# One HDS Alum’s Mission? Be an ‘Earthshaking, Social Justice Christian’ February 05, 2025 [ Tyler Sprouse ](/people/tyler-sprouse) ![Karen Sue Smith, MDiv '84, poses for a photo](/sites/g/files/omnuum5526/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-02/karensuesmith-900x600.jpg?itok=aUC3__W6) Karen Sue Smith, MDiv '84 When Karen Sue Smith, MDiv ‘84, reflects on her life, one episode stands out as a turning point. As a recent college graduate, Smith was preparing to attend law school. However, while perusing the legal stacks at a library in her hometown of Phoenix, AZ, she discovered a misfiled book, *The Cotton Patch Evidence: The Story of Clarence Jordan and the Koinonia Farm Experiment (1942-1970)*. Reading this changed everything. “It struck me as a completely odd experience,” said Smith. “I thought, ‘What could this possibly be? It shouldn’t be here, in the law section.’ But it was, somehow. I began reading it in the aisle and could not put it down. This was a pivotal moment for me.” This singular experience led to a journey that has stretched from Phoenix to Georgia, to the University of Notre Dame, Harvard Divinity School, New York City, and beyond. Along the way, Smith became a writer, editor, and a dedicated advocate for justice. Most importantly, she notes, it unlocked a life of deep meaning and transformative relationships. ## **Five Years on the Farm** Soon after reading *Cotton Patch Evidence*, Smith left home and embarked on a cross-country trip from Arizona to Koinonia Farm. “I didn’t have any money or really any sense of what I wanted to accomplish at the farm,” said Smith. “I just knew I had to be there. I thought I’d stay for about a month and see how things went. Nearly five years later…” she laughed. Founded in 1942 in Americus, GA, by Clarence Jordan, [Koinonia Farm](https://koinoniafarm.org/brief-history/) is an ecumenical, interracial Christian community and working farm that emphasizes care for nature and the siblinghood of all people, as well as affordable housing within the wider area (an emphasis that inspired the creation of Habitat for Humanity). “He \[Jordan\] believed and taught that the poor needed capital, not charity; co-workers, not caseworkers,” said Smith. “He paid just and fair wages. Economic justice was a driving force on the farm.” A site of contestation and resistance during Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement, Koinonia Farm has long been a beacon of racial justice, reconciliation, and peace in the South—a reality that profoundly affected Smith. “Black people and white people were living and working together peacefully,” said Smith. “It was interracial, interdenominational, and even interfaith. Experiencing this model of community changed me.” ![two people stand outdoors and sing, one holding a guitar](/sites/g/files/omnuum5526/files/2025-02/KarenSmith2_500x341.jpg) *Smith (right) plays guitar and sings at a wedding during her time at Koinonia Farm. Photo courtesy of Karen Sue Smith.*On the farm, Smith had many roles, including co-managing the farm’s food co-op, tutoring, and leading a drama club for local schoolchildren. She participated in protests for racial justice with her neighbors. She read deeply the work of Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, and Henri Nouwen, converting to Catholicism while at Koinonia. “My time at Koinonia literally changed my life and my focus,” said Smith. ## **Finding Her Vocation at HDS** After two years at the University of Notre Dame, during which time she earned a master’s in liturgy and studied with Professor Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza—whose work would have a lasting impact on her theology and faith—Smith enrolled at Harvard Divinity School in 1981. Building on the foundation developed at Koinonia and Notre Dame, her three years at HDS transformed Smith’s understanding of her newfound Catholic faith. “My experiences at HDS helped me realize that Christianity is not something you think, but something you do—it is who you are,” said Smith. This key insight was nourished through experiential learning in diverse settings at HDS—both in and out of the classroom. For example, during her time at HDS, Smith worked extensively with Harvard students. She was president of her resident hall, a campus chaplain at Boston College, and was the summer jobs coordinator at the Harvard Summer School. Tending to the needs of these students deepened her understanding of care, service, and Christian discipleship. Smith also took part in the Boston Theological Interreligious Consortium, which enabled her to study at Weston Jesuit School of Theology (now the Gloria L. and Charles I. Clough School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College), St. John’s Seminary, and Boston University School of Theology. Within the consortium, she studied with engaging scholars and writers, including Nobel laureate and Auschwitz survivor Professor Elie Wiesel at Boston University. “The consortium broadened my perspective on Christian theology and how it related to social issues,” said Smith. “I met some wonderful, interesting people through the consortium who paired deep faith with active engagement in the world.” Early on at HDS, Smith knew that she wanted to be, in her words, an “earthshaking, social justice Christian,” though she was unclear about her vocation. Over the course of pursuing her masters of divinity degree, she found an answer: she wanted to be a writer. Having already written a series of articles on the hazards of transporting nuclear materials across Georgia highways, as well as publishing several pieces in national Catholic magazines, Smith received validation of her writing abilities at Harvard. “At HDS, I began to see writing as a possible calling,” said Smith. “I seemed to have more to contribute by writing articles, editorials, personal reflections, and theology for lay readers than by doing direct pastoral work or social ministry.” Receiving encouragement from her professors, such as former HDS Deans Krister Stendahl and Fr. George MacRae, Smith gained confidence as a writer. She developed an understanding of a “ministry of writing” through a course on religious authors of fiction with Dean Guy Martin, during which she extensively studied the writing of Flannery O’Connor. She was also influenced by Fr. J. Bryan Hehir, with whom, upon graduation, she went on to work at *Commonweal Magazine*. For Smith, the rich religious diversity at HDS strengthened her future work as a writer and editor. “Precisely because HDS had faculty and students from so many religious traditions, cultural experiences, and viewpoints, I felt that I could bring to my writing and editing in Catholic periodicals a very broad base, a much wider purview, than I might have had with a strictly Catholic education,” said Smith. ## **‘The Greatest Thing’** Smith’s time at HDS empowered her to live a life of purpose. For 30 years, she wrote for and edited several Catholic periodicals—*Commonweal*, *CHURCH*, and *America*—for lay audiences. She has edited and procured the work of theologians, writers, and biblical scholars, such as her former professor Fr. Hehir, Margaret Miles, and Elisabeth and Francis Schüssler Fiorenza—[in whose honor Smith established a financial aid fund at the School](https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/11/17/gift-giving). Living in New York City with her spouse, Rose, whom she met while passing the peace at her local parish, Smith dedicates her time to serving others in community through [Bread for the World](https://www.bread.org/) and other venues. She wants to keep these organizations alive, and she is hoping to inspire interested members of the HDS community to get involved. “There is so much opportunity for experiential learning at places like Koinonia Farm or Bread for the World,” said Smith. “I hope students will consider internships at these organizations. At Koinonia, for instance, there is much that people can do. If you're interested in civil rights history, in journalism, in organic farming or climate or gardening, if you're interested in the New South—there are so many opportunities there.” No matter where people get involved, Smith encourages students to get engaged however they can. “If you want your life to be changed,” she began, “work with others who are doing life-changing things. Give yourself to something totally, something you really believe in. “That is the greatest thing you can do in my view.”