A Consecrated Baker’s Dozen
A Book Review from the Rev. Charles Hoffacker, (‘82)
Can I Get a Witness? Thirteen Peacemakers, Community Builders, and Agitators for Peace and Justice. Edited by Charles Marsh, Shea Tuttle, and Daniel P. Rhodes. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2019. Pp. x + 398. Illustrations, notes, index. Cloth $26.99.
This is a different sort of book about saints than many others. First, the word “saint” does not appear. The word used instead is “witness.” This avoids various problems associated with sainthood. It recalls the practice of those who do not ask deceased Christians to pray “for” them, but instead to pray “with” them. Second, the categories of holiness represented by these thirteen are limited to peacemakers, community builders, and agitators, people who take action in the public square and make “good trouble,” in the memorable phrase of John Lewis. Such specialization stands in contrast to a more complete range of categories. Yet, like other books about saints, this one focuses on people who lived out their faith in ways so costly that they ought not be overlooked.
The consecrated baker’s dozen presented here are diverse in regard to gender, ethnicity, denomination, sexuality, ministry, and much else. All of them, however, were Americans active in the twentieth century and thus cannot be ignored as easily as other witnesses to Christ from far earlier times and more exotic places. Each reader of this book will likely be familiar with some subset of these thirteen, but not every one of them.
Here they are, listed alphabetically: Ella Baker, Daniel Berrigan, César Chávez, Dorothy Day, Mahalia Jackson, Howard Kester, Yuri Kochiyama, Lucy Randolph Mason, John A. Ryan, Mary Stella Simpson, Frank William Stringfellow, Howard Thurman, Richard Twiss. Each of them is the subject of a substantial essay by a different author or pair of authors. A succinct section “For Further Reading” lists two or three items for each subject.
These essays are not biographical in a conventional way. Each essay does not address the entirety of the subject’s life, but instead provides a portrait in words displaying how a notable Christian witness occurred through the circumstances of a unique life. The various authors succeed at their tasks. Their efforts are enhanced by the engaging photographic portraits with which each essay begins together with other well-chosen photos throughout the book.
A brief look at Yuri Kochiyama and John A. Ryan may stimulate appetites for the entirety of Can I Get a Witness?
Yuri Kochiyama (1921-2014) was a second-generation Japanese American imprisoned for two years during World War II under the infamous Executive Order 9066. Self-described as a naïve, carefree, and apolitical young adult, she went on to become one of the most prominent activists of Asian heritage in U.S. history, fighting throughout her life against any and all instances of unjust imprisonment.
Recognizing the similarity between her own mistreatment and that of African Americans in the Jim Crow South, she participated in sit-ins and arranged speaking opportunities for Freedom Riders. She expressed solidarity with groups such as Iranian Americans during the Iran Hostage Crisis and advocated for individual prisoners held in the United States. For her, an injury done to one was an injury done to all.
At a young age, Yuri Kochiyama embraced the gospel mission of service to other people. She lived this out in many ways, from the 1977 nonviolent takeover of the Statue of Liberty that exposed the plight of Puerto Rican political prisoners to periods when she taught Sunday school and served at soup kitchens and homeless shelters. Above all, this former prisoner kept faith with her call to help the incarcerated.
John A. Ryan (1869-1945), who grew up in Minnesota, was a Roman Catholic priest based in Washington, D.C., for much of his ministry. For over thirty years he worked tirelessly for legislation and other measures to improve the hard-scrabble existence of workers in the United States.
While in Minnesota, he successfully promoted state legislation that required a living wage for women and children. He drew inspiration from his personal experience, his faith, and Rerum Novarum (1891), Leo XIII’s landmark encyclical on industrial labor.
Ryan went to the nation’s capital to study at the Catholic University of America and later became a professor there. In his doctoral dissertation, published in 1906 as A Living Wage, he asserted that industrial society required a living wage if the right of human development was to be realized and that the state had an important role to play in ensuring this wage.
Soon after World War I, the Catholic bishops of the United States published a document of Ryan’s as their own “Bishops’ Program for Social Reconstruction,” where moral theology provided the foundation for practical solutions to major economic problems. This was the most socially progressive statement that the American Catholic Church had seen. To implement this program, Ryan was appointed to direct what eventually was named the National Catholic Welfare Conference.
Ryan’s name became well known as he published many articles intended for a popular audience. He assisted the Roosevelt administration in launching the New Deal’s labor components and led American Catholics to appreciate and support Roosevelt and the New Deal. John A. Ryan lived to see Congress enact reforms which he had advocated for years, reforms that improved the lives of millions of Americans.
The Rev. Charles Hoffacker, ’82, is an Episcopal priest who lives in Greenbelt, Maryland.
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Friends often come across books by the recommendations of those they know. We are excited to offer a monthly series called “What’s On Your Shelf?” We’ve asked several people to chime in and let us know what they’re reading. As a result, Nashotah House’s Chapter is pleased to present monthly book reviews from alumni, friends, faculty, and board members. Do you have a favorite book you’ve read recently? We hope you’ll let us know about it. Please email chapter@nashotah.edu if you have any questions and more information about how we may post your review.