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15-April-1999 
99150 
 
    Former U.S. Senator Keynotes 
    National Meeting of Presbyterian Men 
 
by Kathy Copas 
 
ST. LOUIS - In the midst of today's perplexing array of social issues and 
global conflict, Presbyterians can genuinely make a difference one 
individual and congregation at a time, former U.S. Senator Paul Simon told 
some 200 participants in a keynote address to the 1999 Presbyterian Men's 
national meeting here April 9-11. 
 
    Senator Simon, a Lutheran who retired from the U.S. Senate just over 
two years ago and now teaches and directs the Public Policy Institute at 
Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, urged Presbyterian Men to 
assess how they use their faith in the world by examining Jesus' list of 
questions described in Matthew 25. 
 
    "Christ didn't ask whether we attend church each Sunday, how well we 
sing hymns, that type of thing. He asked about us visiting the sick, those 
who are in prison," he said. "Take Matthew 25 - that inventory - to your 
men's club, your church, and ask how you're doing. It's great to have 
ushers and a good choir. But, those are secondary to what God really asks 
of us." 
 
    Speaking about violence in the media, for instance, Simon urged the 
crowd to write letters and hold both the entertainment industry and 
government accountable for television violence, pointing out research that 
73% of the current violence on entertainment television holds no apparent 
adverse consequences for the characters who commit the violence. 
 
    "So, the lesson we're teaching is that violence pays," he said. "And, 
disproportionately, most of the violence is against women." 
 
    Simon urged the men to continue to support church work in the inner 
cities, emphasizing outreach and service in the face of poverty and 
despair.  "Inner city churches that strive to survive usually don't. Inner 
city churches that strive to serve survive," he said. 
 
    Simon encouraged the group to look beyond U.S. borders to the 
importance of supporting the United Nations and assisting those throughout 
the world - from Africa to Northern Ireland to Kosovo -- who are struggling 
in some way.  He challenged each person and congregation engaging in 
individual lives and small ways, "doing little things to help someone that 
can unexpectedly mean big things." 
 
    "You can't just make sure to fix a stained glass window that is broken 
at your church.  If a 14-year-old boy breaks the window, fix the window but 
also help the boy," Simon said. 
 
    The group also heard a  testimonial by retired major league baseball 
player Rick Horton, who once pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals, Los 
Angeles Dodgers, and Chicago White Sox and now serves as area director for 
the Greater St. Louis Fellowship of Christian Atheletes. 
 
     Horton talked about his road to becoming a Christian - and a 
Presbyterian - that began early in his baseball career.  "Up to the age of 
22, education and baseball were the most important things to me.  Those 
aren't bad things but they are bad Gods," he said.  "A lot of good things 
were going on in my life but I just sensed an emptiness I couldn't 
explain," he said. 
 
    He described how fellow baseball players gradually introduced him to 
the scriptures and Jesus Christ and how he started a process of learning to 
let go of some of his pragmatism and simply trust in God.  "The more I came 
to look at things by faith, and the more I reached out in faith, the more 
God revealed himself to me," he said. 
 
    Horton said he is still on an evolving faith journey, focusing on 
values that are eternal.  He pointed out that things like World Series 
games and victories, however important, are still transient.  "I used to be 
known as a baseball player but I'm still known as a son of God," he said. 
"And, that's a lot better and more lasting than being known as a 
left-handed relief pitcher!" 
 
    Donald Travis, president of Presbyterian Men and an Elder at Good 
Shepherd Presbyterian Church in Los Alamitos, Calif., said he and the 
Presbyterian Men board of directors were encouraged by this year's slightly 
larger turnout and overall response to the meeting.  He said the group is 
working to strengthen its focus and increasingly growing itself as a 
"bottom up" organization that celebrates and supports the ministry of men 
churchwide. 
 
    "We basically want to provide a forum where men can come together, 
share their problems together, and realize that their struggles are not 
unlike others," Travis said.  "As it says in Hebrews, iron sharpens iron 
and one man can sharpen another." 
 
    One area of growth in Presbyterian Men is among racial ethnic 
constituencies.  Robert Wilson is an Elder in North Alabama Presbytery and 
serves as Black Men Representative on the Presbyterian Men board of 
directors.  "Black men, like all men, have proven they are leaders in the 
church," Wilson said. "And we are interested in doing a lot more listening 
to the issues, concerns, and needs of black men out in the church to 
inspire them - and all Presbyterian Men - to greater leadership." 
 
    More information about Presbyterian Men is available by contacting 
Donald Travis at (714) 521-6891 or online at PMDTRAV@aol.com.  The group's 
April 2000 annual meeting will take place in Atlanta. 

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