Many diversity trainers tell me that they steer clear of religion. Not me. Faith discussions are always welcome in my workshops. I love talking about religion. Maybe that’s because of how I grew up.
Some people are reared in a strong religious tradition. Others with none. I grew up in a home with two faith traditions. To this day that experience affects the way I view the world around me.
Consider the opening lines of my memoir, Rose Hill: An Intermarriage before Its Time. “Dad was a Mexican Catholic. Mom was a Kansas City-born Jew with Eastern European immigrant parents. They fell in love in Berkeley, California, and married in Kansas City, Missouri. That alone would not have been a big deal. But it happened in 1933, when such marriages were rare. And my parents spent most of their lives in Kansas City, a place both racially segregated and religiously divided. Mom and Dad chose to be way ahead of their time; I didn’t. But because of them, I had to be. My mixed background meant that, however unwillingly, I had to learn to live as an outsider.”
Continue reading Diversity and Speech #25: Growing Up Bi-Religious – by Carlos E. Cortés