Tradition - Jerry Peirce Arnold

In The Long Loneliness, Dorothy Day states: "Tradition! We scarcely know the word any more. We are afraid to be either proud of our ancestors or ashamed of them."

With that in mind, while traveling to grandparents in Missouri, I listened to story after story; some of which I've heard before, and complied this short commentary on my great great grandfather.

My great great grandfather, Jerry Peirce Arnold was born just after the Civil War. Living in the backwoods of Kentucky he was privileged to a high school education. After his wife became a Christian, she being uneducated, told my great-great grandfather, "You read and I'll pray." A practice that showed value to each individuals spiritual disciplines with neither care for dominance nor ability. When I hear of marriage today I either hear from the conservatives that the wife must submit and from the liberals nothing of a shared spiritual experience. Yet here in this highly patriarchal culture there is my great-great grandfather and grandmother who found mutuality. Jerry Peirce Arnold was in the habit of meeting with "Mr. Dudrey" to debate "once saved always saved". "Mister", an old term that men in that day called one another out of respect. Mr. Dudrey and Mr. Arnold - how would to world be different if we referred to one another out of respect? Students today call each other by slang terms, "cuddy", "dog", and "fool", just to name a few. These terms mean nothing to the recipient, but the by stander of culture is quite confused why one student would call another something a cow chews, or a canine, or a person who acts the idiot. Respect is not common in today's culture; neither is the decency to go out of one's way to know a name. I am a self-confessed forgetter of names, but I never forget a name of someone I want something from. It's sad, I cannot remember the name of an fellow church member who may need something from me, but I can remember the name of mere acquaintance who has season tickets and the propensity to give them away. Mr. Dudrey and Mr. Arnold would often come together and debate "once saved always saved". This was not along the lines of Mr. Tolkien and Mr. Lewis debating fiction and faith. Neither was it along the lines of Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Muir debating nature and conservation. These conversations will not lead to a great revelation along the lines of Nicaea or Vercelli but they lead to a pursuit of knowledge and understanding. If "Mister" is a antique term then debating a long held faith belief is acquiesced. I, in my seminary education can explain to someone what is included in the building blocks of this debate. So too, I can name theologians and pastors of old who ferociously argued their polar points. However, none of this mattered to Mr. Dudrey and Mr. Arnold. These two misters took the position of the other serious enough to switch side of the argument every time they met. Truly this was a pursuit of knowledge and understanding, things valued in the academy but not the grain mill, lumber yard, corrugating plant, or computer manufacturing. My great-great grandfather, Jerry Peirce Arnold, was born after the Civil War, but like so many of old, he can teach those who listen in this generations lessons in marriage, respect, and seeking.