Diversity Revisited

main image

A renowned professor has left Duke Divinity School after a disagreement over diversity training. My goal is not to throw stones. Does our country have intolerance and inequality in its history? Of course.  Is there an element of ideology in such training? Of course. Could the professor have been more temperate and the dean a better defender of free speech? Doubtless.

But my point lies elsewhere. The House of Bishops recently had such a session. There was some grumbling on the part of bishops of various stripes. But something interesting happened midstream. The presenter spoke of the need, in our post - colonial era, to appreciate the distinctive ways traditional societies thought and acted, consistent with their ancient lore and inherited mores. Conservative bishops smiled, looked at one another. Sounds like us!

What if in our present moment diversity calls something forth which neither side imagined at the outset? We are a minority view within a diverse scene.  As such we are not merely to be tolerated until we die out, but to be given space.  As I have written elsewhere, we are “biodiversity.”  Resistance to what I am saying is just what the training aimed to challenge. 

Peace,

+GRS

 

Complete the Race (II Timothy 4:17)

At the end of our vacation we find ourselves in Chicago for its Marathon weekend (the fastest, I have read this morning, perhaps because it is cool and relatively level). Marathons offer many good things. You can see world-class athletes from places like Ethiopia and Kenya. There is a feel of fiesta with signs by family members, getups by some for-fun runners, and food for sale.

But as I looked out my hotel window at 7:30 a.m., I watched the race of competitors who have lost legs or their use. Wheeling vehicles by arm for 26 miles means serious fitness and determination.

Those competitors were to me, this morning, a symbol of the Church too. For each is wounded. The larger family cheers them on. Each by grace has risen up to run the race. Ahead is the goal, the prize, the welcome home. We find the companionship of Jesus the Lord, there, and along the route too.

Amen.

GRS