An Arkansas ‘Hillbilly Elegy’
The Rev. Gary Batchelor writes about values and roots.
Irecently spent a week in my home state of Arkansas to celebrate my niece’s wedding. It was also a time to reconnect with old friends and values with which I was raised. In thinking about the trip I was reminded of the recent book “Hillbilly Elegy” in which J.D. Vance writes about the people and the values of his white working class culture with its origins in Appalachia. Though my own roots were hardly as violent and dysfunctional as were Vance’s, there is no doubt that my heritage is that of white working class America.
I am one of the very few people I know in Rome whose father was a union laborer. From him I learned a strong work ethic; I worked a summer in the hot factory with him and another summer on the street repair crew where he worked during the frequent layoffs from his factory job. My mother was a working mom because we needed her income. She was single-minded in her determination to get an education when her poor farmer father said he could not afford her schooling. From her I learned the value of both determination and education.
I grew up in First Baptist Church, endured countless revivals and hellfire sermons, learned Bible and became a leader in the youth group. From those experiences I learned integrity and commitment. Even more importantly, I experienced loving acceptance and guidance from adults who did not always agree with my growing and changing ideas.
I support a strong military; I have read enough history to be convinced that there are bad guys out there. I grew up with my role models being first of all brave cowboys then courageous fighter pilots. I proudly have a family member who is a career officer in the Air Force. I support the police; in fact, I believe we pay them far too little for the risks and sacrifices they make. I am angered by those who break the law or take advantage of others and want them to be held accountable.
Having claimed my heritage as white working class, the fact is that I still am most likely to vote Democratic and to lean more “left” than “right” in the cultural and political wars. Why is that?!
More than anything else, my faith defines me. When I look for an authority on right and wrong, I ultimately look to the Christian Bible. I cannot read the Old Testament without focusing on the fact that God delivered an enslaved Israelite people from the power and wealth of Egypt and called those former slaves His chosen people. That same Old Testament sets the standard for personal morality with the Ten Commandments. I trust that those commandments still apply to the actions of rich and poor alike — no exceptions for privilege. Later, the Old Testament prophets set the standard for national morality when the prophet Micah says “what does the Lord God require of you but to do justly, and to love mercy and walk humbly with your God?”
I cannot read the New Testament without seeing that the people who most opposed Jesus were the religious leaders who had a vested interest in maintaining the rigid status quo, and who were looking for a political Messiah to make Israel great again. I am challenged constantly by Jesus’ hard teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, and His teachings that emphasized purity of heart over conventional religious behavior. I am intrigued by the apostle Paul, a renegade liberal who took the Gospel to the wide world beyond his native Judaism. And, in a world that too often shows more fear than love, I ponder the passage in I John that whoever does not love does not know God.
My education also strongly colors my values. I learned, not only a bunch of information, but I learned to be curious. I learned to ask questions, and I learned to listen to the answers to those questions carefully enough to decide if I might need to change my mind. I learned to think critically so as to not be any more naïve than necessary in the face of those who would try to sell me products or ideas. And I sat at the feet of wise, dedicated and thoughtful teachers who introduced me to a much larger and more complex world than I had experienced before.
Finally my values are colored by a stubborn throw-back to my raising. I will not be caught up in media sensationalism. The 24-hour reporting and social media sharing of crime and terror threatens us far beyond what is realistic. Of course there are dangers and of course one must be both wise and cautious. But the violent murder that happened several states away, when reported excitedly and repeatedly, tempts us to believe that it happened just up the street and will likely happen again any minute. The reality is that I am at far greater risk of injury in a traffic accident than from a terrorist attack. In the course of actual events, my grandchildren are at much greater risk in their school from an angry man shooter than they are from a Muslim terrorist.
I am proud of my working class roots; they have served and prepared me well. But I am also proud of the trunk and branches that have continued to grow and change so that I have tools to live in a far different world than the one in which I grew up.
The Rev. Gary Batchelor, an ordained Baptist minister, is retired after a nearly 40-year local ministry as a hospital chaplain. He writes for the website MOVE GEORGIA FORWARD and may be reached at MoveGeorgiaForward@gmail.com.