I spoke this word of encouragement at the memorial service for my father, Dorlan Bales, on 06/06/2026, at Bethel College Mennonite Church. The scripture reading was: Matthew 5:1-16.
Sometimes there’s a man. I don’t want to say hero, because what is a hero? But sometimes there’s a man. A man for his time and place. He just sticks out like a sore thumb. He shines like a light on a lamp stand. You can’t miss him. He’s like a city on a hill. Sometimes there’s a man and you see his good works. And you just have to glorify our Father who is in heaven.
Today we are here to remember and to honor such a man: Dorlan Bales.
Dorlan was the sort of man who loved the teachings of Jesus – the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes in particular. He loved the Beatitudes because it was a set of principles that he could look to and live by. Dorlan Bales was, above all, a man of principle. When he believed something, he would not quit. He would not surrender. He was going to be an example of that principle.
Dorlan Bales was a man who, in the words of the Beatitude, “hungered and thirsted for righteousness.” He hungered and thirsted to do the right thing in the right way. He would not be deterred even in the face of great danger, social pressure, or even common sense.
As a 21-year-old college graduate in 1969, Dorlan chose to serve as a conscientious objector at a South Vietnamese hospital for two years. (He wasn’t drafted; he volunteered!) Had he been drafted, he could have easily gotten a religious deferment by enrolling in seminary. That was his plan, after all. When he got back from Vietnam, he did enroll in Earlham School of Religion, where he completed a Master of Divinity degree. From there, he went on to the University of Chicago to earn a PhD in Theology.
But when he was 21 years old, newly married, and had all those plans ahead of him, he didn’t take the easy path. He wanted to do the right thing in the right way. So he put his future on hold to administer a hospital in South Vietnam.
Dorlan’s life was defined by this kind of principled audacity. We saw it when he co-founded the Friends of Jesus Community focused on racial and economic justice in what was then one of the rougher parts of Wichita. We saw it when he and his community stood up for the dignity and spiritual worth of gay and lesbian Christians in the early 90s, despite enormous pressure not to do so.
We saw it in his action for peace and social justice, nuclear abolition, and sanctuary for Central American migrants fleeing war in the 1980s. His work for justice continued all his life. He co-founded and tirelessly labored for the Peace and Social Justice Center of South Central Kansas. He also co-founded and administered Sunflower Community Action in Wichita, at one point saving it from a hostile takeover.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Dorlan Bales was intent on being a child of God in this sense. He dedicated his life, his energy, and his reputation to working for peace and justice in the world.
Sometimes there’s a man. Sometimes there’s a man. Dorlan Bales was a force of nature. Relentless. When he got convinced of what was right and true and just, he would not stop.
Dad told me about a conversation he had with his own father when he decided to study at Earlham School of Religion, the Quaker seminary in Richmond, Indiana. His father, George, took him aside and counseled him that this might not be the best idea. Earlham School of Religion was considered far too liberal by many in the fundamentalist-leaning Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends Church. George told Dorlan, “I’m not telling you not to go, but if you do go, you need to understand that you probably won’t be able to come back.” It won’t surprise anyone here to know that he went anyway.
Dorlan Bales was not afraid of trouble. He did not back down when people reviled him and persecuted him and uttered all kinds of evil against him falsely on Jesus’ account. My Dad the honey badger. He would not quit. It hurt. But he was not deterred. Not one bit.
It hurt when Mid-America Yearly Meeting stripped his ministerial credentials, along with those of Dorothy Craven, for insisting that gay and lesbian people could be true members of Christ’s church. It was a painful loss that never entirely faded. But Dorlan Bales hungered and thirsted for righteousness. He was not going to put his light under a bushel basket. He was going to shine out for all the world to see, even if that world wanted to snuff him out. “And if the devil doesn’t like it, he can sit on a tack!”
Dorlan Bales was the salt of the earth. He was not going to lose that saltiness for anybody.
Sometimes there’s a man. Sometimes there’s a man who just sticks right out there and becomes a lightning rod so that other more timid souls don’t have to get struck.
Dorlan Bales had many enemies. He also had many supporters, many people who were inspired by him and believed in him. He did not have many close friends. Being a city on a hill can be lonely.
In his final years, it was a small number of people, including Lynn Rowe, Irene Desoto, Donna Bales, and Bethel College Mennonite Church who walked with him when he was at his most vulnerable and needed others to care for him.
At the end of his life, Dorlan Bales experienced the meaning of the words, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” Dorlan didn’t get the community that he had chosen; he was graced with the community that God gave him. He received our care in a meek and cheerful spirit. His heart grew every day greater than his mind, in a great irony that all who knew him well will appreciate.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.” Not too long before he died, my mom reminded Dorlan about a person who once hurt him very badly. Dad replied, “Oh I know, but I’ve forgiven him.” At the end of Dorlan’s life, he received mercy after mercy. He also gave it freely. A reminder to me, a reminder to all of us.
I forgive you, Dad. I love you, Dad.
“Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.” We will be comforted.
Come, Holy Spirit.