Celebrate Diversity

So I realize fully that I am in school, but no one, including my parents, and even some friends who see me every day really knows what I'm getting my degree in. Oh, they've asked many times. I explain with large words... small words, try to paint pictures, use modeling clay, it's of no use. So I think my parents believe I'm going to be a counselor. That's ok. I'll just let them believe that. Maybe I'll send them to counseling when they figure out the truth.

My major is housed in the College of Human Sciences. Recently we (I being included since I am a part of the college, though the dean did not call for my opinion on this particular matter) decided that we (refer to earlier statement) should form a "diversity committee". I really supported this idea. If I were going to be here another year, I probably would have been on it. I love it. Yeah diversity. I sallute thee. So, to go along with our committee we decide to make a video. In the video people from the college come and say different statements. My statement was something to the effect of "To be a truly educated person, I believe that I must listen and understand other people's perspectives". Yes! I really do believe this. I started thinking about travelling and talking to people from so many different parts of the world and trying to understand the way that our differences bond us. I even blogged about it when I was in Italy. I love different perspectives. Really I do.

Then, as we were talking about it, one of the professors said, Oh, I picked up some bumper stickers for us. They had a rainbow in the back and said "Celebrate Diversity" and all of a sudden, I was taken aback. In all my celebrating, I didn't see the slippery slope that I was stumbling down. Please don't get me wrong. I have nothing against Celebrating, against Diversity, or against rainbows, but all of a sudden I was slapped in the face with the idea that tolerence has been matched with truth and they are pitted against each other as mutually exclusive ideas.

If I am not accepting of "alternate lifestyles"- a man and a woman living together unmarried- then I no longer know how to celebrate? Am I now lamenting? I was thinking about this on a walk home the other day, and I started to think about Jesus and the woman at the well. What if Jesus had said to her, "I know that the man you are not living with is not your husband, but you know what, Child, that's ok. Whatever makes you happy." NO! He said, "Go, and sin no more!" Jesus never made the gospel easy. He told the truth, indicating that what she was doing was not right to him. I don't think that I'm called to be Jesus and tell people to go and sin no more, but I also don't know that I'm allowed to misrepresent the gospel by saying that there is no truth.

So tonight. It's late, but I do celebrate diversity. I celebrate that in Italy they eat meals that last four hours. I celebrate that people in the northeast say "wicked". Tonight I celebrate that love crosses races, income lines, cultural lines, and continents. I celebrate that Giraffes are crazy looking and that the United States, as powerful as we think we are, are but a drop in a bucket among the nations to God. I celebrate that we are a kilidepscope of different colors, tongues, talents and hairstyles all across this globe, and I celebrate the the creator knows, sees, and desires the hearts of us all. I believe in truth. And tonight, I celebrate diversity.