The Value of Many Voices
By Helen Mildenhall |
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I just heard this is Next Wave's tenth year of publication.
That's exciting news! I appreciate sites like Next Wave which invite contributions from many voices and don't set narrow limits on what people are permitted to say. The only way to ensure we don't miss the best new ideas is to let them be voiced. Then we can discuss them and decide which have merit. If we 'ban' them because they are new and different, how will we make progress?
Nine years ago I felt differently. I hadn't heard of Next Wave, but I wouldn't have been a Next Wave reader if I had. I was only interested in hearing what lined up with my belief in the Bible as the inerrant Word of God (Interpreted as I had been taught.) Looking back, my reasons for avoiding alternative views were emotional more than rational. My hope and security came from my belief in God. Those would be jeopardized if my belief was successfully challenged.
As it turned out my avoidance strategy didn't save my conservative Christian faith. No matter how much I restricted what I read, I couldn't help noticing how conservative Christians behaved. It wasn't that they behaved terribly, but rather they weren't really different from other people in the ways my belief system told me they should be.
This was a blow my conservative Christian beliefs couldn't recover from. I lost my confidence that my belief system really was the best explanation for everything I saw, heard and experienced. I wanted to find out what other people thought and to find out, I started listening to the voices I'd been shutting out for over a decade. (Including my own )
Opening the doors to alternative viewpoints left me unsure whether God even exists. However, I'm not going to adopt a belief that he doesn't unless the world around me conclusively proves that to me.
While the issue of God's existence remains unsettled (for me), there is plenty to do. Whatever the Kingdom of God is, we clearly aren't there yet: poverty, injustice and conflict continue to be very real and present problems in the world I live in. Jesus (according to the Bible) said "Love your neighbor" but people often don't even take small opportunities to be kind to one another.
These days I enjoy listening to people inside and outside the conservative Christian world I used to belong to. Reading Next Wave is part of that. I've been pleased to see how many people (some self-professed Christians, some not), like me, want to make the world a better place in measurable, practical ways.
I appreciate Next Wave's role in giving these people a voice. I hope Next Wave will play a part in changing the world for the better as it continues into its tenth year.
 Helen Mildenhall lives in Illinois with her husband and two children. She hosts the blog Conversation at the Edge and is blog manager for Off The Map, an organization promoting otherlyness, the spirituality of serving. |
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