Saturday, December 22, 2007
By BRIAN MORRIS, Special to the Advance
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Staten Island public relations consultant Brian Morris, a Silver Lake resident who teaches at St. John’s University, prepared this Q&A for the Advance over the course of two interviews with the Rev. Lyle Guttu. The article had been slated for publication in the “Our Town” section of the Advance, and is being published today as a tribute to the late chaplain. Morris is a 1965 graduate of Wagner College and worked in its communications office from 1967 to 1972.)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Growing up in Thief River Falls, Minn., in the 1940s, a young man needed a Bible in one hand and a hockey stick in the other — otherwise there was nothing else to do and little hope of escaping the brutal winters.
Lyle Guttu, the fifth child of Norwegian-Lutheran parents, had the great fortune to play left wing for his high school hockey team, which won the state championship. And he was good. At the same time, Harvard University was looking to dominate Ivy League hockey. Guttu’s escape came in the form of a scholarship to venerable Harvard, where he studied history and hockey.
Guttu — the Rev. Lyle Guttu — arrived at Wagner College as its chaplain in 1972, and 35 years later it’s still faith that motivates his campus work for another generation of college students.
Q: Did you feel locked into a Midwestern existence?
A: You didn’t dwell on it — because it was! My older brother though, on the day he graduated from a state college, gave me this advice: “Get to a good college and move to a major city; that’s the only way you’ll see opportunity.” Then he grabbed his suitcase and hitchhiked 1,500 miles to San Francisco.
Q: How fortunate for you that Harvard offered you a scholarship because of your hockey prowess.
A: The Ivy League championship was a big deal. And, I’m not sure it was a scholarship. There was no mention of tuition or room and board — just go to class and play hockey.
Q: Did you bring Harvard the Ivy League championship it coveted?
A: Four of them. And it wasn’t really me. We were a team — emphasize TEAM. In four years, we lost only one Ivy League game. Four of my teammates played in the 1960 Olympics.
Q: Was the ministry in your career goals then?
A: No. When I entered Harvard, I was interested in medicine. Later, though, I became more dedicated to teaching, and majored in history. My first job out of college was teaching English at a high school in Buffalo. I think I got the job because I could also coach hockey. Buffalo could be a lot like Thief River Falls.
Q: When did religion thoroughly dominate your career?
A: The Bible was always in my other hand. I graduated Union Theological Seminary wanting to learn more, seeking answers to many, many old questions, such as what comes after us! All religions attempt to answer that question.
Q: Does the chaplaincy at a higher education institution tend to stimulate your study of religion, rather than the practice of it in a congregational setting?
A: Perhaps it does, but I’m a voracious reader and would study religious thought anyway. Being at a college campus, though, brings you into immediate contact with others who are scholars in religious matters as well as a growing number of students who are deeply interested in faith. I have to be clear here. I have been chaplain at varying stages of my service at Wagner, but I’ve also been vice provost, dean of students, and now serve as special assistant to the president. No matter which title I have had, I play essentially the same role in students’ lives: Help to solve personal and family issues.
Q: Do you believe that faith has re-emerged as an important aspect of life among young people?
A: With certainty, among students — and among faculty as well. Once again, faith is at least relevant, and even important. This is a different generation of college student; they’re far more serious about their education than students of 20 or 30 years ago. Even in my own experience, at divinity school, I learned about and studied Christianity. Never did my courses consider other religions. The focus of Christian religion was to convert others to Christianity, sometimes through other aspects of human services: social concerns, education, medical care. Traditional Christian thought, nearly as far back as the beginnings of Christianity, was simple: One should always preach the Gospel — if necessary, with words.
Q: Why has faith emerged as a significant interest among young adults?
A: The diversity on today’s college campuses is extraordinary; virtually every religion is represented here. And each religion recognizes a higher order — a God — with several different names or attributes. That’s common ground — call it faith — for understanding and appreciation and enrichment. It had been a common occurrence for some to be resentful of other religions, perhaps, primarily because other religious were embedded in other cultures.
Q: How do you define faith?
A: In religious terms, faith is something you know but cannot prove. The dynamic of faith, as I see it happening today, is a comfort with remaining who you are while respecting the beliefs of those who are our neighbors, associates, friends. We find similarity in the diversity around us. It’s interesting and enriching to find that 75 to 100 of our [Wagner College] community — students and faculty — gather at a discussion of faith and life today, when 20 years ago, the same discussion would have only three or four participants. This generation of student finds these discussions as non-threatening, informational, even intimate.
Q: Do you see this rediscovery, renaissance, of faith as cyclical, or is it here to stay and grow?
A: That’s open to debate. The perception of truth changes as society changes. The Scriptures haven’t changed, but I have, and my interpretation will change — perhaps “modify” is a more appropriate word. What I hope this rediscovery of faith will generate is a greater understanding of faith to resolve religious conflict. Too often we believe that those who do not share my faith, do not share my humanity.
