Agreeing to disagree, agreeably.
A Black liberal, a White conservative, both Christians.
You mean people can strongly hold opposing views without rancor?
Yes. In fact, Cornel West and Robert George visit college campuses to say so.
Watch our Truth in Two to find out why (full text, citation, afterword below).
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from Comenius (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), hosts a weekly radio program with diverse groups of guests (1 minute video), and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).
Picture Credit: Luke Renoe, RIT, Wikipedia
FULL TEXT:
Is it possible for a black liberal and a white conservative to have a civil conversation in front of a university audience? Yes. In fact, the event is replicated at universities around the country.
Cornel West, a black liberal and Robert P. George, a white conservative are friends and can often be found speaking together on campuses. Both men are Christians. Both men taught together at Princeton. Both men dialogue well with each other about their differences. Both men believe in teaching truth, goodness, and beauty.
Cornel West says,
“That’s one reason why I spend the time that I do with my dear brother Robby George of Princeton. We’ve taught many classes together on great books. He is a deeply conservative brother. I love and respect him as a person. We go at it on his positions in a variety of different ways, but we’re both fundamentally wedded to the “adventure of ideas.”
West continues,
“Respect for anyone or anything or any group necessitates a standard. Douglass, Tubman, MLK, or Tutu all adhered to Christian rootedness for their ethics; a standard outside themselves. The assumption base is an important starting point. We may have different assumptions, approaches, and attentions but we share an inherent belief that there is right and wrong and we bear responsibility to speak when we see either.”
At the Comenius Institute we ask questions West and George would ask.
- What is the basis for our difference?
- What is the source of any solution?
- What should be the expected outcome?
- Is there room for compromise, give-and-take, or alternative approaches?
- By whose authority will we come to any conclusion?
West and George continue to speak together at universities, in West’s words, “wedded to ‘the adventure of ideas.’”
For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of the Comenius Institute, sadly and personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.
CITATIONS
West’s quotations are taken from Janice McCabe, “Activism and the Academy: An Interview with Cornel West,” Contexts, 13 August 2018. https://contexts.org/articles/activism-and-the-academy-an-interview-with-cornel-west/
AFTERWORD
If you do an online search of West and George you will find pictures of them in jocular embrace, together holding Harriet Tubman’s Bible, or sitting on a university stage, engaged in conversation. You will also find a picture you will not see often: West and George together, holding hands, heads bowed in prayer.
PBS recently produced a “Firing Line” episode featuring the two friends. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/firing-line/video/cornel-west-and-robert-george-mpaztt/