2010 Founder's Day Address

2010 FOUNDER’S DAY ADDRESS
Northfield Mt. Hermon School - January 31, 2010
By the Rev. Ralph Lord Roy
 
It’s a  privilege and a pleasure to be with you this afternoon, and especially as you observe Founder’s Day and remember Dwight L. Moody. 
 
I first arrived at what was then Mt. Hermon School for Boys in 1942, sixty-eight years ago, soon after America entered the Second World War.  Many younger faculty were leaving to join the military, and upperclassmen, including two of my older brothers - one in the class of ’42, the other ’44 -  went from their graduation ceremonies in this chapel into the armed services.  We arrived at school with our ration books as many foods were rationed, and gas was rationed, too. When we had our vacation breaks,  I (like some other students) would walk out to the main gates, put out my thumb, and started hitchhiking home.
 
My home was about 200 miles away, a small, rural village in the northwest corner of Vermont, just below the Canadian border. I was not yet 14 years old when I became a freshman here and I recall being homesick for the first month or two, even longer, something I certainly would never have admitted to my classmates. To counter the feeling, I developed a rather strange ritual for awhile. Each week, after attending Sunday morning worship here, I would go up into the chapel tower and gaze to the northwest at what little of Vermont I could see, and it seemed to help.
 
Which brings to mind the story of a man who was traveling from Florida up along the Atlantic Coast. When he reached South Carolina he noticed a sign outside a phone booth - not many of them around anymore since the advent of cell phones. The sign read: “Direct call to heaven, $10,000.”  He was curious but kept on traveling.  Then, in New Jersey, he saw another sign: “Direct call to heaven, $5,000.” Again he kept driving north. Finally he crossed into Vermont and was shocked to read a sign which said: “Direct call to heaven, 25 cents”. By then he was very curious and dialed the operator. Why, he wanted to know, did it cost $10,000 to call heaven from South Carolina, $5,000 from New Jersey, but only 25 cents from Vermont. “Oh,” the operator explained, “well, here in Vermont it’s a local call.”
 
I have many special memories of the four years I spent here. Certainly the warm friendships made. The morning fog over the Connecticut River and the beautiful hills beyond. The outstanding faculty and the nicknames we attached to most of our teachers. Compulsory chapel four times a week. Assigned tables and a dress code at lunch and dinner. The particular joy we experienced when we beat Deerfield at football. The senior-junior rope pull across Shadow Lake. Saturday night movies in Camp Hall. The day of mourning when President Roosevelt died in 1945, and the rejoicing when the war in Europe ended a month later. Walking five miles for a Saturday afternoon parlor date over at Northfield, which we then called ‘the Sem’, where a chaperone was always too close-by. How I wish we had become co-ed 20 years before it happened.
 
This afternoon I want to focus on two of the people who had a major impact upon my life - and, I would suggest, probably your lives as well.  One is Dwight L. Moody, of course, whose birthday we are remembering this afternoon. And less than two weeks ago we observed the 81st birthday of the other, Martin Luther King, Jr.  
         
Their lives were very different in many significant ways. Moody was of old Yankee lineage, raised in a poor family, the 6th of nine children, grew up in the small town of Northfield, not well-schooled, who became a shoe salesman out in Chicago. In sharp contrast, Dr. King was the great-grandson of slaves, yet from a middle-class African-American family in the big city of Atlanta, who earned a Ph. D. from Boston University. 
 
Despite such differences, in several important ways the two were alike, and while our talents may differ considerably from theirs and from one another, I would suggest  that the way in which they used their talents should serve as models, and especially to young people who are building foundations for future years. 
 
To begin with, they both had effective communication skills. I’ve read that Moody may have spoken to more people before the advent of the radio than anyone in history. He had a gift for warming the hearts of his listeners. As for Dr. King, was there any more eloquent speaker in all of the 20th century?  In the same speech he could inspire both the best-educated minds of society as well as sharecroppers who never had an opportunity to attend school.  If we want to impact the world, it’s important to be good communicators.
 
In the second place, both had a sincere affection and concern for others, and especially those on the margins of society.  Moody, while never ordained, was the key person in a Chicago church, and one day a teenager was asked why he walked three miles, past a dozen other churches, to be part of Moody’s congregation. His answer was precise and revealing: “Because they love people over there.”  Lest we forget, the Northfield Schools were founded originally to give disadvantaged students an opportunity to gain a superior education.  And I always thought it significant, too, that Moody opened the Northfield  School for Girls two years before Mt. Hermon in an age when female education was widely regarded as of secondary importance.  As for racial diversity,  the Northfield Schools were far ahead of most prep schools, many of which were not yet admitting African-Americans during my years here.   
        
This is not the occasion to detail my experiences in Georgia back in 1962.  But the memories I treasure most were those times chatting with Dr. King, usually over lunch, when to escape the huge pressures upon him he wanted to tell and hear jokes and share funny stories.  How he would throw his head back and laugh uproariously. I’ve read that Dwight L. Moody also had a great sense of humor. Both had their somber and serious sides, but both knew the importance of hilarity and exuberance and celebration in life.  There is profound truth in that verse from the Book of Proverbs: “A cheerful heart is like good medicine.”
         
And then, of course, both Dwight L. Moody and Dr. King were men of deep spiritual faith, men of vision, of courage, of aspirations, a determination to serve humankind and make this world a better place. And the challenge to each one of you, soon to be a generation of leaders, is to advance their efforts.
 
I trace much of my own commitment back to my years here, and I know that the emphasis on service still is a key ingredient of education at Northfield Mt. Hermon.
 
I remember, as one example, that during my senior year, when World War II had finally come to an end, the Northfield Schools adopted as a sister school Le College Cevenol in the mountains of south-central France. When the Nazis began to round up French Jews and send them off to concentration camps, the Huguenots of that area boldly defied the Nazis and hid over 5000 refugees, most of them Jews, in their homes and at that school, and were later saluted by Israel as ‘Righteous Among the Nations‘.
 
There is so much, young people, for you to do. The disastrous earthquake in Haiti is a tragic reminder of pressing emergencies that arise all around the world. There are ecological concerns, health care concerns, education concerns, poverty concerns, the huge gap between the haves and the have-nots.   
 
If I were to give a title to my remarks today it might be ’Unfinished Business’, and I lift up briefly three goals that have especially engaged me over the years. I hope they will engage you, too. 
 
One, of course, is racial equality and harmony, a truly colorblind society. The presidential election of 2008 indicated that America has come a great distance since my student days here. And it happened in large part because young people like you have rejected malicious prejudices that so stained this nation’s past.     
 
The next goal is peace.  I love my country, and I want to be proud of my country, which causes me to worry about those among us, some enormously powerful, who seem so ready and even eager to “bomb ‘em” rather than make a genuine effort to explore peaceful alternatives.    
 
The third and final concern is closely related to the issue of peace. It’s the religious misunderstanding and bigotry that persists. When I was a student here I planned to be a lawyer, majored in political science down at Swarthmore College, and entered Columbia Law School before attending seminary. There were many reasons I decided on the ministry. One was my fascination with ultimate and eternal questions. What is life? Why are we here? Is there some sort of Supreme Being? If so, what is that God like? If God is loving and omnipotent, why is there so much suffering in the world? Is there anything beyond, maybe a heaven - or reincarnation, perhaps?  
 
During my days here we were required to take four years of what was then called simply Bible. Actually, for two years we focused on the Bible, but in our junior year we learned about different religions. We studied Judaism and Islam and Buddhism and Hinduism and other faiths, and the emphasis was on mutual respect. We discovered that all the major religions preached peace and justice, all had a version of the Golden Rule. 
 
Much, maybe most, of our current international crisis is rooted in religious ignorance and bigotry. We all know about radical and paranoid Muslims who violate the basic principles of Islam by deliberately killing the innocent.  Yesterday was the 62nd anniversary of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by a Hindu fanatic. And there are far too many Christians who twist and distort, who think and preach that they’re the only ones who possess the truth.  Too many Christians and Jews seem to have a blind spot when it comes to compassion in certain areas of the world. 
 
Faith can be a key and positive element in our lives, and I hope you possess it. Faith in yourself - yes, a healthy ego is important. But also a belief system that will sustain you during those tough times that everyone confronts sooner or later. Arrogant fundamentalism, however, is a perversion of religion. It promotes intolerance and closed minds and is an arch enemy of a valid and liberating faith
 
One of my major beliefs is that religion should become a bridge rather than a barrier, that we must learn to respect other faiths and learn from other faiths, that we work together to cure the ills of society. 
 
So, young people, in closing, my generation passes on to you, with apologies, considerable unfinished business.  Thanks to Dwight L. Moody, to his vision and perseverance, Northfield Mt. Hermon is preparing you well for the challenges that lie ahead. 
 
Let me close with one story about Moody that has remained in my mind since I first heard it here so many years ago.  It went something like this. After one of his sermons, a person came forward with a written list of criticisms. Did you know, Mr. Moody, he shouted, that you used 17 split infinitives, mixed up the tenses when you used at least 20 verbs, and mispronounced several key words? Moody smiled and then replied: Friend, yes. I know all that, and I wish I had had more schooling. But I try to do the best with what schooling I did have, and I hope that you are doing the same. 
 
You will be going on to college, and many of you will earn MAs and PhDs. My wish and prayer is that you will work for peace and justice and that your lives will overflow with happiness and fulfillment and beauty, that you will have an abundance of faith, hope and most especially love.
 
May God bless Northfield Mt. Hermon, may God bless each one of you, and may God bless the whole world - no exceptions!