Reading Robert Reich, a “Wee Little Man”

“Zacchaeus Was a Wee Little Man” is a children’s song that those of us who grew up going to Sunday School sang and taught our children to sing. This blog post is about Robert Reich, who is a contemporary “wee little man” and also one of the most articulate political pundits in the U.S. today. (Note that he pronounces his name Rike, rhyming with bike and like.) 

Reich with Clinton in the 1990s

Robert Bernard Reich is a political economist, professor, author, and commentator who served as U.S. Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton (1993~97) and also served in the Ford and Carter administrations. He was named by Time magazine as one of the ten most effective cabinet members of the 20^th century. Next week (on June 24), he will celebrate his 80^th birthday. 

Reich was born with multiple epiphyseal dysplasia, also known as Fairbank’s disease. That is a rare genetic disorder that affects bone growth and results in short stature. Reich stands 4 feet 11 inches tall, so he is 9 or 10 inches shorter than the average White U.S. male of the same age.

As Reich himself explained to NPR in 2023, his shortness is a kind of deformity in which the cartilage at the end of one’s bones that normally adds additional bone during growth simply doesn’t do its job. But that deformity didn’t keep him from doing his job as a professor at Harvard (1981~92), Brandeis (1997~2005), and the University of California, Berkeley, from 2006 to 2023.

Last year Reich published Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, referring both to his stature and to a country that he thinks has fallen short of its ideals.

Every day, I read four political pundits, the posts by Heather Cox Richardson, Reich, Joyce Vance, and Paul Krugman. Richardson usually posts after midnight, so I read her early every morning. Reich usually posts at least once every day, and I generally read one of his articles daily before noon also.  

I don’t know why it is, but so many public intellectuals, such as the ones just mentioned except for Richardson, are Jewish by heritage and identity but not by religious observance. This is clearly the case with Reich. His essays often echo the Hebrew Bible’s twin imperatives of justice and righteousness, such as those found in Isaiah 1:17 and Amos 5:24.

I find the posts by the scholars/commentators just mentioned are more beneficial than the curated articles in The New York Times and/or The Washington Post, of which I have cancelled my subscription as I no longer want to read a newspaper with a billionaire determining its editorial content.

In addition to reading Richardson’s daily newsletters, I also encourage you to read Reich’s Substack posts, which are also available at no charge. As one who is no longer receiving a paycheck from some institution, Reich can (and does) say what he thinks is most important, letting the chips fall where they may. Even though he is a “wee little man,” he certainly stands tall.

Reich’s June 16 Substack post is especially noteworthy. It is titled “Friendly advice I refuse to take.” (I encourage you to click on the link and read the entire article.) Next Wednesday will be Reich’s 80^th birthday, and the “friendly advice” was from an old friend of about the same age. Reich said he “lost it” when his friend told him, “You’ve got to slow down.”

The “wee little man” retorted, “We’re in a national emergency!” So, “That’s exactly why I’m not slowing down!” He goes on to say, “I’m doing what I do because—and as long as—I’m still able to.”

I am about eight years older than Reich, and to be honest, I am thinking about “retiring” in two years when I turn 90. But that is not definite at this point. Maybe I will keep on doing what I am doing, which is mainly writing three blog articles each month, as long as I’m still able to do so.

Gordon Cosby (1918~2013), the co-founder of the Church of the Saviour in Washington, D.C., was widely regarded as one of the most influential pastors of the 20^th century. He is quoted as saying that “a minister never retires; we are simply reassigned to new forms of service.”

For Cosby, vocation was never a job description but a lifelong posture of availability—an openness to whatever work love requires next. Even in his nineties, long after most clergy had stepped away from public ministry, Cosby kept showing up in small, quiet ways: listening, blessing, encouraging, and standing with those on the margins.

So, like Cosby did and Reich is seeking to do, I want to keep on seeking to do good and trying to write well for as long as I am able.

[Note: Research and writing assistance was provided by Claude (Anthropic) A.I.]

In Memory of Gordon Cosby, 1918-2013

Gordon Cosby, founding pastor of Church of the Savior, passed away last month and his memorial service will be held tomorrow, April 6. In contrast to Rachel Corrie (about whom I wrote last month) who was killed at the age of 23, Cosby lived to be just a few months shy of 95. His was a long and productive life.

I first heard of Gordon Cosby in the early 1960s when I was a seminary student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the school from which he had graduated in 1942.

After serving as a chaplain in World War II, in 1947 Cosby founded the Church of the Savior (CoS) in Washington, D.C., and continued in that ministry until he retired just four years ago (at age 91!).

Cosby was introduced to us seminary students as one who had attempted to “do church” and ministry different from the traditional way—and as one who emphasized the integrity of church membership, something that was quite different from the usual practice of Southern Baptist churches.

In January 1977 during our second “furlough” in the States, I met Gordon Cosby for the first time. I was visiting the Sojourners community, which had moved to Washington, D.C., partly because of Cosby. (You can read about that in Jim Wallis’s 3/21 article here.) And that evening I walked over to the Potter’s House, started in 1960 by CoS, one of the first Christian coffeehouses in the U.S.

Upon arriving, I asked if Gordon Cosby was there and was told that he was back washing dishes (as he seemed to do often). I went back to the kitchen, briefly introduced myself, and asked if he would allow me to take his place washing dishes and to talk with me as he rested. He would and he did—and I much enjoyed an hour of delightful conversation with him.

The last time I saw Cosby was at the Seekers Church, one of the “spinoff” congregations from the Church of the Savior now located in Takoma on the outskirts of D.C. Our son Keith and his wife have been core members of Seekers for more than 25 years now.

Seekers used to meet in the same renovated brick house on Massachusetts Ave. where the original CoS congregation met through the years, and I heard Cosby preach there a time or two. But after his retirement, the Cosbys were visiting Seekers one Sunday when we there with Keith and Brenda, and it was a joy to see him again.

Tomorrow’s memorial celebration will be held at Foundry United Methodist Church on 16^th Street. That historic church, which is within walking distance of the White House, is the church Bill and Hillary Clinton attended when he was President.

Cosby was never pastor of a church with a large building, such as Foundry Methodist. But he influenced pastors all across the nation, including Rev. Dean Snyder, the senior pastor at Foundry now. (Snyder’s recent comments in the Washington Post about Cosby are found here.)

And Cosby never sought the limelight, or took advantage of opportunities to receive adulation. Yet, it has been said that he and the Church of the Savior have had a greater impact on the Protestant church in America over the past 50 years than any other institution or movement.

It is impossible to measure how much influence someone has had, but it is certain that Cosby did make a huge impact on American Protestantism. Please join me and the many who gather at Foundry Church tomorrow in memorializing the long life and legacy of Gordon Cosby.