Howard Thurman: “The oneness of mankind”

From Joyce Gibson’s invitation to worship, Durham Friends Meeting, June 28, 2020

“Religion has enjoyed an exclusive character for far too long,‘’ he said, “and this has fostered inequality and established the principle of separateness.  Men, instead of feeling at one with each other because of their relationship to God, are set apart from each other because of the division caused by their differing theologies.  Exclusiveness may once have been a luxury, but it can be no longer.  In human affairs, science is in process of annihilating space and time; religion can keep pace only as it annihilates boundaries.  The basis for modern life is the acknowledged oneness of mankind.” 

[Were he speaking today, Thurman would surely have spoken of “people” rather than of “men” or “mankind.”]

Quoted in Elizabeth Yates McGreal, Howard Thurman:  Portrait of a Practical Dreamer (New York: John Day Publishing, 1964), (pp. 142-143).

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