You can only see from where you are

I am often asked how I became the person that I am. It is a complex question that can never be fully answered. Both my father and my mother contributed to my gene bank. I was the fifth of seven children. I grew up in a small Illinois farm community. My parents were devout Baptists, and I was profoundly influenced by my church. I have been a highly committed follower of the prophet, Jesus from Nazareth, for my entire life. I could go on at great length, but I would still fall short of explaining the person who I am.

The complexity of Howard Bess is the story of every person on the face of the earth. After recognizing our similarities, I have concluded that no two people have experienced life in exactly the same way. Further, I have come to believe that certain experiences are landmarks in the development of who we are. One such experience came to me in graduate school.

While in graduate school a theology professor confronted me and his other students with “the problem of perspective.” According to the professor, inevitably we can see life only through our own eyes. From that time to the present day, I have struggled valiantly with the limitations of my own point-of-view. I was trained to be the pastor of a congregation of people, who looked to me for guidance. In my church leadership role I preached every week and taught some sort of class continually. The last thing that a congregation needs is an uncertain voice.

Just now in my church home, I am leading an adult study class. We have chosen to read and discuss Stephen Prothero’s “God Is Not One.” The book is driven by the author’s conviction that the great influential religions of the world have distinctly different messages and perspectives, and that we need to try to understand one another rather than try to convert one another. Prothero, a professor of religion at Boston University, maintains that the attempts in the past century to reconcile the world’s religions have failed and that we need to find new approaches to living with one another in our diversity.

Faithfully, the class has plowed through chapters on Islam, Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Yoruba Religion, Judaism, Daoism, Christianity, and finally Atheism. Much of the book has been new territory for me and the other class participants. The impact is quite profound. I will never again view world politics in the same way.

However, the diversity of the class is not found only in the reading material. The class members are a diverse lot. Frank is an Alaskan Indian, born and raised in Southeast Alaska. He was pressured by insensitive Presbyterian missionaries to renounce his native faith and to embrace a rigid reformed Calvinist Christianity. In adulthood, Frank has regained a deep appreciation of his native religion. He comes to the discussions with great wisdom and more than a little feeling about his experience with misguided missionaries.

Roberta is an educator, having been a classroom teacher, a principal, and an administrator in a very large school district. She is an African American, who was raised deep in the heart of Georgia. She suffered through the horrors of racial discrimination in Georgia, and looks back on her black church religious experience with something less than fond memories. Her scars from discrimination may be healed, but her memory is keen.

Dwayne is a retired minister and adjunct college professor. He earned his PhD in religion and is full of keen insights. Dwayne was raised a Southern Baptist, but in the middle years of his career left the Southern Baptist fold and, in reaction to Southern Baptist Fundamentalism, became a Presbyterian.

The other members of the class are equally interesting and add to the diversity within the group. In class discussions there are as many perspectives as there are class members. I have never led a class with a higher level of member engagement. Sunday after Sunday, every person in the class has been verbally engaged in the discussion.

I have shared the experience of my Sunday morning class to illustrate the reality about which my graduate school professor was speaking. We cannot escape the dynamic. In life there are as many perspectives as there are people.

In thinking back at my attempts to come to terms with the limitation s of my own perspective, I have reached other conclusions. Our unique perspectives are not a problem. Rather they are opportunity. In retrospect, I might have been better served with an introduction to the “opportunity of perspective.” I have been humbled by the problem of perspective, but I have been empowered by the opportunities of perspective.

No one has ever experienced life the same way that Howard Bess has experienced life. My life experience is valid. The sharing of my perspective is important and a responsibility that I dare not shirk. What is true of me is true also of every human being. It is when we both share and listen that the possibilities of life become apparent. You can see life only from where you are, but you can know even more by being a good listener.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister who lives in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.

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