On Diversity is a column written by members of CBAI for our Church's newsletter. The objective of the column is outreach and educational as well as sharing of experiences.
August 2007
Some Thoughts on Diversity -- by Drew Holsapple
When it comes to diversity, I'm not exactly an authority, being a white, male, middle-class teenager in a rich, white town. But in my school, there is one area that is quite diverse: religion. You can find just about any religion if you look hard enough amongst the student body at the high school. Raised as a Unitarian Universalist, I was taught to be tolerant and respectful towards other religions, but there is one area of religion that I struggle with. Fundamentalists hold many beliefs that I find extremely hard to believe or even be tolerant of.
For example, one of the basic beliefs that fundamentalist Christians hold is that if you are not a part of their religion, you are going to hell. Through what teachings of the bible that I have learned, it seems to me the god that they worship would not be so quick to judge who would go to heaven or hell based on whether they had been baptized or not.
Another example is most fundamentalists' support of war as a resolution of conflict. This seems to me to directly contradict God's teachings, most specifically one of the Ten Commandments that states: Thou shalt not kill.
But through all this, because of my beliefs of tolerance and acceptance of everything, I try to keep an open mind when I talk to someone with these beliefs and try not to judge them as right or wrong.
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