Practically, this means that if we believe in democracy, for instance, we must not be a party to
means that make use of bigotry and hatred and prejudice.
We must search and find the facts that are needed for judgment and cast our lot on the side of the
issues which we are willing to embrace as our private and personal ends. In working on behalf of
such ends, which are morally right as we see the right, we shall not cooperate with or be a party
to means that seem to us evil, means that we would not use in our personal, private life. In this
sense, we are our brother's keeper, for we will not demand of any man that he do on behalf of
society as a whole what as persons, we would be loath to do ourselves if we were in his place.
The feeling of isolation, the desire to be let alone, to be free to go about one's own affairs without
involvement in the common life, is a perfectly natural feeling. There is always, present in each of
us, a sense that if we somehow could build a wall around ourselves, then we would be able to
attend to our business, to hoe our row, to find our meaning, and to live our lives. It would be
wonderful, I suppose, if this could be done in fact. But it happens that we live in a world in
which each individual is a part of a wider social context, a world in which each individual finds
his particular meaning, never in isolation, but always in some kind of human context. Therefore,
it is important, as we think about the meaning of our lives and the living of our lives, that we take
into account that we are a part of a social organism and that there is no aspect of our society that
does not finally come to us for our veto or our certification.
Long ago, an historian writing about the fall of the Roman Empire, T.R. Glover, by name, said
that the Roman Empire collapsed not because of a failure of the wheat crop or the grain crop or
failure of rain or any act of God. It did not fall because of the pressure of the barbarians against
the frontiers of the empire. No.
But he says that the Roman Empire collapsed because the average Roman citizen, the average
Roman citizen, had lost his sense of responsibility for the total welfare of the empire. And he had
delegated this responsibility to the Senate. And much of the economic burden of the society was
on the backs of slaves, of people who'd been caught in battle. Now, he said when the barbarians
4
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
began to press on the frontier, there was not sufficient strength within the body politic to
withstand this pressure, so it collapsed as if it were an egg.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Wherever individuals, then, lose their sense of responsibility for the total well-being of their
fellow, then their own well-being is threatened. Therefore, as we seek to live responsibly, then it
seems to me that it is important to examine as carefully as we may the tools that are available to
us for expressing our social concern. One of these tools, of course, is the ballot. Another tool is
participation in all kinds of movements and processes which have as their purpose the altering of
the social pattern so as to make more room for all kinds of human beings to breathe.
This feeling that I can never be what I should be until every man is what every man ought to be-or to mix the figure, however far ahead of himself a turtle puts his two front feet, he cannot move
his body until he brings up his hind legs. For better or for worse, we are all tied together in one
bundle. And if I neglect my fellows, then the total health of the common life is thereby depleted,
and in turn and in essence, my own health is depleted. Therefore, when I ask myself, what is it
that I most deeply desire and need for my own fulfillment, how may I make available to my own
life the richness and the resources all around me in order that I and my children or my family
may be able to reap the richest and fullest benefits-- the question that I ask of myself, I must also
ask of my neighbor. For what meets the deepest need in me must also meet the deepest need in
him.
And when I work for myself, I work for him. When I work for him, I work for myself, for better
or for worse. No man is an island. We are tied together in one [? bundle." ?]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord,
my rock and my [? Redeemer. ?]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The preceding program was pre-recorded.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
5
�
Dublin Core
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/.
Title
A name given to the resource
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" />
Contributor
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Descriptions by Dustin Mailman
AudioWithTranscription
Audio that is shown through the 3Play Media embedded interactive transcript
Audio with Transcription
<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-786.html" ></iframe>
Internal Notes
Notes for project team
Edited - GL 7/29
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
Intentional Living; Man's Relation to the Social Order (ET-42; GC 11-30-71), 1971 Nov 30
Time Period
The decade in which the recording was produced.
1960s
Location
The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon
WHDH-TV, Boston, Massachusetts
Dublin Core
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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394-786
Creator
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Thurman, Howard
Title
A name given to the resource
Intentional Living (1961-06-23); Man's Relation to Social Order (1963-10-04)
Source
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<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
Format
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audio
Publisher
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<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
Date
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1961-06-23
1963-10-04
Description
An account of the resource
In both of these recordings within the We Believe series; Howard Thurman reads from his text, "Meditations of the Heart." In them, we hear Thurman reflecting upon citizenship and right action. Thurman's central question throughout these reflections is: What does it me to be a full, free, and responsible citizen? He claims that by having a moral praxis that rejects hatred in every way it manifests itself, one is able to resist means that contradict the end they are seeking.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Dustin Mailman
action
citizenship
Co-Laboring
decision
democracy
egg
evil
freedom
government
intention
John Donne
justice
meditations of the heart
morality
No Man is and Island
non-violent resistance
responsibility
Roman Empire
T.R. Glover
voting
working paper