WHAT DOES SOUTHEAST MISSOURI SHOW?

Southeast Missouri isn't as diverse religiously and culturally as other cities, but that isn't necessarily a negative, area ministers and other religious leaders say. Rating the community's diversity depends on how you define diversity, said the Rev. Dr. Andy Pratt, a religious studies professor at Southeast Missouri State University.

By and large, Cape Girardeau like other Southeast Missouri communities reflects its Bible Belt heritage.

There are congregations within the community that want to celebrate diversity and welcome it, said the Rev. Phil Curran, pastor of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ.)"There is room for everyone at the table," Curran said. The area isn't hostile to diversity, it's just not a major presence within the community.

Cape Girardeau is primarily a Christian community, Pratt said, but with student groups at the university there is some diversity.

A Jewish student group, a pagan group, the Circle of the Blessed Moon and an Islamic Center on West End Boulevard are helping to create diversity. There is also diversity among Protestant denominations with Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, Southern Baptists, General Baptists, Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodists and nondenominational churches.

For those who haven't been exposed to much religious diversity, Pratt takes students in his Religion in America course on a field trip to St. Louis each semester. They visit different houses of worship like a Mormon tabernacle, Hindu temple, Islamic center and others. For many of the students it is an emotionally exhausting trip, Pratt said. "What you see with religious diversity when you begin to deal with it is human diversity."People live with the idea that everyone is just like them, but it's a false idea, Pratt said. "Once you begin to deal with that then you experience human diversity and see how different we really are."Differences don't always mean negative reactions. If people can talk about their religions without feeling threatened or defensive, then we can learn a lot, Curran said. Culture plays a dominant role in religion. Curran, who was raised in an American Christian home, said he could just as easily have been a Hindu if he would have been born to Indian parents living among that culture. "In Christ we most fully know God," he said. But at the same time, Curran said he is aware that there are other religions and traditions that relate in an Islamic or Buddhist way of faith. "If we can understand that God is the God of us all, then I think that we have ground to work with," he said. Cultures and religious groups aren't going to be able to work together for peace or other causes if they can't "humbly acknowledge that we don't have the entire truth."There are tiny pockets of diversity in Southeast Missouri, Pratt said. But people don't really go out of their way to find them. "We spend more time investing in building our own kingdoms than exploring," he said. But faith "doesn't exist until it exists in the life of a person."