Do you walk away from diversity?

So many of us have been hurt by religion. I know I was, I walked away from my faith and then after much searching and learning about the facts of my faith - not always what I was taught - I came back.

But, what do we do when we are hurt by our faith? Do we just walk away and make believe nothing has happened? Do we allow the faith to continue to go on as normal? Many of us choose to do that very thing. Many choose to walk away and never help to create or make change from within.

In the TedTalk that I listened to this morning, Chelsea Shields answers that question from her vantage point. She didn't walk away from her faith when things were unequal, she didn't stop showing up for service, she didn't ignore the problem. She stood there and fought the good fight to change a system that was not defining the original claims of her faith.

That, in its essence, is what diversity is about. It is not about ignoring the problems that we have, not about walking away mad, and its definitely not about giving up. Rather, it is about standing in the gap and realizing that a change must be made and slowly making that change. Diversity is about looking at our individual issues, gaps, mishaps, and figuring out how to reconcile them with the world.

Take a few minutes and listen to Chelsea and let me know what you thought of it.

Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Richard and Mildred Loving!

Thank you, Richard and Mildred Loving!




A few years ago, I was able to catch the movie, The Loving Story, on HBO. If you have never heard of it, the synopsis is that Richard (White male) and Mildred (Black/Native American female) Loving fell in love and married. The problem was that the law of the land, in 1951, considered Inter-racial marriages illegal. The Lovings held on to their hope of living in a land that was free of any type of laws that kept a man and woman, regardless of culture, race, or ethnicity, from marrying.

Finally, in 1961, Loving v. Virginia finally made its way to the Supreme Court. This movie shows some of the actual sound tracks from the hearings related to this case. If you have never heard the Bible used in a way to support racism and hate, I suggest you watch and listen to The Loving Story. It is unbelievable, and indefensible, how the justices used the Word of God to deny two people the ability to be together.

For me, it cemented my view that the Bible should never be used to dictate law in an open and free society. The Bible is my ruler, but it may not be my neighbor's ruler. The Bible tells me how to live, but it is not meant to be used by one ruler of a country or a court. For me, the sound tracks of this movie proved to me how hateful one person can make a book based on love.

Find a copy, watch it, and let me know what you thought.