Seeking the Whole Truth Together

A Conversation with Randall Paul
Foundation for Religious DiplomacyShow more

What if the key to breakthrough is not getting opposing parties to agree – but getting them to disagree agreeably?

This week’s guest, Randall Paul, President of the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy, says that when we transform those we perceive as opponents into “trustworthy rivals”, we open the door to finding the “whole truth” together. This is similar to what Abraham Lincoln did when he turned his political opponents into a “team of rivals”, uniting to preserve the Union.

Randall Paul came to his notion of “religious diplomacy” early. Growing up in New Jersey as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he was clearly in a minority. Other than another LDS family, his high school was one third Protestant, one third Catholic, and one third Jewish. As a teenaged “missionary”, he was eager to share his faith with others. However, when he visited the homes of his Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish friends, he found happy, healthy people secure in their own faith. Instead of asking, “What’s wrong with this picture?” he asked, “What’s RIGHT with this picture?”

He recognized the power of what he calls “collaborative contestation” – those with different religious (or for that matter, political) beliefs engaging in heart-centered conversation, so that their strongly-held beliefs could be fully aired and heard, in the context of seeking the whole truth together.

This “peaceful tension” among rivals who are both “critical and appreciative”, creates a little “psychological miracle” where they are able to engage in conflict with respect and honesty. How has this approach worked in the past? Can it work in the contentious and polarized present? Tune in and find out how diverse tribes with seemingly conflicting beliefs can continue to disagree and yet find the “higher truth that matters more than any human difficulty.”

Live transcript: https://otter.ai/u/uk69m5jA9_2fsHiARgIA0dE6XUk

To learn more about Foundation for Religious Diplomacy visit http://religious-diplomacy.org/