Diversity, unity, civility: New curriculum grounds all three in Christ

By Cheryl Magness

A small group of faculty and staff members at Concordia University Chicago (CUC), River Forest, Ill., recently field-tested a new CUC curriculum titled Unity and Civility in a Diverse Community. The group, which numbered about 10, worked through the curriculum together, led by CUC Professor of Music Dr. Maurice Boyer. The curriculum was created by a committee chaired by Dr. Rachel Ferguson, director of CUC’s Free Enterprise Center and assistant dean of the CUC College of Business.

Ferguson, who has also been instrumental in developing the curriculum, said its purpose is “to provide a biblically grounded approach to many of the questions that other institutions of higher education are answering with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion content. Rather than starting with our divisions, we start with the idea of civility. The current trend is to immediately divide along ideological lines, which then leaves us in echo chambers that dull our thinking and push us toward extremes. Instead, we want to demonstrate how to maintain friendships and treat one another with respect across disagreement.”

Some of the topics covered in the course include:

The various ways people show love for one another and how it all flows from the Creator;

The blessing of diversity and how that, too, flows from the Creator;

How people navigate issues of power and authority as they serve in the roles into which God has placed them; and

The practice of hospitality and the art of civil discourse.

Boyer said the course is all about listening.

“At the heart of this course,” Boyer explained, “is active listening: to the texts at hand, to the others in the class, and to one’s own inner reactions. What a needed practice in our high-decibel and often polarized society.

“Such active listening is the foundation for meaningful, honest and open dialogue. Covering a wide range of topics, the course does not shy away from sensitive ones. I can say without hesitation that, in all our interactions, the pedal point was the love of Christ. Even when there was disagreement, the tone remained civil and respectful.

“It was our prayer that Christ be at the center. Across 15 weeks, we got to know each other and learned a great deal from one another. On a personal note, it was a joy to get to know colleagues — staff and faculty — with whom I might not necessarily have had the opportunity to interact, had it not been for this course. I think it has the potential to do the same for others. It is a wonderful project.”

A team effort

Ferguson

The Unity and Civility curriculum was drafted by a team of individuals representing CUC, the LCMS Northern Illinois District, the LCMS Office of the President and Lutheran Church Extension Fund (LCEF). Ferguson said that the course content is strongly informed by CUC’s position as a mission school: a university with a strong Lutheran identity, but one that accepts students from a variety of backgrounds.

“As the course progresses,” Ferguson explained, “we get deeper into theological and philosophical issues, which helps faculty and students to understand CUC’s core commitments and to articulate the reasons for them. Some of these can be fairly controversial in a general higher ed setting, such as our positions on gender and sexual ethics. Providing brief but effective defenses on these ‘hot topics’ helps us to maintain our balance as a mission school. As faculty and staff — and a good portion of our students, too — we can be unified around our specifically Christian framework, while as an entire university, we can affirm our commitment to civility with one another, but always within the boundaries set for the community by university policy.”

Ferguson added that one outcome of the recent field test was “the insight that we actually need to start with [the broader topic of] civility and unity and work our way into more specific applications, instead of the other way around. I think that as professors we often assume that we should start with abstract principles and then demonstrate their implications. But in life, we often learn through experience first, only understanding the core truths later.”

The test group also noted the importance of tone.

“Two readings can be saying the same thing,” Ferguson explained, “but if one strikes a dismissive or self-righteous tone, it’s far less compelling, even to those who agree. We swapped out a couple of readings for ones that do a better job of taking objections seriously and, frankly, conveying the love of Christ for all involved.”

As the course continues to be tested and tweaked, the next step is to take the entire CUC faculty and staff through it and to make any additional changes before offering it to students, possibly as an extension of CUC’s Mission and Identity program, headed up by the Rev. Dr. Chad Kendall.

Dawn

In an interview with LCEF Director of Synod Relations Rehema Kavugha, who also served on the curriculum drafting committee, CUC President Dr. Russell Dawn discussed the purpose of the course.

“We want to see greater understanding and appreciation for the ideas in the course itself,” said Dawn. “But we also want to see greater understanding and appreciation of one another, and that comes through … open and genuine conversation [and] a bit of vulnerability with one another. … My hopes are that our unity and civility as a campus community would be obvious … internally to the people who experience them, but also … externally so that others can see and wonder at that which God has created here.”

Ferguson, co-author of Black Liberation Through the Marketplace: Hope, Heartbreak, and the Promise of America, earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from Saint Louis University in 2008. She is involved in community building and empowering economically isolated entrepreneurs through LOVEtheLOU and Gateway to Flourishing. She has been on the CUC faculty since 2021.

Posted June 3, 2024