Stand up and speak out

By Jutta Liddle

I recently attended a Humanists’ meeting where the guest speaker was Rev. Wanda Olive, the pastor of the Winchester Presbyterian Church.

After pastor Olive gave an overview of the fundamental believes of her church, she focused on what Presbyterians and Humanists have in common. Interestingly there are many basic shared values such as serving the community we live in.

At the end of the meeting there was time for questions and sharing opinions and ideas. One of the questions was “how to handle a situation when encountering a person who is unwavering in his/her believes which are contrary to one’s own believes”?

Pastor Olive offered her own personal response to such a situation: try to open a respectful dialogue and when that is impossible, leave.

During the meeting an opinion was voiced with the assumption that everybody was in accordance. Even though not everybody agreed, and possibly there were strong contrary opinions, only one person voiced disagreement.

I was born and raised in Germany during post WWII era. These were my formative years and affected me deeply, as you can imagine. I lived what happens when we don’t speak up, when we don’t voice our disagreeing with what is happening.

Based on my own personal experience I believe in that standing up and voicing one’s opinion is important. I believe in that changes can happen when we share our differing points of view.

I don’t always have the strength, the courage and the presence of mind to voice my disagreements. But I keep trying.