Tex Sample to Speak at Chapel Forum Oct. 26

October 23, 1998

Dr. Tex Sample, an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church (UMC) and native of Brookhaven, Miss., will speak to Chapel Forum students at 10 and 11 a.m. Monday, Oct. 26, in Waco Hall.
Sample received his B.A. from Millsaps College with a major in psychology. He later received his S.T.B. from the Boston University School of Theology and his Ph.D. from the Boston University Graduate School. His dissertation was on the social ethics of Norman Mattoon Thomas, the six-time socialist candidate for President of the U.S. during the first half of the 20th century.
Over the course of his life, Sample has worked as a cab driver, as a laborer and as a roust-about in the oil fields. He pastored churches for eight years and served three years as the Director of Social Relations of the Massachusetts Council of Churches. Sample attends the Platte Woods United Methodist Church in Kansas City.
Since 1967, Sample has been on the Faculty of the Saint Paul School of Theology, a United Methodist seminary located in Kansas City where he is The Rogers Professor of Church and Society. Academically, Sample works and teaches in the areas of U.S. culture, social theory and social change, power, social class and theological ethics. He is a specialist in the study of blue collar workers and the poor. His books include Ministry in an Oral Culture: Living with Will Rogers, Uncle Remus and Minnie Pearl (Westminister/John Knox, 1994). His latest book is White Soul: Country Music, the Church and Working People (Abingdon Press, 1996). His book, The Spectacle of Worship in a Wired World, will be published by Abingdon Press in 1998.
Tex is his real name, not a nick-name. His father named him after Texanna Gillham, an African-American woman who was born in slavery and helped raise his father near Center.
For more information, contact the office of the chaplain at 710-3517.