The John P. Webster Library (located in First Church, West Hartford) and First Church will welcome lecturer and author Susan Campbell at a talk on Thursday March 30, at 7 p.m.

By Joy Taylor

Susan Campbell will present a talk she is calling “The Sermon On The Mount Is an Awesome Political Platform.”

Two thousand years ago an itinerant preacher trekked across desert lands with new teachings of long-established beliefs. Jesus of Nazareth was a revolutionary whose call for simple, compassionate truth in everyday life reverberates more than ever. In a recently-published book, author Susan Campbell ponders how his words might shape us today as we ponder our actions toward “the least of these?”

“We are thrilled to have Susan here at this time,” commented John P. Webster Library Director Jennifer deSimas. “First Church reaches out to the greater community in a number of ways – food drives, soup kitchen volunteering, benefit concerts, etc. When we bring in folks like Susan who speak to us so eloquently about their interactions with the homeless or underemployed people, we gain a better perspective of the issues of inequality. This talk coincides with the kick-off of a new First Church outreach team that will address job opportunity inequality issues.”

Susan Campbell is a distinguished lecturer at the University of New Haven’s Department of Communication, Film and Media Studies, and an award-winning author of Dating Jesus: Fundamentalism, Feminism, and the American Girl, and the biography, Tempest-Tossed: The Spirit of Isabella Beecher Hooker. Her new book, Searching for the American Dream in Frog Hollow, America, from Wesleyan University Press, is due out in the spring of 2018.

There is no fee for attending and parking is free in the church lot on the corner of South Main Street and Farmington Avenue in West Hartford Center. The event takes place in the church auditorium, which is easily accessible from the rotunda entrance from the parking lot side.

Contact the church at 860-232-3893, email: [email protected]  or visit the website www.whfirstchurch.org and click JPW link).

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