Catlett’s Passion Leads Him to Help the Disadvantaged

Miles Catlett came to Campbell University Divinity School as a seeker. He completed his Divinity School work even more devoted to searching for God.
“Before I came to Divinity School, I felt not only spiritually confined by my lack of knowledge about the Bible, but also academically caged by what I did not grasp of the text,” he explains. “In Divinity School I became comfortable with not knowing all the answers. God continues to reveal himself to me through everything in life,” he adds. “I value my relationship with God very much; it’s probably the biggest part of who I am.”
Catlett says he feels that in the modern era Christians have tried to explain salvation in rational and material terms. “I have come to view salvation less as a possession or an event, and more as a divine mystery,” he explains. “While it works miraculously in a rational, material world, salvation comes not through reason but through relationship with Jesus Christ.”
Catlett enrolled in Campbell University Divinity School, in part, because of the profound impact of missions involvement and exposure to foreign cultures. As a youth and young adult, he participated in several overseas mission projects, including nine months in Mexico where he immersed himself in that culture.
“Instead of being afraid of that which was different, I learned to appreciate other cultures and I even allowed my identity to be shaped by foreign culture.” He says the simplicity of their lives stemming from their lack of material wealth gave them opportunity to focus their time on community instead of entertainment. “I came to cherish these virtues and reject the ingratitude evident in the cafeteria style of American worship and the empty busyness of an entertainment-crazed American culture.”
His mission involvement also confronted him with the needs of the marginalized. “I acquired an empathy for others, especially those whose differences bring them hardship,” he explains. While in Divinity School, he helped to design the theological certificate program in Spanish and helped lead the program for several semesters. He has also led his youth group at Holly Springs Baptist Church, Broadway, to reach out to the Hispanic children in the area. His wife, Ashley, is an English as a Second Language teacher in Harnett County. They met while both were serving in Mexico.
When they first came to Divinity School, they both felt a calling to become career missionaries. But part of what they have experienced in the last four years is the need for advocates of marginalized people in North Carolina. One particular man from Mexico comes to mind for him. He says that three people have become advocates for this man because he has had so many difficulties. “I’ve seen how debilitating prejudices can be, what it means to be crushed and beat down. When the majority of your interactions are negative, you’re swimming upstream.”
So many times, he says, disadvantaged people are caught between greedy people’s interests or lost in the busyness of daily tasks and without advocates, they have nowhere to turn. “Attitudes about them change when we become interested in them and experience the difficulties they go through,” he explains. “God is on the side of the poor and oppressed. We look down on them but He became one of them. He gave up power and high standing and took on the form of a person who endured the suffering of everyday, ordinary people. It kind of torments me to think about that.”
Catlett will graduate in May. Further study and working in local church ministries are among his options for the future but no matter what he does or where he goes, he will be an advocate “for the least of these.”

Bulletin 0058-3/10/05