Our
religious and political identity is forged early in life by
our families, the area of the country, churches and social groups we
grew up in. Our ideas about how things should be were shaped long
before we got old enough to challenge these assumptions. Acceptance
or rejection is deeply conditioned. Most of us unconsciously filter
out anything that doesn’t support our deeply held beliefs and
assumptions.
Much as I like to
think of myself as a free thinker, I am a Mennonite and an advocate
for peace and justice because I grew up in a family that taught and
lived those values. Some of my earliest memories are sitting on my
dad’s lap and listening to the grown-ups talk. While mother would
fix the meals and serve as hostess, Dad and his friends reveled in
theological, political, and social justice debates and discussions.
But they also fleshed out their words with specific actions.
Fairfield Mennonite
was founded in 1927 by a group of college educated men and women who
no longer fit into a more conservative church intent with protecting
established church traditions and doctrines. I was taught to
question and believe something only if it made sense, not “just
because.” From it’s inception, FMC brought in speakers from
other states and countries. The adult discussion group with its
dedication to tolerance, freedom of thought, and community service
has shaped both the congregation and my life.
My attitudes toward
public service were instilled in early childhood. During WWII, I
played under the big tables at church while the women knotted
comforters, rolled bandages for the troops and hospitals, packed
relief, Christmas, and food parcels for war victims. The women
canned food for the county home. FMC helped start Child Welfare or
what is now called Children and Youth. It built the community hall
in Fairfield. It’s been instrumental in starting and shaping the
Fairfield Food Pantry as an ecumenical pantry. 57 years ago it
started the International Gift Festival whose proceeds go to the
artisans, not church coffers. This explains much about who I am and
why I write the kind of columns I do.
Acknowledging how
our political and religious leanings are determined early in life
helps me understand why we vote the way we do or advocate specific
public policies. Each of us processes information and facts based on
our fundamental sense of who we were and are, where we came from,
which party we support, etc. Yet this should never be used as an
excuse for not being thoughtful. We all need to constantly challenge
our basic premises and be willing to grow and change.
Our polarized
society needs to stop blaming or judging “the other.” We need to
listen to each others stories and views without judging,
demeaning, or automatically rejecting them.
We must discard the win/lose, right/wrong mentality. Instead we must
seek out places where our ideas and hopes overlap, even as we
disagree on other issues. Most of all, we must find those areas of
agreement which are there, and then work together in those areas. By
so doing we will lose our fear of “the other” and discover
friends and allies. Together we can build a better America.
Joyce Shutt is the
pastor emeritus of The Fairfield Mennonite Church. She writes a
daily blog, stepstohope.weebly.com.
Many of us woke up the day after the election either ecstatic or
saddened, but even so, life goes on. True, our neighborhoods are no
longer comprised of people who look the same or speak the same
languages. Many jobs will never come back and the soil under our
feet shakes with unrest. While our tendency is to resist change, our
only real option is to accept diversity is here to stay. We may not
like it, but the genie is out of the bottle.
President Obama, in
his farewell address, challenged us to fight the monsters of hatred,
violence, and exclusion that appear to be deeply planted in the soul
of our nation. We thought we knew each other, but fear and other
divisive events have shown otherwise. Now it is up to us to find a
way to work together, which we will eventually do, because that is
who we are, and because democracies exist only when everyone works
for the common good.
How do we do this?
By letting go of our longing for a simpler past. Those days are
gone. We must acknowledge the hard reality that our economy will
never go back to the 1950’s, that we are caught up in the
inevitable changes that come with the technological and instant
communication revolution.
Perhaps the most
important step we can take is to stop seeing anyone who disagrees
with us or belongs to a different political party, religion, or race
as “the enemy.” Instead of exaggerating our differences let’s
focus on our shared goals and dreams, our shared humanity. Let’s
start by letting go of the illusion that in order to be happy and
safe, things must go my way.
Acceptance and
cooperation doesn’t mean we agree with or condone everything, but
instead of trying to turn back the clock, retreating into nationalism
and isolationism, we can seek ways of working together for the common
good. We can find viable solutions to the many problems facing our
nation and world. Ironically, blaming “the other” or immigrants
for the economic upheaval and social unrest only creates more unrest
and fear.
We can start working
for change here Adams County by insisting that our local, state and
national elected officials work together to find solutions instead of
blaming the other party and playing party politics. Instead of
focusing on fear and exclusion, we can demand a positive dynamic of
cooperation that will ripple outward from us. By fighting for
changes in the ways voting districts are gerrymandered, we open the
way for better voter representation and less bitterness, no matter
who is in office. We can become good neighbors, especially to those
who speak a different language or practice a different religion. By
welcoming newcomers or “the other” into our communities, we not
only help them feel wanted, safe, and secure, but we create an
environment where we will feel safer ourselves….because the
stranger has become a friend.
Democrat or
Republican, white, black, brown or yellow, straight, gay, legal,
illegal, Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, or Hindu, we can do this.
We can affirm our common humanity, our shared hopes and dreams for a
safe and sane future for our children and ourselves. It won’t be
easy for it will require forgiveness and even admitting we are wrong,
at times. But we can do this. The fate of America and the world
depends on it.
Joyce Shutt is the
pastor emeritus of the Fairfield Mennonite Church. She also has a
blog at stepstohope.weebly.com,
