[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 11 (Tuesday, January 18, 2022)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E42-E43]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        IN RECOGNITION OF THE 44TH ANNIVERSARY OF KOPPER KETTLE

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MIKE ROGERS

                               of alabama

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 18, 2022

  Mr. ROGERS of Alabama. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 
44th anniversary of the Kopper Kettle explosion in downtown Auburn, 
Alabama.
  Below is the 1978 sermon by Rev. Rod Sinclair at the Episcopal 
College Center after the explosion occurred:

       The explosion at the Kopper Kettle has consumed the time 
     and attention of many of us this week, especially Sunday when 
     it occurred Monday and Tuesday when we were fixing ourselves 
     up and getting heat back into the building and into the 
     Steven's House. There have been many expressions of 
     gratefulness that no one in town was injured or killed and we 
     have all told each other where we were when we hear of or 
     felt the blast. We have even told each other about other 
     explosions, other calamities and what our reaction was to 
     them. And some of us have gone off into the world of metaphor 
     and analogy and compared the explosion at the Kopper Kettle 
     to what happens to a human being who gets poison in his or 
     her system, poison from unacknowledged anger or poison from 
     unexpressed resentment, and how the pressure can build up an 
     explosion.
       There's another type of explosion occurred to me, as it 
     should, being the preacher, which I like to look at this 
     morning. It is the explosion of the spirit and it can be more 
     devastating than what happened last Sunday at Magnolia and 
     Gay.
       The explosion of the spirit is what happens when all the 
     things we thought we believed in collapses, when the world of 
     meaning collapses, when the truths that we always thought 
     were true seem untrue, when doubt attacks every item of faith 
     and prevails, and faith seems counterfeit, and trust wanders 
     aimlessly hunting for a place to rest, and when other 
     people's piety bring charges of hypocrisy to our lips. The 
     explosion of the spirit can hit with the force of last 
     Sunday's blast or it can strike in a slow-motion version. 
     Decay is an explosion developing slowly. We can rebuild 
     stores and replace smashed windows, but persons who are 
     smashed by an earthquake under their house of faith have no 
     certainty that they can pick up the pieces, nor may they want 
     to, for their structure no longer has meaning. All that was 
     dear and cherished is splintered and smoking. Their faith is 
     gone, their dreams are smashed, and they have no basis for 
     hope.
       What do you do if the explosion of the spirit strikes you? 
     First, I believe you must go to your most trusted friend, not 
     to talk, but to sit in silence--in the presence of the 
     other--in the presence of another human being. And the truth 
     of the presence may be the only truth that is verifiable.
       Next, you must allow your friend to care for you. This is 
     more difficult than silence. Nor can it come too quickly. 
     This requires that you give permission to the other to enter 
     your shattered world. And with the entry may come judgment 
     (but surely not!) and may come abject embarrassment (Yes, 
     possibly that) or the painful admission that you are lost in 
     the woods and do not know the way home. (Yes, that too!) Your 
     trusted friend is there to listen, is not therapist, 
     counselor or father confessor (at least not then) and listens 
     to you talk, listens to the starkness of your confession that 
     your religious house of cards proved to be just that, listens 
     to the pain of your isolation--for you are in an empty, flat 
     land by yourself with not so much as four pegs to pitch a 
     tent for shelter. He listens to the description of your 
     futureless future. And the echo of the question ``What is 
     there now?'' continues to sound in your empty room.
       But your friend does not answer your questions; eventually 
     you do. Yet no one can tell you when the eventuality will 
     happen. First, there may be nothing more than the 
     establishing of a routine; but even routine requires a degree 
     of faith. Later, there may be divine word, certainly not 
     acknowledged then as such. From deep within, from the center 
     of your center, may come the word: ``Life shall go on.'' And 
     you know the words are true and your house of meaning 
     receives another plank.
       If and when the house is completed, that is, if and when 
     there is a day when you can say: ``I believe that the 
     following truths

[[Page E43]]

     gives me meaning, and makes sense out of existence, and are 
     the grounds on which I will stake my life,'' if there is a 
     day when this can be said again, after an explosion of the 
     spirit my hope is that your statement of what you believe 
     would include the following:
       First, a trust in God, trust in God as personal and loving, 
     God who loves you, who understands and who cares for you. 
     Believing that God understands and loves us is the life force 
     that prevents us from dying.
       Secondly, a realization that Jesus of Nazareth reveals God 
     to us. We are not blocked or stumped in our search for the 
     knowledge of God. Jesus' love and forgiveness is the 
     indicator of God's love and forgiveness. Believing that Jesus 
     reveals God to us is the life force that guards our spirits 
     from collapsing.
       Thirdly, a trust that God is present with and in us, and 
     that his spirit, his power, and his love are with us and in 
     us, his people. We are not left derelict or abandoned, 
     wondering if we shall ever be called for. Believing that 
     God's presence is with us and in us is the life force that 
     builds us up as a community of people seeking to be faithful 
     and prevents us from despairing.
       To be able to base your life on those three assertions and 
     know they are true is to return from the land of shadow and 
     mist into the sunlight of a new day.
       The person who experiences the bankruptcy of spirit that we 
     have spoken of and who later reclaims and rebuilds, who 
     begins again and whose faith grows from infancy to maturity, 
     has a lot to tell us. My guess is that such a person would 
     share with us such thoughts as:
       No one else can say what's true for you. All truth is self-
     validating.
       Much truth, that is not yet perceived as truth, can remain 
     on the shelf: it may be claimed later on. Having swallowed 
     too much once before and exploded, it's best not to bite off 
     more than you can chew. Courage to rebuild is an act of 
     faith.
       The process of discovering meaning is an element of meaning 
     itself.
       My further guess is that as we met such a person, who had 
     believed again after being crushed by doubt, we could say 
     such words to him or her as:
       When you speak, your words are genuine and true. We feel 
     accepted and respected by you.
       Your faith is clearly shown in your behavior.
       You will be a threat to those whose houses of faith are 
     held together by tape and wire and string and who pretend to 
     believe and who make a great show, but who on the inside are 
     full of emptiness and staleness, brittle-ness and dust.
       You will cause a light to shine on sham religion and there 
     will be some who will be vindictive.
       The explosion at the corner last Sunday can cause us to 
     look at the explosion that can come at our centers, the 
     collapsing of our spirit, if we have carelessly claimed to 
     believe, or mimicked the belief of others, and have no faith 
     that is our own. The admission of our doubt, painful though 
     it is, can be the first step to regaining a life of faith and 
     can return us to authentic living in God's presence. God's 
     love is real and His commandments are sure and the community 
     of persons seeking to know what it is to be fruitful is a 
     rich place to set yourself. May He shed his grace on each one 
     of us as we seek truth and walk in faith. Amen.

                          ____________________