Interfaith Council sponsors author’s talk
Jack Calhoun
April 4, 2008
by Elinor Griffith
It’s not every day that one’s work and one’s faith intersect – and the result can be surprisingly satisfying.
Jack Calhoun (right) and Elinor Griffith are pictured with publisher Jeremy Kay (left) at the National Press Club.”
John A. Calhoun, the former president of the National Crime Prevention Council, asked me several years ago to help him edit a book he was writing about “remarkable people doing some of the hardest work in the country.” I was intrigued. “These are people of faith,” Calhoun explained. “Christians of every denomination, Muslims, Jews, Baha’is and others who are tackling some of society’s toughest and most pressing issues.”
How could I say anything but “yes”?
For years I’d edited human-interest articles for Reader’s Digest and wanted to get more involved in helping others. I had recently joined the Chappaqua Interfaith Council as the lay representative from St. John and St. Mary’s Church. Joint interfaith initiatives were on my mind: raising awareness and money for non-profits such as Open Door (low-cost medical care) and A-HOME (affordable housing for seniors) and bringing our town together for the annual interfaith Thanksgiving service and free dinner. So editing Calhoun’s book with its inspirational spiritual scope was a perfect fit.
Fast-forward 238 pages
“Hope Matters: The Untold Story of How Faith Works in America,” Calhoun’s recently published book, is now the focus of the Chappaqua Interfaith Council’s spotlight on faith in our community. The event will be held on Sunday, April 13 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 210 Orchard Ridge Road, Chappaqua, with a reception and book signing to follow.
So what led Calhoun on his faith journey? Once an eager Episcopal divinity student, he was hungry to make a difference. Through the years he rose to national prominence in the field of public policy, serving as National Crime Prevention Council’s founding president for over 20 years and as President Jimmy Carter’s appointee as the U.S. Commissioner of the Administration for Children, Youth and Families. However, something wasn’t right. Calhoun became so caught up in a parade of committee meetings, speaking engagements and policy and program initiatives, he lost touch with the bedrock of his vocation. It took an encounter with an unusually clear-sighted volunteer who had suffered the loss of her son to reconnect his daily work to his faith in God.
Reinvigorated, Calhoun embarked on a two-year, cross-country journey to discover how faith motivates some of America’s most amazing public servants. Their accomplishments are impressive. All are people whose shared spiritual values tell them, “I am my brother’s keeper. I am my sister’s keeper.”
Three individuals featured in the book will join author to speak at the April 13 event
When I attended “Hope Matter’s” media debut at the National Press Club this past fall, I met several of the twenty-four people featured in the book; I’m delighted that three of them will be at the April 13 event to address one of the book’s several themes.
Robin Bernstein is the director of New York’s Educational Alliance, one of America’s oldest and most prestigious social-welfare agencies. She will share her thoughts on tikkun olam, the Jewish belief that we are all stewards called upon to be co-creators with God of a better world.
Abdelhafid Djemil is a Brooklyn high school math teacher and outstanding volunteer mentor who works with delinquent Muslim youth caught up in the criminal-justice system. This devout immigrant (an asylum seeker from Algeria) and father of seven will look at how we all have “gold” in us.
Alexie Torres-Fleming is the daughter of a custodian who “escaped” to Madison Avenue’s fast track, only to double back to work with youth. She is the director of Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, which is based at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church in the South Bronx, and will speak on “finding purpose.”
In working on “Hope Matters,” I have seen how divisiveness, hostility, intolerance and even death, are laid at faith’s door. But Jack Calhoun and these three people show the opposite, that faith can still bring out the goodness of people, especially when they heed its call to act on behalf of others. That’s a satisfying message. Still, the challenge before us, it seems to me, is for each one of us to make our own “place of worship”—however we define that spiritual space—a little bigger, a little more embracing of others.
“I did not write this book for me,” said Calhoun. “Nor did I write it for those portrayed in the book. I wanted to reveal the other side of the faith story—an affirming, joyous side. It is my hope that “Hope Matters” will lead readers to ask, ‘How can I be there for my neighbor?’ Is there a more important question as we go through life together?”
For further information on the event, please call Elinor Griffith at (914) 238-1425; to order copies, contact publisher Jeremy Kay at Bartleby Press at (800) 953-9929 or email
; or to learn more about John A. Calhoun, visit his website at http://www.HopeMatters.org.
Congregations in the Chappaqua Interfaith Council: Baha’is of New Castle; Chappaqua Friends Meeting; The Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Episcopal; First Congregational Church; Lutheran Church of our Redeemer; Presbyterian Church of Mt. Kisco; St. John and St. Mary’s Catholic Church; Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester; and The Upper Westchester Muslim Society.
Elinor Griffith, a New Castle resident since 1978, has been a member of the Chappaqua Interfaith Council for four years now. She is heading to France later this month leading a gourmet cooking trip to Julia Child’s former home.
Copyright 2008 NewCastleNOW.org