JENNIE MARONEY ("THE WOMAN BEHIND THE LETTERS")

“Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.” (Proverbs 27:2)

Jennie Maroney is no stranger to controversy! I’ve known Jennie for twenty-five years- longer than I’ve lived in MetroWest. Back in the mid-1980s, Jennie’s daughter Sandy was my Secretary at Christian Life Center, a large church in Walpole. Jennie worshipped there often in those days. Just before my move to Framingham in 1987, Sandy kidded me saying, “My mother will have you out picketing in front of the hospital!”

Jennie never asked me to do that, but I quickly realized how notorious she was in Framingham! In the late 1980s, Tom Moroney was a popular columnist for this paper (then the “Middlesex News”). One of his most entertaining columns was about Jennie and was entitled, “Listen Up! She’s Not My Mother!”

This is an apology for Jennie Maroney. Please understand, it’s a “apology” in the true sense of the word. We typically misuse the word “apology”. The Miriam-Webster on-line Dictionary states that the English word “apology” ultimately comes from the Greek words, apo + logos which would best be rendered “speech”. The PRIMARY definition of “apology” is, “a formal justification : defense”. The definition of apology that WE usually think is most apt is the secondary definition, “an admission of error or discourtesy accompanied by an expression of regret”. So, it’s a defense of Jennie Maroney, but it’s also somewhat of a defense of her critics.

Jennie’s not the cold, doctrinaire judge some believe her to be. I happen to know she’s endured her share of tragedy. A few years ago, she lost her second husband Ed Maroney, the love of her life, following a long illness. Shortly afterward, Jennie Maroney was stricken with a very serious illness, herself. During that period, I visited Jennie once in the Framingham Union Hospital, and twice in the Leonard Morse Hospital. She told me on one of those visits that some (upon meeting her) had been surprised and asked, “Are you THE Jennie Maroney?!” Her illness was very serious, and Jennie is quite advanced in age. It was evident on my trips to Leonard Morse how ill Jennie really was. Although I prayed for Jennie on each hospital visit and did all I could to encourage her, I will confess that I returned from my third visit sadly telling my wife, “I expect to read Jennie Maroney’s obituary in the paper soon. Unless there’s a miracle, I don’t think she’ll make it.”

There evidently WAS a miracle, because Jennie now has the energy, vitality, and passion that she had over ten years ago! In my opinion, she looks twenty years younger than she actually is. No, I don’t always agree with Jennie. Back in the ‘80s she wrote a letter to the editor stating that one of the paper’s editorials had obviously quoted from a Communist document! The editors added that it was a quote from the American Heritage Magazine! I was embarrassed for Jennie that time, but agree or disagree, you’ve got to admire Jennie’s courage.

Her recent Letter to the Editor, “Making Home Bible Study Illegal” brought a lot of comments to the on-line edition, and sparked Ed Lawrence’s Easter Sunday column entitled, “Learned Anything Today?”

Ironically Jennie and her critics have something in common: they love to have the last word! I'm ashamed to admit I have that same tendency, and it's a struggle for me to NOT try to have the last word. A lesson we all need to learn is to be teachable. My first pastor in the Assemblies of God, the Rev. Lloyd A. Westover, said almost every person you meet in life has something to teach you, and that’s true.

What do I respect about Jennie Maroney? In an apathetic age, she CARES. Jennie cares about human life, from “unborn babies” to sickly elderly persons. She cares about the community of Framingham and wants to see it become a safer and better place. Jennie has some old fashioned values of decency and morality. In this moral cesspool, her thoughts are welcome. Jennie is not cloistered in a religious ghetto- she cares about bringing Christianity into the marketplace, much as the Apostle Paul did at Athens in Acts chapter 17. Biblical scholars report that Paul's ministry in Athens was one of his biggest failures. No church was established. Many mocked Paul. Yet a few people became Believers, so he did make a difference there.

Much as her critics will decry this, MetroWest is the better for Jennie Maroney being among us and putting her thoughts out in the arena. And, Jennie, those who criticize you (and me, for that matter) are also caring passionate people that we can sometimes learn from, as well!

(P.S. A condensed and slightly edited version of this is found in today’s MetroWest Daily News at www.metrowestdailynews.com )