...but I don't think it helps much.
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
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Who really has the old snail mail round robin? Let's finally forgive him? and move on once again into the new instantaneous E-lectronic age with the new and improved E Round Robin. You can click on the pictures for a LARGER VIEW. You can click on the COMMENTS and chirp on about something said on the post.
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11 comments:
I like to present a light and airy exterior, but will only take that so far. William Hendricks, Maurice Lundh, and Reuben Dahl present for my mind nothing but bad images and bad memories. That is, however, no reason to stop talking about them. It might, in fact, prove to be a place to talk seriously about some things.
Maurice Lund and Reuben Dahl certainly had their flaws, but I wonder if their flaws were greatly exaggerated by the constant barrage of gossip that was occurring at the time.
I guess a positive that came out of all of this is that I learned not to tolerate gossip in our home - especially about the pastor.
Being a teenager at the time, I was highly attentitive (oversensitive?) to hypocrisry. But there is gossip and there is gossip. For example, I admired and loved Bill Murray. The gossip at Bethany, unfortunately, drove Murray from the ministry. That was, for me, disturbing even tragic. But Hendricks, Lundh and Dahl. . .I could cite incident after incident with them that was negative. I would almost go so far as to say it scarred me for life. This has been the view I have maintained throughout my adult life. I must admit, though, that as I have aged I, like Paul, wonder if my experience was exaggerated. So far, I am still confidenced that those guys were strange and my response healthy.
By the way. . .Paul have you conclusive evidence regarding the location of this meeting? I can't see anything to pursuade me one way or the other. But from previous experience I am gritting my teeth awaiting your revelation of a fact that is personally humiliating.
In this case it was actually labelled: Gallaghers.
Hendricks and Murray... I was extremely young... which of the two was just before Lund (or Lundh)?
Yeah. Most of the guys I referred to were before your time. Sigh. My early life church-wise can be separated into two periods that are like night and day.
The first half, the golden age, everything was as good as could be. Dave Danielson in Duluth then Uncle Carl in Alaska and when we moved back to Duluth Bill Horn was just leaving. Pastor Murray, fresh out of seminary, was the new pastor at Bethany and I have nothing but fond memories of him.
Then everything seemed to go horribly wrong. Church, which had been a place or warm fuzzy feelings, became a place of authoritarian power plays, anger and paranoia. How much of that was real and how much was simply my own overstimulated hormones I still haven't sorted out. But first there was William Hendricks, then Maurice Lundh. (I could tell tales of things he did to me that still raise my blood pressure into the unhealthy realm.) Reuban Dahl, I must admit was pretty much past the time I was involved at Bethany, but it seemed to me from what I heard that he was on the Lundh/Hendricks side more than the Danielson/Lindman/Horn side. So I guess, at least with Dahl I must confess that I am dealing more in gossip than actual personal experience.
I didn't really develop a relationship at all with any of the pastors. And I didn't have a clue what was going on with gossip.
I remember one of them gave a "champ" sermon after I won the Soap Box Derby in Duluth. I want to say it was Lundh, but maybe it was Murray. It would have been 1966 so we should be able to figure it out.
If we were to expand the discussion, some adults are better at reaching out to or making a mark on children. Some are "untouchable" which I don't necessarily mean in a negative way. They didn't make a mark on me. Others did make a mark. I could probably name several.
As far as pastors go, I didn't really know Carl Lindman, but what I did leaves a very positive image. He seemed enthusiastic, fun-loving, and genuinely interested in people.
Al and Dorothy Travaille are like second parents to me. I always felt comfortable at their home.
At Bethany, Van Hendrickson always smiled and shook my hand. He got me interested in his printing press. He was a pretty effective Sunday School teacher. I remember him having us students take over teaching sometimes. Hmm, I guess he made more of a mark than I had remembered...
Al Peterson, teaching Sunday School class, would often modestly say things like "I'm just as guilty of this as the next guy..." when going through a Bible passage. Made him seem like a regular guy. (Maybe that's what I mean by "untouchable" -- not a "regular guy".)
Another youth group meeting, don't know who was leading. The topic was "right and wrong". I asked an inoccent/sincere question: "How do I know what's right and what's wrong". They didn't mean to do it, but they kind of shot me down. I felt let down--by the leader and the rest of the group. "Oh Dean, you know what's right and wrong". That didn't answer my question.
That's a problem for me in being objective. A group of people can go through the same experience and come out of it with totally different memories.
Sometimes I think that perhaps I was oversensitive. But allow me to present as an example an experience I had under Lundh that I don't think I have ever told anyone.
It's Wednesday night Prayer Meeting. I am there. I am perhaps 17 years old, the leader of the youth group. Lundh is giving announcements. He says, "The youth car wash to raise money for missions has been canceled because of youth apathy."
He had gotten it wrong. After the service I naively approached him thinking he would like to know it wasn't that bad. I told him the car wash wasn't canceled just postponed. I told him the problem wasn't apathy just that most of the youth had scheduling conflicts on that particular day.
What he said next took my breath away. He said, "Are you calling me a liar?"
Again naively I responded sincerely. I said, "All I know is it's been postponed because of scheduling conflicts." And that was it - a three minute conversation at most.
Next Sunday it is announced that a special business meeting will be held after Wednesday Prayer Meeting to discuss the problem of the insubordination of the youth of Bethany!
I can still see myself standing near the back wall in the church basement while that meeting convened. Seated next to Lundh were all the Deacons looking nervous, Uncle Ollie, Al Peterson and others. Lundh was ranting about the trouble with modern youth. No names were named. Everybody looked awkward, uncomfortable. Some foolish resolution was passed and everybody went home and forgot about it.
I stood in the back observing that meeting burning with shame. The whole thing was a message to me from Lundh - don't mess with me cuz I have the power to make your life miserable. My shame had nothing to do with Lundh's attempt to humiliate me. The shame came from my realization that I didn't have the guts to walk out and never go back.
Wow. It would be interesting to know what was going on in his head to respond that way. He obviously needed help. I suspect that if the same sort of thing would've happened to me at 17 I would've been finding someone to gossip to about the situation as fast as I could.
I suspect that's how many adults probably did respond when offended back then - gossipping rather than confronting. If adults would've confronted, similar to what you did, and then when not satisfied, brought one or two others (the Biblical model), perhaps he could have been restored. It would've been a lot healthier situation.
Didn't John Tuttle kind of lead the revolt that finally ousted Dahl?
My most shocking memory of Pastor Dahl was after I had come back to the Lord. It was a Sunday morning sermon on the second chapter of Acts. Actually it was a very good sermon for about two thirds of it, then he ranted about tongues and the charismaniacs for closing comments, and felt somehow that they were aimed at me and Denise. Needless to say, I never felt close to him, felt I hardly knew him, and didn't really care because previously I was not interested in the Church. It just left a bad memory of him. Most of my memories of Murray and Lundh were ok, but I would have to agree, there certainly seemed to be excessive gossip.
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