Coughlin’s Simple Message Not Simplistic

Father Bernard Coughlin’s speech of hope arrived the same week as a letter of hate.

Each text poured from the heart, different hearts.

The hand of Father Coughlin shaped a declaration that love can, and must, overcome that which divides us.

The hand of the other was guided by a declaration of darkness, fear and racial hatred.

In the eyes of God these men are brothers.

On a map of the world the retiring president of Gonzaga University and the anonymous author of hate mail are neighbors, living on the same dot in the Northwest.

Their shared geography today is often imagined as one of the last, best places in America.

But what is the soul of this refuge? Two authors put ink on paper this past week with profoundly different expectations.

The first letter arrived in an unmarked envelope with a Spokane postmark and no return address. It imagined this about the Inland Northwest’s future: “The race war is on,” the author said. “The white race will no longer tolerate” non-whites here.

The letter ended: “Prepare to take up arms.”

Inflammatory slurs and fearful rationale filled the page, raised a projection, a statement, a challenge.

This will become a white man’s refuge, unwelcoming and dangerous to those whose pigmentation is a fraction darker.

The words sting and poison as they spread through the region and the nation.

But they exist in more than one mind. Chambers of commerce, business leaders and academics hear versions of this letter on the tongues of people who consider moving here - and from those who would never consider it.

The words may well have taken on meaning in places far removed from the tiny Aryan Nations complex in North Idaho. Migration patterns into the region from California, the East and elsewhere show 10,000 newcomers in the last five years. At least 90 percent are white.

These newcomers rarely speak in the harsh, fearful and disturbing language of a white man’s refuge. Their words are more about fleeing crime, urban hassles and incivility.

As America and the world become more ethnically diverse, the Inland Northwest attracts more who are white. There can be little doubt the 21st century story describing this place between the Rockies and the Cascades awaits its final edit.

For this reason, it becomes more important for newcomers and old-timers to consider other words that could define the Inland Northwest in the years ahead.

Father Coughlin offered these words before 800 friends and colleagues in a downtown Spokane auditorium a few days ago.

Friends urged him to issue a challenge to the community during his triumphant moment in the spotlight. What would that challenge be? Construct more buildings on campus? Expand the endowment?

Instead, the retiring president of Gonzaga simply said: Love one another.

He didn’t focus on bricks and mortar, economic development or even academic excellence.

He searched for something deeper as a starting point for defining the community in the years ahead.

“If I were to select one thing for all of us, and myself most of all, it is that we work at loving one another,” he said.

He described how this community would work and act. He said:

“Love does not know pride; it knows humility.

“Love does not know greed; it is unselfish.

“Love does not know anger; it knows peace.

“Love does not know vengeance; it knows forgiveness.

“Love does not know contempt; it respects others.

“Love does not know division; it unites.

“Loves does not know hatred; it knows only itself.”

As a Jesuit priest, Father Coughlin has deeply contemplated these words. As president of Gonzaga University and the only Jesuit ever to head a major city’s Chamber of Commerce as he did in Spokane in 1988, he has considered the impact of these words on the secular and business worlds.

“Pride, greed, anger, vengeance, contempt, division, hatred - those are the things that destroy a heart and a community,” he said. “Humility, unselfishness, peace, forgiveness, respect, union - these are the things that come from love and make a community.”

His words offer a powerful contrast to the messages of those who compose in hateful solitude.

Yet it would be naive to predict which of these definitions of the Inland Northwest’s soul will triumph.

Each of these messages is enduring and powerful, one as night, one as day.

Which of them will prevail depends upon each of us.

, DataTimes MEMO: Chris Peck is the Editor of The Spokesman-Review.