Gordon C. Stewart

Gordon Stewart's radio commentaries on Minnesota Public Radio's All Things Considered began in 2005 following the Amish school massacre at Nickel Mines, PA. Speaking over the radio and from the pulpit of Presbyterian churches or writing for publication, his commentaries spring from a lifelong search for faith and understanding. His plunge to the bottom of the neighbors' fishpond at the age of five was the first of many plunges. Mrs. Thomas had said Peter could walk on water because he had faith but sank like a stone when he didn't. Gordon recovered early from fundamentalism and biblical literalism. The search for understanding led to deeper plunges and searches: the startling inequity between North Philadelphia and his western suburb; wrestling with Marx, Feuerbach, and Freud's critiques of religion as fanciful thinking; a seven year immersion in the sea of poverty, racial bias in law enforcement and the criminal justice system while serving as executive director of the Legal Rights Center, the Minneapolis public defense corporation co-founded in 1970 by Black civil rights activists and American Indian Movement leaders; and the daily perplexing puzzles of the human spirit, among others.

"Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness," a collection of 49 two to four page essays, is his first book. His commentaries on faith and public life are published on "Views from the Edge: To See More Clearly" (www.gordoncstewart.com).

A native of Broomall, PA, alumnus of Maryville College (Maryville, TN) and McCormick Theological Seminary (Chicago), and former Merrill Fellow at Harvard Divinity School, Gordon served as campus minister on campuses in Wisconsin, New York, and Ohio, and as pastor of Presbyterian churches in Illinois, Ohio, and Minnesota. He and his wife Kay life in Brooklyn Park, MN where Barclay (Cavalier King Charles Spaniel) and nearby grandchildren Elijah and Calvin keep them grateful and playful.