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By
Patrick Johnston
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His
personal office is a clutter of papers and pictures of friends
he has not seen in years, but will never forget. His hair
is disheveled and his gray beard hangs inches off his chin.
On
a day in late October, he is dressed in jeans and sandals.
His red tie-dye shirt screams from across the room.
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The
occasional expletive escapes past his lips despite years of self-censorship
designed to remedy just that habit.
Bill
Thompson is not a conservative minister, but that’s just fine
with him. “A lot of what I did in the ministry was to spend
time on the street with people,” he said.
He
is an ordained Lutheran minister and teaches social work classes
at BGSU. Like his work in the ministry, Thompson’s educational
tactics are unconventional.
One
upper-level social work class is complete when students live for
a week in inner city New York. Another class takes students to a
Navajo reservation for two weeks.
These
trips, taken over summer and spring breaks, transport students to
areas that are plagued with extreme poverty, but have cultural diversity
many students have never been exposed to.
“We
are the minority over there and that’s a unique experience
for a lot of people, a pretty powerful experience,” said Brian
Rose, who has been on the New York trip four times and now organizes
it.
During
their time in New York, students stay with families there. Much
time is spent visiting different organizations that are doing activist
work. These organizations include church, government and grassroots
organizations. The tactics used by these organizations vary, so
students get a feel for the many ways social work can be accomplished.
It
is Thompson’s hope that these trips will inspire students to
become more involved in social work. “I like to see students
learning from experience instead of theory,” Bill said.
He
might feel this way because it is exactly how he learned. As a high
school student in Utah, he was drawn to the troubled kids he saw.
“Many
people I got to know who were racing cars, stealing hubcaps and
drinking beer were very creative about doing that…so I figured
I would look toward how you could redirect that energy,” he
said.
He
knew that he wanted to help others; after graduating from the University
of Utah, he entered seminary school with a goal in his mind to help
the poor and less fortunate.
It was during this time—the early 1960s—that Thompson
worked with a church in Spanish Harlem a drug-ridden neighborhood
in Manhattan.
“That
was a huge training ground for people in the 60s who were interested
in the idea of working for social justice,” said Karen, Bill’s
wife. The couple was married soon after they met in 1966 in Spanish
Harlem. Karen, who is also a minister, now teaches for the Chapman
Learning Community.
When
the two met, Bill was helping the poor with housing, drug addiction
and education. “A lot of them were into heroine, but I was
amazed at what good kids they were,” he said.
Through
the years, this optimism amidst the most adverse conditions led
him over the years to accept positions in congregations that were
located in tough, poor areas. He has worked in St. Paul, Chicago,
Steubenville and Baltimore.
Bill
spent four years in a ministry in Baltimore. It too was surrounded
by poverty. The church was kept open every day, and he worked tutoring,
going to court with parishioners, working out landlord disputes
and helping the evicted find homes.
Karen
related a story indicative of the types of functions they performed
in Baltimore. One day, she said, a local woman came to Bill’s
church to ask him for a favor. An old man with no close acquaintances
had died and there was no one to arrange a proper burial. So Bill,
the women and her daughter buried the man at a desolate church on
the outskirts of the city. The burial service allowed the man to
pass with some dignity.
It
was around this time that the couple had two young children. Faced
with the reality of raising them in such areas, Bill decided his
family should leave the streets. When two full-time positions at
the United Christian Fellowship (UCF) in Bowling Green were offered
to him and his wife, he decided to come to Ohio.
The
move presented Bill with a new challenge—reaching the youth
through school and religion to inspire them to follow in his footsteps.
The UCF, as the name implies, is a Christian organization funded
through the church. In his new position, he decided to downplay
the Christian aspect of the organization.
“I
would love to see this place truly interfaced, meaning not just
Christian but all faiths and I think there is energy to do that,”
he said.
Since
the Thompsons took over the UCF in 1986, Muslims, Jews and other
groups have used the facilities. They believe that making the organization
more open has attracted a lot of young members that they otherwise
would have missed.
“When
we came of age our experience of religion was a lot about justice,
working to end wars, working for race relations and working in poverty
areas,” Karen said.
The
couple realized that many young people today do not have a positive
view of religious organizations. Rose, who is now the program director
for UCF, was one of these students. He advises interns and organizes
the Bronx trip. “I really had this aversion to Christianity
and meeting Bill gave me a new perspective of what Christianity
might mean,” he said.
Bill
Ellis, the community service organizer at UCF, has similar feelings
about Bill. “He found me at a time when I was struggling,”
he said. “I consider him my mentor, he taught me a lot and
kind of became a father to me in college.”
Ellis
has been to the Navajo reservation three times with Bill and has
also gone on the trip to the Bronx. He has known Bill for almost
four years now and can attest to his connection with college students.
“He understands where students are at in their spiritual and
intellectual growth,” Ellis said.
Of
course, under the guidance of the Thompsons, the UCF has also focused
heavily on afterschool programs and assisting the poor, among other
social issues.
Last
semester, Bill announced that he would be resigning from his position
with the UCF in August. At 59, he said he wants to focus his energy
in other areas. Karen has already stepped down from her position
in the organization, but continues to teach at the Chapman Learning
Community.
Bill
plans to still teach social work at the university. He hopes that
his predecessor will perpetuate his vision for the UCF and the organization
will continue to grow.
“He’s
left a pretty strong legacy, and the programming is solid that developed
out of his vision,” Rose said. “Still, it will be difficult
to fill his shoes.”
Or
should we say sandals.
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