Deliberately Diverse represents the individual thoughts and opinions of a group of Taylor friends who almost never completely agree about anything but are gratified by the opportunity to stimulate deliberately diverse discussions in our beloved community.
When I was still new to Taylor, I was asked two questions that didn’t have good answers, “Have you found a church home?” and “How did you get to be so liberal?” Simple questions, but I thought the answers were too complicated to be understood outside my own head.
I grew up with a church home in rural Oklahoma. There I was taught to have faith that there is only one right way of living and it didn’t include questioning, mostly just memorizing. I learned the books of the Bible, many quotations, and that if you didn’t believe what the church fathers said, you could not enter Heaven. I worried that so many of my friends who went to other churches would not qualify for Heaven.
Later as a college student I was encouraged to question everything because that was how discoveries were made. I joined a church near campus. Its structure and format were different but familiar enough. I was surprised the difference didn’t bother me. That affiliation worked well and lasted a decade - until it fell in a rubble of scandal and chaos. The pain of that loss was profound and real.
Over the next several decades I investigated a variety of churches and belief systems. Feeling the need to label myself, I became an agnostic. So, I didn’t look for a church home. No one had yet called me a liberal. In graduate school I
In graduate school I needed a research topic. I was asked “what do you want to know, and is it knowable?” These questions guided my academic journey as well as my spiritual life. I met a young black woman from Detroit who brilliantly schooled me in why it was important to see, acknowledge, and celebrate our differences. Education happens inside and outside the classroom.
Over time, I visited a fascinating array of other places and cultures around the globe. I met others who wanted to learn about me as I wanted to know them. Their labels were varied. They were men, women, young, old, gay, straight, black, white, Asian, Christian, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, Bahai, Muslim, rich, poor, immigrant and native. Importantly, they were good people doing their best to understand their world.
It took a while but today I can see those “others” are just reflections of myself (and you). They treasure family and community. They have gifts and deficits. They’ve known happiness and sorrow. They love. They grieve. So, I am a liberal because I believe we all have the right to be ourselves and we have the responsibility to see, accept, and celebrate our differences.
It is related that I have indeed found a church home. I regularly visit a lovely building where I and several others come to make a “joyful noise” (and have coffee and do yoga). I am still not sure that God is knowable, but I am confident that those who lovingly work toward making the world a better place are creating Heaven right here on earth.
