We were very intentional about creating a “safe” place for persons to get to know others who had different ideas or
beliefs about their faith and politics.
It was a good week to get to know those we do not ordinarily agree with
in the larger context of “the Church.” We discover that those we disagree with are
not weird or evil. Those who
disagree with us are not stupid or non-Christian. I have always said the extremes on the
conservative right and the liberal left theologically were strange
bedfellows.
I will never
forget one of the weeks of a high school conference that became very
uncomfortable. The two speakers, one in the morning and one in the
evening, began to challenge the theology of the other speaker. By the third day I had to move in and ask
each of them to speak to the topic we agreed upon before they came up to
camp. I challenged them to model
for the high schoolers the ability to listen to another point of view without
putting that person down. The staff had
special prayer meetings about this. We
shared each night how things were going.
The campers were definitely aware of the differences.
One
of my friends, who was a youth director and who had come up with her youth for
the week, was sleeping in another room in my apartment. She said that I would be breathing deeply and
groaning throughout the night. She
was convinced it was because of the tension between the two speakers and my
concern about what the campers were experiencing. Fortunately, by
the end of the week the campers sharing time reflected thoughtful testimonies
of their experiences with the different speakers. Thank goodness this seldom happened.
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