Open Letter to Faith Communities in Greater Liberty
2017 from Ed Chasteen
aka Pedalin’ Prof
The billboard on campus that summer showed the route I rode on my bicycle from Orlando to Seattle to Anaheim. By myself. With no money/. Looking for goodness. And finding it. Took me 105 days. On my longest days I rode 125 miles. So when I was back I drew a 125 mile circle around our town called Liberty. I dubbed this little piece of God’s good earth, Greater Liberty, meaning to call attention to the Greater Liberty we all have to live beyond all the names other people know us by. My hope is to find a friend in every Greater Liberty faith community and to encourage others to come with me.
I propose a class for faith communities located in Greater Liberty. An on-line class, with few, maybe no, actual visits. But! Close enough that should we wish, a visit//visits might easily be arranged. I ask members of Greater Liberty faith communities to contact me on line and sign up for this class. I will then pair you with a member of another faith community. This new identity will be someone of another faith who lives nearby. Let us call this The Greater Liberty Class.
Both members of every pair will hold seven on-line conversations using the seven sets of questions I provide. Each will then write the life story of the one with whom you are paired. The story will be written in first person” “My name is (……)” Each member of the pair will submit your story to the other for possible additions and/or corrections. And then to me.
After each online conversation, each member of the pair will tell me by email what you learned about the person you are becoming. When the seven conversations have been completed, each member of the pair will write the story of your new identity as you have learned it through the seven sets of questions.
This class will follow the academic calendar: fall semester September-December; spring semester January-April. In May at William Jewell College all pairs will be invited for a Human Family Reunion honoring those who by their work as pairs are now recognized as World Class Persons, able to go anyplace at anytime and talk to anyone about anything and feel safe.
Students may sign up for either the fall or the spring semester. The seven sets of questions are designed to be completed in one semester. I know of no better way to deepen and widen one’s own faith than by delving into another, and no better way of delving than by spending a few weeks as someone of another faith. One of my very good friends is Yahya Furqan, a Muslim imam. We have traveled the country together. We have visited in each others homes. Yahya says he is a better Muslim because he knows me. I am a better Christian because I know him. Neither of us have even thought of trying to convert the other.
I am now contacting some of my longtime friends in the various faith communities in the area to ask them to help me enlist their folks in this quest to both find friends and build bridges. And to all who may happen to read this letter, I ask you to please join me. Sign up for Greater :Liberty.. Email: hatebuster@aol.com
The Pedalin’ Prof
And HateBusters Founder
Ed Chasteen
From
William Jewell College
Teaching People How To Like People
Box 442 Liberty, MO 64069 816-803-8371 hatebuster@aol.com