Minister says WSJ quote gave misleading impression
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, April 13, 2006
The minister who will be the moderator of the General Assembly committee that considers overtures on the controversial issue of divestment of Presbyterian holdings in corporations that do business with Israel said The Wall Street Journal quoted part of a year-old sermon she preached out of context.
In its “Best of the Web Today” column published on April 12, The Journal said the Rev. Gretchen Graf was quoted in the Grand Forks Herald (N.D.) as making the following statement about the 911 terrorist attacks on America:
“One year ago today, 19 young men on a mission profoundly changed our lives and the life of our nation. This was an act of faith and courage, a carefully planned statement against what they saw as the evils of a corrupt and oppressive nation. They were willing to give their lives so that the world would see their outrage.” The quote was headlined: “Stupid Comment.”
The Journal report was based in a Sept. 12 article in the North Dakota newspaper that was based on a 911 anniversary interview with one woman who heard Graf’s sermon and criticized it harshly.
Graf said the woman should have stayed for the whole speech, and that she thought long and hard about the words. “I knew, when I made this speech, it had the potential to make people disagree, but I thought it was important to say,” Graf told the Herald after being informed about her critics comment.
“I wish she had stayed for the rest of the speech, when I tried to make it clear that the terrorists did not win,” Graf said. “The point I was hoping to make is that the voices of Americans who have lived, with compassion and with forgiveness, finding their strength not in retaliation but in seeking understanding in spite of this action, takes greater strength and deserves greater honor.”
Contacted by The Layman Online, Graf said that, although she does not have the original manuscript of the sermon, she recalls that her next statement about the terrorists was: “We believe they were wrong.”
She, a pacifist, said she had not called The Journal to seek a correction.
Graf said the Herald made several mistakes when it published the story about her sermon. It did not publish a poem that concluded the sermon.
“You have to read the poem to understand it,” she said. At Graf’s invitation, The Layman Online sent her an e-mail so that she could return the correspondence with the poem attached. She did so shortly thereafter, and the following is what she describes as the gist of the sermon:
- Love Them Anyway
(a poem by unknown author,
sometime attributed to Mother Teresa of Calcutta) - People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
- Forgive them anyway.
- If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives;
- Be kind anyway.
- If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
- Succeed anyway.
- If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
- Be honest and frank anyway.
- What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
- Build anyway.
- If you find serenity and happiness, others may be jealous;
- Be happy anyway.
- The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
- Do good anyway.
- Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
- Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.
- You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
- It was never between you and them anyway.
Graf, who was appointed to the leadership of the General Assembly Committee on Peacemaking and International Issues, said her position on divestment is neutral. “I understanding my role as moderator as helping everyone and encouraging them to make prayerful decisions.”