Answers in Action

Freshman Kathryn Kemp explores the question, “Why Interfaith?” 

Since the time you first began to talk, questions have been inescapable.   Your first words may have included “mama, papa”, or some convoluted form of the family pet’s name, and surely your parents were in awe of how much you learned as well as making a point to tell every living relative.  But one day the show-stopping word came along that jumpstarted learning for the rest of your life:

“Why?”

While back then you were probably more concerned with the reasons why ice cream wasn’t a major food group rather than with the nature of the known universe, this pesky little question lies at the root of academic inquiry and the root of religious faith for countless people around the globe in our the search for ultimate explanations about the world around us.  Over four days in early October, I joined a group of fellow Davidson students as we abandoned the how’s and why’s of academics and instead dove into the realm of religion, faith, and ultimate questions.  Through visiting the various houses of worship in Washington, DC, I gained a renewed respect for the ways that all religious faith traditions provide not only an avenue for answers but a sense of connection, community, and purpose for each individual within their life.

In addition to exploring the Jewish, Hindu, Orthodox and Islamic traditions, we participated in multiple service projects throughout the city, including preparing food at a homeless shelter and volunteering at the elderly community center.  As I thought about how these projects connected to my own faith journey, I began to realize how service and action in the face of pain are inextricably connected to any expression of faith.  As we grow, face hardships, and recognize the struggles of others all around us, that pesky little question rears it’s head again; “Why does this happen?  How can such pain exist in a divine universe? Where was God?”

Well, maybe a better question is… where were we?

Often times having complete and infallible answers to these ultimate questions becomes so important in our minds that we forget that how crucial our own action is to their resolution.  We can ask and ponder all day long, but it is only in taking action for the good of others that we are truly responding to this divine challenge of humanity.  While wandering through the church that served as our our home base throughout the trip, I came across a passage posted on the wall which related perfectly to our journey in the city.  Written by Rachel Remen, it read: “Service rests on the basic premise that the nature of life is sacred, that life is a holy mystery which has an unknown purpose. When we serve, we know that we belong to life and to that purpose. Fundamentally, helping, fixing and service are ways of seeing life. When you help you see life as weak, when you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see life as whole.”

Interfaith learning and action embodies this mission of service, as it honors the “whole-ness” of others, no matter their differences in daily hardships, cultural practices or religious views.  Revering the common connections within humanity is the foundation of compassion and of the healing process, and with this attitude of service we recognize that the work of our hands is a fundamental way we express the divine good.   Yes, at the end of the day, we might still have questions.   We might choose to answer them differently.  But rather than a pop quiz in which we hope to earn a gold star, faith is a journey, a holy mystery in which we all take part.  And it is often the hardships in life that force us to look past our own opinions, beliefs, and disagreements, and instead work together to end the struggle, honoring life as whole.

“Why” might you ask?

Because in order to overcome it, we all have to believe that love, compassion and community are stronger than anything that makes us different.

That’s why.

Plural in the USA

On January 12th-15th, three students of Davidson College (Gracie Dover, Alexis Grant, and Sarah Jordan) as well as Tae Sun Kim, the director of the Multicultural House, attended an Interfaith Leadership Institute with the Interfaith Youth Core to learn more about interfaith action and the Better Together movement. During one of the sessions, a guest speaker Hannah Minks sang a parody of Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA.” “Plural in the USA” embodies the essence of the Interfaith movement. Make sure to check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrDVwj0y65s! Enjoy Interfaithing.

Institute of Southern Jewish Life

 The Institute of Southern Jewish Life was developed in 1986 to provide educational and rabbinic services to Jewish communities in the Sout as well as promoting the Jewish presence in a thirteen state region. Here is their January newsletter: ISJL January 2012 Newsletter. Make sure to check out the article on the third page about Tu B’shvat, a holiday occuring on February 8th, a Jewish Arbor Day. For more inforemation about the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, visit here.

Disproving Lofty Notions

Sophomore Jessica Annonio redefines her interpretation of the word “interfaith.”

The last morning of the Fall Break Interfaith Trip, I became a conglomeration of paradoxes. I was exhausted and invigorated from a weekend of sprinting from one activity to the next. I was simultaneously engaged and analytical of the houses of worship we visited, the individuals we encountered, and the service projects we performed. Yet I was left wondering what the purpose of our weekend was.  Prior to this trip, I theoretically knew the importance of interfaith cooperation—to promote tolerance across faith traditions—and I had hoped that this trip would provide some clarity to my confusion.

Then we went to CIFA, the Center for Interfaith Action on Global Poverty, to learn more about the intersection of faith and politics. CIFA is a non-profit international government organization whose purpose is to bring together religious leaders and their followers within the same African nation for the good of the community. One of CIFA’s original initiatives involves coordinating Christian and Islamic  leaders in Nigeria to encourage their followers to use bed nets properly as the family sleeps to so as to prevent the spread of malaria; they are seeing remarkable success rates within this program. In addition, they are empowering women in rural Africa to become educated and equal with the men in the region. Plus they are coordinating several additional initiatives. The most incredible part? They have only been in existence for three years.

As soon as we rang the doorbell to their office located within the National Cathedral, I knew this was going to be an entirely different experience from the rest of the trip. A staff member shepherded us into the upper recesses of the cathedral, and we arrived in a rearranged conference room to a warm reception of snacks and drinks. Another staff member greeted us and invited us to make ourselves comfortable as he finished setting up the presentation.  Once it commenced, it was clear that he had put hours of careful preparation prior to our arrival. Halfway through a third staff member took over and finished the perfectly planned presentation. As it concluded, the remaining staff we had not yet met arrived, and we had the chance to ask any and every question we could think of for the next half hour. Through all of this, the team remained energized, upbeat, and well organized. In every response they gave it was clear that the entire staff is passionate about their work, and that they all strongly desired to be working for CIFA. Some were fresh out of college, some had given up corporate jobs, and others came out of retirement for this organization, and no one regretted their decision.

In my experience, the word “interfaith” comes with this lofty, abstract, and pretentious reputation. During this past summer when I said that I was gaining a greater interest in “interfaith action,” my family and friends would indicate with their quizzical looks that they needed a better explanation of exactly what I meant. Sometimes the search for a clear definition of interfaith is not much better because it includes other elusive words. It is hard to put a tangible definition on this abstract concept, let alone figure out how it could be applied to real life. But this is exactly what CIFA did. They managed to take this lofty and pretentious word and give it tangible, concrete meaning and get others to invest in their ideas over three short years. My experience at CIFA dissipated my sense of confusion and provided that sense of purpose I needed to obtain before the conclusion of this trip. It gave me a tangible result of what the passion of a few individuals could do within today’s globalized society. Finally, CIFA transformed my previous misconceptions of the lofty, abstract, and pretentious adjective “interfaith” into a tangible noun that is now accompanied by CIFA’s stories of working for the common good.

Chaplains Wanted For Atheists in Foxholes

The NPR Staff presented this article on their Radio Show, All Things Considered, on December 4, 2011.  

Retired Army captain and Iraqi war veteran Jason Torpy says the chaplains employed by the U.S. military can’t relate to people like him. He’s an atheist.

He’s also the president of a group that’s trying to get the armed forces to become more inclusive by  hiring atheist chaplains.  The Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers wants the military to provide for the estimated 40,000 atheists,  agnostics and humanists who serve in U.S. forces.

Military chaplains, most of whom are Protestant Christians, are assigned  many secular advising duties, including marriage, family and suicide  counseling, Torpy  tells weekends on All Things Considered guest host Rachel Martin. They touch so many parts of service members’ lives, he says, they can help improve what he sees as an environment of exclusion.

“That lack of connection to atheist and humanist communities, the lack of recognition or support for atheists and humanists — that implication can be solved primarily through the chaplains’ corps,” he says.

Torpy says he has felt excluded in the military because of his beliefs. Once, before his unit deployed on a mission, the commander gathered everyone together for a Christian prayer.

“So I had to opt myself out of that situation, to out myself because this commander took it upon himself to have a personal religious activity in the midst of a military mission,” he says.

While some might wonder what role atheists could fill in the chaplaincy, Torpy says they would be able to do the same job as any other chaplain who assists someone with different beliefs.

“There are individuals that, they don’t have those traditional religious perspectives, and some of those individuals want to serve as officers in the military,” he says. “That’s how they want to serve the nation, to do chaplain work, and they can do that in a way that Christians can’t do it.”

So far, he says, he’s gotten a tepid response from the Chaplain Corps generals. They haven’t shown any interest in seriously pursuing his proposal, but they haven’t made a flat-out refusal.

“If they do that,” he says, “they’re saying that we are going to exclude and take no time to understand a certain subset of the population.”