Vincent Harding urges students to take social action in daily lives

Janine Parziale Features Editor

Vincent Harding, Professor of Religion and Social Transformation at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado was the keynote speaker for the Chapel centennial celebration. Harding has been working for “compassionate social justice” for over four decades, including involvement in the Civil Rights Movement in the South and working together with Martin Luther King to bring change. After King died, Harding was one of the first to remember that we must not simply “mourn the leaders we don’t have, but rather understand how they have changed by masses of unsung people who asked ‘what can I do?’”

Thus, his speech, which was more of a reflective and exhortative conversation, with the entire Vassar community, entitled “Where Do We Go From Here?,” was placed specifically in the context of this year’s presidential election. Therefore it was with a feeling of great respect that this genteel and soft spoken man made the confession, “I suspect that I share with some of you a deep sense of almost despair as the result of the recent election, and in working with that experience, I had to rethink a great deal of what I need to share with you.” He then commented on the rain during the parade, using the analogy as he related advice that holds significance for all those disappointed in the current election.

“You will probably never find the healing you need until you find the capacity to forgive what has been done to you,” he said. “Second: now you must start asking: what is the gift in this experience?”

Harding reinforced the fact that every experience is a gift, and “we are going to be dealing with a lot of rain in the next couple of hundred years—or even in the next four. But if this rain today will help us prepare, then this is a gift, and we must approach it as a gift, rather then as trouble.” He invited the audience to imagine those remote parts of the earth where it is not rain, but fire, that strikes innocent human beings. Harding mentioned the fact that he was struck by the lack of coverage of Osama bin Ladin’s speech and was consequently reminded of the great Buddhist teaching: “Your enemies may be your best teachers. Pay attention to them.”

“One of the purposes of the house of prayer is to open our ears and our hearts to those who do not choose to hear,” he said. “Perhaps God is speaking to us in strange ways—through strange media—dare I suggest that the voice our enemies may be the voice of God?”

So what was the answer to the question - where do we go from here? When asking and answering this question, many more arose. “It is when we are in dialogue that we are most human,” Harding said. He encouraged students to find a way to teach that and manifest that, quoting an African song, “Guide my feet while I run this race, because I don’t want to run this race in vain.”

His questions served not only challenged and created dialogue, but also served as a warning, “Essentially we are all part of a global family, whether we acknowledge it or not and we must find a way to live in our house and recognize it as our house, or perish.”

“Religion and patriotism joined together in the way it has been can lead us into a new era of imperialism” Therefore, he advocated joining faith, learning, and compassionate action.

Inviting audience participation, one student asked: “How do we cut through the media and the rhetoric to get to the truth?”

“The simplest answer I can think of,” he said, “together. Remember the ‘sacred text’ of the Vassar community (the course catalogue): be bold”.

How do we fight the feeling alienation from a group of people in America. How do you communicate from those you feel are so completely on a different plane and different mindset, politically?

“First realize that they feel the same way about you. It is a kind of double sword that is keeping us apart from each other—crack open that polite silence and insist on speaking to each other,” he said.

He in turn, asked a question for us to reflect on: “What does deep democracy mean? What must we do to nurture democracy?” He ended with a reminder and a hint, “No accomplishment is the final accomplishment—building democracy is like true life and true love—it is a process of building. Do not be a brilliant flash, but run the race of the marathon runner.”