MARK BENNETT: Mitch Albom brings his beliefs to Indiana State

By Mark Bennett

TERRE HAUTE — Mitch Albom acquired his skepticism firsthand.

In a quarter-century as a sportswriter, Albom encountered his share of coaches who preached honor to players and the world, but behaved anything but honorably. Not surprisingly, the hypocrisy reinforced a long-building cynicism within Albom.

Two weeks from now, Albom will stand onstage inside Indiana State University’s Tilson Auditorium and discuss his new book, “Have a Little Faith: A True Story.” He’s written just about everything — newspaper commentaries for the Detroit Free Press (he’s the most decorated sports columnist in America), songs, plays and New York Times bestseller books. But Albom, now 51, has never penned anything like “Have a Little Faith.”

At one time, he couldn’t have written it.

“I was much more cynical about faith and religion a decade ago,” Albom said in a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon.

Speaking of that weekday, it was Albom’s first major literary venture outside the sports world — his book “Tuesdays with Morrie” — that slowly began reconnecting the writer with his complicated and largely abandoned religious past. That 1997 book detailed Albom’s weekly visits with his beloved sociology professor at Brandeis University, who was living bravely while dying from Lou Gehrig’s disease. In “Tuesdays,” Morrie Schwartz famously told his former student, “I used to be an agnostic, now I’m not so sure.”

Albom learned of his old prof’s illness while watching Schwartz talk about living with a fatal disease on ABC’s “Nightline” in 1995. Albom found Schwartz, visited him, and wound up carving time from his impossibly busy schedule every Tuesday to chat heart-to-heart with his dying mentor. That experience put Albom on a path toward “Have a Little Faith.”

To the surprise of numerous publishers who rejected “Tuesdays with Morrie,” that book has now sold 14 million copies in 41 different languages. Albom followed it up with a pair of similarly succinct, inspirational books — “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” in 2003, and “For One More Day” in 2006. Both hinged upon forgiveness, loved ones taken for granted, enlightenment and spiritual growth.

“Have a Little Faith” pulls Albom feet-first into an area in which many of us, including Albom, feel uncomfortable discussing.

“We’re taught, ‘Never talk about religion and politics,’” he said last week.

Well, “Have a Little Faith” talks a lot about faith. It was inspired by an odd request in the fall of 2000 from an 82-year-old rabbi in Albom’s hometown in New Jersey. The cleric, Albert Lewis, wanted Albom, raised Jewish, to write and someday deliver his eulogy. “As is often the case with faith, I thought I was being asked a favor, when in fact I was being given one,” Albom writes in the book.

During the next eight years, Albom came to know his old rabbi as a person. At first, he aimed to get just enough information to cover the eulogy. Instead, their talks continued. At the same time, Albom got acquainted with the Christian pastor, preaching in a crumbling Detroit church, populated mostly by the homeless and the poor. This minister, the Rev. Henry Covington, is a reformed drug dealer.

Through both improbable connections, the writer begins to discover the value of spiritual faith in human life. Sometimes, it involved small gestures that Albom had always avoided, such as a someone saying, “God bless you.” Albom used to wonder “who’s God” are they referring to? Would their God accept him, too?

So, one day, he asked Rabbi Lewis, or “Reb” as Albom and his teenage buddies always labeled him, “What do you say when people say, ‘God bless you’?”

“And he said, I say, “Thank you. God bless you, too,’” Albom recalled. “I thought, ‘That’s so simple. What’s the harm in that?’”

“Have a Little Faith” comes at a moment when religion is feeling the weight of the times and the recession.

Ten to 15 percent of religious congregations in America report being in “serious financial trouble,” according to a multi-faith survey by Faith Communities Today. Many worship places have lost members when recession-induced layoffs forced them to move elsewhere. Others have simply stopped attending church regularly. Last year, the American Religious Identification Survey revealed that most people consider themselves “nondenominational Christians” and also found rising numbers of people without any religious belief.

Albom’s book challenges that skepticism.

In its latter pages, he asks readers, “Have you ever known a man of faith? Did you run the other way? If so, stop running. Maybe sit down for a minute.”

Eventually, Albom’s rabbi dies. And inside the New Jersey synagogue where Albert Lewis ruminated, sang, counseled and consoled, Albom found himself in front of others, recounting the value of a man who opened his arms in the name of faith. Albom gave that eulogy. The rabbi had done him a favor. He’s more at peace today in discussing beliefs in a higher power, even those that differ.

“It’s OK talk about it and realize it’s something we all have in common, to a point,” Albom said. “It’s something to be celebrated.”

In the wake of Rabbi Lewis’ death, Albom returns to the synagogue and combs through the papers “Reb” collected throughout six decades of services. Albom recalled quizzing Lewis on one of those impossible what-if questions. The younger man wondered how the rabbi would react if heaven turned out to be just a 5-minute talk with God, before being jettisoned to some unknown destination.

Rabbi Lewis said he would use the first minute to request God’s guidance for his family. He’d then give his next three minutes to others who are suffering and need God’s counsel more. And in the last minute, Rabbi Lewis said he would probably remind God that he’d done some good stuff during his life, followed the teachings and shared them, loved his family and treated others well. Then the rabbi said he would ask God, “What is my reward?”

“He’ll say, ‘Reward? What reward?’” the rabbi told Albom. “That’s what you’re supposed to do.”

The two men laughed and laughed. Albom’s cynicism had faded.

Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.

Coming to Terre Haute

Author and Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom will speak at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 19 in Tilson Auditorium as part of the Indiana State University Speakers Series. Albom’s talk is free and open to the public. He’s the author of New York Times bestsellers “Tuesdays with Morrie,” “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” and “For One More Day.” His latest book, “Have a Little Faith,” was released Sept. 29.