What's So Funny...

We have to do peer observations this year, and I went to observe a fellow teacher today—one the students refer to as “T-Dawg.” The observation is to be followed by a “reflective conversation,” presumably about teaching. Today’s lesson was an introduction to the five major world religions. It was fun, and T-Dawg didn’t even get offended when I challenged and tweaked his explanation of yin and yang.

Afterward, we had a great, very reflective conversation on the nature of God. Much more interesting than dissecting his teaching technique. We team-taught once; there were no surprises. Anyhow, there we were, a Unitarian and a fundamentalist Christian having a very respectful discussion about religion—not pretending to be respectful, but really being respectful.

So I’m thinking that I should take another stab at this. I hear such vitriol when people talk about Christians and atheists (like there’s nothing in between) or Democrats and Republicans or conservatives and liberals. People say things in generalizations that they probably wouldn’t direct, one-on-one, to someone’s face. People who come across as completely nuts when they’re just spewing stuff settle right down and become decent human beings as soon as someone with ideas that they disagree with has a face. The end result is that we walk around all pissed off at each other and spewing more venom, adding fuel to the fire, and God love ‘em, the politicians are standing there with their fingers to the wind trying to figure out who it is that most of us hate more so they can jump on the winning bandwagon. The worst of them feed the hatred for their own gain, and we allow ourselves to be so manipulated.

PEOPLE, THIS IS INSANE!

I’ve been visiting the blog of a certain conservative (yes, Monkeyspit, that’s you). His banner says, “Q. How do you get a liberal to make sense? A. You don’t, you have to wait till they grow up and turn conservative.” Yet, he’s been perfectly willing to enter into reasonable, respectful debate with me. W made a mistake about something I said in my last post that didn’t fit what I wrote, probably because he’s heard the same arguments so many times that he figured that what I was saying must fall into the same category. We tend to look first for what we disagree about, when we could accomplish so much more if we searched for common ground. (For the record, I really don’t think that all marriages must look alike.)

T-Dawg and I found plenty to agree about: What people believe about God does not change the nature of God. It is what it is. Unless it isn’t. Then it just isn’t. How’s that for articulate? The point is that human opinions have no impact upon the nature of God. There are some moral absolutes—murder is wrong, compassion is good, that kind of thing. No one has all the answers; we both feel that our faiths challenge us to think. And hey—AF (who is special to BR, so you know who I mean), T-Dawg goes to your church!