The Enemy's Gospel: Deconstructing Exclusivity and Inventing Inclusivity through the Power of Story

The problem of exclusivity figures large in education. How can we educate to deconstruct exclusivity and invent inclusivity? This article asserts that an unexamined veneration for the "objective" academic voice is at least partly responsible for the strong tendency to exclusivity, while suggesting that the subjective voice of storytelling can foster inclusivity through its engagement of the imagination and the emotions. In particular, I invite consideration of the problems of objectivity/subjectivity and the importance of the imagination; the concept of the "enemy's gospel" (any redemptive storytelling that allows us to enter the other's--the possible or actual enemy's--space in order to better know both the enemy and the emerging self); my own narrative as it explores these questions of exclusivity/inclusivity; and the redemptive iconoclasm of one illustrative novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. The intention is to ask curriculum leaders and students to engage in acts of the moral imagination to deconstruct exclusivity, invent inclusion, and re-envision what it means to be human.