Tues., Oct 2, 8 p.m., St. Mary's Hall, St. Mary's College of Md.
ST. MARY'S CITY, Md. (October 1, 2007) - Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, former Lieutenant Governor of the State of Maryland, and chair of the board of directors of the University of Maryland's Human Virology Institute, will be giving a public lecture tomorrow
in southern Maryland, October 2 at 8 p.m. The lecture, titled "Failing America's Faithful: How America's Churches Are Mixing God with Politics and Losing Their Way," will be held in the Auerbach Auditorium of St. Mary's Hall on the St. Mary's College of Maryland campus in St. Mary's City.
A reception will be held afterwards in the State House at Historic St. Mary's City.
The event is free and open to the public.
This is Ms. Kennedy Townsend's first of four scheduled public lectures at SMCM as the Paul H. Nitze Senior Fellow for 2007-08. Her most recent book, Failing America's Faithful: How Today's Churches Are Mixing God with Politics and Losing Their Way, was published in 2007.
"Not so long ago, our churches helped engage their congregations in the fight for social justice in the world," Ms. Kennedy Townsend says in her book. "But today I am unhappy and dissatisfied with my Church and its failure to honor its best traditions. It is time for all of us to do what we can to reclaim those traditions, and to reclaim our churches."
Publishers Weekly says in a review of Failing America's Faithful: "Two-term Maryland lieutenant governor Townsend makes a valid point: in America, faith is no longer about community. She longs for the Catholic Church of her youth, that 'dealt with issues at the core of the Gospel-suffering, injustice, sickness, and poverty' rather than a Christianity influenced by a crop of preachers who seem to believe that 'Jesus healed the sick, fed the hungry and cared for the poor just so we don't have to.'"
The following day, Townsend and about 10 students from the Paul H. Nitze Scholars Program will paddle kayaks out to a calm stretch of the St. Mary's River. They will form a star pattern with their kayaks and have a discussion about the issues raised in her previous night's lecture.
Each year, the College invites an accomplished writer, journalist, or other professional figure to be the Nitze Senior Fellow and to make several visits to the campus. Last year, David Sanger, New York Times chief correspondent for the White House, met with classes in political science, economics, and Nitze Program seminars, and had a discussion with the staff of The Point News about careers in journalism. Previously, author Edward P. Jones gave public readings from his Pulitzer prize-winning novel, The Known World, and joined in on a panel about why writers write.