ALBION, Mich. – One of the hottest topics in the country—“The Religious Right and American Politics”—will be examined by the Rev. Dr. William A. Ritter, ’62, in a lecture at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 15, in Baldwin Hall as part of the inaugural Joe H. Stroud Visiting Scholar Program. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Ritter, an author, Albion College trustee, and pastor emeritus at First United Methodist Church in Birmingham, is the first Joe H. Stroud Visiting Scholar for the Gerald R. Ford Institute for Public Policy and Service. His February 15 talk kicks off a series of three public lectures Ritter will deliver during the spring semester, when he is serving also as the 2006 Executive-in-Residence for the Carl A. Gerstacker Institute for Professional Management.

“Just when we thought we grasped the issues, knew the players and thought the issues were cast in stone, seismic shifts began occurring in all segments of the religious landscape,” Ritter said about his first lecture. “I’ll give special attention to the New York Times bestseller ‘God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It’ by Jim Wallis.”

In addition to his lecture on February 15, Ritter will speak on Tuesday, March 7 at 7 p.m. in Baldwin Alumni Hall about "Having a Life While Making a Living.” The final lecture will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 12, in the Gerstacker International House Auditorium when Ritter discusses "The Damages of Dispensationalism.”

A graduate of Yale Divinity School, Ritter retired in 2005 after a 42-year career in pastoral ministry with the Detroit Conference of the United Methodist Church. He served parishes in Dearborn, Livonia, and Farmington Hills before becoming senior minister at the First United Methodist Church of Birmingham in 1993. He is a visiting professor at Duke Divinity School, where he taught last fall.

Ritter also is teaching two quarter-credit courses for Gerstacker and Ford institute students.

"We are extremely pleased to have the Rev. Dr. Bill Ritter serve as the inaugural Joe H. Stroud Visiting Scholar,” said Thomas Padgett, director of the Ford Institute. “Rev. Ritter is a widely sought-after speaker and will have some interesting insights into the role played by the religious right in American politics. We are particularly pleased that Rev. Ritter was willing to join us at Albion immediately following his semester as a visiting professor at the Duke Divinity School."

This is the inaugural year for the Joe H. Stroud Visiting Scholar Program, which honors the memory of the late Joe H. Stroud, who served as the director of the Gerald R. Ford Institute from 1999 until his passing in 2002.

Stroud enjoyed a long and respected career as a newspaper journalist. Prior to his time at Albion College, he was editor of the Detroit Free Press for 25 years, guiding its strong editorial voice during a tumultuous period in civil rights, education, and labor relations in Detroit and the country. After his retirement as editor, he continued to write a popular column several times a week for the Free Press.

A native of Arkansas, Stroud was widely regarded in Albion, around the state of Michigan, nationally, and internationally as a man of great wisdom, wit, and passion for issues which he considered important, including civil rights, education, the environment, and mental health.  The Joe H. Stroud Visiting Scholar Endowment was established in 2002 by friends, colleagues, alumni, and family in his memory.

For more information contact the Ford Institute at 517-629-0359 or via email at jhawsey@albion.edu.

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