Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: If it's religion it ain't cohousing

[Fred H Olson WB0YQM (fholson]

JCALLEN [at] APTINC.COM   Jerry Callen jcallen [at] world.std.com
is the author of the message below but due
to a listserv problem it was posted by the COHOUSING-L sysop (Fred).

Note: I've belatedly added an alias for Jerry who is subscribed
at his permanent (world) address but uses the aptinc address
regularly at present.  Fred
****************  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS *********************

THESHLIFE [at] aol.com writes:

   The point is, cohousing enbodies diversity.
   [...]
   Religion of anykind is not part of cohousing.

Are you suggesting that all the cohousing groups that require home
ownership (and therefore a certain level of income) are not *really*
cohousing because they don't permit diversity of economic means?

Nearly ALL cohousing groups have selection criteria they apply to new
members. Probably the most common (implicit) requirement is economic,
but there are often others (such as a commitment to consensus decision
making) that have the effect of being quite exclusionary and enforcing
substantial uniformity in world view. It's my experience that, in
fact, many people interested in cohousing are excited by the prospect
of having so many "like-minded" neighbors, and I don't see this as
necessarily a bad thing.

Why do you consider religion to be so fundamentally different from
other selection criteria that have a similar narrowing effect on
diversity?

-- Jerry Callen
   jcallen [at] world.std.com

   "The best lack conviction, given some time to think,
    and the worst are full of passion without mercy."
        -- Joni Mitchell (borrowing from W.B. Yeats)