Richard+Wortman+Soul+Survivor+Summary

When I was growing up my father was and is very racist he has friends that are black but when it comes to interracial marriages he is very against it. when I was young I saw the signs stating whites only and I never knew what it was about at that age. I really didn't put anything to it until we were dicussing the history of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.I think Dr. King would use forgiveness and love for all fellow man to help someone to work through what I saw and participated in when I was growing up. I have never heard about that payer that he made in his kitchen that one night to strengthen his faith and religion for the movement he was put in charge of. I remember seeing signs that said whites only or no coloreds allowed and to think my family took part of that kind of racism bothers me. I have two mixed grandchildren and they are the love of my life and they mean the world to me and to think that of the things that I have done in my life it makes me wonder how I can consider myself a Christian. I want to start with Dr. Brand. The work he did with the patients with leprosy was amazing especially for being in India for the first part of his work. The conditions in India at that time or even now are very less compared to what we have or what doctors work with in this country. His background from his parents had to be a great influence on his interest of working for the lower class people in India. With the diease of leprosy everyoneincluding your family shuns you and makes you feel worthless. His part of treating the patient as a whole person not just a disease really helped the lepers to try to get over the stigma of selflothing. Dr. Brands willingness to work with the people no one else wanted to and taught the to be useful members of soceity after their treatment was over.His belief in God was self eveident with they passion for his work and the vigor he gave until he had to retire. Chesterton was a editor of a weekly newspaper of ideas. His life straddled the turn of the century, from the nineteeh to the twentieth. He was around whe such movements as modernism, commuinism, facism, pacifism, determinism, Darwinism, and eugenics were coming to the forefront. As he looked at each one he found himself pushed further and further toward Christianity, which he saw as the only redoubt against such potant forces. Eventully he accepted the Christian faith not simply as a bulwark of civilization but rather as a expression of the deepest truths about the world. With his writing previlance and his beleifs he had the chance to spead the word of God more effectively than the normal person who just can communicate with just his groupm of friends or his town. Chesterton has the world at his fingertips. The only way it is going to work is that you as a Christian live your life as much as Christ wants us to. Like Yancey said know body is perfect. Our lord and savior has told us that we need to ask for his grace and help to get us through the rough times in our lives as did Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did that night in his kitchen when he prayed and asked for help and guidenced from God. We need to work on our love and compassion for our fellow man to show the love of God that will flow through us when we follow Gods commandments. This is what we as humans need to focus on and give our service to our church or place that we worship. I think that the line that you draw is reflected back on the way that you were rasied and what kind of values that your parents and church instilled in you. There were several flaws mentioned in this book so far, but if you would place yourself in the time frame that they lived and what was going on in their world around them some of their values might get skewed a little. The flaw of extramartial affairs depending on if it was a one time thing or if it was continous would be one I think I could get behind. The FBI were saying that Dr. King was having extra martial affairs and was a commuist. I think at this time in my life I would follow this man if he was still alive I believe in his nonviolence ways now is the best way to show people that your group of protesters are ingaged in there final result. Dr.Brand would be another person I would think would be a great role model for anyone in the medical service. Maybe even teaching if you apply the same principals to how you treat you students and show them how you care for them and give a rip how they do intheir studies. I have had some professors here at Spring Arbor with that same mental attiude which has helped me get my life on track and get me on a professinal course of study. The person who I would bring in as a role model would be President Clinton. When he first started out he did a allright job but even after switching from a republican party to a Democratic party things don't always happen because of the change of the president. The changes could have been in the works before the offices changed. When President Clinton first started out he seemed like a ethical person and one who was loyal to his family. But emence power can change people with the best upbringing and the best morals, you never know. When Yancey talks about trying to simplifying your life there are a number of people in his book that do that very thing. When you think about doing that sort of thing you have a lot of things to think about especially if you have a family to take care of. The most pressing thing would be setting up some type of trust to take care of the financial end of things so you could be free to explore the world of less stress. These following people changed their lives and found what they were looking for, inner peace. Henri Nouwen he was a tenured professor at Yale when he left for Toronto and started taking care of mental and physically disabled people in a total care facility. Then there is Dr. Koop after he resigned his position as the Surgeon General. His life's work never lived up to what it was before, he worked the lecture circuit for a while but now he is selling the lifeline pedants or I've fallen and I can't get up. The person I would like to start with is Henri Nouwen. Father Nouwen was a respected priest and a college professor at Yale before he left his tenured postion for other pusuits. He worked in an AIDS clinic in San Franciso during the height of the AIDS breakout. Then he went to work as a patient care giver in a home for mentally and pyhsically challenged people. Henri was asigned to the worst patient that needed the most care at that time and the pateint's name was Adam. From his writings Henri tells about what and how he learns working with Adam. Some of the things the church disagreed with was when he offred eurchurist to any one any day. and some of his choices of places to work. The next one is C. Everett Koop. When he was nominated for the position of Surgen General He had a strong following of religious right wingers. His stand on abortion was highly published. After he was confirmed by the congress and started doing his job all of his former backers disowned him. Everyone that didn't like him started to like what he was doing for the country like, going after tobacco companies, healthly diets for schools. The next person is Frederick Buechner. The church likes the fact that he gives the truth in his sermons but I don't think they approve of his way or means of doing so. His quotes in his sermons come from people you would not regularly hear. I really look up to Dr. Ingles from the time I meet her on my first day of oreintation at the university till now she has been a steady force and a moral compass in my life. Any time that I needed any help with class work or my personal life with prayers she was there, always caring and giving of herself even if she wasn't at her best. I could only hope to be that strong of a christian and a role model for my family. Even as she has started a new path in her career at the college she still takes time to talk to me when I need the strength of God's love lifted for me. Dr. Ingles always has an inspirational scripture for me that helps me through the problems I am having at that time. I think I have my oldest grandson as a person who looks up to me as a spiritual director. Know that he lives with my wife and I and he acepcted Jesus as his savior during the summer I have been helpping him read the bible and trying to give him direction to steer his life on by just living my life as close to the life that Jesus would want us to.

Richard Wortman- Soul Survivor Richard Wortman- Soul Survivor Martin Luther King Jr Richard Wortman-Soul Survivor Henri Nouwen iN Richard Wortman-Soul Survivor Mahatma Gandhi Richard Wortman-Conculsion