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Tex Sample Vitae
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Former Academic Dean at Saint Paul School of Theology, Judith L. Orr, has described Tex Sample as "...a man with a baseball bat in one hand and a copy of the philosopher Wittgenstein in the other...a man of the people and a man of the academy...a man who can tell it like it is to a group of tough urban Job Corps participants, to an upper middle class white suburban Sunday school class, and to distressed Heartland farmers...a man who is comfortable at his daddy's taxi-cab stand and on the General Conference floor [the national meeting of his denomination]...a man of the community and a man of the church...a man who was born in the South, 'trained up' in the Northeast, who has grown to maturity in the midwest."
A native of Brookhaven, Mississippi, he attended public schools in Brookhaven and went on to receive his B.A. from Millsaps College with a major in psychology. He received his M.Div. from the Boston University School of Theology and his Ph.D. from the Boston University Graduate School. While a graduate student, Sample was a Fellow in the Boston University Human Relations Center. In 1999 he was named Distinguish Alumnus of the Boston University School of Theology. He received the D.D. degree from Coe College in 2003.
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. In addition, he pastored churches for eight years and served three years as the Director of Social Relations of the Massachusetts Council of Churches. In this last capacity he was the lobbyist for the Council and worked actively in the civil rights and peace movements.
At Saint Paul School of Theology he served as Acting Academic Dean during 1987-88. In 1988 he received the John M. Swomley, Jr., Award, presented by the Ethnic Minority students of Saint Paul for "commitment to God's work and preserving human rights through non-violent social action."
Academically, Sample works and teaches in the areas of U.S. lifestyles, U.S. culture, social theory and social change, power, social class and theological ethics. He is a specialist in the study of blue collar and poor people.
Sample has authored nine books and co-edited another: Blue Collar Ministry (Judson Press, 1984), U.S. Lifestyles and Mainline Churches (Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990), Hard Living People and Mainstream Christians (Abingdon, 1993), Ministry in an Oral Culture: Living with Will Rogers, Uncle Remus, and Minnie Pearl (Westminster/John Knox, 1994), White Soul: Country Music, the Church and Working People (Abingdon Press, 1996), The Spectacle of Worship in a Wired World (Abingdon Press, 1998), and an edited book with Amy DeLong. The Loyal Opposition: Struggling with the Church on Homosexuality (Abingdon, 2000), Powerful Persuasion: Multisensory Witness in Christian Worship (Abingdon, 2005), Blue Collar Resistance and the Politics of Jesus (Abingdon, 2006), and Earthy Mysticism: Spirituality for Unspiritual People (Abingdon, January, 2008).
Sample is a member of the Society of Christian Ethics and a member and Fellow of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.
An ordained elder in the United Methodist Church (UMC), he is a member of the Missouri Conference. He served as a delegate to the General Conference of the United Methodist Church on four occasions and to the South Central Jurisdictional Conference five times.
In Phoenix, Arizona, where the Samples currently live, He is active in The Valley Interfaith Project (an IAF community organizing effort), Interfaith Worker Justice, and The Arizona Interfaith Movement, an organization with twenty-four participating faith traditions. The Sample are also active in the Asbury United Methodist Church in the city.
Sample conducted more than one hundred studies for a variety of denominations including Disciples, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, United Methodists, and American Baptists.
Sample has also worked as a speaker and/or consultant for a wide range of business and governmental organizations such as: Hallmark Cards, the Chamber of Commerce, the Job Corps, the Department of Labor, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Federal Reserve Bank.
In 1957 Sample married Peggy Jo Sanford. Ms. Sample is a landscape artist and works in acrylics and watercolor. A retired soprano she sang professionally in churches in Kansas City and Boston. She worked for many years in community theater. The Samples have three children: Steven(deceased), Shawn, and Jennifer. They have four grandchildren.
His real name is Tex. It is not a nickname. His father named him after Texanna Gillham, an African-American woman who was born in slavery and helped raise his father near Center, Texas. 3/2005.
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