David Neff encouraged the Samford University Class of 2000 to follow a ruling passion “that will make life memorable,” during commencement May 20 at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex.
Neff, executive editor of Christianity Today and Books & Culture magazines, addressed 877 graduating seniors from 25 states and three foreign nations. Activities also included commencement for Samford’s Cumberland School of Law at Wright Center, with former Alabama Gov. Albert P. Brewer as speaker.
Encouraging graduates to develop passions for justice, truth and people, Neff noted the Bible never presents God as cool and rational.
A loving God
“It presents Him as passionately loving His creatures … as passionately hating the people and the destructive behaviors that harm His creatures,” Neff said. “The Bible never presents us with an apathetic God, never the God of whatever.
“Indifference is not in His makeup, nor should it be in ours,” he said.
Neff cited 18th century English poet Alexander Pope’s belief that God gives each person a “ruling passion” around which all other elements must be organized.
“A passion that can serve as the focal point for building a character out of our own personal chaos, just as God built His world from chaos,” he said.
Pope’s point, said Neff, “Is to discover your ruling passion and treat it as a friend.”
Top academic awards went to class valedictorian Joy Ellen Reeves of Birmingham and salutatorian Kellie Denise Warren of Gardendale.
Reeves, a psychology major who received a bachelor of arts degree, received the President’s Cup as the senior with the highest academic average.
Warren, an English/Spanish double major who also received a bachelor of arts degree, received the Velma Wright Irons Award as the senior with the second highest academic average. Honorary doctorates were also presented to historian Wayne Flynt and author-conservation advocate Wendell Berry.
Flynt, distinguished university professor at Auburn Universty and a 1961 Samford graduate, received a doctor of humane letters degree. The author of 10 books on Southern history, religion and poverty, Flynt has been nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes. He is the author of “Alabama Baptists: Southern Baptists in the Heart of Dixie,” which was published in 1998 on the occasion of the 175th anniversary of the Alabama Baptist State Convention.
Berry, of Port Royal, Ky., received the doctor of literature degree. He has written 28 volumes of fiction and nonfiction and another 15 volumes of poetry. Many of his novels interpret rural life, while his poems center on the meaning of the care of the earth.
Five longtime Samford faculty members were announced as retiring at the end of the 1999-2000 academic year: L. Gene Black, music; David Downing, exercise science and sports medicine; William E. Hull, university professor; Karen R. Joines, religion and philosophy; and Janice R. Teal, psychology.
Commencement weekend activities also included a reception for seniors and their families Friday afternoon and a baccalaureate service Friday evening. (SU)
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