Golden, Renny 1937–

PERSONAL:

Born February 21, 1937, in Chicago, IL. Education: Wayne State University, M.Ed., 1968; Chicago Theological Seminary, D.Min., 1976.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Chicago, IL. Office—Northeastern Illinois University, 5500 North St. Louis, Chicago, IL 60625.

CAREER:

Writer, poet, and educator. Malcolm X College, Chicago, IL, dean and founder of St. Mary's Community Education, 1972-77; Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, MA, research/faculty associate, 1977-78; Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, associate professor, 1978—. Founded Chicago Religious Task Force on Central America, 1982; National Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala, advisory board, 1985.

AWARDS, HONORS:

All Nations Poetry Contest winner, 1978; nominated for Breadloaf Writers Poetry Fellowship, 1985; Polly Bond Journalism Award for feature writing, 1985.

WRITINGS:

(With Sheila Collins and Eileen Kreutz) Half a Winter to Go: Poems, Sunburst Press (Chicago, IL), 1976.

(With Sheila Collins) Struggle Is a Name for Hope, West End Press (Chicago, IL), 1982.

(With Michael McConnell) Sanctuary: The New Underground Railroad, Orbis Books (Maryknoll, NY), 1986.

Dangerous Memories: Invasion and Resistance since 1492, Chicago Religious Task Force on Central America (Chicago, IL), 1991.

The Hour of the Poor, the Hour of Women: Salvadoran Women Speak, Crossroad (New York, NY), 1991.

Disposable Children: America's Child Welfare System, Wadsworth (Belmont, CA), 1997.

The Hour of the Furnaces, Mid-List Press (Minneapolis, MN), 2000.

(With Marie Dennis and Scott Wright) Oscar Romero: Reflections on His Life and Writings, Orbis Books (Maryknoll, NY), 2000.

War on the Family: Mothers in Prison and the Families They Leave Behind, Routledge (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor to books, including Women's Spirit Bonding, edited by M. Buckley and J. Kalvan, Pilgrim Press, 1984; and Theology in the Americas, Orbis Press, 1976. Contributor to manuals and booklets, including A Pastoral Manual on Prison Ministry, The National Federation of Priests' Councils, 1981; Sanctuary: A Justice Ministry, Chicago Religious Task Force on Central America, 1983; and New Humanity and the Experience of Women, World YWCA, 1984. Contributor to periodicals, including Probe, Alert!, In These Times, and the Reader.

SIDELIGHTS:

In reviewing educator and author Renny Golden's book Sanctuary: The New Underground Railroad, which Golden wrote with Michael McConnell, Los Angeles Times Book Review contributor Allison Silver defined the sanctuary crusade discussed in the book as one "wherein church communities, cities or even entire states … declare themselves havens for undocumented immigrants fleeing persecution in their homelands." As an activist in this movement, Golden has traveled to Central America numerous times, researching the living conditions and working to improve them. She has also authored articles and books on the subject of sanctuary. Silver considered Golden and McConnell's publication to be "arguing from the heart and not the head." James W. Schulz, in America, commended the authors for having "performed a service to the North American churches. This book is a testimony to the courage of both the refugees who have struggled to arrive in this country as well as to those individuals and congregations that have taken the risk of assisting them."

In 1991, the Chicago Religious Task Force on Central America—a group Golden formed in 1982—published her book Dangerous Memories: Invasion and Resistance since 1492. That same year she also wrote The Hour of the Poor, the Hour of Women: Salvadoran Women Speak, which Lawless Bean, in the Bloomsbury Review, described as a "compilation of interviews" that illustrate the state of much of the Latin world. Bean praised Golden's book for illuminating often overlooked facets of life in the wake of war, writing: "As Golden and others have demonstrated … the impetus for recovery must come from the silent sufferers, the most oppressed of the oppressed—women, indigenous peoples, and children. Their voices must lead the way."

In his 1997 book, Disposable Children: America's Child Welfare System, Golden provides a compilation of firsthand accounts of children who have suffered within the child welfare system. The author gathered the accounts from caseworkers, judges, and the children themselves. Disposable Children delves into the welfare system with a focus on Chicago, and the author ultimately condemns the system while offering potential solutions to what Golden sees as endemic problems within the system. Gary MacEoin, writing in the National Catholic Reporter, called Disposable Children "important not only for professional social workers but for everyone who has any role in shaping our society."

The Hour of the Furnaces is a collection of poems by the author that portrays El Salvadorian peasants and martyrs. Golden includes historical and biographical notes. Patricia Monaghan, writing in Booklist, called the poems "surprisingly and heroically hopeful."

Golden is coauthor with Marie Dennis and Scott Wright of Oscar Romero: Reflections on His Life and Writings, which tells the story of the Catholic archbishop of El Salvador who was ultimately assassinated in 1980 for his strong and vocal support for the rights of the poor, a stance that threatened the status quo and the government. Romero remains a beloved figure in El Salvador, where a memorial service has been held for him annually since his death. "Oscar Romero authentically mirrors a Latino emotional quality that may sometimes seem overly sentimental to more jaded northerners," wrote Wayne Holst in the Western Catholic Reporter. "Yet, there is no mistaking the authentic change that occurred in Romero's life; his historic witness and the Church's increased reverence for him." Calling the book "an inspiring and edifying tribute," Spirituality & Practice Web site contributors Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat went on to note in the same review: "The authors have culled some of Romero's most poignant words of prophetic power from his homilies, diaries, letters, and public talks."

War on the Family: Mothers in Prison and the Families They Leave Behind was published in 2005. According to Sojourners magazine contributor Tom Montgomery-Fate, the book is "a searing indictment of the booming prison industry and the hell it has unleashed on the victims of its ‘success’—primarily African Americans, Latinos, and Arabs." In his book, the author notes that women are the fastest-growing prison population and that seventy-five percent of women behind bars are mothers. Furthermore, according to the author, more than fifty percent of those women in state prisons never see their children while they are imprisoned. The author traces this high incarceration rate for women to the War on Drugs campaign. He goes on, through interviews with many of the imprisoned mothers, to detail the needs of both the women and their children and outlines the lack of good policies that would provide for things such as drug treatment programs. "Blending ethnography and social commentary, War on the Family powerfully chronicles the lives of incarcerated women and their families, and the many injustices that beset them," noted Amy C. Conley in the Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

America, April 19, 1986, James W. Schulz, review of Sanctuary: The New Underground Railroad, pp. 328-329.

Bloomsbury Review, June, 1992, Lawless Bean, review of The Hour of the Poor, the Hour of Women: Salvadoran Women Speak.

Booklist, April 15, 2000, Patricia Monaghan, review of The Hour of the Furnaces, p. 1517.

Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, September 1, 2006, Amy C. Conley, review of War on the Family: Mothers in Prison and the Families They Leave Behind, p. 192.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, June 8, 1986, Allison Silver, review of Sanctuary, p. 6.

National Catholic Reporter, October 17, 1997, Gary MacEoin, review of Disposable Children: America's Child Welfare System, p. 23; March 17, 2000, Gary MacEoin, review of Oscar Romero: Reflections on His Life and Writings, p. 9; May 5, 2000, Gary MacEoin, review of The Hour of the Furnaces, p. 38.

Sojourners, February 1, 2006, Tom Montgomery-Fate, "The Cost of Prison," p. 45.

Western Catholic Reporter, March 20, 2000, Wayne Holst, "Romero Rooted in the Here and Now," review of Oscar Romero.

ONLINE

Spirituality & Practice, http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/ (May 6, 2008), Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, review of Oscar Romero.