Suffering With and For Humanity
My Dear People,
I'd like to grow up to be like Professor Dave Coogan.
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That being said, if you go to the homepage of the Richmond Times Dispatch, Dave is taking it pretty hard right now.
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Friday night, a high-speed chase ended in the death of Andre Simpson. (The story led, above the fold, on the front page of yesterday's RTD.) Simpson had just participated in the armed robbery of a convenience store on East Main Street.
The same Andre Simpson visited Dave Coogan's VCU classroom just last week. You see, before being released from prison, Andre Simpson participated in a writing workshop that Dave leads in the Richmond Jail, for inmates. And some of Simpson's writing will be included in a forthcoming book, edited by Dave.
The comments posted on the RTD Web site are, to put it kindly, less than sympathetic, questioning (or attacking) Dave's decision to invite Simpson into the classroom, some of those who have written even calling for Dave to be fired.
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I know Dave (as, perhaps, you do as well), for he is a parishioner at St. Paul's Church; and I admire what he has done in the Richmond Jail; and, further, I think what he did, in inviting Simpson into the classroom, was likewise admirable. VCU is a state school, of course, so it goes without saying that, in doing what he has done, Dave is not pushing his Christianity on anyone; however, I also know that Dave has done what he has done because of who he is and because of what he believes: what he believes about humanity and what he believes about God.
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The late Reverend Shirley Guthrie, of Columbia Seminary, in Atlanta, said the following, "The only gospel that makes sense and can help is the good news of a God who loves enough to suffer with and for a suffering humanity. And the only believable church is one that is willing to bear witness to such a God by its willingness to do the same thing."
I thank God for Dave's willingness to suffer, to suffer with and for a suffering humanity, just as God does.
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May we all have the courage to follow Dave's example. To suffer with and for a suffering humanity. To take up our cross, daily.
Your brother in Christ,
Wallace+
