During the Thanksgiving holiday many of us may have spent some time outside of our usual social bubbles.  Perhaps you traveled to a state where the general culture and politics clash with your own.  Perhaps you shared a table with a family member you aren’t otherwise close to.

I know that all cultural change begins in relationships.  If we are to heal the divisions among us, we must work to maintain  relationships with people we value but disagree with.  That’s how we, and they, will learn and grow.  I also know, from having once been in the closet about my sexuality, that real relationships require honesty and openness.  Relationships with the power to heal divisions and create new ways of being  require courage, to share our whole selves, and grace, to receive differences without turning away.

That, to me, is Universalism.  We’re all in this together.  We celebrate our differences, even the difficult ones.  We work it out and move forward together.  We don’t write anyone off.  We are strengthened for this hard work by our faith that everyone is worthy, while no one is perfect, and that salvation is communal.