Today’s Faculty Friday interview is with Dr. Ron Ruthruff, Associate Professor of Theology & Culture. Dr. Ruthruff has served homeless and street-involved youth and their families for the past 30 years. He has provided case management services, designed programs, and educated the community on the issues that impact this vulnerable population. Ron’s career goal is to empower persons to live lives of significance; to equip the church to love and serve its neighbors; and to engage communities in cross-cultural and global conversations.
Ron’s education is an eclectic blend of social work, counseling, and theological studies. Ron holds a Doctorate of Ministry in Complex Urban Settings from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Boston. His dissertation title, Welcoming Kids to the Table of Community: New Horizons Ministries as a Model of Service to Homeless Runaway Adolescents, addresses the psychosocial and spiritual issues surrounding homeless adolescents and describes a relationally based and theologically-supported delivery strategy to serve these marginalized young people.
Ron is a senior fellow with the Center for Transforming Mission, providing training and support for grassroots urban leaders serving youth and families in hard places around the world. Closer to home, Ron is on a regular preaching schedule at several local churches. He lives in the Rainier Valley, a multicultural neighborhood in the south end of Seattle with his wife, Linda, with whom he has served for nearly 30 years. Their two adult sons, Ben and Clayton, live close by.
Ron teaches courses focused on Biblical ethics, social justice and community development, such as “Being the Word on the Street,” “Engaging Global Partnerships,” and “Care of the Soul and the Call to Sacred Activism.”
What are you currently reading?
Over the past six months with the political climate in the US conflates nationalism, and whiteness with Christianity, I have been drawn in two directions. First to understand this shift, both theologically and psycho-socially. I have read The Flag and The Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy by Philip S Gorski and Samuel Perry American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and Threatens The Church by Andrew Whitehead and The Psychology of Christian Nationalism: Why People Are Drawn In and How to Talk Across the Great Divide by Pamela Cooper-White. The second direction is a strategy and corrective action taken to counteract the theological misappropriation and social narcissism that has led to the myth of exceptionalism and its misguided mandate regarding the election, doctrines of discovery, and manifest destiny. For this I have been reading Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party by Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin, Jr. as well as other community organizing books. The best of which is Ben McBride’s Troubling the Water: The Urgent Call of Radical Belonging
What have you been listening to lately?
Sturgill Simpson, Yola Carter, Amythyst Kiah, Tyler Childers, Brandi Carlisle, and Marcus King are always on my playlist. I also just finished the Podcast The Walk Home, a public radio journalism project that tells the story of murdered Tacoma resident Emmanuel Ellis. For live music, you’ll find me at the Tractor listening to alt-country and Americana music, or following my son’s band, Miss Prince. I love watching Clayton’s band play loud all over the city.
What research do you find yourself drawn to at the moment?
I’ve been reflecting quite a bit on whiteness and identity. Dr Hoard and I are at the beginning stages of a project regarding the embodiment of Antiracist practice in contrast to ideological platitudes.
Any exciting summer plans?
I am always trying to be a more proficient motorcycle rider! Gardening with Linda. This July we hope to be on the Oregon Coast.
If you could have dinner with any person, dead or alive, who would they be?
No question: Johnny Cash.
If you weren’t in your current profession, you’d be…?
I would love to own a tavern/BBQ joint that played blues and Americana music. I would also love to be a prison chaplain.
Who is your literary or living hero?
Arnold Spirit in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Also, my sons: My oldest is an elementary school teacher. His way of teaching and connecting with kids, being attentive to social/emotional learning, and actively working to address the opportunity gap is inspiring. My youngest is an artist and musician. His art is filled with complexity, and his music is loud and truth-filled.