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Writing Straight with Crooked Lines: A Memoir Kindle Edition
by Jim Forest (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars (41)
Jim Forest has spent a lifetime in the cause of peace and reconciliation. In this memoir he traces his story through his intimate encounters with some of the great peacemakers of our time, including Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Daniel Berrigan, Henri Nouwen, and Thich Nhat Hanh. The son of ardent Communists, his remarkable journey led to his enlistment in the Navy, and then his discharge as a conscientious objector following his conversion to Catholicism.
From the Catholic Worker in New York he went on to play a key role in mobilizing religious protest against the Vietnam War and served a year in prison for his role in destroying draft records in Milwaukee. But his journey continued, including extensive travels in Russia in the last years of the USSR, his reception into the Orthodox Church, and his work as the author of over a dozen books on spirituality and peacemaking.
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"Reading Writing Straight With Crooked Lines has enticed me to engage in my own archeological sifting. It has me looking at my myriad wrong turns and interrogating more closely the friendships and relationships that formed me as a person. It was as though Forest was inviting me, through offering his stories, to ponder what I see and what I fail to see. In that sense, Forest's memoir took me beyond the realm of history and biography, into the realm of authentic spirituality."--Paul Pynkoski Secretary, International Thomas Merton Society
About the Author
Jim Forest (1941-2022), a co-founder of the Catholic Peace Fellowship, was author of many Orbis books, including All Is Grace, Living with Wisdom, At Play in the Lions' Den and Eyes of Compassion (his biographies of peacemakers Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Daniel Berrigan, and Thich Naht Hanh). His other bestselling titles include Praying with Icons, The Ladder of the Beatitudes, and Writing Straight with Crooked Lines: A Memoir.
Product details
ASIN : B0869G4NY5
Publisher : ORBIS
Accessibility : Learn more
Publication date : 1 January 2020
Edition : Illustrated
Language : English
File size : 9.7 MB
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 338 pages
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From other countries
X. Libris
5.0 out of 5 stars The complex and fascinating narrative of a Christian peace activist
Reviewed in the United States on 8 May 2020
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
I first encountered the writings of Jim Forest in 1969, when I picked up a pamphlet at the American Friends Service Committee bookstore in Seattle entitled “Catholics and Conscientious Objection.” It had been produced by the Catholic Peace Fellowship. I was preparing my defense before the draft board in my application for conscientious objector status during the Vietnam War. (The other booklet I picked up that day was by Thomas Merton.)
I was not a Roman Catholic, but I’d recently had a “born again” experience and had gotten involved in the Jesus People Movement in Washington State. I was interested in learning about the Christian roots of pacifism, and Forest’s booklet was packed full of quotes from the Early Church Fathers. Thanks to his information, I was granted CO status.
Fast forward 30 years. My spiritual journey took me in and out of various denominations, until I discovered the Eastern Orthodox Church. In the bookstore of the parish that became my new church home, I encountered several books by Jim Forest. It took me a while to realize it was the same person, and that he, too, had become Orthodox and had started a new organization called the Orthodox Peace Fellowship.
Over the past twenty years I’ve read several books by Jim. In many of these books he mentions his friends and mentors, including Dorothy Day, of the New York based Catholic Worker (and who has been nominated for canonization in the Roman Catholic Church), Thomas Merton, the well-known Catholic monk, author and poet, Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Buddhist monk and Zen master, and Daniel Berrigan, radical Roman Catholic priest and peace activist.
Because Jim Forest’s life intersects with these and other leaders of the 60s peace movement and beyond, many people (including myself) have been urging him to write his own memoirs. “Writing Straight with Crooked Lines,” just released in 2020, is the incredible result.
Because Jim has been writing his whole life, starting with journalism in high school, his writing style is very readable. I devoured this volume in just a few days. While bits and pieces of Jim’s story get woven into the narratives written about the others mentioned above, his own life is definitely worthy of consideration.
He was child of American Communists in the 1930s. After his parents divorced, he shuttled back and forth across the country several times between parents, before dropping out of high school and joining the Navy. There he had a profound spiritual experience while watching the film, “The Nun’s Story,” featuring Audrey Hepburn, and joined the Roman Catholic Church. When en route to visit a monastery, he picked up the book, “The Seven Storey Mountain,” by Thomas Merton, which deeply moved him. After he realized that his meteorological work with the Navy helped support the disastrous Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba in 1961, he had a crisis of conscience, and was eventually discharged from the Navy as a conscientious objector.
From there he got involved in Dorothy Day’s Catholic Worker movement in New York City. This eventually led him to start the Catholic Peace Fellowship, to help young Catholics (and eventually Protestants like me) to learn about the peace teachings of Jesus and how to apply for CO status while the Vietnam War escalated.
Through his work he had the opportunity to meet Thich Nhat Hanh, who at the time was an unknown in this country. He was invited to the United States by peace groups to help Americans get to know the people and culture of Vietnam. Jim was given the opportunity to be his chauffeur (and essentially tour manager) for Hanh across the country, during which time they became close friends.
Jim’s memoir is a warts-and-all story, including his honest portrayal of three failed marriages due to his zeal for social and peace activism, which meant time away from home (including jail time for his involvement in burning draft records in Milwaukee).
In 1976, he was asked to lead the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, an inter-faith peace group. Under his guidance the headquarters moved to Alkmaar, the Netherlands, a country that proved to be more hospitable for this organization. After leading this organization for many years, he and his fourth wife, Nancy, decided to become freelance writers (she primarily a translator of titles from Dutch into English).
While working with Dorothy Day back in the 60s, she had introduced him to the Orthodox Church and encouraged him to read books by authors such as Dostoyevsky. While with the Fellowship of Reconciliation in Europe, Jim had many opportunities to interact with the Russian Orthodox Church and decided to write a book about it before the end of the Cold War. His experiences in the Orthodox churches in Russia left a big impression on him in the way he experienced liturgy, prayer, singing and the people.
Back in Holland, in 1987, he was invited to attend the Russian Orthodox St. Nicholas Cathedral in Amsterdam, and Jim and Nancy decided that they had found their new spiritual home.
This narrative has many layers that are often interwoven. It gives a glimpse into the life of a very complex person who lived during a challenging time in American, and world, history. It is thought-provoking, spiritual, historical, sometimes theological, sometimes radical, but always with a desire for peace, within oneself, with others, between races, nations and even religions.
Jim doesn’t like to call himself a Christian. Instead he says he is “attempting” to be a Christian. He doesn’t hide his personal shortcomings in this book, but he also shows that he desires to be guided by the teachings and person of Christ.
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Larry from West Sussex
5.0 out of 5 stars Peacemaker Extraordinary!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 June 2021
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
Jim Forest has been blessed with providential guidance at exactly the right time to the right book, the right place, and the right people throughout a long and eventful life. He writes engagingly with both humour and humility. This is a wonderful book.
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mobi
5.0 out of 5 stars Moving, inspiring memoir of a lifelong pilgrimage for peace
Reviewed in the United States on 6 June 2020
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Written with generosity, humility, humor, and grace, Jim Forest's autobiography chronicles his decades
of engagement with the faith-rooted, nonviolent movement for peace and reconciliation in a turbulent, troubled world. This is essential reading for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of peace activism extending from the Vietnam era to today. Jim Forest shares experiences and lessons learned through his close friendships with Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Dan Berrigan, and Thich Nhat Hanh, but also shares ordinary encounters with people on the street, in shops and churches, that speak of the transformative power of deep listening. Every page is imbued with love, wisdom, and honest reflection. From his account of traveling solo across the country as a 13-year-old to coping with kidney disease later in life, Forest invites us into the particulars of his life and by so doing, invites us to examine and celebrate our own lives in a deeper way. Reading this, one wishes one could sit with Forest and his family and break bread together. This is a deeply thoughtful and hopeful book.
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cheapie pie
5.0 out of 5 stars An honest memoir
Reviewed in the United States on 23 June 2021
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Jim Forest is an amazing writer who has known some of the great religious figures since the 1960s. His spiritual journey and path to nonviolence alone make the book worth reading. Forest's relationships with Dorothy Day, the Berrigans, and Thich Nhat Hanh, among others introduce readers to figures who influenced him and many others along the way. Well written with interesting photos!
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Dan
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August 30, 2020
It’s my dad’s autobiography: what kind of son would I be if I didn’t give it a five-star rating?
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Debbi
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January 16, 2022
Such a nicely written memoir. Jim Forest not only gave us a personal story of his life, he also allowed us to see into the early days of the religious anti nuclear war and peace movement. It was very beautiful to see some famous names come to life. I enjoyed reading about Jim's journey from the child of non-religious communists to his involvement with the Catholic Worker. It also doesn't get too bogged down in day to day life of a writer and activist. I appreciate how Mr. Forest shared his story without giving in to maudlin navel gazing.
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Dan
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January 20, 2021
In his book WRITING STRAIGHT WITH CROOKED LINES, Jim Forest winces at being described as a peace activist. Despite having been exactly that for most of his adult life.
“The problem is that I’m not by nature an activist. Perhaps there is something of Thomas Merton’s monastic temperament in me. I feel uncomfortable in crowds – masses of people drawn together by a common objective generate powerful currents and undertows that often scare me. I’m not an automatic participant – discernment is needed. When it comes to taking part in protests and demonstrations, I have to convince myself that this specific act of protest or witness really is worth taking part in and then push myself by brute force out the door while wishing my conscience would leave me alone.”
But yet, the fact is, Forest has had a remarkable life, most of it being directly involved in the peace movement. With formative roots deepened by being the Managing Editor of the Catholic Worker, under Dorothy Day’s (co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement) tutelage, when he was in his early 20s.
This connection eventually got him involved in helping to form the Catholic Peace Fellowship and working with the International Fellowship of Reconciliation and brought Dan and Phil Berrigan, Thomas Merton, Thich Nhat Hanh, Henri Nouwen, and Al Hassler into Forest’s life.
As Forest points out, being the son of left-leaning parents (both of his parents were members of the Communist Party) definitely influenced his DNA.
Forest has written several books, including a biography of Thomas Merton and books on the Russian Orthodox Church (he himself converted to the Orthodox Church from Roman Catholic.) He had proven his journalistic skills several times over before reaching the age of 30. Including serving as the press agent for five Vietnam War protestors who burned their draft cards in Union Square in November of 1965.
A few years later, Forest served in the same capacity for the Catonsville Nine Defense Committee. The group of nine had gathered to break into the Catonsville Draft Board headquarters. The participants included Dan and Phil Berrigan.
During this time, Forest worked for both the Catholic Peace Fellowship and the Fellowship of Reconciliation. And he became part of the Milwaukee 14, who broke into the adjoining offices of nine draft board in Milwaukee, stealing draft records and burning them.
“My knees shook every step of the way. The nine doors were opened, the many burlap sacks we had brought with us were filled to bursting with 1-A files – 10,000 of them, it was estimated during the trial – and dragged out to the park across the street. Napalm, made ourselves, according to a recipe found in the US Army Special Forces Handbook, was poured on the files and a match struck. The fourteen of us lined up on one side of the bonfire and prayed the Our Father and sang ‘We Shall Overcome.’”
There was a lot of traveling involved in Forest’s work. He candidly records that such prolonged absences eventually tore at the fabric of three marriages, ending in divorce.
It was later in life, when Forest was older and wiser, that he discovered his soulmate. He was working in Denmark for the International Fellowship of Reconciliation and renewed a friendship with Nancy Flier during visits home in the United States. They have been happily married for 37 years.
At the very end of WRITING STRAIGHT WITH CROOKED LINES, Forest sums up his life, offering a few powerful life lessons. This is one of them: “If I cannot find the face of Jesus in the faces of those who are my enemies, if I cannot find him in the unbeautiful, if I cannot find him in those who have the ‘wrong ideas,’ if I cannot find him in the poor and the defeated, how will I find him in the bread and wine or in the life after death? If I do not reach out in this world to those with whom he has identified himself, why do I imagine that I will want to be with him and them forever in heaven? Why would I want to be, for all eternity, in the company of those whom I avoided every day of my life?”
P.S. I had the privilege of interviewing Jim Forest in July of 2019. You can find that interview here:
https://bit.ly/3izg7T5
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Rebekah Sturgill
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January 1, 2023
A wonderful book to end the year! Both familiar to me, coming from a childhood rooted in peace activism, and enlightening, showing me parts of history I have had no encounters with before, this book was a read that was both comfortable and challenging. For those reconciling a desire for political activism and peace with the contemplative life of the Christian, I highly recommend this book detailing Jim's struggle with that invented dichotomy.
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