No one is more surprised than I am to find myself running for the school board. A few weeks ago a friend called me to say there was a vacancy on the school board and asked if I would run for it. I replied, That's like asking a bull in a china shop to become a canary in a coal mine.. I don't know if I can TWEET." When I started to think about that I googled "tweet" and discovred that 500 million tweets occur on Twitter every day including the Queen of England and Oprah, the two richest canarys in the world. So even if I was able to stop knocking over shelves of china and become a caged bird sweetly tweeting a warning that the education system was filling up with poison gas from Washington or Montpelier or the Governor's Conferences, nobody would hear me. To recoin Dartmouth's motto, I wouldn't be a Tweet clamantis in deserto. Nobody would hear me not because I was the ONLY voice tweeting in the desert but because there were a zillion tweets drowning me out. I want to tell you a story. A few weeks ago i was subbing for a class in Hartford High. One of the tenth grade girls was the daughter of a student I had 25 years ago. When I told the class I had taught in this school for 25 years but retired 2 years ago, she asked "What did you teach?" I said, "English". She shot back, "Why WOULD you come back?" Without thinking I said words I had never said or thought before, "Because my heart is here." And that's why I want to be on your school board. I'll try not to break any china, or tweet too loud or too often. But I want to be where my heart is.
I'm Nobody! Who are you?
Are you – Nobody – too?
Then there's a pair of us!
Don't tell! they'd advertise – you know!
How dreary – to be – Somebody!
How public – like a Frog –
To tell one's name – the livelong June –
To an admiring Bog!
An Open Letter to Ava Kaufman, Jeff Gordon, and Past/Current Yale Daily News Editors:
Please stop messing with my identity.
“ImportImages” deserves a serious, not a flip, reply even though, unlike myself, s/he hides behind an pseudonymous username
Ava Kaufman’s article Lulz at Veritas in the Weekend magazine last spring suggested that by signing my name to my posts (all 1965 of them !) I could not be classified as a troll. ("Some would argue that Keane isn’t a troll precisely because he identifies himself as Paul Keane”) http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2012/apr/20/lulz-and-veritas/
Jeff Gordon in his essay for English class about The Anti-Yale "For God, For Country and For Yale," suggested that by signing my name and degree I am invalidating my critique of Yale elitism: “When Paul Keane criticizes Yale, he signs his name with the very authority it granted him.” http://theantiyale.blogspot.com/2010/02/for-god-for-country-and-for-yale-by.html
Not wanting to be a “troll,” of either digital or fleshly ilk, I continued signing my name and degrees.
Obviously it sounds pompous to “ImportImages" (and to others).
This is ironic, since I have lived in Vermont for 28 years and Vermont has absolutely no regard whatsoever for pretension of any kind.
Yale has more respect up here as a lock company than as a a degree awarding institution. In fact, I have never used my degree in those 28 years in Vermont.
I am in effect a Closet Yalie.
And that’s the other reason I refer to my “years” at the divinity school in my Anti-Yale posts.
The snobby downtown undergraduate clubby Yalies do not consider any degree other than the undergraduate degree to be authentic.
You are a Yalie only if you graduated from the undergraduate experience.
Indeed, four years ago when I began The Anti-Yale, there was an extreme reaction of contempt from posters to any opinion coming from Holy Hill or a graduate of Holy Hill. The Divinity School was a place for big hearts and soft heads. Its curriculum was trivial and its impact in the world nonexistent.
The Pope and Margaret Farley put the lie to that opinion, as I mentioned in my letter to the YDN published Friday. [below]
So who am I ?
PK ? Paul Keane, M. Div ’80 ? The Anti-Yale? A Vermonter?
Even I don’t know anymore.
PK
Closet Yalie
PS:
I am running---or , rather, I am standing still --- for the Vermont legislature, so that fact, along with my recent retirement after 25 years as a Vermont public school teacher, adds to my identity confusion.
Mr. Keane, I don't think folks here trivialize the Divinity School in its own right. As you point out, it's a place full of brilliant people who make significant contributions to their field. What YDN commenters mock is your flaunting of your Divinity School credentials by way of asserting your authority on all matters Yale-related. Most of the discussion on this website is centered on undergraduate life, and the fact that you own a Divinity School diploma is, more often than not, besides the point. It's really too bad that you insist on reminding us you own an M.Div. Mostly I stop reading your comments when you begin a sentence with, "When I was a student in the Divinity School in the seventies..." which you inevitably do. Your insistance on this point obscures the fact you can actually add to the discussion regardless of your resume. Your comment on Noah Chases' column today, for example, was actually interesting, and it had nothing to do with the Yale Divinity School.
“In a largely anonymous community of disembodied voices, TheAntiYale is an exception to this rule. He deliberately signs comments with his real name and identifying information: Paul D Keane, M.Div. ’80, M.A. (Middlebury ’97), M.Ed. (Kent State ’72), B.A. (Ithaca College ’68). Some would argue that Keane isn’t a troll precisely because he identifies himself as Paul Keane”
The New York Times (“Vatican Scolds Nun for Book on Sexuality,” June 5) recounts the Vatican’s displeasure at the book “Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics” by Sister Margaret Farley and puts the lie to all of those on the Yale Daily News web site’s posting board who have mocked and trivialized both the Yale Divinity School and its curriculum. (“Vatican ScoldsNun for Book on Sexuality,” June 5)
Sister Margaret was a respected faculty member when I was a student (’76–’80) and continued to teach there until her retirement a few years ago.
It is clear from this article that her influence (and, by extension, Yale Divinity School’s influence) has had a world-wide impact in the realm of religious ethics. The Vatican finds that to be the case and attempts to snuff that influence out.
I suggest that those who would criticize Yale Divinity School and its curriculum need to look closer at the history of its leadership in the religious and ethical revolutions of the world which proceed quietly, unseen by the media but felt by millions.
Paul Keane
June 5
The writer is a 1980 graduate of the Divinity School.
The Rev. Thomas W. Ogletree, Dean Emeritus, Yale Divinity School
Mr. Thomas Ogletree, Dean Emeritus
Yale Divinity School
Dear Dean Ogletree,
I owe you an apology. I see now that I made you and our distant encounter an emblem of the societal classism which my parents felt as children of New Haven's ghetto in the 1920's, a subtle oppression from which Dr.Macintosh's patronage offered them relief, and a topic which President Salovey has raised as a Yale concern in 2014.
My apologies.
I fell into the trap of a son honoring the feelings of his dead father after admiring the courage of a father honoring the feelings of his gay son and his son's lifemate.
My best wishes.
Paul Keane
cc:
Harry Adams, Chaplain Emeritus
Gregory Sterling, Dean
The Hon. Craig Henrici
PS
I have posted this on my blog as amea culpa.
My father on his wedding day in New Haven 1934. He was so poor he had to borrow the suit he was wearing.
My mother in a photographer's proof, taken before she was married. She could not afford the actual photo and had to wear the photographer's throw as a garment because she did not have a suitable dress.
Dear Dean Ogletree,
You are very gracious.
Much of my effort in interacting with Yale since my matriculation in 1976 has been to offer Yale a bridge to the poor and underprivileged of New Haven from prostitutes and drug addicts to the New Haven Police themselves, where I created an internship at YDS as liaison between the police chief and the religious community, an internship whose fruits wound up on 60 Minutes in 1984.
I have continued that effort however inelegantly on my blog.
It is good to hear President Salovey "out" classism as a closet problem at Yale
Again, my apologies.
Sincerely,
Paul Keane
cc:
Harry Adams, Chaplain Emeritus
Gregory Sterling, Dean
The Hon. Craig Henrici
On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 10:03 AM, Ogletree, Thomas wrote:
Dear Mr. Keane, Thanks for your apology. I confess that I did not remember responding to you as you suggested in your earlier e-mail. Thanks also for your affirmation of President Salovey's continuing support for Yale initiatives in the economic and social renewal of New Haven. We need your support and backing to advance such goals. Warmest regards, Tom Ogletree
New Haven >> A former Yale Divinity School dean who officiated at his son’s same-sex wedding will be tried in March by his denomination, the United Methodist Church.
The Rev. Thomas W. Ogletree had been awaiting a decision on the matter since last year, when colleagues in the church’s New York Annual Conference filed a formal complaint. They had seen a wedding announcement in the New York Times about the Oct. 20, 2012, ceremony between Thomas Rimbey Ogletree and Nicholas Haddad at the Yale Club in New York City.
“It is a shame that the church is choosing to prosecute me for this act of love, which is entirely in keeping with my ordination vows to ‘seek peace, justice and freedom for all people’ and with Methodism’s historic commitment to inclusive ministry embodied in its slogan ‘open hearts, open minds, open doors,’” Ogletree said in a statement released by the groupMethodists In New Directions.
Last May, Ogletreetold the Registerthat he had performed only one other marriage in his lengthy career in the clergy.
“It’s hard not to think of 1692 Salem,” said Dorothee Benz, chair of MIND and spokeswoman for Ogletree. “There’s an aspect of this that feels like the UnitedMethodistChurch is hellbent on going back in time for a witch hunt.”
Ogletree is accused of violating the church’s Book of Discipline, which says “homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.”
Last March, Bishop Martin D. McLee of the church’s New York Annual Conference referred Ogletree’s case to a church counsel for possible trial.
In astatementlast week announcing the trial, McLee said, “The process of adjudication also allows for an opportunity to avoid a church trial by arriving at a just resolution. A just resolution is a settlement that can occur at any time during the complaint process right up to and during an actual trial.”
The UnitedMethodistChurch is pursuing a number of similar cases across the country, without coming to settlements thus far. The Rev. Frank Schaefer of the church’s Eastern Pennsylvania Annual Conference was defrocked in November for officiating at his son’s wedding, and other cases are pending in Alabama, New York and the Pacific Northwest.
“The charges are coming and the trials are coming, but it won’t stop this movement,” Benz said. “We’ve gotten past the spiritual crisis the church has caused by its discrimination. We’ve figured out the way around it — just don’t discriminate.”
Among those publicly supporting Ogletree is YaleDivinitySchool’s current Dean Gregory E. Sterling.
“What I find particularly problematic about this is that it is a case where a father responded to a son’s request. It wasn’t at a church site,” Sterling said.
“The UnitedMethodistChurch is a global church,” Sterling said. “It’s a divided church on this issue, as are a number of major denominations. Trials like these are not everyday occurrences, although there seems to be, within the UnitedMethodistChurch, a confrontation building between those who support LGBTQ rights and those who don’t.”
Benz pointed out that the church’s New York district, which includes part of Connecticut, has supported gay rights resolutions for 40 years. She said that fact may help in reaching an amicable resolution during the church trial.
“Tom is retired. His reputation, his career as a world-renowned scholar on Christian ethics, is safe. But it would break his heart to lose his credentials,” Benz said.
Call Jim Shelton at 203-789-5664. Have questions, feedback or ideas about our news coverage? Connect directly with the editors of the New Haven Register atAskTheRegister.com
I am no fan of Dean Ogletree. He was quite rude to me when I dropped in to his office in 1986 [perhaps 1996--see below] to ask why the Macintosh Fellowship at Yale Divinity School had once again---for the second time in three decades --- fallen into disuse after I had managed to get it restored in 1980. "What's your concern? Who are you?" he demanded of this intruder who was not in his appointment book, alumnus or not.
When I told him Macintosh had been a family friend and my parents had named me after him, it was an irrelevant triviality to the brusque dean who seemed completely uninterested in the fate of this former faculty member's memory and Fellowship. As long as I was not a blood relative who could sue for recovery of the improperly used fellowship funds (an accounting which the Macintosh estate's executor, Professor Julian Hartt, had said he would demand of Yale only a few years before) Dean Ogletree could not to be bothered. Hrrrmph.
However, he seems suddenly much more human to me now in 2014, almost three [or perhaps two, see below] decades later, when he risks his frock and fame to stand by his gay son. (see recent New Haven Register article below). Perhaps if Macintosh had not died childless and had had a blood son, Mr. Ogletree would have risen to that occasion 28 years ago.
Kudos to him. Paul Douglas Macintosh Keane M. Div. '80
My
Term as Dean at YDS
Ogletree, Thomas
1:37 AM (1 hour ago)
Dear
Mr. Keane,
Greg
Sterling transmitted your e-mail to me. I did not have time to read it
until yesterday, but I discovered that you may be forgetting who was dean of
the DivinitySchool when you came to YDS in the
eighties. Actually, Lee Keck was dean at that time. I did not come
to Yale and begin my service as dean of the DivinitySchool
until the summer of 1990. After my term as dean, I continued to teach at
Yale until my retirement on the first of January in 2009. So I am not
accountable for the things you found troublesome when you visited YDS.
Just thought I would bring you up to date.
It
is quite possible that it was 1996 not 1986. I will change the date on my
blog and post this clarification.
Actually.
It was you---decidedly you. I'm sure it was nothing you would remember.
Yale Deans are so busy after all .
No,
it was not Dean Keck.
Dean
Keck was a good and loyal friend to me.
I
will never forget his consummate thoughtfulness: when
he took me privately into his office in 1984 (in a highly pressured
moment five minutes before a convocation for some distinguished lecture in
Marquand Chapel as a courtesy to my adopted grandfather, Roland H. Bainton)
to tell me that Dr. Bainton had died the night before on campus.
That
courtesy prevented my having to hear it cold from the pulpit as he
notified the YDS community at whatever distinguished lecture was about to begin
in Marquand .
The
lecture is long forgotten. The courtesy is not. A good lesson.
Then
there were a couple of interim acting deans, Aiden Kavanaugh and Harry Adams
among them.
I
recall Dean Kavanaugh taking me into his office and proudly showing me Jonathan
Edwards' presidential furniture which he had rescued from a Yale warehouse.
I suppose it has been banished again since then to the same fate as
Macintosh's fellowship.
And
Dean Adams---bless his soul ---actually arranged the Marquand ceremony
and Common Room reception for the unveiling of the vandalized
Macintosh portrait which I had arranged to have restored (at no expense
to YDS) in 1980 I believe, although it could have been 1979.
It
may have been 1996 that I appeared unannounced at your office although it
probably was the early 90's. I was visiting my father in Mt.Carmel
from my home in Vermont.
He
had dispatched me to YDS to inquire about Macintosh's Fellowship
While
the decades may have faded, the rudeness and arrogance of your cavalier
dismissal of my family's concern for Macintosh and his legacy did not fade.
My
mother and father were impoverished New
Haven residents in Macintosh's youth group at a church
on the wrong side of the tracks. He and Hope Macintosh brought them into
his Yale circle.
Both
of my parents were fatherless and Macintosh (who was childless) served a
paternal role in their lives.
Yale
arrogance was not Dr. Macintosh's cup of tea.
No,
it was not Dean Keck who brushed me off.
It
was decidedly you, whose face and tone I recall quite well as you swept me from
your august YDS presence, leaving me to report my meeting to my then
widowed, septuagenarian father in Mt.Carmel.
He
was annoyed at the Yale arrogance; I was used to it, frankly.
Sorry
about the chronological confusion.
While
I regret our encounter, apparently in the 1990's not 80"s, I do admire
your guts in championing your son's dignity as a human being in
2013 / 14
Christianity
has crucified gay people long enough.
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Margaret Farley’s influence