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Harry Truman was a true man of words. When being interviewed by Merle Miller he made some comments about his understanding of the Bible. He said he especially liked the Gospels and it interested him how "those fellas saw the same things in a different manner," and yet they were all telling the truth. He went on:
"I think that's the first time I realized that no two people ever see the same thing in quite the same way, and when they tell it the way they saw it, they aren't necessarily lying if it's different... And that is one of the reasons that when I got into a position of power I always tried to keep in mind that just because I see something in a certain way didn't mean that others didn't see it in a different manner. That's why I always hesitated to call a man a liar unless I had the absolute goods on him."
With those words Truman gives us a lot of wisdom in a nutshell. If we lived according to the Truman Truth about the diversity of perspectives, we could learn to live together in God's beautiful world with more harmony and compassion. The virtue of Tolerance is enhanced by the realization that people see the same thing in different ways. We even describe our understanding of the same God in different ways. People with different theologies may well be talking about the same God, just with different vocabulary or different cultural images.
I think it is significant--and inspired--that the Bible has four gospels instead of one; and that there are two creation stories instead of one in the first three chapters; and that 1st and 2nd Chronicles give a slightly different take on events that are already reported in Samuel and Kings. In other words, the very makeup of the Scriptures show us that God not only allows different perspectives, but values them.
Could it be that the Eastern view of religion and the Western view of religion are two perspectives that can learn from each other? Could it be that theology is bipolar, and we need both poles to have a wholistic experience of God?
Well, I'm going way beyond what Truman was saying. But the truth of differing perspectives is a major insight that has ramifications for politics, social relationships, ecumenism, and plain old courtesy.
My perspective cannot be the whole story. And neither can yours. We need to listen to each other.
