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Robin Meyers

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Robin R. Meyers is an internationally-known ordained minister, peace activist, philosophy professor and author of seven books on Progressive Christianity and Western society.[1] He has been a syndicated columnist and an award-winning commentator for National Public Radio and the Senior Minister of the Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ in Oklahoma City since 1985.[2] He is Distinguished Professor of Social Justice in the Philosophy Department at Oklahoma City University, where he has taught since 1991.[3]

Early life and education

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Rev. Dr. Meyers was born in Oklahoma City, and grew up in Wichita, Kansas.[1] His father was an ordained minister in the Church of Christ and Professor of English Literature. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts from Wichita State University (1975),[3] he received a Masters of Divinity from the Graduate Seminary of Phillips University (1979), a Doctor of Ministry from Drew University in Madison, New Jersey (1981), and a PhD in Rhetoric (persuasion and preaching) from the University of Oklahoma (1991).[2]

Career

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Dr Meyers is a fellow of the Westar Institute (home of the Jesus Seminar), and a frequent preacher and speaker at church conferences and communication workshops across the United States.[2] He travels and lectures monthly in the United States on Progressive Christianity in venues where the most prominent progressive theologians are invited, including the late Marcus Borg (who named him a successor to his work), Bishop John Shelby Spong, John Dominic Crossan, Amy Jill Levine and Walter Brueggemann. He has lectured internationally in North Wales (The Gladstone Library) and has been invited to Australia and New Zealand as the Common Dreams Lecturer for 2016. He was twice a finalist for the pulpit of The Riverside Church, the Earl Preacher at the Earl Lectures in Berkeley in 2000, winner of the Angie Debo Civil Libertarian of the Year Award from the ACLU. Dr Meyers has appeared on Dateline NBC, the PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and ABC World News.[4] Dr Meyers has also written for the journal The Christian Century.[5][6][7] In recognition of his achievements Dr Meyers was invited to deliver the prestigious Lyman Beecher Lectures at the Yale Divinity School in 2013 with addresses on “Faith as Resistance” to ego, orthodoxy and empire.[8] These lectures form the basis of his most recent book, Spiritual Defiance: Building a Beloved Community of Resistance. More than 140 of his sermons from the Mayflower Congregational UCC are archived on the video-sharing website Vimeo, in which he gives non-literal interpretations of the weekly lectionary that emphasise the humanness of Jesus and the literary (rather than literal) nature of the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament.[9] He is married to Shawn Meyers, an Oklahoma City artist, and they are the parents of three adult children and have two grandchildren.[1]

Key issues

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Dr Meyers’ approach to teaching and preaching has been described as offering “a non-literal, non-dogmatic approach to Christianity, and his politics are neither left nor right, but rather subversive for the cause of love”.[10] He seeks to build “not a collection of ‘believers’, but a Beloved Community devoted to embodying peace and justice in a broken world”.[10] As a professor his method is Socratic, grounded in the belief that the truth is accessible but often obscured, and that love is life's highest achievement.[10] His books all revolve around questions of religion, ethics, and language; that is, around transcendence, morality, and the redemptive power of telling the truth.[10] His work has been endorsed by religious identities, social activists and theologians including Desmond Tutu, Bill Moyers, Marcus Borg, Harvey Cox, Parker Palmer, Brian McLaren, Diana Butler Bass, Fred Craddock,[10] John Shelby Spong and William Sloane Coffin Jr.[11]

Dr Meyers is noted for his strong anti-war stance and for calling to account Christians who support war. During the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2005 he wrote in the peer-reviewed academic journal Fellowship:

“I'm tired of people thinking that because I'm a Christian, I must be a supporter of President Bush, or that because I favor civil rights and gay rights I must not be a person of faith. I'm tired of people saying that I can't support the troops but oppose the war. I first heard that when the Vietnam War was raging. We knew that that war was wrong, and we know that this war is wrong. The only question is how many people are going to die before these make-believe Christians are removed from power. Don't be afraid to speak out.”[12]

Dr Meyers also achieved notoriety for his attempts to save the life of Wanda Jean Allen, whom the State of Oklahoma executed in January, 2001, for the murder of her girlfriend.[13] He also became Ms Allen’s spiritual adviser in prison before her execution and he appeared in the HBO documentary, The Execution of Wanda Jean, which was screened at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.[14]

Under Dr Meyers’ stewardship the Mayflower Congregational UCC in Oklahoma City has become one of the most vocal voices of the Progressive Christianity movement, declaring that “we take the Bible seriously, not literally, and believe that in our time the church must recover, above all, its radical hospitality — welcoming all persons into her midst, without regard to race, age, gender, sexual orientation, or physical abilities”.[15]

Dr Meyers credits the late American New Testament scholar, theologian and author Marcus Borg as a major theological influence, as well as his seminary Preaching Professor Dr. Fred B. Craddock.

Books

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  • With Ears to Hear: Preaching as Self-Persuasion (Pilgrim Press, 1993); (Wipf & Stock Pub, 2007); ISBN-10: 1556356307; ISBN-13: 978-1556356308.
  • Morning Sun on a White Piano: Simple Pleasures and the Sacramental Life (Doubleday, 1998); (Galilee Trade; Reprint edition 2000); ISBN-10: 0385498691; ISBN-13: 978-0385498692.
  • The Virtue in the Vice: Finding Seven Lively Virtues in the Seven Deadly Sins (HCI, 2004); ISBN-10: 0757302211; ISBN-13: 978-0757302213.
  • Why the Christian Right is Wrong: A Minister’s Manifesto for Taking Back Your Faith, Your Flag, and Your Future (Jossey Bass, 2006); ISBN-10: 0470184639; ISBN-13: 978-0470184639.
  • Saving Jesus From The Church: How To Stop Worshiping Christ and Start Following Jesus (Harper One, 2009); ISBN-10: 0061568228; ISBN-13: 978-0061568220.
  • The Underground Church: Reclaiming the Subversive Way of Jesus (Jossey Bass, 2012); ISBN-10: 1118061594; ISBN-13: 978-1118061596.
  • Spiritual Defiance: Building a Beloved Community of Resistance (Yale University Press, 2015); ISBN-10: 0300203527; ISBN-13: 978-0300203523.

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Mayflower UCC, Oklahoma City". Retrieved August 1, 2015.
  2. ^ a b c "Good Reads". Retrieved August 1, 2015.
  3. ^ a b "Oklahoma City University".
  4. ^ "Harper Collins".
  5. ^ Meyers, Robin R (2000). "Extra Credit. (Why Students Ask Questions)". The Christian Century. 117 (No. 29): 1069. {{cite journal}}: |issue= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  6. ^ Meyers, Robin (2000). "Virtual Virtuosity". The Christian Century. 117 (No. 30): 1109. {{cite journal}}: |issue= has extra text (help)
  7. ^ Meyers, Robin R (2000). "In Praise of the First Coming". The Christian Century. 117 (No. 32): 1183. {{cite journal}}: |issue= has extra text (help)
  8. ^ "Beecher Lectures - YouTube". Yale Divinity School. Yale Divinity School. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
  9. ^ "Dr Robin Meyers on Vimeo". Vimeo. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
  10. ^ a b c d e "Amazon". Retrieved August 1, 2015.
  11. ^ "Arts & Sciences: Philosophy; About the Faculty". Oklahoma City University. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
  12. ^ Meyers, Robin (2005). "Moral Indignation". Fellowship. 71 (No. 5/6): 20. {{cite journal}}: |issue= has extra text (help)
  13. ^ "Wikipedia". Retrieved August 1, 2015.
  14. ^ "Rotten Tomatoes". Retrieved August 1, 2015.
  15. ^ "About Mayflower". Mayflower Congregational UCC. Retrieved August 1, 2015.


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