Peter J. Gomes

{{Short description|American theologian (1942–2011)}} {{redirect|Peter Gomes|people with a similar name|Peter Gomez (disambiguation)}}

'''Peter John Gomes''' (May 22, 1942 – February 28, 2011) was an American preacher and theologian, the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard Divinity School and Pusey Minister at Harvard's Memorial Church — in the words of Harvard's president "one of the great preachers of our generation, and a living symbol of courage and conviction."<ref name=obit_harvardgazette/>

==Biography== Gomes was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the only child of Orissa, née White, and Peter Lobo Gomes.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/us/02gomes.html | work=The New York Times | first=Robert D. | last=McFadden | title=Rev. Peter J. Gomes Is Dead at 68; A Leading Voice Against Intolerance | date=March 1, 2011}}</ref> His father was from the Cape Verde islands and his mother was African American. DNA testing revealed that he was likely descended from the Tikar from Cameroon and Fulani and Hausa peoples of West Africa, and that his patrilineal line likely leads to some Sephardic Jewish kohen ancestry.<ref name="lives">{{cite episode|title=The Past Is Another Country| series=African American Lives 2|url=https://www.pbs.org/previews/aalives2|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071226061422/http://www.pbs.org/previews/aalives2/|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 26, 2007|series-link=African American Lives 2|credits=Henry Louis Gates Jr.|network=PBS|airdate=2008-02-13|number=4}}</ref> He was baptized as a Roman Catholic, but later became an American Baptist.<ref name=colbert>{{cite web|title=Interview with Peter J. Gomes|url=http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/184931/september-15-2008/peter-j--gomes|work=The Colbert Report|publisher=Comedy Central|access-date=1 October 2011|date=15 September 2008}}</ref>

Gomes, a Plymouth High School graduate, worked as a houseman to help pay for his education.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news|last=McFadden|first=Robert D.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/us/02gomes.html|title=Rev. Peter J. Gomes Is Dead at 68; A Leading Voice Against Intolerance|date=2011-03-01|work=The New York Times|access-date=2020-04-12|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> After earning his AB from Bates College, a coed liberal arts institution, in 1965, and a BD from Harvard Divinity School in 1968, Gomes was ordained by the First Baptist Church of Plymouth, Massachusetts, (where he occasionally preached throughout his life).<ref>{{cite news|first=John C.|last=Drake |title='Conscience of Harvard' marks 40 years of ministry|url=http://archive.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2008/06/02/conscience_of_harvard_marks_40_years_of_ministry/|work=The Boston Globe|location=Plymouth, MA|date=2008-06-02|access-date=2008-06-02}}</ref> After a two-year tenure at the Tuskegee Institute, he returned in 1970 to Harvard,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110512044445/http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2011/03/rev_gomes_harva.html "Peter Gomes, Harvard minister and author, dies at 68"], Boston.com, March 1, 2011.</ref> where he became Pusey Minister<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/us/02gomes.html|title=Rev. Peter J. Gomes Is Dead at 68; A Leading Voice Against Intolerance|last=McFadden|first=Robert D.|date=2011-03-01|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-05-07|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> in Harvard's nondenominational Memorial Church, and in 1974 was made Plummer Professor<ref name=":0" /> of Christian Morals.

In 2000, he delivered the University Sermon at the University of Cambridge and the Millennial Sermon in Canterbury Cathedral, and presented the Beecher Lectures on Preaching at Yale Divinity School.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Explore the Divinity School Library {{!}} Yale University Library|url=https://web.library.yale.edu/divinity|access-date=2021-07-28|website=web.library.yale.edu}}</ref>

Gomes was also a visiting professor at Duke University and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Profiled by Robert Boynton in ''The New Yorker'', and interviewed by Morley Safer on ''60 Minutes'', Gomes was included in the premiere issue of ''Talk'' magazine as part of its feature article, "The Best Talkers in America: Fifty Big Mouths We Hope Will Never Shut Up."<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

Gomes was a long-time member of Plymouth's Old Colony Club, where his memory is still honored with an annual event.

Hospitalized after a stroke in December, 2010,<ref>{{cite news|title=May stroke not silence this ringing Harvard voice|url=http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2010/12/gomes-stroke|access-date=2010-12-19|publisher=WBUR}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Reverend Peter Gomes Hospitalized After Stroke|url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/12/17/church-gomes-memorial-page/|publisher=Harvard Crimson|access-date=2010-12-26}}</ref> Gomes hoped to return to Memorial Church in time for the following Easter.<ref>[http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/1/26/gomes-church-memorial-harvard/ "Gomes Hopes to Return in Spring" Harvard Crimson (January 26, 2011)]</ref> He died on February 28, 2011, of complications from the stroke.<ref name=obit_harvardgazette>{{cite news|title=Rev. Peter J. Gomes dies at 68|url=http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/03/rev-peter-j-gomes-dies-at-68/|access-date=11 March 2011|newspaper=Harvard Gazette|date=1 March 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Worland|first=Justin C.|date=March 1, 2011|title=Rev. Peter J. Gomes, Minister in Memorial Church, Dies|publisher=The Harvard Crimson|access-date=March 1, 2011|url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/3/1/harvard-peter-gomes-dies}}</ref>

Speakers at his memorial service at the Memorial Church on April 6, 2011, included Derek C. Bok, a former president of Harvard University; Drew Gilpin Faust, president of the university; and Deval Patrick, Governor of Massachusetts.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> On April 20, 2012, as part of the Harvard Foundation Portraiture Project, artist Stephen E. Coit<ref>[http://harvardmagazine.com/2011/01/new-faces Stephen Coit, "New Faces"], ''Harvard Magazine'' May–June 2013.</ref> unveiled his portrait of Gomes standing in the library of the Signet Society, where it now hangs.<ref>[http://www.signetsociety.org/pjg-remarks-from-steve-coit/ "Remarks Given at Signet Event in Honor of Peter J. Gomes on the Occasion of Unveiling His Portrait, April 20, 2012"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181027234935/http://www.signetsociety.org/pjg-remarks-from-steve-coit/ |date=October 27, 2018 }}, Stephen Coit</ref>

==Theology, theography, social advocacy and politics== {{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?89123-1/the-good-book ''Booknotes'' interview with Gomes on ''The Good Book: Reading the Bible With Mind and Heart'', September 21, 1997], C-SPAN| video2 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?105155-1/sermons Presentation by Gomes on ''Sermons: Biblical Wisdom for Daily Living'', May 6, 1998], C-SPAN| video3 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?202324-1/the-scandalous-gospel-jesus Presentation by Gomes on ''The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus'', November 26, 2007], C-SPAN}} Listed by ''Time Magazine'' in 1979 as one of "seven stars of the pulpit",<ref>{{Cite web|date=2008-03-07|title=American Preaching: A Dying Art? - TIME|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,912616,00.html|access-date=2021-07-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080307050017/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,912616,00.html|archive-date=2008-03-07}}</ref> Gomes fulfilled preaching and lecturing engagements throughout the United States and the United Kingdom.

In 2009, he represented Harvard University as lecturer at Cambridge University on the occasion of its 800th anniversary.

Gomes published a total of ten volumes of sermons, as well as numerous articles and papers. and two bestselling books, ''The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart'' and ''Sermons, the Book of Wisdom for Daily Living''. The Right Reverend Lord Robert Runcie, 102nd Archbishop of Canterbury, England, ecclesiastical head of the Anglican Communion, said of Gomes's ''The Good Book'' that it "offers a crash course in biblical literacy in a nuanced but easy-to-understand style", which is also "lively"; Henry Louis Gates Jr. called it "Easily the best contemporary book on the Bible for thoughtful people".<ref>{{Cite web|title=HarperCollins Publishers: World-Leading Book Publisher|url=https://www.harpercollins.com/|access-date=2021-07-28|website=HarperCollins|language=en}}</ref>

His last work, ''The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus'', included extensive commentary and observation on the interrelations of Church and State throughout history and particularly in recent US history.

In 1991 Gomes identified himself publicly as gay, though adding that he remained celibate,<ref>Lively, Kit. [http://chronicle.com/che-data/articles.dir/art-43.dir/issue-18.dir/18a00901.htm Reading "The Good Book": Harvard's Powerful Preacher Provides Spiritual Guidance], ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' (January 10, 2007). Retrieved May 15, 2007.</ref> and became an advocate of acceptance of homosexuality in American society and particularly in religion. It was his self-declared goal to devote the rest of his life to "addressing the ‘religious case’ against gays."<ref>''The Washington Post'' article</ref> Same-sex marriage advocate Evan Wolfson described Gomes as an integral contributor to the cause of marriage equality.<ref>[http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/03/01/Influential_Gay_Rev_Dies_at_68/ Influential Gay Rev. Dies at 68.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110303140535/http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/03/01/Influential_Gay_Rev_Dies_at_68/ |date=2011-03-03 }}</ref>

He maintained that "one can read into the Bible almost any interpretation of morality ... for its passages had been used to defend slavery and the liberation of slaves, to support racism, anti-Semitism and patriotism, to enshrine a dominance of men over women, and to condemn homosexuality as immoral."<ref>{{Cite news |last=McFadden |first=Robert D. |date=2011-03-01 |title=Rev. Peter J. Gomes Is Dead at 68; A Leading Voice Against Intolerance |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/us/02gomes.html |access-date=2026-05-10 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Gomes was a registered Republican for most of his life, and offered prayers at the inaugurals of United States Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. In August 2006, he changed his registration to the Democratic Party (United States), supporting the candidacy of Deval Patrick, who was that year elected the first African-American governor of Massachusetts. Gomes and Patrick had become friends during Patrick's undergraduate days at Harvard.<ref name=":3" />

According to a book on Martin Luther King Jr., Gomes "was never easy to label." Conservative evangelicals criticized his work at Harvard, yet he proudly featured a photograph of Billy Graham in his office at Harvard.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Long |first1=Michael G. |title=Martin Luther King Jr., Homosexuality, and the Early Gay Rights Movement: Keeping the Dream Straight? |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-1-137-27551-6 |page=137 |language=en|date=2012}}</ref>

==Honors and tributes== [[File:Bates College Chapel2.jpg|thumb|297x297px|The Gomes Chapel, named after Gomes. The Harvard chapel is modeled after King's College Chapel, Cambridge.]] * 1998: The Benjamin Elijah Mays Medal, Bates College<ref>{{cite web|title=* Peter Gomes '65 receives Benjamin Elijah Mays Medal|date=8 June 1998|url=http://www.bates.edu/news/1998/06/08/gomes-mays/|publisher=Bates College News|access-date=15 October 2012}}</ref> * 1998: Clergy of the Year by the organization Religion in American Life<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/03/rev-peter-j-gomes-dies-at-68/|title=Rev. Peter J. Gomes dies at 68|date=2011-03-01|website=Harvard Gazette|language=en-US|access-date=2020-01-17}}</ref> * 2000: W. E. B. Du Bois Medal from Harvard University<ref>{{cite web |url=https://hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu/people/peter-gomes |title=Peter Gomes: W.E.B. Du Bois Medal Recipient- 2000 |author=Hutchins Center for African and African American Research |author-link=Hutchins Center for African and African American Research |work=Harvard University |access-date=2020-09-01}}</ref> * 2008: Gomes and his family{{clarify|date=October 2011}} were featured by Henry Louis Gates on the PBS documentary ''African American Lives 2''.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/arts/television/05root.html|title=Famous Black Lives Through DNA's Prism|last=Lee|first=Felicia R.|date=2008-02-05|work=The New York Times|access-date=2020-01-17|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> * 2010: Gomes gave the Princeton Lectures on Youth, Church, and Culture; Harvard University elected him Honorary President of the Alpha-Iota chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> *Gomes served as a trustee of the National Cathedral School, Washington, D.C.; as Harvard University trustee of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and a trustee of the Roxbury Latin School and of Bates College He was a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, and a sometime Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/03/rev-peter-j-gomes-dies-at-68/|title=Rev. Peter J. Gomes dies at 68|date=2011-03-01|website=Harvard Gazette|language=en-US|access-date=2019-05-07}}</ref>

He was a former acting director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University; he was past president of Harvard's Signet Society; and a former trustee of Bates College, Wellesley College and the Public Broadcasting Service.<ref name=":1" /> He was past president and trustee of the Pilgrim Society in Plymouth, Massachusetts.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

On April 26, 1998, Gomes was a guest preacher at Central Congregational Church in Providence, Rhode Island. *In 2007 he was appointed by Queen Elizabeth to membership in The Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Order of St John {{!}} The Gazette|url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/L-58420-324096|access-date=2021-07-28|website=www.thegazette.co.uk}}</ref> *Gomes received at least forty<ref>New England College; Waynesburg College; Gordon College; Knox College; University of the South; Duke University; The University of Nebraska; Wooster College; Bates College; Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion; Trinity College, Bowdoin College; Berkeley Divinity School at Yale; Colby College; Olivet College; Mount Holyoke College; Furman University; Baker University; Mount Ida College; Willamette University; SUNY-Geneseo; Westminster Choir College of Rider University; Ursinus College; Wagner College; Lesley University; Williams College; Virginia Theological Seminary; Morris College; The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Hamilton College; Union College; Tuskegee University; Lasell College; General Seminary of the Episcopal Church in New York; Lafayette College; Augustana College; Westfield College; Washington and Jefferson College; and St. Lawrence University.</ref> honorary degrees.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://harvardmagazine.com/sites/default/files/Gomes_Memorial-program.pdf|title=The Reverend Peter John Gomez|website=harvardmagazine.com|access-date=2019-05-07}}</ref>

* 2009: Gomes gave the Lowell Lectures of Massachusetts and was named an Honorary Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge University (England), where "The Gomes Lectureship" was established in his name.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/07/peter-j-gomes/|title=Peter J. Gomes|date=2015-07-16|website=Harvard Gazette|language=en-US|access-date=2019-05-07}}</ref>

==Publications== Gomes published numerous articles and papers, as well as at least a dozen books (some of them best-sellers),{{clarify|date=September 2011}} including:<ref name="ReferenceA">Harvard University Memorial Church bulletin April 6, 2011</ref> *[http://harpercollins.com/books/9780060088309/The_Good_Book/index.aspx ''The Good Book: Reading the Bible with mind and heart''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517130202/http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780060088309/The_Good_Book/index.aspx |date=2008-05-17 }} (1996);<ref name=":2" /> *[https://archive.today/20130125004555/http://harpercollins.com/books/9780060088316/Sermons/index.aspx ''Sermons: Biblical Wisdom for Daily Living''] (1998);<ref name=":2" /> *[http://harpercollins.com/books/9780060000769/The_Good_Life/index.aspx ''The Good Life: Truths that Last in Times of Need''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080804101352/http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780060000769/The_Good_Life/index.aspx |date=2008-08-04 }} (2002);<ref name=":2" /> *[http://harpercollins.com/books/9780060000783/Strength_for_the_Journey/index.aspx ''Strength for the Journey: Biblical wisdom for Daily Living''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080906172116/http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780060000783/Strength_for_the_Journey/index.aspx |date=2008-09-06 }} (2003);<ref name=":2" /> *[http://harpercollins.com/books/9780060000738/The_Scandalous_Gospel_of_Jesus/index.aspx ''The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What's so good about the Good News?''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081205041225/http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780060000738/The_Scandalous_Gospel_of_Jesus/index.aspx |date=2008-12-05 }} (2007);<ref name=":2" /> * ''A Word to the Wise, and Other Sermons Preached at Harvard'' (2008).<ref name=":2" />

==References== {{Reflist|2}}

==External links== * {{cite news|title=Words and deeds|author=Peter Gomes|url=https://archive.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2006/10/29/words_and_deeds/|access-date=October 30, 2006|work=The Boston Globe|date=2006-10-29}} *{{C-SPAN|42019}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gomes, Peter J.}} Category:1942 births Category:2011 deaths Category:African-American activists Category:20th-century Baptist ministers from the United States Category:21st-century Baptist ministers from the United States Category:African-American Baptist ministers Category:American Christian theologians Category:American people of Cameroonian descent Category:American people of Cape Verdean descent Category:American people of Fulbe descent Category:American people of Hausa descent Category:Baptist theologians from the United States Category:Bates College alumni Category:Converts to Baptist Christianity from Roman Catholicism Category:Harvard Divinity School alumni Category:Harvard Divinity School faculty Category:Lambda Literary Award winners Category:African-American LGBTQ people Category:LGBTQ Baptist clergy Category:LGBTQ people from Massachusetts Category:Massachusetts Democrats Category:Massachusetts Republicans Category:Politicians from Plymouth, Massachusetts Category:Place of death missing Category:Tuskegee University alumni Category:American gay writers Category:LGBTQ rights activists from Massachusetts

Peter J. Gomes

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