This past week I attended the Montgomery County Multi-Faith Coalition’s Interactive Peace Event: Building Understanding, Curi- osity, and Connection. The event focused on fostering deeper un- derstanding, curiosity, and connection among participants. It was designed to create a brave and welcoming space for individuals from diverse backgrounds to come together and engage in mean- ingful dialogue. The gathering delivered this and more.

Three different speakers shared on three different topics.
Those topics included: The Healing Powers of Radical Welcome,
Navigating Worldview Diversity, and Civil Conversations. I appreciated each of the top- ics, and found the last topic of civil conversations provided some tools to put the theme of the event into practice.

We all know that we live in a tumultuous time. We know there are powers in the me- dia and elsewhere that profit off divisiveness. We know that there’s a tendency to hang out with those who confirm our own beliefs. But as people of Christian faith our goal is to be people of peace and to learn how to remain in relationship across differences. An- other goal as Jesus’ followers is to create understanding and even connection in the face of disagreement. Achieving these goals can be difficult especially when we care strongly about an issue or topic or have strong life experiences around it.

We had the opportunity to practice one way to achieve those goals. The presenter, Megan Briggs, who is an adjunct psychology professor at Eastern University, asked us to write about an idea or belief you hold dear—something you care strongly about, be it re- lated to our religion/spirituality, politics or another aspect of your identity. She asked us to answer the question, “How did you come to hold that idea or belief?” (think experienc- es, classes, relationships, etc. that shaped that value.)

I wrote about my belief that as Jesus’ followers we are called to welcome refugees and immigrants in our communities, and it is unacceptable to scapegoat or dehumanize them. Where did this belief come from?

I wrote, “I was taught as a young child that every person is created in God’s image and has wroth and dignity. I was also taught some individuals had more worth than oth- ers. An example of someone with less value would be illegal immigrants because they had broken a law to enter our country. They were not welcome here. I was taught they needed to leave.

But during my studies at college, my social psychology professor asked us to do a study of the words “alien”, “stranger” and “foreigner” in the Bible. I was surprised at what I found. Reference after reference such as “You shall love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 10:19) or “The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you: you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. (Leviticus 19:34) or “The LORD watches over the strangers: he upholds the orphan and the widow.” (Psalm 146:9) I also discovered there were special provisions for the foreigner and resident alien in the Bible such as Deuteronomy 14:29.

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Grace Baptist

Church of

Blue Bell is a Christ-centered community sharing God’s love with the world.

Sunday Schedule 9:30am Sunday School 10:45am Worship Office Hours Monday 9:00am–12:00pm Tuesday–Friday 9:00am–1:00pm

Church Staff David A. Braneky Minister pastordavid@gbcbb.org

Brian Horoho Director of Music Ministry bhoroho@umasd.org

Brady Rennix Student & Young Adult Pastor bradyrennix@gmail.com

Casey Brookes Director of Children & Family Ministries gracelandchildren@gmail.com

Trish Simpson Office Manager staff@gbcbb.org

  

Grace Baptist Church of Blue Bell

(“A Word From the Pastor” continued from page 1)

I had never heard these scriptures before. I never knew that God was so concerned about the foreigner and stranger. I never knew that God asked his people to incarnate that concern in their faith community.

In addition to the influence of scriptures, during seminary and my study of the history of South Africa, I learned that historically the scapegoating or dehumanizing of people is one of the first steps that may lead to genocide or hu- man rights violations.

As we had the opportunity to share our deeply held beliefs, what was important was not so much the belief or idea, but the story and how we came to hold that idea or belief. We began to understand and get to know the person. Therefore, even though two people in the same group may not have held the same belief, we discovered the ability to remain in relationship across differences because we were creating understanding and connection despite our differ- ences by listening to each other’s stories.

Professor Briggs left us with a few questions related to curiosity and intellectual humility. I’ll close this column with those questions.

• “Am I willing to admit I could be wrong or don’t know all the information about something? (and I will add “someone”?)
• “Do I want to be heard, believed, and understood? So do they.
• “Am I in it to win or to learn?”As we enter the month of October, it’s my prayer that each of us will consider these questions and, in the words of St. Francis, that we seek not so much to be understood, but to understand one another, our neighbors, our families, and even those we disagree with.Pastor David