39 Facts About John Steinbruck

John Steinbruck received many honors and much media recognition, and he was occasionally the instigator of controversy and acts of civil disobedience.

The son of working-class German immigrants, John Steinbruck was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

John Steinbruck excelled at reading and developed into a good student, which would eventually lead him to college and post-graduate education.

John Steinbruck graduated from Penn in 1954 with a bachelor of science degree in industrial engineering.

John Steinbruck was a man without direction, no sense of purpose, and casual faith.

In Schweitzer, John Steinbruck found an embodiment of moral virtue, a role model for a life of devoted service.

Wiznat's theological world view was unlike any John Steinbruck had ever heard.

John Steinbruck had been raised in the literalistic religion of his German immigrant parents, in a little known sect called the Faith Tract Mission.

John Steinbruck found it a religion of self-denial that encouraged a detachment from the world.

John Steinbruck's continued discomfort in the world of American commerce led Steinbruck eventually to enroll full-time in the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia.

John Steinbruck learned critical thinking in biblical analysis from these scholars, who took seriously Schweitzer's Quest for the Historical Jesus.

John Steinbruck graduated from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia in 1959 with a Master of Divinity degree, and he earned a Doctor of Ministry from the seminary in 1979.

John Steinbruck wrote his doctoral thesis on the concept of biblical hospitality, on the church as a place of refuge, modeled on the biblical motif of "welcoming the stranger" and the "sacred obligation" to help others.

In June 1956, John Steinbruck married Erna Guenther, a native Philadelphian with a passion for justice.

John Steinbruck thereafter sought city churches, which he believed were great arenas from which to practice his brand of theology, and which offered many opportunities for creative ministry.

John Steinbruck found that urban churches reflected the suffering and afflictions of their surroundings - poverty, crime, decaying neighborhoods.

In 1968, John Steinbruck befriended two Easton clergymen, Rabbi Norton Shargel of B'nai Abraham Synagogue, and a liberal Roman Catholic priest, Monsignor Francis Connolly of St Bernard's Church's Catholic Church.

The Six-Day War a recent memory, John Steinbruck experienced first hand the positive exuberance of the Jewish homeland, its Zionist ideals of community, security, and cooperation.

John Steinbruck visited Yad Vashem and the memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto.

John Steinbruck learned of thousands of years of Jewish struggle and survival, and the history of anti-Semitism that has so often tainted the Christian Church.

John Steinbruck visited the Western Wall, walked the streets of historic Jerusalem, touched the waters of Jordan and Galilee, and experienced the celebration of life - and constant fear of attack - that embraces Israel's daily routine.

John Steinbruck became a regular at the Soviet Jewry Vigil, where groups of protesters stood across the street from the Soviet embassy in Washington, DC With his Luther Place congregants, John Steinbruck stood-in for Jewish protesters on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

On one occasion in 1985, John Steinbruck was arrested with 21 rabbis protesting the plight of Soviet Jews in front of the Soviet embassy.

John Steinbruck found this work liberating, believing that the history of proselytizing among the Jews was responsible for much of their brutalization and suffering, including the Inquisition and centuries of persecution, culminating in the pogroms of Eastern Europe and the Holocaust.

In May 1977, John Steinbruck was asked to respond to a statement made by President Jimmy Carter during a Sunday School lesson he taught at the First Baptist Church on 16th Street in Washington, DC Carter was asked a question concerning the responsibility for the crucifixion of Christ, to which Carter responded that the Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus.

On September 21,1978, John Steinbruck received the Isaiah Award for the Pursuit of Justice from the Washington, DC, chapter of the American Jewish Committee in recognition of his pursuit of inter-religious dialogue and understanding.

John Steinbruck discovered the meaning of kiddush haShem, to sanctify God's name and to pursue justice at all costs, from the teachings of Seymour Siegel, a professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

John Steinbruck found meaningful the writings and teachings of Henri Nouwen, the Dutch-born Catholic priest who authored many famous and well-read books on spirituality, hospitality, and the belovedness of God.

John Steinbruck would put into place the concepts of biblical hospitality and welcoming the stranger at Luther Place Memorial Church in Washington, DC, where he became senior pastor in 1970.

When John Steinbruck arrived at Luther Place, he found a congregation beset with many of the problems confronting most big-city churches.

John Steinbruck confronted a dying church with no sense of purpose.

John Steinbruck thought otherwise, and under his leadership and guiding hand, a new way of thinking emerged.

John Steinbruck refers to it as a place of refuge, where the "stranger" is welcomed and the journey to recovery results in strength, well-being, and shalom.

In 1979, John Steinbruck wanted to create something that would involve a younger generation of volunteers.

John Steinbruck knew of other church-sponsored community service programs, such as the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, formed in the late 1950s; and the Mennonite Voluntary Service, which was founded in 1944.

John Steinbruck joined with ten other churches in Washington, DC, to form the DC Sanctuary Committee, which contended that the Reagan Administration was in violation of the 1980 Refugee Act in its attempts to deport Central American refugees who sought shelter in US churches.

John Steinbruck visited Luther Place in the late 1980s and early 1990s, visits reciprocated by Steinbruck on missions to El Salvador.

John Steinbruck was invited to the White House during the Camp David Accords as a symbol of Christian-Jewish unity, then later rebuffed in his attempts to convince the Reagan Administration to donate White House leftovers to the homeless.

The John Steinbruck Center provides research and training opportunities for students and adults of all ages to learn how to effectively address the root causes of homelessness and urban poverty.