Thursday, September 28, 2006

John W. Peterson

In case you haven't heard, beloved writer and composer, John W. Peterson, has moved into his 'mansion, just over the hilltop.' He will be missed by thousands (or more) of us who grew up with his music. His music was of "our generation" in the realm of Christian music for so many of us.

His obituary was sent to me and is as follows: Gospel composer John W. Peterson went home to be with the Lord on September 20, 2006, at the age of 84. He passed into eternity very peacefully at his home in Scottsdale, Arizona, surrounded by his family. He was born in Lindsborg, Kansas, on November 1, 1921, and began his musical career while still in his teens. During World War II, he served as an Army Air Force pilot flying the famed “China Hump” and received an Air Medal Award. After the war, he attended Moody Bible Institute and went on to graduate from the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. While in Chicago, he was on staff at radio station WMBI and was responsible for several weekly programs. Shortly thereafter, John and his family settled in Montrose, Pennsylvania, where he continued his songwriting career while working as Music Editor at Singspiration, a sacred music publishing company. When the company was acquired by Zondervan Publishing House, he relocated his family to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he was President and Editor-in-Chief of Singspiration for over ten years. Then after moving to Scottsdale, he co-founded Good Life Productions and a few years later established the John W. Peterson Music Company. He served on several boards, including Gospel Films (now Gospel Communications) and Family Life Radio Network. He was a member of Scottsdale Bible Church for the past 34 years and had been very active as a board member and Enrichment Class teacher.

His music has been loved and sung around the world. He has composed over 1,000 individual songs, including “It Took a Miracle,” “Over the Sunset Mountains,” and “Heaven Came Down.” In addition, he has written 35 cantatas and musicals, such as “Night of Miracles,” “No Greater Love,” “Carol of Christmas” and “Love Transcending.” As a composer, he was a long-time member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

Throughout his life he received numerous honors and awards, some of which include: Sacred Music Award from the National Evangelical Film Foundation, International Composer of the Year from SESAC, The Music Achievement Award from Christian Artists, The Ray DeVries Church Music Award, Doctor of Sacred Music from John Brown University, Doctor of Divinity from Western Conservative Baptist Seminary, and Doctor of Fine Arts from Grand Canyon University. In 1977, his autobiography, “The Miracle Goes On,” was published by Zondervan Publishing House, and a film by the same title was released by Gospel Films. In 1986, he was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.


There will be a Memorial Tribute service on Friday, October 6 at 2:00 pm, Scottsdale Bible Church; 7601 E. Shea Boulevard; Scottsdale, AZ.

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I am not usually that emotionally touched by people on the 'public stage of life.' But I did have a few encounters with John Peterson myself. His brother was my pastor for a while when I was a teenager. I was also one of many choir members he came to Birmingham, Alabama to direct in a cantata when he had an allergic reaction to aspirin, was rushed to a hospital and nearly died. Also his nephew married a High School classmate of mine.

My all time favorite cantata is still "Night of Miracles." I could probably sing it all from memory, but most people don't want to hear me sing... Phrases and storylines from the Christmas story still trigger to this day lines from the cantata. He will be greatly missed - especially by those over the age of 50, I suspect! My prayers and sympathy go to his wife and family. Our loss is definitely heaven's gain!

Monday, September 25, 2006

BANNED BOOKS WEEK

This week is banned books week for ALA. There were 405 books that were challenged last year. But, according to a news reporter, none were actually banned.

On a listserv that I'm on, we occasionally discuss the values of the ALA philosophy and how the Christian is able to work that into his own philosophy. My institution does not believe in censorship, either (among other core values). However, it will not allow and neither will I pornography, i.e. anything that is purposely promoting sexual perversion. This does allow us to have in our collection books that have been written on sex (for example) - from a physiological, biological, and social point of views as well as spiritual - i.e. Christian. It also allows books on Renaissance art that are 'revealing,' shall we say, as well books on drawing that are designed to teach aspects of art including drawing the human body.

At the same time, we all 'censor' what we purchase all the time. This was a point that I raised in Library School. When it comes right down to it, technically, what you don't buy, you have censored. Whatever your library is, determines what you buy as it also determines the criteria for purchasing. Since we are an academic library we are primarily focused on training young people for a life of service from a biblical worldview whether it is preaching in a church, or hammering nails on a construction site. We have a narrow focus of the majors we offer. We do not teach forestry, or hog raising, or carpentry, or how to manage an airline business so we do not purchase books that have anything to do with fields as they are not a part of our curriculum. So do we censor? Yes, all the time. Do we prohibit points of view just because we don't agree with them. Absolutely not. In fact we look for them so that opposing points of view can be studied.

No academic institution is 'worth it's salt' if it does not allow intellectual freedom. Recently three sources were listed on the above mentioned listserv that deal with this very subject:

Dahl, Katherine. “Intellectual Freedom Stands of American Bible College Libraries: Taken or not Taken.” Paper presented at the Association of College and Research Libraries session of the annual meeting of the Illinois Library Association, May 1988. ERIC, ED 307878. 16 pp.

Hippenhammer, Craighton. “Patron Objections to Library Materials: A Survey of Christian College Libraries.” Parts 1 and 2. The Christian Librarian [U.S.A.] 37 (November 1993): 12-17; 37 (February 1994): 40-47. [Results are summarized in
Craighton Hippenhammer, “Intellectual Freedom in Christian College Libraries,” Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom 43 (March 1994): 41+.]

Smith, Gregory A. “Intellectual Freedom and the Bible College Library.” Christian Higher Education 3 (July 2004): 241-59.

One of the listserv subscribers mentioned that ALA actually does a rather fair job of bringing ideas to the table for discussion. It is not perfect but it is a good source to get us thinking and even good as a source (among many) to incorporate in our policies. Those of us who hold to the Christian faith and its values and make it a part of our lives would all agree that ALA does take an extreme liberal left view. But I will also have to add that there is so much divergence within even the evangelical Christian community that it would be difficult to come up with comparable Bill of Rights that could be agreed upon.

Another subscriber, Greg Smith, stated "About the LBR [Library Bill of Rights]: James R. Johnson authored a significant Christian critique of the then-current version in 1990. The essay, which bears the title 'A Christian Approach to Intellectual Freedom in Libraries,' was reprinted in my anthology, 'Christian Librarianship: Essays on the Integration of Faith and Profession' (McFarland, 2002).

One of my book’s reviewers described this essay as follows: 'Meticulously researched and exhaustively documented, James R. Johnson’s accompanying essay outlining a Christian approach to intellectual freedom in libraries is perhaps even more valuable because it boldly proposes a distinctively Christian approach to intellectual freedom. Most libraries in the United States draw upon the American Library Association’s (ALA) Library Bill of Rights as they create policy and procedure related to intellectual freedom. Johnson, however, argues that ALA’s conception of intellectual freedom is defective because it relies upon autonomous individualism, a relativistic view of the truth, and antireligious bias. This ALA policy is ultimately untenable because it attempts to impose an extreme ideological position on intellectual freedom for all libraries. The importance of Johnson’s piece cannot be understated. It is a weighty and well-reasoned alternative to the 'radical liberal approach' (153) of the ALA Bill of Rights.' "

[Citation: Rosen, Scott. Rev. of Christian Librarianship: Essays on the Integration of Faith and Profession, ed. Gregory A. Smith. Christian Scholar’s Review 32 (2003): 465-67. The quote came from p. 466 of the book review.]

This is not a perfect world and never will be. Banned books should never be just because of opposing points of view. But we should also filter anything we do in our society through our values. It doesn't take rocket science to know what is commonly agreed upon to be degrading to our society. There are cultures from antiquity, Christian and otherwise, who have always had their standards for their society. This is not really unique to the Christian faith in origin or practice.

Maybe what those of us in the profession of librarianship need to do is re-evaluate our terminology and how we use it. There is no conclusion here as this is a discussion that will take us well into the future.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

SETTLING INTO THE NEW YEAR

School is well under way; I have my help all hired with one yet to start. He was suppose to come by today but I haven’t seen him yet. Maybe he’s changed his mind…? When I get that one taken care then I can turn my thoughts to training all the new hires. In the meantime we have already held one class for students on using our databases, and have freshmen orientation at the library next week.

HOW DO I USE YOUR LIBRARY?

Our Library Handbooks finally got printed, assembled and distributed. It never fails to befuddle me when a junior or senior student walks in and something happens to the student – like a fine – and they reply “I didn’t know that!” (e.g. reserves have to be back in by such and such time or you get fined.) Students are required to read the Library Handbook every year and turn in a signed slip to the effect. Makes you wonder how much they actually read and how much they skim. But then I have the faculty handbook to read. How often have I skimmed that????.... (Hmmm, human nature strikes again!)

WORKDAY

We have a Workday every fall and every spring. Tuesday the 19th was the one for this Fall. We got a lot accomplished at the library: Men’s bathroom painted, benches out front painted, flowers planted in the planter, two out side doors painted and the start of the look of two pillars, one on each side of the front door – a little “Trump Loi Façade.” Turns out that is going to take a lot longer than I anticipated. It looks so much better out front of the library. It’s rather understated as it is. So this should help.

ORGANIZE IT!

I have been getting into the organizing mood recently. I bought some modular shelving units at a home improvement store and brought them to work. Its three units with three shelves each. So I have nine “cubby holes” for storage. It did wonders for getting “stuff” up off the floor behind my chair at the desk. It makes it look much neater and gets them up off the floor as well. I hope this ‘mood’ holds over long enough for me to get the money needed to do some of this at home as well.

CONSTITUTION DAY

This is something new for us and many others as well. The library was to come up with a display. So we bought a poster, found books on the constitution, bill of rights and the founding fathers and put them on display. We also had a DVD that played at the front desk on a laptop. In chapel Constitution facts were passed out, the pledge to the flag recited and patriotic songs sung along with instrumental accompaniment besides the piano. It was interesting to see what other places did. There was a large variety from what I learned from other Christian librarians as to how the day was celebrated.

RAIN/SUNSHINE

We have one individual on this campus that is very blunt and could care less that he is. (Guess there has to be at least one, in everyone’s life.) Today I got up extremely tired from my foray of shopping and staying up late yesterday, then not getting much sleep during the night. I get to work and boom – right off the bat – I get an email “IN-FORM-ING – me” such and such! For a moment there I was afraid my whole day was going to be like that and the way I felt it did not imply there would be a good outcome. This was not the day I needed any confrontation. But as it turned out my day went much better than expected. "In every life a little rain must fall." Otherwise, how could we appreciate the sunshine if that’s what we had all the time? Besides – too much sun dries everything up.


Here’s some stress relievers you may want to try:

Bubble wrap
Puzzle (I heard that Friday, Sept 22nd is “Elephant Appreciation Day”!!!!????)
Coloring on line


I think I’ll go check out the bubble wrap. That always gets me laughing again!!

Monday, September 11, 2006

Soldiers going to war - Remembering 9/11

I recieved the following story as an email forward. I have no idea if it is true. But if it is not, it certainly illustrates the American Spirit:

Last week I was in Atlanta, Georgia attending a conference. While I was in
the airport, returning home, I heard several people behind me beginning to
clap and cheer. I immediately turned around and witnessed one of the
greatest act's of patriotism I have ever seen.

Moving thru the terminal was a group of soldiers in their camo's, as they began heading to their gate everyone (well almost everyone) was abruptly to their feet with their hands waving and cheering. When I saw the soldiers, probably 30-40 of them, being applauded and cheered for it hit me. I'm not alone. I'm not the only red blooded American who still loves this country and supports our troops and their families Of course I immediately stopped and began clapping for these young unsung heroes who are putting their lives on the line everyday for us so we can go to school, work and home without fear or reprisal.

Just when I thought I could not be more proud of my country or of our
service men and women, a young girl, not more than 6 or 7 years old, ran
up to one of the male soldiers He kneeled down and said "hi," the little
girl then she asked him if he would give something to her daddy for her.

The young soldier, he didn't look any older than maybe 22 himself, said
he would try and what did she want to give to her daddy. Then suddenly the
little girl grabbed the neck of this soldier, gave him the biggest hug she
could muster and then kissed him on the cheek. The mother of the little
girl, who said her daughters name was Courtney, told the young soldier
that her husband was a Marine and had been in Iraq for 11 months now.

As the mom was explaining how much her daughter, Courtney, missed her
father, the young soldier began to tear up. When this temporarily single
mom was done explaining her situation, all of the soldiers huddled
together for a brief second. Then one of the other servicemen pulled out a
military looking walkie-talkie. They started playing with the device and
talking back and forth on it.

After about 10-15 seconds of this, the young soldier walked back over
to Courtney, bent down and said this to her, "I spoke to your daddy and he
told me to give this to you." He then hugged this little girl that he had
just met and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He finished by saying "your
daddy told me to tell you that he loves you more than anything and he is
coming home very soon." The mom at this point was crying almost
uncontrollably and as the young soldier stood to his feet he saluted
Courtney and her mom.

I was standing no more than 6 feet away from this entire event
unfolded. As the soldiers began to leave, heading towards their gate,
people resumed their applause. As I stood there applauding and looked
around, their were very few dry eyes, including my own. That young soldier
in one last act of selflessness, turned around and blew a kiss to Courtney
with a tear rolling down his cheek.