Across the Divides: Dimensions of Difference and Implications for Theological Field Educators in the 21at Century

Rev. C. Anthony Hunt, D.Min., Ph.D.

(This essay was first delivered as the plenary lectures for the 34^th Biennial Consultation of the Association for Theological Field Education, January 2017, St. Paul, Minnesota.)

Section One –

Dimensions and Dynamics of Diversity in the 21^st Century

            In a world wrought with social, economic, political and religious upheaval – and with division endemic across much of society and much of the religious spectrum today, many people are asking the question, “Where is God?”  Many students who come to theological schools today come asking the very same question, “Where is God?”  Many students come today with more questions about the location of God in religion and society than they do with answers about who God is, and where God may be located.

And it is a part of the work of theological field educators to help students locate God so that they can then effectively lead people in the church and the world in the broader quest to locate God.  

Over the past several years, in the United States and across the globe, we have become more divided along various lines.  In the U.S., the social and political division that we now experience is not really new, but it challenges our sense of normalcy in ways that perhaps we have not been challenged in the past. 

This division exists against the backdrop of a burgeoning diversity here and in other parts of the world.  I had the opportunity to address a group of scholars in South Bend, Indiana two years ago where those in attendance were mostly North American, but interestingly the group included persons who were nearly equally Christian, Muslim and Jewish – and nearly equally white, black, Hispanic and Asian.  I sense that this type of interreligious, intercultural engagement was not unique to that setting, but in some circles, is being challenged and brought into question in light of the overarching concern of what it means to be “American” today.   

A part of this nation’s sense of who it says it is is etched in one of our national credos – the Latin phrase e-pluribus unum – “Out of Many One.”  The implication here is that in the U.S, we have been, and continue to be, many.  We are many cultures and ethnicities, many classes and social locations, many religions, many geographies, female and male, with many persuasions and ways of identifying what it means to be human.  And yet, the vision that we say we share within the context of this “many” is a vision of somehow also being, becoming one. 

In any event, today we experience the challenge of living into this grand vision of realizing what it means to become e pluribus unum.  Perhaps it is “Divides” which most clearly define us today, both in society and within religious communities.  These Divides are seen in that we are Brown, White, Black, Asian and Indigenous, LBGTQI and ‘straight”, poor, working class, middle class and wealthy, Republican, Democrat and Independent, south and north, west and east, rural, suburban and urban, conservative, moderate, and liberal, evangelical and progressive, non-denominational and mainline.  These “Divides” are seen in that – politically and religiously - we are red, blue and indeed purple (yes purple). 

TEN WAYS TO BUILD BELOVED COMMUNITY

                                                                                                                         
          

                                                

Here is a link to my article - "Ten Ways to Build Beloved Community", published in Leading Ideas, by the Lewis Center for Church Leadership.

TEN WAYS TO BUILD BELOVED COMMUNITY

THE SHOCK ABSORBER

(This sermon was preached on New Years, January 1, 2017 at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore) 

I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from?   My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.  The Lord watches over you— the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.  The Lord will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.  (Ps. 121:1-8)

          By almost all accounts, 2016 was a difficult year for many people.  Many persons experienced loss of loved ones, others sickness in their own bodies or the sickness of those whom they loved or cared for.  Some experienced separation and divorce from those whom they had had loved.  Others experienced job transition. 
         When we look back over 2016, the mantra of the age-only hymn is very true and very real for many of us –

“Time is filled with swift transition,
Naught of earth unmoved can stand,
Build your hopes on things eternal,
Hold to God’s unchanging hand.

          Indeed, if 2016 taught us anything, it taught us that we need to hold ever more tightly – ever more firmly and assuredly to God’s unchanging hand.
          If we are to travel through the annals of time as it is recorded in Scripture, we will discover that we are not the first people to experience years where in many ways  there have seemed to be more downs than ups, more wrongs than rights, more sadness and joy. 
         As we make our way to Psalm 121, we find that David is singing out of his own pain.  He and the people of God who followed him had gone through some difficult times just as many of us have.