Connections Quarterly Winter 2018 - World Religions | Page 31

C RE ATI N G J U S TI C E TO GE THE R hold them, but at their core they are the same values motivating our justice work. language. A concentration on justice, on how our values guide us to act in the world, creates the space for traditional and non-traditional belief systems. You can see this technique—using justice commitments as a way of building interfaith partnership—at work all over the country. Congregation-based community organizing relies on different faiths coming together to work for the common good. Eboo Patel’s In- terfaith Youth Corps engages young people around their faith and their work together. And every natural disaster relief effort de- pends on people of many faiths sharing a commitment to healing. “A concentration on justice, on how our values guide us to act in the world, creates the space for traditional and non-traditional belief systems.” The technique can also be used to facilitate conversation and understanding—even without connection to an actual work project. In many ways, a classroom really is an inter- faith community, although it’s often uninten- tionally or unconsciously so. Students come together for shared learning without an ex- plicit acknowledgment of the many different beliefs and values they bring with them. Talk- ing about faith can be tricky in an educational setting, where some students may be steeped in a particular belief system, others may live entirely secular lives (and perhaps even feel ostracized or oppressed by traditional reli- gions), and others may be in the midst of questioning their own or their parents’ faith. By moving the conversation away from tenets of belief and toward justice commitments, all of those students are invited in more deeply. “Non-believers,” after all, actually do believe in something, often many things—though they may articulate those beliefs in secular It also brings religious beliefs and ethical grounding out of the theoretical and into the students’ lived experience. • How do their values prompt them to treat a new student in school? • How about their response if a friend comes out to them as queer or questioning? • How do their religious or ethical val- ues inform their voting, or their en- gagement in politics? • What about dating—do their reli- gious or ethical values have some- thing to say about how they ap- proach that, both in terms of what kind of sexual activities they engage in and also what they look for in a ro- mantic partner? Continues on page 30 CSEE Connections Winter 2018 Page 29