Since the days of Pierre Trudeau, Canada’s gift to the world has been understood as multiculturalism. Though many countries are built through a single ethnic and religious group, Canada, a nation of immigrants, rejected this sentiment. Rather than seek to forge a new identity, Canada’s identity would be that it made room for everyone else’s.
The end of ethnic nationalism and the building of societies that promote civic nationalism with a universally accepted value system was born out of the idea of allowing and celebrating diversity. A set of universally accepted values rather than an identity forged on similar last names seemed sensible, but something has gone wrong.
Bombings in Britain, political assassinations in the Netherlands, and race riots in China all seem to be symptoms of the diversity experiment gone amiss. The world has seemingly rejected Canada’s gift.
The rise of violent intolerance should not be understood as something new to history. Its recent uprising against diversity has triggered a reconsideration of its value and acceptence, however.
At Trinity Western, our diversity comes at varying levels, from the obvious examples of different races on campus, to the more subtle differences of the beliefs of diverging Protestant sects.
While tensions can boil between ideas and cultures, and the gulf between understanding one another can feel as wide as the Pacific, let us understand that diversity is one of few things that can truly challenge our own identity and understanding. Diversity’s strength is that it can awaken a longing for something different, as well as demonstrate to us a deeper desire to know ourselves.
Do not let go of your own identity and beliefs so that others may practice their own with more prevalence and piety. Instead, let diversity act to broaden your perspectives on the world and its people. Become exposed to beliefs and cultures different than your own in the hopes yours may become more coherent and educated, and wherever possible, let this quest come through peaceful means.
With peace & love,
John Hennenfent
Editor-in-Chief
