Patrick Butler: Another Look

While sitting on the porch the other day, I took another long look at Tyler. What an experience this place has been.

Most readers probably know Seattle was my last stop; Los Angeles before that, then San Francisco, Amsterdam, Chicago and Manhattan, New York, in no particular order. I don’t have any family, roots, cousins or kids from East Texas.

Still, I’ve spent the entire 21st century in East Texas. Coming here in 1999 was a culture shock, but the day I move on I’ll take valuable life lessons with me. Tyler’s influence will always be somewhere in my stories.

May I elaborate.

Tyler is a special place. Something is found here other cities don’t have. It’s not coffee shops, concert halls, museums or restaurants. I suppose we’d have to build forever to catch some cities.

No matter. What Tyler has is genuine heart. It’s the real deal here.

There is a spiritual climate here acting as a conduit of concern and compassion like few other places. Speaking to a small group of area nonprofit leaders recently I said, “So many people take their Bible seriously here that it resonates. Especially the admonition to Love Thy Neighbor.”

But Tyler is still an unknown to many. Even in Dallas.

So when PBS came through Tyler from Washington, D.C., on Wednesday with a camera crew from Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, I wondered what they would pick up. When segment writer and host Lucky Severson expressed pleasant surprise about the congeniality, genuine warmth and hospitality of those in Tyler (and its restaurants) I simply nodded with a sigh and smile.

Word is getting out that Tyler has good reason to be one of the best places in America to live. As a writer, I hope more people grasp that and detractors take another look.

“This seems like it would be a great place to retire,” Lucky observed.

“Anyone would be lucky to live here,” I said smiling, hoping he would be one to try Tyler.

I’ve noticed, as religion editor, when people pray here, they seem to mean it. Sitting on my porch I saw those prayers being answered in perhaps unexpected ways.

For one, it helps to attract a committed set of excellent leaders driving the religious nonprofit sector and transforming the community. Robert Bush of the East Texas Food Bank springs to mind; Christina Fulsom, executive director of People Attempting To Help; Rabbi Neal Katz of the Tyler Ministerial Alliance and future president of PATH; Jerome Milton of the Martin Luther King Jr. March and Rally; Captains John and Melanie Falin of the Salvation Army; Anwar Khalifa, volunteer Tyler Police chaplain and member of the Governor’s Commission on Housing, and more.

Tyler has an excellent set of noble clergy. I won’t name them so not to miss a single one. I’ve learned much from their spiritual dedication and patience with me.

The “outsiders” have been allowed in Tyler, been accepted and helped this community on a daily basis. Sitting on my porch listening as the East Texas wind gently gushed through Piney Woods trees, I see these newcomers as answers to Tyler’s prayers. God’s blessings, if you will, that people have prayed for and deserve.

These newcomers could have been — but were not — rejected. There is a curious passage in the Christian New Testament about some people in a village who did not believe and Christ would do no miracles there. But many people here do believe and we all experience the difference it makes.

Good people come to Tyler and can immediately inject themselves into the community having significant impact. The emphasis here is largely on relationships first, philanthropy first, good works first, helping others first. That’s a great set of goals no number of cozy coffee shops could ever replace.

But Tyler takes considered chances and is better for it. Just ask the thousand believers at Marvin UMC Wednesday that came to hear “poor,” itinerant pastor David Brown, a black preacher from Louisiana.

“A prophet has come among us,” said Mary Dale Thomas a longtime member of the church.

Tyler: First in the nation with Muslims and Jews building a Habitat For Humanity Home; First to have a Salvation Army Center — a “flagship facility” larger cities don’t have; Home of Mercy Ships, operator of the world’s largest nongovernmental hospital ship; Steward of the largest food bank freezer in Texas, and a national model of faith-based community charity in PATH. Even the first in the nation to “Adopt a Highway.” There are many other “firsts,” but space is limited.

Tyler has the problems found everywhere. But its people largely meet those problems with prayer and “Love Thy Neighbor” and are not ashamed to say that’s the way God wants them to do it. Because of that, this town has something more “progressive” cities vaguely strive for, but rarely arrive at.

And that’s the view from my porch.

Patrick Butler
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