I am on the board of a rather conservative Christian organization for home-schoolers and for most of my tenure I have flown completely under the radar regarding some of my personal political/religious beliefs particularly those about civil rights for GLBT people because of the nature of my position on that board. In recent weeks I have watched a local issue about job descrimination that I felt very called to become directly involved in but I was very reluctant to do so due to the position I hold on the board. Last night at our monthly board meeting I resolved to "out" myself on this issue and the fact that I am more liberal politically than most of the board generally is and once it was on the table to let the board know I was more than willing to step down. I did this fully expecting to be asked to do precisely that.
And I was stunned by the response.
As far as the board is concerned there is no conflict of interest, even though my role is as their political representative, because this issue does not have anything to do with home schooling. They want me to stay. I made it very clear that I was going to be publicly involved and that I couldn't guarentee I wouldn't be seen on local news outlets. They still want me to stay. They have said that we will cross the bridge of dealing with member reaction if and when we come to it.
Perhaps there is hope that our home school community is becoming less locked into a certain ultra-right wing conservative position than it has previously held. I don't know. I will take the unexpected support though. It was nice for once to have it.
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Their response is refreshing. Maybe there are a few more "under the wire" moderates on the board.
ReplyDeleteI know I personally have come to regret spending the majority of my time the past several years among the conservative homeschool and "Christian" community. It has, in the long run, left my family almost friendless and our collection of battle wounds from living among them is too long to catalog. We are in the process of trying to make and/or find a community more open to God and others and less inclined to bite and devour everyone in their path. I think we've almost reached "ground zero"... we've dug out of the deep hole of grief and loss. Where we go from here... God only knows.