Communication and Diversity

            Cultural diversity is something we were asked think about and discuss this week.  One person I think about when I reflect on friends and family is my atheist friend. I have a friend who is an atheist and I am a Christian and a minister. When we first met each other, we were both working on Blog talk radio show. The friend in the beginning did not respect my beliefs, but wanted me to respect his. Communication was strained in the beginning because he would say things he knew would offend me.  In my ministerial training, I was taught to deal with different types of people and their behavior. I would treat him with respect and I would respect his beliefs. He later began to show me respect; he also begins to respect my beliefs. I did not know it at the time, but I was using the platinum rule and the rule helped to foster effective communication. The person that caused me so much stress and aggravation eventually became my friend. We began to discuss our difference and respected them. There were times when we would still have debates about things, but we learned to respect each other’s thought process and agreed to disagree.