DAVE LAMB’S WRITING ON THE WALL [F, 1-11-19]

Dave Lamb was the art editor of Oak Barks, the Oakland City, IN HS newspaper, when I was editor. We both considered going into the preaching ministry. We even went to little churches throughout southern Indiana’s “pocket” [southwest corner] in summer, with Bob Robling and Bob Wallace, wherever the District Superintendent sent us, to fill in for a pastor who was on vacation or otherwise missing in action, where we sang as a quartet and I preached. [1]

Dave would have been great as a preacher/pastor, but he was also aware of his gift for art, and so he went that way, majoring in art at the U of IL, where he was active in the Wesley Foundation [campus ministry] with Joe and Ruth Miller, friends of ours now at St. Mark’s UMC in Bloomington, IN. [1] He started as a graphic artist at Foote, Cone, and Belding Advertising in Chicago, and worked his way up to being such an effective creator-executive that he was sought out individually and became one of the premiere US ad men of the 1970s and 80s.

We recently discussed, via email, why “evangelicals” are so obsessed with President’s Trump’s wall that they are willing to forgive him for breaking every one of the 10 Commandments, repeatedly. I told of reading the thought of an “evangelical” leader about walls in our society. “The problem is that we’ve taken down all the walls.”

He meant, of course, the walls that keep women in their place, that keep black folks in their place, that keep poor people in their place, that protect white rich people from the rabble, that keep Muslims and other “furriners” out. “THE WALL” to “evangelicals” is a total symbol of correcting all that is wrong with a wall-less society. President’s Trump’s advocacy of THE WALL excuses all of his perfidies, which they would never excuse in a different politician. Just look at how upset they are at a young mixed-race woman for using a swear word once while “forgiving” a billionaire thrice-divorced white man for saying it is okay to “grab women by the pussy.” The standard is not just double; it is so multi-layered it is completely lost.

Dave has that gift for art, and he also has a gift for theological thought. In discussing “evangelical” thinking about THE WALL, he said: “I’ve always been taken more with Wesley’s assurance that faith continually develops within us and challenges us to grow, bend a little and seek the same assurance in all others… look for doors.”

I’m glad Dave used his gift for art, and I’m glad he is still using his gift for thinking.

John Robert McFarland

For a prophetic interpretation of the writing on the wall, see the 5th chapter of Daniel.

1] Bob Robling said for 55 years after, every time he had the chance, “The best preacher I ever heard was an eighteen-year-old kid.” Which proves that Bob did not go to church much for 55 years.

2] Joe Miller and Helen recently had opportunity to spend an hour together in a doctor’s waiting room, where they got a lot of good talking done, including their mutual consternation at college chemistry, which came up because grandson Joe Kennedy is even now taking chemistry at the U of IA, and wherever Helen is, the subject of grandchildren gets into the conversation. Joe Miller’s discontent with college chemistry dealt in part with his lab partner. “He was so smart. Even had gotten patents on things when he was in high school. You might have heard of him. His name was Linus Pauling.”