E. "Ike" Porter '79
When I first arrived at EMC (now EMU), I felt like a fish out of water. I had been recently discharged from the military at the conclusion of a very unpopular war. As a 23-year-old freshman, I was entering a Christian college steeped in a tradition of pacifism. I was a warrior entering a faith community that did not believe in war. I genuinely wanted peace and wholeness for my soul but at that time was unable to articulate such a profound concept. I had not been raised in a Christian tradition, but had a conversion within a fundamentalist theological tradition while I was in the military.
Through humor-tinged lens, these descriptors of that long-ago experience come to mind: evangelical, independent, fundamentalist, pre-millennial, literal, inerrant, God-and-country, King-James only, Christian-and-proud-of-it.
Today, I serve as the chief chaplain at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Battle Creek, Michigan. In this role, I wear many hats. I am the director of pastoral care in a setting that addresses post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, chronic and acute psychiatric illnesses and includes units for domiciliary, medical, blind rehabilitation, geriatric psychiatry, nursing home care, dementia care, and hospice. I have a staff of five full-time chaplains, including a clinical pastoral education (CPE) supervisor, three part-time chaplains, a secretary and contracts with several other providers to fulfill auxiliary tasks.
We currently have six students working on extended units of CPE. I am certified as an anger management specialist and a federal mediator; I work with veterans trying to help them heal from their experiences of war so they can live at peace with their spouses, their children and their communities. I am also the director of consultative ethics at our facility and have been selected to serve on the National Ethics Committee.
How did I get here? I had a sojourn with the U.S. Army from 1972 through 1975. This experience taught me what it means to be a member of the military, with necessary self-discipline. Also, the military gave me the GI Bill, which enabled me to afford EMC. Today, this military background serves me well for my work. My own traumas give me insights and understanding when entering into the terror-stricken world of the traumatized veteran.
EMC taught me how to think. This is a simple, yet profound statement. Many religious-based educational institutions do not teach students how to think; instead they teach them what to think. I majored in social work and Bible and religion. I remember many times being confused about an issue I was studying only to have the professor encourage me to work it through. I wanted answers, and my professors wanted me to think.
The discipline of research and comparative study I learned at EMC continues to prepare me for the issues I encounter. I learned about a people [Anabaptists] who would pay a price for standing up for what was right. I learned about a people who valued love and reconciliation. I learned much from the study sessions in the snack shop and from my fellow students and my sisters and brothers of faith. I learned that my professors and others in leadership were fellow pilgrims as we sought to know and to serve the one whom we call Lord. I learned about a God who loves regardless of our sin. I learned to be loved.
Today I am in a role made possible by my education at Eastern Mennonite College, Eastern Mennonite Seminary, Ashland Theological Seminary, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, and Western Theological Seminary. The values I bring to my work reflect my education at all of these institutions. My work in anger management and as a federal mediator grows out of the theology of peace and reconciliation I learned and embraced at EMC. My work in ethics is enhanced by my formal education but it is driven mostly by living with, taking communion with and becoming one with a people who are willing to pay a price for standing up for what is right.
My brothers and sisters in the church stand with the attributes of God: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness, kindness and self-control. They seek justice and wholeness. When confronted with an ethical issue, we can be tempted to settle for the easiest solution, but EMC taught me to work through the issue and to seek the best answer for a given situation.
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).” In truth, God has taken what good I learned in the military and has combined it with that I learned at EMC to enable me to be a minister of hope and reconciliation in a realm where many are devastated and wounded physically, emotionally and spiritually by the worst that humanity can do to humanity.
Editor’s note:
Ike Porter is now a member of Skyridge Church of the Brethren in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He has been a pastor at three Mennonite churches and a member of two more. Two seminary alumni currently ministering to soldiers or veterans are John W. Jacobs Jr., MDiv ’04, who is with the National Guard in Virginia, and Brian Palmer, MDiv ’96, who is with the U.S military army.
