I was rifling through old seminary papers the other day – looking for something entirely different – when I came across a copy of an old speech entitled A Prophecy for Fairness. It stopped me in my tracks.
The piece was spoken by Dr. Hal Warheim, one of my professors at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in the mid-1990s and one of the most formative mentors I’ve ever had. He sent me this article along with some others in the early 2010s. Maybe he hoped that one day it would resurface, as it did, and call me back to a time when I was still figuring out what ministry really meant.
Hal didn’t just teach in the classroom. He lived his theology in the streets, in city hall, and in conversations where moral courage was often tested. During my time in seminary, he invited me to join the Religious Leaders for Fairness, a coalition of clergy advocating for Louisville’s fairness ordinance – legislation that would protect LGBTQ+ residents from discrimination.
It was Hal who asked me to help lead our group’s lobbying effort. We were tasked with meeting with city aldermen who were undecided – or outright opposed – to fairness. One of the most awkward meetings I remember was with an alderman from the south side of Louisville, a working-class district near the Ford plant. At the time, working-class values were often assumed to include anti-gay values. I remember the tension in that room. I was young and nervous. Hal sat beside me. The president of The Fairness Campaign was there too. We made our case.
I don’t know if we changed that alderman’s mind – but eventually, the ordinance passed. Not because of one conversation, but because of hundreds of conversations like the one Hal asked me to lead that day.
The truth is, I don’t remember the talking points. I remember Hal’s trust in me. I remember that he believed this work mattered and that we were capable of doing it.
Hal had a knack for rewriting scripture through the lens of contemporary challenges. Reading lines like the following bring back strong memories of him:
“I am the Sacred Spirit of Life who created all of you in your racial, ethnic, religious, and sexual diversity… I despise bigotry, hypocrisy, oppression, and violence… And I delight when you treat one another with compassion, honesty, generosity, and fairness.”
Hal believed God was speaking in the middle of that moral crisis, and that our job was to listen – and act.
You can read the full text of Hal’s A Prophecy for Fairness (download PDF), first spoken at the Gay Pride March for Justice in Louisville, KY, on June 26, 1993.
Hal Warheim taught righteousness, but not the kind you wear like a badge. His was a righteousness rooted in fairness, in action, and in shared humanity. I will always be grateful that he invited me into that work, and that he believed I had something to contribute.
Even now, decades later, I’m still trying to live up to that calling.
