Remembering Newtown
On December 21, Yale Divinity School joined other faith communities across the country in remembering those who died exactly one week earlier during the tragic shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Dean Gregory E. Sterling delivered remarks at a brief ceremony in Marquand Chapel that included the ringing of the chapel bells. Said Sterling, “This is a moment for people of faith to join with people of good will, not only to challenge the policies that permit the virtually unrestricted proliferation of lethal weapons—especially military-style weapons—but to confront the very cult of violence that allows the seeds of violence to grow unchecked across our land.”
A year of conversations on diversity
The Divinity School has designated the current academic year as a time for students, faculty, and staff to reflect on the idea of “diversity” and what it means for the YDS community. The new diversity initiative traces its roots to the faculty Diversity Committee’s decision in spring 2012 to support the student council in hosting a series of town hall–style meetings on inclusion, including issues related to welcoming differences into the culture of a community. A centerpiece of the initiative is the community-wide reading of the book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander, culminating in a February 25 visit to campus by the author.
How YDS grads rebuffed the Nazis
A new film, Home of the Brave: When Southbury Said No to the Nazis, recounts the central role played by two YDS graduates in preventing the German American Bund from establishing a training camp in Southbury, Connecticut, in the 1930s. Rev. M. E. N. Lindsay, Class of 1930, and Rev. Felix Manley, Class of 1935, both area pastors, preached sermons against the group after research by Lindsay revealed that the hidden purpose of the Bund—which was billed as devoted to promoting American values in German American youth—was to spread the anti-Semitic Nazi philosophy on United States soil. The November 21, 1937, sermons by Lindsay and Manley made front-page news the next day. The year 2012 marked the 75th anniversary of the Bund saga. To commemorate, Southbury’s religious and town leaders teamed up with the Southbury Historical Society to produce Home of the Brave.
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