Conversing in the parking lot - DIVERSITY 101

©Bill Gnade/2005

[The following is posted as the first in a series about diversity. This piece was drafted some time ago. It began as a poem, but is now more like a simple dialogue. It is based on several actual conversations. My intent is to present and challenge some of the positions inherent in "diversity ideology" {my term} so thoroughly au courant in the West today. Though the piece centers around a religious discussion, the themes, ideas and rebuttals apply to a broad range of topics: race, ethnicity, politics, etc.]

“May I ask a question? Can we really ‘celebrate diversity’ as this sticker commands?”

(Her bumper-sticker shouts out the eleventh commandment of this day and age and hour of pop ideologies.)

“Yes. I think we can,” she answers, pride filling her voice.

“Yes, yes, I agree. We can if we value homogenization. Tell me your thoughts on religion, the religions of the world.”

“All religions are essentially the same, they have so much to teach us. Of course, as long as no one of them possesses any claim to being something like, well, true.”

“That’s interesting. It reminds me of a riddle, of sorts:

I saw a man today with red hair,

curled sideburns, and a walking stick.

I saw another man, with red hair,

sideburns, and a baseball bat. They

must be the same man, don’t you think?”

“No.”

“Then how about these: A tree fallen in the lake,

a tree in Brooklyn,

a tree in the fireplace,

a tree in the buttresses of a railroad bridge?

They must be the same."

“Nonsense.”

“It has eyes, he has eyes.

One is a shoe, the other a dog.

They must be the same.”

“Impossible. That’s not true. That’s not what I mean.”

“But isn’t that what you said about religions, that they each share a few common themes, from which you conclude that they are essentially the same, in substance?”

“That’s not what I mean about religion. You’re putting words in my mouth.”

“Surely what you mean to say is that you’re putting words in your own mouth. I’ve just illuminated the problem to which your words lead.”

“What I mean is really quite simple, sir, if you’d just listen. There are lots of religions on the planet. Each is true but only till any one of them claims to be the one and only truth. That’s what I mean. To celebrate diversity is to honor the many people on this planet who hold differing views, whether they be religious or political or cultural views. People who think their own views are the only right views do not honor diversity at all.”

“I’m sure you’d celebrate as a beloved brother any man who’d tell you that you do not honor diversity since you believe your own views about diversity are right, and that his are wrong.”

“Again, I’d say you were putting words in my mouth.”

“But please forgive me if I say that what you said makes no sense. You just said that each religion is true, but only until any one religion claims to be THE truth. That would then make that religion untrue. At least in that one fact. Right?”

“Yes, that’s what I said.”

“And then you said that celebrating diversity is to honor the diverse faiths of the planet. But you’ve just said they are not diverse, that they are the same. And then you said that they --”

“Once again, you’re not listening. That’s not what I meant. You’re twisting my words.”

“To the contrary, I believe I am attempting to untangle words you’ve twisted. I think I’ve been quite true to your words. Besides, if you love diversity, you won’t mind that I think differently of your words than the way you think of them. But you did say that 'to celebrate diversity is to honor the many people on this planet who hold differing views.' And then you asserted that all religious views are the same. So then, there is no diversity.”

“That’s not what I said, but if that’s what you want to think I said, knock yourself out, Mister. What I meant to say is that no one religion has a complete truth. There are truths in each of them. And when you look at all of them together, you see that they basically teach the same thing.”

“Perhaps I can tell you what you mean, and I’ll let that knock me out. What is true to you is not the religions of the world, nor any one of them, but the overarching paradigm that religions aren’t true, only meaningful in their parts, extracted and synthesized in poison-Ivy League homogeneity. You claim to have looked at them together and have ascertained the only proper view of them. You claim to have 'a complete truth' about all religions.

Just stop and look at the alleged 'diversity' around, and find that the diversity which everyone is celebrating is a romanticized, simplified version of each lovely, complicated thing.

We abhor the complexity, and we abhor the truth, though many love the truths you share with such equivocation. Yet on chill mornings I awaken to news that the paradigm of current comparative thought is all about comparison and not much about thought. And it has everything to do with abhorring diversity.

Buddha and Jesus, by God, are different, vastly

different, and to suggest that they are not is

to abhor Buddha; is to abhor Jesus. God bless

the differences! Celebrate diversity by smashing

oneself against the complexity, not smashing

the complexity.

Are Jesus and Muhammed after the same thing?

Get your head off your bumper sticker and think

for a moment. The only way for these things

to be similar is to ignore their dissimilarities. Does that matter?

A man stands on the corner wearing a badge that says ‘Police’.

Another stands on the corner wearing a badge that says ‘Insane’.

They are both on the corner, wearing badges, are men.

Which one will you ask for help during a mugging?

Choose to emphasize the similarities and you will be mugged by

your own disappointing homogeneity. But emphasize the

differences and your mugger will flee. Emphasizing differences might

make life harder, but at least it would be diverse.

No one in the history of the world has ever needed

diversity therapy: the world is instantly recognizable

as a place of distinctions. What everyone has needed

is to stop lying about it.”

“You scare me. You suggest there might be something absolutely true?”

“Yes, I do, and so do you.”

“I’ve said no such thing.”

“If that’s the case, then it would be absolutely true that you’ve said no such thing.”

“Oh, how clever you are. But I said nothing about religious absolutes.”

What? Come now. You believe your view is absolutely right; that all faiths are the same. But I believe that what you’ve offered is a magic trick. You gather diversity together like a happy hour - races and religions and cultures with drinks on the house - and then during the party you make people only share what they have in common. But the very things that make them unique are their differences, and you do not want to talk about those things. You see two men and ignore that one is black, the other white. You see two people and ignore that they are man and woman. You see two houses of worship, and you celebrate that they have windows; only to ignore that one raises a cross while the other waves a crescent moon. Traditional believers in marriage believe that what gays and lesbians do is not marriage. It is you who says that gay and heterosexual marriage are the same, which makes you a homogenizer."

“What? Are you some kind of homophobe? You’ve no idea what my views on marriage are?”

"Surely you jest! For your bumper sticker is the Gay Pride flag with print. What? Do you think I’m stupid? Besides, I thought you wanted diversity. I guess being homophobic is not a difference you applaud. Your sticker might as well say, 'To Hell with Diversity!'"

“You are a confused man, a very confused -”

"Oh, yes, and I shall thank you for bringing your unconfused clarity to our discussion. Here’s what I bring: I bring the distinct idea that Christians believe that Jesus is the ONLY way; and that Muslims not only believe the Christians are in error for that belief, the Muslims believe that it is Mohammed who is God’s truest voice, with God’s very words dripping from Mohammed’s fingers. It is these truths that make these faiths different, and, to their respective adherents, wonderful. What makes them different are the very things you want to overlook as extraneous, divisive."

“Well, they are divisive!”

“To whom? To you, or to them? And I thought you liked divisions."

“I said no such thing! I, I, look, I just don't think it's worth fighting over. You seem to think there's a truth that transcends personal opinion. I do not. I mean, what really is TRUE anyway?”

"Don’t ask me to think for you. Find the truth on your own,

tear this from your bumper, and write your answer on

the sky. But those who agree about diversity are as dynamic

as imitation yogurt. There is no real culture there. It is the compassionless

indifference of those who fear that a religion may

have a claim on them; afraid to learn that they are not their own.

They can talk their way into sophisticated oblivion, it being vogue

to speak as if God doesn’t make good truth.

You have seen them dismiss the cosmos with a sweep

of the hand and a witticism voiced under fashionable eyeglasses.

As if they have found the answer in doubt, or synthesis, or in empiricism.

It’s ideological terrorism.

There is nothing more deadly than bad ideas. Celebrating diversity is the opiate of the people. Put that on your bumper."