My parents were interested in differences. I watched them befriend and protect people whom our society tends to reject. I am thankful to my parents for this precious gift, a gift I'm not sure they noticed they were giving.
Our human fears about otherness are nothing new. They are ancient. The story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9 is about this kind of fear and the oppression that often results from it.
As Dr. Leanne Van Dyk, President and Professor of Theology at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia points out, "In 1976, the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa issued a document, 'Human Relations and the South African Scene in the Light of Scripture,' that interpreted the Babel story as a divine command for separation of people based on racial identities."
As she notes, "Desmond Tutu refuted this interpretation," exposing how the "apologists of apartheid have sometimes used the story of the Tower of Babel as divine sanction for their ideology of 'separate development' and ethnic identity." Bishop Tutu then "went on to insist that 'God's intention for humankind and for His entire universe is harmony, peace, justice, wholeness, fellowship.'"
Similarly, Dr. Cameron B.R. Howard, Associate Professor of Old Testament at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota proposes that in the Babel story, fear "drives the building project: fear of dispersal, of loss, of living with otherness."
Dr. Howard concludes that "both the Babel and the Pentecost (Acts 2:1-21) accounts emphasize the power of human unity, without expecting human sameness, sending people out into the world to forge connections with those who are different from themselves."
Like my Mom and Dad, God is interested in our differences, and encourages us to go forth and learn from each other about them.
Dr. Van Dyk and Dr. Howard's reflections can be found in Connections: A Lectionary Commentary, Year C, Volume 2, 2018, p. 320.