Today is Pearl Harbor Day, but since I have mentioned that event in several past posts, this one is about an outstanding man I consider to be a musical genius who was born on the second anniversary of that tragic attack.
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| Ken Medema in 2019 |
Kenneth
Peter Medema’s birth day was December 7, 1943. He was born in Grand Rapids,
Michigan, and brought up in the Dutch Calvinist tradition of the Reformed
Church. But he jettisoned his childhood faith and then as a college student at
Michigan State University, he met Jane Ann Smith.
Jane’s
father was the Baptist Student Union director at MSU and pastor of a small
Baptist church in Lansing. In his discussions with Jane and her parents, Ken
decided that “If this Baptist thing is what Christians are all about I want to
be a part of it.” *1
Ken
and Jane married in 1965 and she has been Ken’s exemplary “helpmeet” and his partner
in composition for all the years from then until now. Ken acknowledges that “without
her input and perspectives his music would not begin to be what it is today.”*2
The
Medemas currently live in the San Francisco Bay area, close to their two grown
married children and four grandchildren.
From
the time he was born, Ken Medema has been visually impaired. His sight has
been limited to distinguishing between light and darkness and seeing fuzzy
outlines of large objects.
As
Ken says on his website, “I started banging on the piano when I was five years
old, making up crazy little pieces on my mom’s piano. When I was eight years
old my parents got me a wonderful teacher who taught me the classics with
Braille music and encouraged me to play by ear.”
After
college, he worked for four years as a music therapist at Essex County Hospital
in
New Jersey. It was while employed there that he began writing his own
songs. Then in 1973, Ken left that work and began a career as a performing and
recording artist—and he continues to do so.
I
have had the privilege of hearing Ken perform two or three times and of meeting
him personally. The last time was in 2005 when he was at the Sunday morning
worship service at a Baptist church in the Kansas City area.
In
my diary/journal entry for that day, I wrote “Ken Medema was…wonderful. He is
one of the most talented people I have ever seen and met personally.”
Ken
Medema is a radiant Christian in the radiant center. Although as a teenager
and in his first years in college Ken seems to have been rather harsh in his
criticism of others, he began to mellow after meeting Jane, and through the
years he became a radiant Christian and winsome musical performer.
In
the 1980s he and Jane became outspoken supporters of moderate or progressive
Christianity, becoming ardent advocates of social justice for marginalized and
oppressed people.
Jane
studied at Union Theological Seminary and became the assistant pastor of
Dolores Street Baptist Church in San Francisco. That church began accepting
LGBT persons as members in the 1980s—and in 1989 their monetary gifts to the
California Southern Baptist Convention were rejected.
But
Ken has also been able to maintain an amicable relationship with conservative
Christians. One of the recent YouTube videos is of the Easter Monday chapel
service at Wheaton College.*3 Also, a few years ago he was
repeatedly a guest at the Hour of Power telecasts. (See
here, for example.)
At
the age of 80, Ken still keeps a busy schedule. His upcoming performances this
month include venues at Santa Ana, Calif.; Plano, Tex.; and Albuquerque, N.M.;
and his January schedule includes Christ Cathedral, Garden Grove, Calif.; and
the Jackie Kennedy Onassis Theater, New York City.
Truly, Ken is a radiant Christian who is a good example of
being in the radiant theological center that I have commended many times. I
encourage you to listen to some of his many YouTube videos—and to join me today
in saying,
Happy 80th Birthday, Ken Medema!
_____
*1 From “Blind musical artist Ken Medema
articulates his art form,”
Baptist News Global (June 26, 2011).
*2
From KenMedema.com website.
*3 Here
is the link to that video; Ken first appears about 6½ minutes from the
beginning.
** In 1977
a video was made portraying Ken’s early life, his meeting and marrying Jane,
and his early musical career. If you have time, this is well worth seeing (here).
