Black Battle, White Knight. Michael Battle
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damn fine first draft of the Celebrity chapter—which should, in reality, lead off the book itself. It gives the book its glamour, its immediacy, its hard challenge, its utter relevance. It simply combines sacred and secular by DOING it instead of merely “talking about” it. . . .
You need to be unafraid to bring yourself into the center of things. Including your fears, inadequacies, confusions, awakenings. In a sense the book is a thrilling trajectory of spiritual direction as well as a biography. You’re looking into your own life as well as into mine. So what does “success” mean? What can/does one do with “fame”? Include Tutu. “What’s it all about, Alfie?” But why are “success” and “fame” so often suicidal and self-destructive? (Why do they often seem to bring out the worst in people?) Indeed, why are they seen as selfish? How is this related to Jesus—and, especially, to the cross?
There is so much involved here! Isn’t it fascinating????28
So, here, in this book, is my response to Malcolm. This is not just another black book or gay book. This book is born on the miracle of the election of Barack Obama, which no doubt makes both Malcolm and me reflect more deeply about the repercussions of the Civil Rights Movement. For example, is it over? Also, this book emerges in the threshold of the debate for full inclusion of gay and lesbian persons. Can they marry? Is marriage a good idea? And could a gay or lesbian person be a head of a church? The answers that a reader discovers in the life of Malcolm Boyd are deeply contemporary (he is way ahead of his time)—and more importantly deeply divine.
Beyond getting to know Malcolm as a modern-day prophet, I have now enjoyed the privilege of receiving spiritual direction from Malcolm. Because of the life of God that I have learned from Malcolm, I think it is appropriate that I give some of this spiritual direction to the reader as well. I, therefore, write this book as it is intended to be read—with new perspective while at the same time testing current and past realities. So, read this biography as a focused reflection upon a person conscious of unnecessary hierarchies and false gods. By doing so, the genius that you will discover is that none of us are called to worship false gods.
Dear Michael: I realize for the first time what an extraordinary book you have here. It is a part of (has grown out of) spiritual direction. Quite aside from the book itself, this is simply extraordinary.
The book is not only my biography. It is also your autobiography in numerous ways. You must place yourself (as well as myself) in these pages. I believe you already are doing this. So it can be informal in places, intimate, unpretentious, natural, even conversational. This is the progression of your own spiritual development growing out of our conversations and our looking together at similar issues and themes. Here, the very title of the book comes alive. I’m wondering if perhaps the subtitle should be changed from “A Biography of Malcolm Boyd” to “Biography-cum-Autobiography.”
This can make the book itself a matter (and example) of global and international interest. This can be of intense interest. What is going on here? Something altogether fascinating, unique—that teaches virtually everyone new directions, insights, questions, approaches. It also opens up countless “old” questions and dilemmas, illustrating how to approach them in altogether fresh ways, with new attitudes and insights.
SO you place yourself in the book from the outset. (I think you’re doing this.) There’s dialogue (with me) instead of monologue. As we trace our public course, I’ve also offered you—step by step, detail by detail—spiritual direction. I love the scope and naturalness and depth of this. Actually, all sorts of people in all sorts of places may want to read and share this book.
Your chapters are your own genius. Pursue them. (Talk about gravitas.) Next week I’ll have an opportunity to delve into chapter one and respond specifically to you in detail.29
3. Malcolm Boyd, “New,” e-mail message to author, October 25, 2010,
4. Malcolm Boyd, “Funky,” Yale Daily News, February 19, 1969.
5. Conversation I had with Malcolm during spiritual direction, January 6, 2011.
6. Malcolm Boyd, “A Bit More on Brokeback,” e-mail message to author, May 7, 2010.
7. Carol M. Arney’s Interview with the Rev. Norio Sasaki, March 2, 1995.
8. Carol M. Arney, The Episcopate of the Rt. Rev. Harry S. Kennedy, Bishop of the Missionary District of Honolulu, 1944 to 1969 (Honors Paper, The School of Theology, University of the South, 1995), 45–46.
9. Malcolm Boyd and Paul Conrad, When in the Course of Human Events (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1973), 22–23.
10. Malcolm Boyd, “Maybe most important . . . you,” e-mail message to author, December 21, 2009.
11. Boyd and Conrad, When in the Course of Human Events, 34–35.
12. Malcolm Boyd, “Have finished chapter,” e-mail message to author, January 13, 2010.
13. Malcolm Boyd, “Big News,” e-mail message to author, August 17, 2009.
14. Malcolm’s handwritten letter to “Rob,” October 20, 2010.
15. Malcolm Boyd, “Rosebud,” e-mail to author, February 17, 2009.
16. Malcolm Boyd, “Post-Thursday thoughts,” e-mail message to author, August 14, 2009.
17. Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998), 21.
18. Michael Battle, Reconciliation: The Ubuntu Theology of Desmond Tutu (Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 1997); The Wisdom of Desmond Tutu (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000); and Ubuntu: I in You and You in Me (New York: Seabury Press 2009).
19. Tutu’s undated handwritten speeches, “Perspectives in Black and White.” Tutu illustrates further with this story: “A little boy excitedly pointed to a flight of geese and shouted, ‘Mummy, Mummy, look at all those goose.’ ‘My darling,’ Mummy replied, ‘we don’t call them gooses. They are geese.’ Then the little darling, nothing daunted, retorted, ‘Well they still look like goose to me.’”
20. Malcolm Boyd, “In Response to Dennis Ford,” e-mail message, February 3, 2011.
21. Boyd and Conrad, When in the Course of Human Events, 26–27.
22. Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC (San Francisco: HarperSan- Francisco, 1993), 119.
23. When I attended a conference in 2002, Apiwa Mucherera, assistant professor at Asbury Theological Seminary, phrased this as a “Here we go again” mentality in which one may dismiss the other before she even speaks.
24. Patricia Cranton, Becoming an Authentic Teacher in Higher Education (Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing Company, 2001), 43.
25. Jack Mezirow and Associates, Learning as Transformation: Critical Perspectives on a Theory in Progress (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000), 20.
26. Boyd and Conrad, When in the Course of Human Events, 14–15.
27. The following educational theorists contributed deeply to the integration of service learning into the academy: John Dewey, Jean Piaget, David Kolb, and Paulo Freire. See C. W. Kinsley and K. McPherson, eds., Enriching the Curriculum through Service Learning (Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1995).
28. Malcolm Boyd, “Black Horse of Famine,” e-mail message to