DIYS

When I was working as the Wackerlin Fellow at Aurora University, I organized a Day of Interfaith Youth Service under the auspices of the Interfaith Youth Core of Chicago. The long and short of it was that we took 40 young people of faith (Jews, Catholics, Bahais, Hindus, Lutherans, Congregationalists, Atheists, etc.) and put them together to tie together fleece blankets for our local transitional living community. After the blankets were all set, we gathered around for a massive feast (mostly of junk food) and then retreated to our original groups for some dialogue about the shared value of service.

Most of the kids in my group had already spent lots of time within their faith communities in various incarnations of service; many had spent time working in New Orleans after Katrina. One young man in particular made a very poignant remark. He told us that it was refreshing and welcome to have a safe space where he could talk about issues of "faith" without getting "religion" crammed down his throat.

It's comments like that that remind me why interfaith dialogue is so appealing, and especially to young people. There are precious few opportunities to engage our own faith in neutral, mutually-reinforcing spaces, and sitting down and chatting with other people about shared religious values is one way to make those opportunities available.

Choosing "The American Dream"

New post at the Interfaith Youth Core's "Bridge-Builders" social network. It can be viewed here, and is also reproduced in its entirety below:

It dawned on me some time ago that most nonprofits exist to do good things: fill gaps in social services, provide hope, advocate for a positive future, etc. I tried imagining what a nonprofit organization would look like if it did things that were bad. You know, like a group that tried to ban kittens or keep people in poverty. Maybe a nonprofit that was trying to take aspirin off the streets or something like that. Such a thing, I thought, would be very, very weird. But dangerous...now that's a possibility that I hadn't really thought about.

I have a low tolerance for groups (be they nonprofit or otherwise) that work to keep women in the 19th century, or that espouse radical political programs, or that seek inequitable resolutions to social issues. I don't like the thought of people trying their best to make things worse for most people. And I definitely have no respect for groups spouting hate speech, especially when it comes in DVD format in your Sunday newspaper.

The Clarion Fund, an organization whose stated goal is informing the American public of the threat of militant Islam, has packaged and released a few dozen million copies of “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West” to newspaper subscribers in many "swing states," ostensibly to inform them that national security issues (i.e. scary Muslims) should push them toward one presidential ticket in particular. The Obsession DVD is not vital information, it is careless drivel, and those who have seen the film and have the ability to reason will understand this. Let’s be honest here – the Clarion Fund is spending a lot of money to destroy one of the historical roots of America: freedom of religion.

America is a melting pot, right? People of faith have been streaming over here for hundreds of years, yearning for a spot where they could practice whatever religion they felt like and not be spat upon, arrested, or worse. It is part of the American Dream. The Obsession DVD, and other attempts to misrepresent and malign the religion of Islam and its followers, can do great harm to our nation. We will view with suspicion the many Muslims who have come to call America home.

Pardon the violent imagery, but if I could buy an “Opposite Gun,” something that would reverse whatever it was fired upon, I would shoot it at the Clarion Fund and see what popped out. Odds are, the opposite of a group like that would be something like the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), a group based out of Chicago that works very hard to strengthen the bonds of community and cooperation among the diverse faiths of America. Instead of envisioning a western world under siege, the IFYC celebrates our religious pluralism, and posits the very American notion that we are all in this together, regardless of what god (if any) you pray to. While the Clarion Fund and its supporters shout loudly about the incompatibility of American democracy and Islam, the IFYC and its supporters illuminate interfaith collaboration and the shared values of all religions.

I would prefer that the effects of my Opposite Gun remain permanent, but I know that eventually the intolerant people and organizations that I have shot will return to their regular, nasty selves. The Interfaith Youth Core and all the other good groups will still be out there, too, and they will have a lot of work to do. And regular Americans, be they Christian or Muslim or whatever, will have a lot of work as well. We have to remember that there are in fact groups out there that do only bad things, and that have a very negative view of the world. So will we choose a worldview of negativity and opposition, or one of positivity and cooperation? Let’s stick with the American Dream.

Films of Hope: Eboo Patel

Find more videos like this on bridge-builders

An Army of Compassion

Many of us know or have heard of Rick Warren, the author of "A Purpose Driven Life" and pastor of Saddleback Church (the site of a recent debate between our presidential candidates). For some, he represents a key figurehead of the modern American Evangelical movement. I stumbled across some comments that he made at a recent Clinton Global Initiative meeting:

"There are 600 million Buddhists in the world, there are 800 million Hindus in the world, there are a billion Muslims in the world, and there are 2.3 billion Christians . . . And there is already an army ready to be mobilized, an army of compassion, in those villages. They're called churches or mosques or temples or synagogues."

The last line is in bold print because it's important. This is a telling comment, not simply because he's laying out a vision of the power of people of faith to do good in the world, but because he's including all people of faith. Pastor Warren wields considerable influence among American faithful. When he mobilizes his "Army of Compassion," I don't think it'll just be Christians marching to help.

*Disclaimer* I found this quote on a "Biblical End Times" forum, where concerned Christians were venting their frustration with Warren's open message. Still, I doubt he would ever fall that far out of favor.