Chautauqua Day 5 - Know Thy Audience

Richard Land Spoke. The Rev. Dr. Richard Land is the president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, so I am sure you can imagine that the good Reverend was not in a welcome environment. The folks at Chautauqua for the most part lean to the left and the folks in the SBC for the most part lean to the right (actually they tend to be far right, having chased out any who may only be moderately right). I was very interested to hear what Land would have to say on the issue of faith and politics to this leftist crowd. To his credit, Land spoke well. He clearly knew his audience and knew how to speak to his audience. He claimed to be very much against clergy endorsing candidates, he was against denominations supporting one party, and claimed that America was not a Christian nation, but one with a public religion. All good things to say, yet the SBC, as a denomination has all but endorsed candidates, seems to be very pro-republican, and if not in words than through actions seems to be all for a Christian America. Rev. Land clearly has some baggage that he was carrying, but he knew his audience and spoke to his audience. The term that he coined was, "principled pluralism," which seems similar to Saperstein's claims yesterday. There is an arena where pluralistic discourse exists and where the good values of the different religions rise for the sake of all humanity. A pluralism that cares for the poor, the marginalized, etc.... Sounds good, especially to this audience.
The other speaker for the day was R. Gustav Niebuhr, the director of the Religion and Society program as Syracuse University. Niebuhr spoke about tolerance as something we should not advocate over liberty, because tolerance has a condensing nature treating the tolerated groups as less then the one tolerating. This is not new, but something we need to remember. Even in this land where we claim all are free, tolerance is still rampart. For example, I tolerated Rev. Land's speech. What if I were to let go of my assumptions that I am right, that I am superior to him because of the crowd he travels with and really listen? What would I learn then? What would the dialogue be like? Would Land have had to so soften his speech? In the end, tolerance ruled the day, Land knew it, and knew his audience. He left the hollowed grounds of Chautauqua unscathed.