Reflections on the Life of the Late Reverend Professor Peter J. Gomes - Part Three

Reflections on the Life of 

The Late Reverend Professor Peter J. Gomes – Part Three

Professor Gomes thoroughly discussed with my colleagues and me his previous revelation about his sexual preference. He did so to counterbalance the rising and increasingly dominant voice in Christian circles that insist upon the mutual exclusivity of Christian and gay identities.  He had grown very weary and impatient with a perspective he deemed hopelessly myopic.  To his great surprise, Reverend Gomes said he received unexpected assurances from Cambridge evangelical Christians that he would not be the object of any ridicule or condemnation from them.  He welcomed this gracious overture and commitment.  However, it substantially disappointed him to realize the lack of encouragement from his colleagues in the academic community.  He shared with us that none of them called to offer a word of prayer in response to his revelation.  His disappointment led to a discussion about the ways in which the liberal, progressive segment of American Christianity falls short in actualizing its principles.  Regrettably, the then Governor of Tennessee had decided effective 1 August 2005 to drop 200,000 people from TennCare, the State’s health insurance program.  The cuts put an undue burden on the “sickest of the sick” that had to choose between food and medicine.  Personally, I posited this governmental decision to be a moral issue which the Church and clergy had a biblically mandated obligation to advocate for these most vulnerable citizens who are unable to speak for themselves.  Additionally, the recent military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan began and were sustained without a thorough vetting within the ecclesiastical or academic communities.  I do not recall any provocative or perpetual progressive voice from either group to confront the Bush Administration or Congress about engaging these conflicts.  Whether in pastoral ministry or an academic setting, religiously committed people with a progressive bent failed to actualize the tenets of their beliefs.  Professor Gomes’ sharing of his personal pain and disappointment became a challenge to strive for integrity in rhetoric and reality.

At the time of our collegial colloquium with Professor Gomes, he had served as the Pusey Minister and Plummer Professor for more than thirty-five years.  Understandably, planning for retirement rose significantly on his "To Do" List.  He shared this sober reality with us.  Notwithstanding the length of a clergyperson's tenure or the extent of his or her success, a confluence of personal and professional circumstances inevitably create or coerce retirement from full time service.  Reverend Gomes' willingness to share his contemplation of a forthcoming end of his ministerial service at Harvard led to a collegial question about the type and substance of ministry he thinks will follow him at Harvard.  Professor Gomes discoursed about the disturbing trend within university ministry settings to replace authentic and existential religious and spiritual commitment with psychological counseling.

Reverend Gomes shared his fear the Harvard chaplaincy would assume a psychological counseling model.  He intimated a growing devaluation of religious rituals and genuine spirituality across the nation's college and university campuses. Albeit most significant to achieving intrapersonal wholeness which eradicates religious pathology, counseling is not as widely accessible as is the biblically-based gospel message of personal transformation.  Subsequent to our time with Reverend Gomes, I watched an interview on the Charlie Rose Show in which Reverend Gomes declared unequivocally that the gospel of Jesus Christ remains a compelling message even within the twenty-first century context.  He lamented his inability to convince more of his colleagues of the propositional veracity and existential worth of the gospel.  Within our conversation, he bemoaned the virtual certainty the University would not even try to offer its students this viable option for attaining a joyous and holistic life.  I share his concern.  As a practicing pastor, I realize the immeasurable power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to transform lives whether an addict, alcoholic or white collar criminal.

Further in this Charlie Rose interview, Professor Gomes states his definitive Christian faith.  "It is still a very compelling story.  I regret have not made the argument to convince more of my colleagues." He intimates psychology alone will not suffice to offer integrity, joy, self-acceptance and wholeness.  Does resolving one's intrapersonal challenges necessarily yield these attributes?  Formulaic adherence to religious rituals definitely does not.  However, commitment to progressive and genuine spirituality within an interdependent relationship with Almighty God encourages and empowers anyone to live to the fullest.