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Submit Your Reflection about "Moral Man and Immoral Society: The Public Theology of Reinhold Niebuhr."

The Serenity Prayer (February 17, 2005)
I tuned in to the latter part of your conversation with Prof. Lovin regarding the discussion of Reinhold Niebuhr and his groundbreaking work, More Man and Immoral Society. I have been profoundly influenced by RN's writing ever since the mid 1950's when I became a religious objector to war. He helped me to see how morally ambiguous political realities are. Although I am no longer a pacifist I am a peace activist. Last year, when I reached 70 years old, I wrote a religious/spiritual autobiography for my wife and three adult children in which I included many references to RN. I ended my 36 page account with the same quotation that you used at the conclusion of your interview with Prof. Lovin.

A few years ago I audited a seminar on the ethics of RN at a local Methodist seminary and wrote a major paper on how he viewed the nuclear war dilemma with the USSR. I parted company with RN in that I am a nuclear pacifist. I felt that he was too willing to risk the future of Western civilization by his willingness to use weapons of mass destruction against the Soviets if needed. He allowed his belief in political "realism" to overtake his Christian values.

That said, I wished he were alive today to counter the religous right influence in our nation. He would have been against the Iraq War and against most of what Bush and the neo-cons have been advocating and implementing in Washington. Reinie,where are you when we need you!

Lee Lybarger
Delaware, OH (WOSU, 820 AM)

The Serenity Prayer (February 16, 2005)
Thank you for a sobering program.

Ralph Khelil
Beverly Hills, CA (KPCC, 89.3 FM)

A Godsend (February 16, 2005)
SOF is my favorite NPR program. This show on Reinhold Niebuhr is a godsend and deserves all the accolades it gets.

I have just a small suggestion: The persons interviewed are all academics, either theologians or historians on Niebuhr. I wonder if this approach would alienate listeners, given the prevalent anti-intellectualism in our society? Would it be better to interview some clergymen or social workers and let them talk about Niebuhr's influence on their work?

Unfortunately, "elitism" is a bad word in the American society these days. To make the program more accessible, SOF may have to steer away from that direction. I as a graduate student have no problem with this show, but I am worried about the average people's responses. That said, don't let my suggestion affect your judgement. Do whatever you like. It is the society's fault to dislike thinking people, not SOF producers' fault to interview them. There is not a show that I don't like, and I hope SOF can go on forever. Great job!

Gene Tsao
Pitman, NJ (WHYY, 91.0 FM)

Glued to the Radio (February 16, 2005)
Thank for the broadcast about Reinhold Niebuhr. I was in my car and glued to the radio until the broadcast ended.

Robert Mueller
Grand Rapids, MI (WGVR, 104.1 FM)

A Precedent for the Religious Right? (February 14, 2005)
I was a student of Ursula Niebuhr, who never received credit, except from her husband, for her contributions to Niebuhr's work. I was also fortunate to work for both the Niebuhrs, including some editing on his last book. Despite my little caveat above, I am delighted to hear his voice again — it is certainly a time to think about hubris v. realism in the current political climate.

Barbara Buoncristiano
New York, NY (WNYC, 820 AM)

A Precedent for the Religious Right? (February 14, 2005)
Your program on Reinhold Niebuhr was so very excellent and timely! I would love to have heard how many other movers and shakers in our world were influenced by his exhortations and wisdom about politics, power, and religion. But I know there wasn't time. I wondered, as I listened, just how much of a precedent Niebuhr-minding set for Billy Graham, and for the religious right, to claim their politio-theological day in the sun … and at what cost to all the moderation and constraint that Niebuhr had so wisely counselled, as our national agenda loses both its Christian and moral way.

How can Niebuhr's thoughtfulness, caution, and hope be brought back into our national behavior and consciousness? Your effort is a wonderful beginning.

John Bingham
Lincoln, MA (Listens via Web Audio)

Appropriate for Our Time (February 13, 2005)
I thought your program on Niebuhr was excellent, which, of course, is not surprising since most of your shows are extremely enlightening. But somehow this one was special; perhaps because I have so much respect for Dietrich Bonhoeffer and I find the two men's views on social responsibility so similar. I also felt that your program was very timely given the way that moral values have been stretched so far out of their original shape by being taken over by politicians who pander to the religious right. Niebuhr had it right. Things aren't the neat black and white that the Administration and its backers wants us to see them in. Thank you.

Arthur Benedict
Wayne, PA (WHYY, 91.0 FM)

Moral Judgmentalism and Religion (February 13, 2005)
Reinhold Niebuhr was a name I heard often in my undergraduate study, but it was your show today, forty years later, that has finally brought me face to face with Niebuhr's thought and voice. I'm grateful for the show and for the rich resources for hearing and reading more of Niebuhr's thoughts that you have put on the SOF Web site.

I've been struggling for some time to try to understand statements such as the one quoted on the show from Mr. Fox's biography of Niebuhr: "He exhorted his readers and listeners to take responsibility for their world while warning them against the temptation to try to perfect it." Today's show has gone a long way in helping me begin to understand this warning, and to see how it applies equally to both liberal and conservative religious activism. I continue to struggle with the notion that it is inevitable "that sin accompanies the quest for love and justice," and that we "inevitably sin in the process of doing good." However, today's discussion of Niebuhr coincided with a powerful Sunday morning sermon about the Adam and Eve story focusing on the fact that it was the desire to taste the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that led to the Fall. I think I'm beginning to see the sense in saying the message of religion should not be primarily about judgments of good vs. evil but rather, about those things symbolized by the Tree of Life, the other tree in the Garden of Eden — namely: compassion, forgiveness, and acceptance.

Joel Peterson
St. Paul, MN (KNOW, 91.1 FM)

Discovering One's Own Life (February 13, 2005)
Thanks to your discussion of Reinhold Niebuhr. Although I had heard the name, I had no clear notion as to his contribution to the human conversation. I found your discussion of his theme of qualified assertion of belief particularly intriguing and refreshing. I have come to understand that belief in the person of Jesus primarily involves an assent to his central teaching that anyone wishing to embark on an imitation of his life would be embarking on a discovery of his own individual humanity by means of the suffering and redemption involved in self-knowledge and repentance. Thanks to you and your guests. I shall explore in more depth what Niebuhr has to offer to help me.

Stanley Miller
Fenton, MO (KWMU, 90.7 FM)

Vision/Reality & Aspiration (February 13, 2005)
The tension between our reality and our vision, the fact that we insist on dreaming of the stars while mired to our necks in filth, is the essence of worship. While it is "paradoxical" on the face of it and dreams of perfection are necessarily doomed, the hope and aspiration we bring to imagining perfection is really all we can know of God and is entirely consistent with His love for us.

Where the real paradox lies is the names we have given this yearning through out our history, perhaps even our pre-history and our attachment to our history is defined by the names we gave and give to the human process of dreaming the dreams of God given perfectibility. The names as pronounced by the priests are held to be immutable, but the process is about transformation and transcendence and so the names don't serve us well and yet at the same are all we have of what we've learned in continuing aspiration. Therein lies the paradox and the danger of history.

William Dunne
Byron, MN (KZSE, 90.7 FM)

Absurdity of Looking Elsewhere (February 13, 2005)
Your discussion of Niebuhr ended with a quote to the effect that one life is too short to accomplish anything of real importance so we must look elsewhere for rewards. That is absurd. Take for instance inventions of Edison and Ford, the computer, penicillin, great works of music, and literature and acts of peace making.

Paul Wheeler
Baltimore, MD (WYPR, 88.1 FM)

Tension and Doubt (February 13, 2005)
Krista Tippett's analysis of the web program on Reinhold Niebuhr is right on when she calls it superb. I consider myself a devout Roman Catholic who has always lived in a state of tension and doubt. My heart and mind has been opened to so many new ways of looking at things since I started to listen to Speaking of Faith. Today's program is exceptional, it made me feel like a normal human being. Thank you Krista, you are an excellent interviewer. I look forward to receiving your program on the web because I can take time to study as I go along rather than just listen on the radio on Sundays.

Fran Baron
Edina, MN (KNOW, 91.1 FM)

Former Acquaintance with Lydia (February 13, 2005)
Great show. This morning was the first time I heard your show. I'm a UCC minister, Andover Newton grad. In 1959-1960 I met Reinhold's mother at St. John's UCC in Lincoln, IL where his father had been pastor. Reinhold's Detroit church merged years ago and moved to the suburb of Royal Oak and is named Emmanuel Bethel UCC. Really great program. I'm going to keep listening and use some of your materials for adult study groups. Thanks for this great work!

Reginald Lancaster
Flint, MI (WFUM, 91.1 FM)

Concerns of Some Transference (February 14, 2005)
First, I enjoy listening to your programs because they are well produced and presented. (And you provide a channel for feedback.)

My concerns: I am sure you are well aware of this but it doesn't hurt to say that you must be very careful or cautious when putting words into the mouth of someone no longer around to speak for themselves. A few times today it felt like you did no more than pause before the speakers transferred their thoughts to his. You brought up how to apply his line of thinking to racial issues … and then turned right to the gay marriage issue. In many areas there is still a debate as to do you group GLBT issues with racial issues? There are similarities but many differences. To be fair to you here, the speaker did not say what side Reinhold Niebuhr would come down on but there was an implication through the set up of the question.

The other time there was but a pause was when you asked to apply his line of thinking to the current war on terror and the conflict in Iraq. This time it was very clear what the speaker thought and you could tell when she stopped using his words and started to convey her opinion. When people start with the authority of someone else's words and in the same or next breath input their own it sometimes lends an authority that wouldn't have happened otherwise.

Something I thought of after the show was this: Could it be true that in some cases great men from past generations fit best in that generation? We should take all we can from him but not stop there. Could it be the case that we should look for a man in the current century, well versed in the thought of Reinhold Niebuhr, but better suited to our time? I was working with the though "for such a time as this" and his teaching of how we can at best hope since we don't all get to see the outcome of what we do now.

Again, great show and learning experience. Thank you.

Tim Sturm
Columbia Heights, MN (KNOW, 91.1 FM)

Concerns of Some Transference (February 13, 2005)
Thank you for your program on Niebuhr. We certainly needed to hear it right now in the US. I needed to hear it. I will try to keep his beliefs in mind as I try to do my part in addressing the issues of the world and myself. Peace and justice to all.

Roger Westall
St. Paul, MN (KNOW, 91.1 FM)

Is Wallis the Niebuhr of Our Day? (February 12, 2005)
Thank you so much for Speaking of Faith. I have asked KUNM here to air the program and hope they will soon. Your interview on Niebuhr was provocative and information-filled. I wonder if Jim Wallis is today's Niebuhr — at least he's getting a lot of attention these days from both the right and the left. It would be interesting to hear you interview him.

Elizabeth McMaster
Albuquerque, NM (Listens via Web Audio)

Niebuhr Outside the Seminary Walls (January 29, 2005)
As a former intern for one of the guests on your upcoming show on Reinhold Niebuhr, and a theology student who is currently working on the concept of transcendence in Niebuhr's ethics for my master's thesis, I would like to applaud your initiative to bring back the thought of one of America's most important public theologians in the last several decades. Unfortunately, Niebuhr's voice has lost some of its impact in current theological debates, due to what some consider cynicism in his "Christian realism." I am pleased to know that there are still venues outside of the seminary walls in which his ideas can be discussed, dissected, and deliberated. Thank you.

John Burk
Princeton, NJ (Listens via Web Audio)