On March 7, 2017, faculty, staff, and students of numerous local colleges and universities met with the intention of developing interfaith skills and creating intentional spaces to dialogue about faith, justice, and inclusion. Throughout the day, participants were challenged to examine their relationships and communication through an intersectional, empathetic lens and develop best practices to enrich our relationships not only with students and colleagues, but also with ourselves. From empathy, understanding, and loving other people, we find true learning and connection.
To begin the day, Eboo Patel, author, leader, and founder of Interfaith Youth Core, presented an engaging lecture that took attendees through integral and influential historical leaders of faith such as Dorothy Day, Woodie Guthrie, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to develop of a case for promoting understanding of difference, empowering people, and finding qualities in others that create connection and communication.
Patel argued that we can examine aspects of our own faith that allows us to develop an understanding of another person’s practice, which can “create spaces that make it easier for people to cooperate.” Additionally, Patel noted that the cross was two lines—one vertical line up to the Divine with the horizontal connecting us to other people. In this, Patel referenced Dorothy Day’s perspective that “You love God by loving other people.”
We as humans must connect with each other, empathize, and begin to understand one another if we are to live peacefully as a global community. Hate will only destroy us—if we can learn about others’ backgrounds, religions, values, and beliefs we can start to celebrate and lift each other up rather than closing ourselves off from each other.
As an educator, Patel’s words, as well as the afternoon higher education working group with members of his organization, stayed with me. In teaching social justice, we need to be open to the varying degrees of experience of our students, the different developmental levels, as well as the different identities and worldviews our students hold. And when we eventually do differ in terms of our beliefs, lived experiences, and values as it relates to our religions, races, gender identities, abilities, sexual orientations, politics, nationalities, ethnicities, etc., we need to think about how we can listen to and celebrate each other for those things and meet each other in a place that challenges the conversation to move forward and not stay stagnant.
How can we embrace each viewpoint and facilitate a greater conversation that truly promotes the learning goals and outcomes of assignments, classroom dialogues, extracurricular programming, and leadership development of our students? This we can do as facilitators by actively listening to what is said in times of group conflict and by asking deeper, more intentional questions to look at the root of what’s occurring. We can engage our students to listen to the underlying messages and ask real and respectful questions. We can ask ourselves to love in times of disagreements and to not ignore difference. We just might be surprised what we learn when we face difference with open and supporting arms.