So here's a challenge...

On Saturday night, as I sat basking in the beauty of Paul Winter's music - a music that was inter-racial, multicultural, participatory AND found a way to celebrate the music of the planet through animal songs - I kept thinking: what is a way through the current morass of hatred and racism? I remember back during the nuclear arms race I challenged my congregation to begin a "people to people" mission to the former Soviet Union. Like Stanley Hauerwas likes to note: it is a lot harder to kill the people you know and pray for every day.

So, over time I took four different groups to Soviet Russia for conversations and worship and prayer and listening. In Cleveland, I worked with the city government on race relations in the Community Development Board - bringing people together for food and conversation - and eventually I was elected to the Board of Education to work on quality education for all of the city's children: black, white, brown and yellow. In Tucson, we did work with BorderLinks around immigration and globalization concerns as well as fought for the GLBTQ community as allies.

In every setting, God has opened a door for learning, listening and growing together through our many differences. And clearly the music of Paul Winter embraces the quest for common ground in bold and beautiful ways... so what can be done to advance the common good now in this ugly climate of fear, name-calling and racism?

So here is a challenge – personally and professionally – that I would appreciate your wisdom working through: how do people of faith and consciousness really disagree with one another without demonizing or polarizing one another? You see, this past week I have experienced the onslaught of vicious disagreements from people opposing health care reform – and most of the arguments are filled with sarcasm, rank opinion and personal attacks. They are rarely about the issues which leads me to believe that:

+ Much of what passes for debate in the USA today is more about fear than cooperation and respect.

+ A whole lot of people don’t know how to disagree without being disagreeable – and in a culture of insults and competition tend to go for the low blow as their default position.

+ Religious communities have not helped the situation much with spiritual leaders encouraging violence, hatred and intolerance in the name of this or that scared tradition.

+ The whole culture is a lot more course and mean-spirited: from TV programming and talk radio to music, movies and mainstream literature. There is a vulgarity that is all too common place.

Now I am not one to believe culture can be put into reverse: once Pandora’s Box has been opened… such is our reality. At the same time, I am eager to know how others have addressed this issue in their spiritual journey. Two insights from the Christian scriptures come to mind:

+ The early church seemed to argue and pray a great deal – while still trying to share table fellowship with one another – during Peter and Paul’s calling to welcome Gentiles in the formerly Jewish community of faith. If the book of Acts bears any truth, there were a host of very hard conversations – lots of prayer and disagreement, too – before the group in Jerusalem discerned that what took place beyond Jerusalem among the Gentile converts to the way of Jesus had just as much integrity as those who followed the older tradition in the Law.

+ The history of the church is filled with division and separation – every 500 years to be sure – and a lot more frequently, too. And perhaps that is how it is supposed to work: people clarify the essentials and share them and then break into opposing camps and go their own way for a while until the Spirit creates new possibilities for common ground.

In my own family of origin, we’ve certainly practiced both ways: arguing fiercely but choosing to find ways to share a common table, and, breaking apart from time to time until people cool off or realities change. But I’m curious about your experience:

• How do you deal with bold differences in your faith community?
• How are minorities honored and heard?
• How do you make decisions when there are clear divisions in the house?
• What are the spiritual guidelines that help you?
• What has caused the most problems?
• What has helped you, too?

I have been thinking and praying over this insight from Joan Chittister: "Holiness... is not something that happens in a vacuum. It has something to do with the way we live our community lives and our family lives and our public lives as well as the way we say our prayers. The life-needs of other people affect the life of the truly spiritual person and they hear the voice of God in that. As one midrash on Genesis points out: God prefers your deeds to your ancestors' virtues." (The Rule of Benedict, p. 39)

So what have you found to work? Any takers?