linnposts.com

Traveling as Joy and I are doing now makes me appreciate the diverse beauty of this country we call home. Ours is a vast land that still holds unbelievably open spaces where you can see for miles without your eyes settling on a building or a person. We drove a back road in eastern Colorado that was both stunning and frightening in its isolation. It was as if we had crossed into a world unconnected to the one we live in. For miles on end we drove without seeing another vehicle. We saw two farms in the distance in the eighty mile stretch. And yet we had a sense of awe for the land itself, and for the number of pioneers who were courageous enough to make a trail that would eventually become that road. Their grit made it accessible all these years later. The human spirit truly is indomitable.

That is why the diverse beauty of our land is equaled by that of its people. All of us know how awful people can be, how dishonest, self-serving, petty, and downright mean. We need only read in the paper the latest goings on in Washington, D.C. to see this side of our humanity, a side that shows itself in our lives as well. But there is the other side of what makes us who we are, the ability to see a way where there is no way, to dream dreams often considered impossible until they are fulfilled, to desire to tell the truth and do what is right, the willingness to help a neighbor in need, the capacity to forgive a wrong, give someone a second chance, and to refuse to lose hope against all odds. These two sides do battle with each other from the moment we get up until we lie down to sleep. They even battle in our dreams, though we don’t always remember it.

The human condition can be discouraging, to the point where it is easy to lose our sense of balance and forget the worst about us is matched by the best about us. I think one way to maintain perspective is to experience the diversity of people in all our different shapes, sizes, colors, languages, customs, and styles of living. We have tasted afresh that diversity on this trip. As a person of faith I believe God put the diversity we are seeing into the very fiber of creation in the expectation that it would enrich life on this planet. That is why I resist the efforts of those who feel threatened by diversity to make everything homogenous. They seem to want everyone to be the same color, the same nationality, the same religion, the same sexual orientation, to think and believe and vote the same way, to love and hate the same things, in short, it’s as if they want everyone and everything to be just like them.

But diversity is the way of the world, which accounts for its amazing beauty. Such diversity demands of us a depth of tolerance to avoid becoming prisoners of our fears of differences. When that happens we are likely to begin listening to foolish voices that speak of diversity as if it is a bad thing, even an evil thing, voices that insist the future depends on conformity to how they see the world. As citizens of this land that is our land, as people who claim to live in the greatest nation on earth (even if that claim is an expression of hubris), we have a chance to show the world how rich life is for us precisely because we embrace diversity.

But that challenge is what much of the political and religious debate is about today. It’s all about the kind of people we are and the nation we want to be. I for one believe most Americans want the best for all of us, not just some of us, which is why I also believe most of us support genuine immigration reform, tax laws that are fair and just, social programs that ease the burden of being poor, most of us respect the rights of the unborn, but reject laws that treat women as if they are stupid, evil, or have no rights when they are pregnant, most of us believe gays and lesbians are entitled to the full benefits of citizenship, believe religious diversity is as fundamental to our way of life as political freedom is, and want our political leaders to tell the truth and to stop pretending their political agendas represent what we think.

Along this trip I have from time to time seen the bumper sticker that says, “I want my country back.” But you know, when you think about it, that’s about as selfish a statement as you can find. That’s because it’s not my country or your country. It’s our country, and I think the sooner we reclaim that heritage again, the more we will be the country most of us want it to be.