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A letter from the editor

The final speaker at the 2007 CTA Conference, Richard Rodriguez, fit perfectly the weekend theme of “Racism and Reconciliation: Church Beyond Power and Privilege.” But he didn’t talk about power or privilege. He talked about love. As Jesus would. As Nelson Mandela did 17 years ago when, after over a quarter century in prison, he came to the Capetown City Hall and said, “There will be no recrimination.”

Despite all the problems in South Africa, AIDS and joblessness and angry people in the cities, Rodriguez said: “There is some other energy there. I want to call it love. The freedom to sit beside, the freedom to befriend, the freedom to love.”

Years back, Rodriguez coined the phrase, “The browning of America,” NOT to signal a simple demographic increase in people of color, but to celebrate the rising tide of DIVERSITY, both in the U.S. and in the planetaryvillage. Why? Because of love. Falling in love. Making love. Africans and Indians and Mexicans. Gays and straights. “The scandal in our church is not that we tolerate hatred,” he said. “The scandal is that we do not know love. But people are falling in love all over the place.”

Bill Thompson