Had selected biblical figures ignored strangers in their midst rather than embracing them, the development of Christianity would have been thwarted.

Such are the risks to society when people fail to interact with strangers or people with whom they share some commonalities but do not get to know out of fear or laziness. That's according to sociologist and author Parker J. Palmer, a Wisconsin-based consultant and Quaker who lectures on education, spirituality and social change.

Speaking Thursday at the Marriott University Park Hotel, he urged a re-evaluation of the mental model he believes most people embrace, which divides the world into two spheres: the politically powerful and the personal. The first is centered around government, media and business, where participants use the currency of relationships and networking to function.

The personal sphere is populated only by those we consider family, friends or acquaintances, he said, noting that neither sphere values or provides for interaction with strangers. And it is in such encounters that some of society's most important interactions occur.

In the book of Genesis, Abraham and Sarah encounter three strangers in the desert who turned out to be angels from God. If the couple had been Americans living in the 20th or 21st century, "the faith journey of an entire people would have come crashing to a halt" because fear or ambivalence would have kept them from interacting, he said.

Similar attitudes would have scuttled Christ's interaction with his apostles, traveling on the road to Emmaus after his resurrection, Palmer said. They didn't recognize him, but because it was their custom to care for strangers, they welcomed the risen Lord to supper.

Americans have largely traded their town squares and public spaces for shopping malls, he said. Though people gather in both settings, malls are privately owned, and any kind of public discourse like protest, leafleting and extemporaneous oratory are prohibited so shoppers remain focused on purchasing rather than interaction with strangers.

The "fallacy behind our paranoia" about the motives of people we don't know keeps us locked into either political or personal spheres, where we continue to find ways to "stay safe" from others without realizing the social cost. Such a course leads to totalitarianism, Palmer said, adding the first thing a dictator seeks to do in grasping power is "eliminate all vestiges of public life."

Gatherings where people can talk and share ideas are prohibited and media is controlled to limit discussion and crush dissent because "every dictator knows public life has a vital function" in a free society. Public life "serves to amplify the voices" of those who live mostly in the private sphere, enhancing their influence in society.

The American civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s would not have occurred in today's society because it lacks the public spaces that foment such change, Palmer said.

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"Paranoia about the harm someone is going to do to us" has made crime another reason people avoid strangers, so they lock themselves away "safe in their homes." Yet the paradox is that the vast majority of crimes are committed by a family member, friend or acquaintance of the victim.

Religion contributes greatly to "sustaining and affirming the company of strangers" when it is used responsibly by those who seek healthy interaction rather than a forum for feeling superior, Palmer said. Faith communities can form the bridge between political and private life, allowing people to learn "the dance of negotiation, engaging in conflict in ways that are creative and not destructive."

Palmer's lecture was sponsored by the local Episcopal Diocese and the Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah.


E-mail: carrie@desnews.com

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