Posted by Mariel Sena on March 1, 2011 at 12:23 am
After having served for 41 years in the Memorial Church of Harvard University, and 37 years as Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church, Reverend Peter J. Gomes passed away yesterday, February 28, 2010, due to a brain aneurysm and heart attack.
Having battled health issues since a stroke in December 2010, he was planning on retiring from Harvard in 2012. Not only considered one of America’s most prestigious preachers, Gomes was also a staunch advocate in hopes of improving Americans’ acceptance of homosexuals. Well-known for his open-houses and afternoon teas, he was loved and revered by those who knew him and will be missed.
Posted by Alisha Ramos on May 3, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Last Sunday, Reverend Jonathan C. Page, the Epps Fellow at Memorial Church, gave a sermon with a title we are all familiar with: “FML.”
Yes, the sermon was about Harvard FML.
Perhaps the greatest part of the sermon is hearing Reverend Page read aloud some of the embarrassing and outrageous posts from Harvard FML. Yet, he also explores with a critical eye the nature and the “disturbing” mentality that the website fosters, warning against the kind of cynical reduction which the three letters, “FML” may propose.
“Expressing frustration through FML might work, instead of just saying ‘don’t worry, be happy’…but is it ideal? Is that the way we should cope with the bumps of our life?” Page asks. “Everytime something bad happens you shrug it off with the phrase, ‘F my life.’”
Reverend Page strikes a chord in every Harvard student’s heart when he warns against seeing the world “through FML glasses.”
“You turn a written assignment, which might be an opportunity for learning and expanding your horizons, into a burden,” he says. “You take the complex world of relationships into the simple calculus of sex.”
Yet, Harvard FML does seem to have some redeeming qualities. Page explores some of the more serious FML posts that express deep pain, the ones that use FML as “a coping mechanism,” making light of difficult situations “so that others may see.” Read the rest of this entry »
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