2008 Woodie Awards
Speaker addresses reconciliation
Kelsi Peace, Managing Editor
Issue date: 9/12/07 Section: News
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The true message, Salter McNeil said, is that of the
cross - both vertical and horizontal relationships. And without the horizontal reconciliation of human relationship, the truth gets lost in translation, she said.
"All we're preaching is just a big stick you use to hit people over the head," she said.
Salter McNeil returned to the university as a speaker who has been on campus several times before. A keynote speaker at Urbana, a student missions convention, last winter, Salter McNeil hails from Chicago and addresses issues of reconciliation across racial, socio-economic, gender and other boundaries.
Using the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well from John 4, Salter McNeil levied a challenge: "If you want to know what reconciliation really looks like, just follow Jesus."
She relayed her 10 principles for reconciliation, which come from her recently completed book, "A Credible Witness." The principles include a real need, risk-taking, relinquishing
power and reciprocity.
Salter McNeil told students one issue she often sees is that institutions often don't know what to do with the diversity they have - and if they do, they aren't leaving a comfort zone or allowing any reciprocity to occur.
"As opposed to getting people to come to us, we might have to ask ourselves how to go to them," she said.
After trumpeting her desire to learn Spanish, Salter McNeil said some friends sent her to Mexico to lead seminars for weeks - and out of her comfort zone and intentionally in a Spanishspeaking environment, she learned. Much like her situation, Salter McNeil said those who wish to reach across divides must be intentional; they must go to the well where
they know they will find the Samaritan woman.
"If you want a safe religion, I'm telling you, Jesus is not the guy," she said. "He's risky, and he's asking his people to be
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