If we all thought the same, would we ever learn anything new? Could Christ have crashed through the 660 laws of the Old Testament if he didn’t think differently than his ethnic flock? Christ got put on the cross, and Peter and Paul got stoned and harassed, for championing a new message of diversity.

Is it wise to flock together only with those we agree with theologically and socially? Or should we accept diversity of thought and lifestyle as brought on by Christ, who loved the unlovely, ate with partiers and sinners, championed immigrants and the poor, spoke to the harlot at the well, dined with the hated tax collectors and showed love for us hated Gentiles?

My most encouraging and inspirational spiritual experiences have happened while attending Trinity Mennonite Church in Phoenix, where members come from diverse cultural and theological backgrounds.

Birds of a feather flock together. That’s the easy way. But should this happen in our churches? Can conservatives and liberals accept each other? When the Jews and Gentiles merged in the early Christian church, didn’t a new dynamic take place? Is diversity a spiritual strength?

Evan Oswald
Glendale, Ariz.