A Conundrum

OTHER VIEWS OF OTHER PLACES
A CONUNDRUM

I was born in 1932 in a small upstate town. My parents were active Christians in a mostly protestant community. I was baptized and attended the Christian Education programs of the Methodist Church. My friends were Christian in a Christian community and we learned certain truths of the Bible, the Lord’s Prayer, the creeds and basics of the western European, Christian ethics, morals, mores, expectations and rules.
We came to believe in the absolute rightness of the Christian view of the world, of justice, of humanity. We came to believe that we were correct and had the most accurate hold on reality, the past, the future, the ear of God. We also came to believe that those who didn’t believe and live as we did were in error, were pagan, atheists, and probably condemned to hell and damnation.
On June 11, 1932 at the same time as my birth, there probably came into this world another male, who later became an imam. He may have been born in a small town outside of Istanbul, Turkey. His childhood was very similar to mine: his home environment, education, friends, community, and, the development of his morals, insights, view of truth, etc. He, like me, came to believe that this philosophy, theology was correct and had the most accurate hold on reality, the past, the future, and the ear of Allah.
And in other countries, climates, cultures others were probably born on the same day at the same hour. And these people were nurtured in their own environment, in their own language, in the faith of their parents..
If one of us is right exclusively with no room for different interpretation, then all the rest are wrong. If one of us is good, exclusively, then all the rest are evil. If one of us has all of the truth, exclusively, then all of the others are dealing with falsehood and unreality.
I can’t believe that the human animal is thus divided, separated, segregated and sorted. I can’t believe that the Creator God, Allah, Yahweh, and whatever other names are given, would have provided this globe, this wondrous home, and then demanded that the human race destroy itself by categorizing, labeling and then eliminating all who are different.
There has to be some other way of defining reality, truth, survival ethics. There has to be some other way to coexist, to thrive and prosper with all of these different views of life and the Holy.
And the question we are drawn to ask is: if my views are absolute, how can I affirm the views that are quite different, even in opposition? Can there be more than one definition of reality beyond survival. Or is the survival of humanity on this planet the only truth?
We are capable of destroying all of those who are not one of us, and in the process of that fratricide we could well destroy all vegetation, breathable air, healthy water and consumable food. Is that our destiny?
This conundrum is the primary theological issue with which I am struggling in these last years, we might say final years of my ministry and life.
And please don’t scream at me with the script of the true believer. Because the communities of the nations can no longer afford to scream at each other. The world is too small, too connected, too alive with awareness of one another. We had better decide to solve this puzzle together, to come to some kind of mutual understanding, some sort of truce before the extremists of opposite ends poison or blow us all into little bits of orthodoxy and the suffocating smog of absolute truths: the final balkinization..
Why am I troubled? Why cannot I simply shrug my shoulders, turn off all switches and knobs, and continue to play solitaire?

RICHARD E. LAKE