Tradition and Tolerance

You know how something can be such a part of the collective cultural conscience that you feel familiar with it although you've never actually experienced it? You've heard the songs all your life, you know snippets of the plot, but you've never seen actually seen it? That's how it was with me and Fiddler on the Roof. Who hasn't heard "Sunrise, Sunset" or "Eeef I were a rich man . . . "?

Well, Tuesday night we went to the Orpheum in Memphis and saw Topol in the role of Tevye, and he and the whole cast were wonderful. His voice. I just can't describe the richness of it and the character in it.

But I left the show thinking mostly about Tradition. Several times in the play, Tevye, who's been raised in a world strongly tied to tradition, is faced with the choice of following blind tradition or promoting the happiness of someone he loves. He does his "on one hand . . . on the other hand" soliloquies, and each time decides that if there is no logical or biblical basis for the tradition, he will choose the person's happiness. But the last time in the play he is forced to make this choice, he must choose between his faith and his family. After much struggle, he chooses his faith. Yet it is not with haughtiness or superiority, but with so much pain that you can't be a witness to it and not hurt with him. And even then, he cannot refrain from pronouncing a blessing on this daughter as they part.

I couldn't help but think how much better off we'd all be if we had the spirit of Tevye.

Can You Hear Me Now?

After stressing the need for our own humility, I talked about the absolute necessity of treating all people with dignity and respect, whether or not we agree with their religious/philosophical positions or their lifestyle choices. I also explained how important it is to get past categories and see people as individuals.

One example I used was Abilene Christian’s Christ-like reception of Soulforce, a group whose purpose is to discourage discrimination and violence against gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgendered individuals and to promote greater acceptance. In 2006, this group notified Abilene Christian University that their campus would be included as part of a cross-country bus tour. Some Christian universities around the country attempted to ban the organization from their campuses. Some threatened arrest. How did ACU respond?

“After careful consideration and discussions about who we are as a university, we decided the best way to affirm our core Christian values would be to treat Soulforce as Christ would – to have peaceful, patient dialogue about these issues while respectfully and clearly articulating why we believe as we do," said Dr. Royce Money, ACU President.

Soulforce members said they knew ACU continued to affirm the belief throughout the day that God intended sexual relations as an expression of love between a married man and woman. They also agreed that ACU offered the love of Christ, despite theological and academic disagreements.

"I think that in some ways, we can disagree but still acknowledge each other's humanity," said one Equality Rider in a discussion session. "I don't want to be here to push an agenda. I want to be here so that we can learn more about each other.”

Dr. Dwayne VanRheenen, Provost of ACU, said, "Part of our calling as Christian educators is to prepare our students to think through a wide variety of issues they will face while in college and after graduation. This visit showed students that there are real people dealing with the issues we hear about in the national press – and that these issues are complex and require deep, critical thinking to understand and to respond to as Christians."

"I believe Soulforce was unprepared for the depth of the love they would be shown by people on this campus," said Dr. Wayne Barnard, Associate Provost and Dean of Campus Life. "The Equality Riders expressed several times how unfamiliar that experience is for them, and we pray that somehow we touched their lives in a positive way.”

I don’t know about you, but it makes me sad that people are surprised when Christians treat them kindly and with respect.

After the lesson was over, I got lots of positive feedback. But one older woman came up to me and said, “Do you know what one lady at our church says about those homos?”

“Those homos?” I thought. Didn’t I just spend 45 minutes talking about Tolerance?

How To Begin

Last week, after my Girl Who Cain’t Say No post, Jonathan asked what I was going to say about Tolerance when I spoke at the WINGS conference. Well, I can’t condense a 45 minute speech into a blog post, but I can definitely tell you how I began: with humility.

I like what James W. Sire says in his book The Universe Next Door: A Catalog of Worldviews:

“Unless each of us begins by assuming that we are in our present state the sole maker and meaning-giver of the universe, it would be well to accept an attitude of humility as a working frame of reference. [Human beings are finite, and this truth] will keep us both from total accuracy in the way we grasp and express our worldview and from completeness or exhaustiveness. Some truths of reality will slip through our finest intellectual nets, and our nets will have some holes we have not even noticed. So the place to start is with humility.”

Amen?