This past week, Elder Clayton Christensen and I met with Rabbi Irwin Kula, the president of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership.
There were several interesting takeaways:
1) Rabbi Kula sought out Elder Christensen because of his disruptive innovation frameworks, and became more intrigued, not less, when he learned about Professor Christensen's spiritual beliefs and conviction. In my Boston Globe op-ed I observed that we (members of the Mormon church) don't seem to marry our secular and spiritual lives very well. Elder Christensen is an exception; Rabbi Kula didn't have to dig too hard to know that this business school professor gladly and eagerly invites all who will into his spiritual life.
2) Rabbi Kula's commitment to common ground is compelling, and worth modeling. When he approached Elder Christensen, rather than saying "I am a non-congregational eighth generation rabbi and you are a committed Mormon, there is very little to discuss", he instead said:
I am a non-congregational eighth generation rabbi, and you are a committed Mormon, may I share with you some of the things about which I believe we'd have a shared sensibility?
In both our traditions there is the importance of learning from everyone, the reduced emphasis on professional clergy, the centrality of community as a context for spiritual/moral development and most significantly for service to those more vulnerable, the prominence of...practice that gives credibility to belief, the weight given to discipline and actions...all of these issues are taken seriously by both our traditions.
3) As our discussion wound down, I found myself wondering, what if our society, and Mormons in particular, were more eager to seek out common ground.
First, an example from pop culture. Then another, a bit more serious, example.
I've heard anecdotally that there were many Utahns who voted against David Archuleta because he was Mormon. Not to take away from David Cook; he is phenomenal. But don't people usually want to vote for the hometown kid? In this instance, what divided may have been more important than what unites... If that's the case, how did we get to the point where there is such a rift between Mormons and non-Mormons in Utah? And what can we do to mend it?
Then there's the question of the role that religion plays in our country. In the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's inaugural post on its Civil Religion blog, Tim Townsend writes "Rousseau coined the term civil religion to describe the necessary basics of belief that keep a civilization together." Does our society (and do we as Mormons specifically) focus on these basic beliefs, or the particularities that divide us? If so, what of our nation's well-being over the long-term?
What can we learn from Elder Christensen? From Rabbi Kula?
When was the last time you actively sought out common ground?
P.S. After re-reading my op-ed, would you say that David Archuleta and Brooke White are meeting the criteria for representing Mormons as we would like to be represented? Yes, I know it's American Idol, and not president of the U.S. But there were 100 million votes tallied in the finale :)
Comments