A CHORUS OF FAITHS
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Youth
WORKSHOP 4: IT MATTERS WHAT WE BELIEVE
BY RENEE RUCHOTZKE AND HANNAH MCCONNAUGHAY
© Copyright 2010 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 9/29/2014 7:44:55 PM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
Our first task in approaching another people, another culture is to take off our shoes, for the place we are approaching is holy. Else we find ourselves treading on another's dream. More serious still, we may forget that God was there before our arrival. — Max Warren (1904-1977), General Secretary of the Anglican Church Missionary Council
O mankind! We created you of a male and a female, and have made you nations and tribes that ye may come to know one another. — Quran (Hujurat 49:13)
This workshop provides an opportunity to think about the practices and beliefs of other faith traditions and the Unitarian Universalist commitment to antiracism, anti-oppression and multiculturalism. Due to the sensitive nature of the topics, participants are likely to make mistakes. Help them work through these mistakes in an atmosphere of forgiveness and grace.
GOALS
This workshop will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
WORKSHOP-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Opening | 5 |
Activity 1: Story — We Are Each Other's Business | 15 |
Activity 2: What Do You Know about Other Religions? | 25 |
Activity 3: Whose Story Is It? | 25 |
Activity 4: The Power of Promises | 15 |
Faith in Action: Religious Bullying | |
Closing | 5 |
Alternate Activity 1: Bridges of Understanding | 30 |
Alternate Activity 2: Planning the Interfaith Service Event, Part 4 | |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
If the concept of cultural misappropriation is unfamiliar to you, explore the resources offered in Find Out More. Reflect on your own experiences. Have there been times you might have borrowed something from another faith or culture without much thought? Have you encountered a misrepresentation or misuse of something from your own faith or culture?
WORKSHOP PLAN
OPENING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants to wear name tags. Gather the group in a circle.
Ask a participant to light the chalice.
Be aware that the alignment of participants in the circle will vary from workshop to workshop. If you have observed the same youth having repeated turns to read while others do not, ask for those who have not yet read and invite them to start this reading. Of course, participants may pass if they do not wish to read.
Distribute copies of Singing the Living Tradition and invite volunteers to each read a paragraph from Reading 657, "It Matters What We Believe," by Sophia Lyon Fahs.
After the reading, say:
The Unitarian Universalist minister Alice Blair Wesley pointed out that though it matters what we believe, "... it matters most what we love. The free church is an organization we establish and join so that we may help each other to find... what are our own worthiest loves, and ... what these loves now require of us, if we would be loyal in the most meaningful sense, in what we do, in our actions, in the way we live."
In past workshops, we have talked about the ways we all are alike. For example, all major religions call on adherents to serve those in need, and, we all share the same human wants and needs. Today we are going to acknowledge that we are also different. People in different faith communities sometimes love and are devoted to different values and ways of being in the world. In this workshop, we will engage with ideas about how we can be sensitive to the religious commitments and cultures of others.
ACTIVITY 1: STORY — WE ARE EACH OTHER'S BUSINESS (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants explore issues of religious bigotry and their own responsibility through the story of Eboo Patel, founder of the Interfaith Youth Core.
Tell or read the story. Or, distribute copies to participants and have volunteers read aloud, taking turns at each sentence or paragraph. Remind the group that anyone has the right to pass. Or, if you have set up the audio stream, play the clip of Eboo Patel reading the selection.
Then, lead a short discussion using these questions:
ACTIVITY 2: WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT OTHER RELIGIONS? (25 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants begin building their religious literacy and receive resources for future inquiry.
Distribute Handout 1, Religious Literacy Quiz, and pens or pencils. Say, in you own words:
Take a few minutes to answer as many of these questions as you can. This is not a contest, and it is possible you may not know any of the answers! Seeing how you do will help us figure out what you need to learn.
Give participants a few minutes—requesting silence, if needed—to write their answers. When participants finish, read the questions aloud, one at a time, soliciting answers from participants. Use Leader Resource 1, Religious Literacy Quiz Answers, to share any correct answers the youth do not offer. After each answer (or only for select questions, if you have less time), ask the "Follow-Up Question" and discuss with participants; the follow-up material demonstrates the relevance of religious literacy to everyday interactions. Once you have discussed all answers, facilitate a short, final debrief with questions such as:
ACTIVITY 3: WHOSE STORY IS IT? (25 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants explore and reflect on issues of cultural misappropriation, using a method similar to Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed.
Say, in your own words:
Unitarian Universalism includes traditions drawn from many Sources, including "wisdom from the world's religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life." We also understand that religious expression is grounded in a cultural context—that is, we do not expect everyone's religious expression to be alike. This understanding gives us an attitude of openness to different religious expressions and practices.
But there is a shadow side to our attitude of openness. We may be tempted to borrow freely from other religious traditions without being respectful of that tradition. In situations where a tradition has been repressed or oppressed, such as Native American religious traditions, reckless borrowing only adds to the oppression.
Distribute Handout 2, Considerations for Cultural Borrowing — Questions to Ask (and Answer). Have volunteers take turns reading the handout aloud.
Say, in your own words:
We will now play a game that will help us engage with some of the issues associated with cultural appropriation.
Ask for volunteers for these roles:
Have the anthropologist leave the room. Then invite the storyteller to tell a story from their family tradition. After the storytelling, have the anthropologist return. Ask a group of participants to act out the tradition as they understood it from the storyteller. Tell the storyteller they may not comment while the actors are retelling the story.
Once the actors complete their presentation, invite the anthropologist to interpret the meaning of the tradition.
Finally, invite the storyteller to critique both the acting of the story and the interpretation. Ask the storyteller to share any feelings that came up during the process. You might ask:
Invite the whole group to reflect on these questions:
ACTIVITY 4: THE POWER OF PROMISES (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Say, in your own words:
The covenant is what makes free religious communities possible. It is not a rule that is enforced by a church hierarchy; rather it is an explicit expression of the relationship among the members of the congregation, with a mission and vision which transcend the congregation.
Ask:
Write suggestions on the additional newsprint.
Say, in your own words:
One of the gifts that we, as Unitarian Universalists, bring to interfaith work is the experience in our own congregations of working together toward a shared goal without necessarily a shared theology. We are able to do this in our congregations because we are in covenantal relationship with one another.
The word "covenant" has an explicit religious meaning for Unitarian Universalists and other religions that are congregational in governance. A covenant is an explicit promise we make to one another to be in community together with integrity and with a commitment to the spirit of love or to our shared understanding of the Divine. It allows us to set aside our differences of belief to work for the common good. It helps create an environment of trust and good will.
In our upcoming interfaith service project, we want to use some of the elements found in our covenants to develop interpersonal guidelines in order to create a safe space for interfaith work.
We have also learned a little about what we do and do not know about other faiths, and we have been exposed to the potential problem of cultural misappropriation. As interfaith leaders, how will you help to create a safe space that is sensitive to differences while still making room for meaningful work and discussion?
Write participants' contributions on newsprint.
If these points do not arise from the group, suggest:
Invite the group to plan a discussion about creating safe space during the next meeting with partners.
Including All Participants
If the brainstorming exercise is too abstract, use examples of working with members of specific faiths (e.g. Muslim, Jewish, Catholic). Draw out the special considerations which might be involved when working with people of each faith.
CLOSING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Say, in your own words:
Today we dealt with some difficult topics, including being sensitive to the religious commitments of others, and to issues of cultural misappropriation.
I'd like you all to take a moment to take some long deep breaths.
Model at least three deep inhales and exhales. Then continue:
In our interfaith work we are going to make mistakes. Part of our religious commitment is to use our mistakes to learn and grow, to learn to forgive ourselves and each other, and to begin again.
Distribute copies of Singing the Living Tradition. Invite volunteers to take turns reading aloud the italicized text to lead the group in the responsive reading "A Litany of Atonement," Reading 637. Remind participants anyone is free to pass if they do not wish to read.
Or, lead the group in singing the musical version of the text, "We Begin Again in Love," Hymn 1037 in Singing the Journey.
Extinguish the chalice. Distribute Taking It Home. Thank and dismiss participants.
FAITH IN ACTION: RELIGIOUS BULLYING
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
In this two-part activity, participants explore issues of religious prejudice in the local community through a story from Eboo Patel, founder of the Interfaith Youth Core.
Part 1
Distribute Handout 3, Religious Prejudice Simmers. Ask volunteers to read the piece aloud, one paragraph per person. Then, engage participants in a conversation about the story, beginning with these questions:
Have participants brainstorm some ideas and write them on newsprint.
Part 2
Gather the group and review policies on bullying they have obtained from their schools. Invite youth to lobby for bullying policies if their school does not have them or to strengthen them, if the policies seem insufficient. Have participants formulate a plan of action. Distribute Handout 4, Anti-Bullying Resources. Brainstorm allies and make plans to solicit their support. How will youth report on their actions and the results? Schedule an additional meeting devoted to anti-bullying action and/or plan to produce and share a written report.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Meet with your co-leaders immediately afterward to reflect on the workshop. Were participants open to the more emotionally difficult activities? How are plans for the interfaith service event progressing? Does the event have a firm date?
TAKING IT HOME
Our first task in approaching another people, another culture is to take off our shoes, for the place we are approaching is holy. Else we find ourselves treading on another's dream. More serious still, we may forget that God was there before our arrival. — Max Warren (1904-1977) General Secretary of the Anglican Church Missionary Council.
O mankind! We created you of a male and a female, and have made you nations and tribes that ye may come to know one another. — Quran (Hujurat 49:13)
IN TODAY'S WORKSHOP... we learned about religious literacy, religious bigotry, and cultural misappropriation. We also learned how our Unitarian Universalist experiences of covenant will help us become interfaith leaders. Here are a few activities to take today's lessons home:
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: BRIDGES OF UNDERSTANDING (30 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Form groups of at least three people each. Say:
Your job is to build a bridge together in your small group, using the available materials. This bridge must be able to be crossed. At the end, you must be able to roll, blow, or otherwise move a marble across the bridge.
What will make this interesting is that each of you will be assigned a deeply held belief about the bridge or the materials we are using to make it. You will be given a sticker that indicates your "building identity." Place it on your shirt so that others can see it. They may have words or a symbol.
Once everyone has a sticker, you will receive a piece of paper further explaining your belief to you. You should NOT show this paper to others. Use the information to guide how you interact with others as you build together.
You have 20 minutes to build a bridge.
As they build, walk around the room to see how participants are handling the challenge of diverse belief systems. Once the time is up, test each bridge with the marble to see which group successfully built a bridge. After the testing is over debrief with the group using the following questions:
Congratulate all participants on their efforts.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 2: PLANNING THE INTERFAITH SERVICE EVENT, PART 4
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants continue work on the interfaith service event.
Review any goals, duties, or activities that happened since the last workshop. Solicit updates and reports from teams or individual leaders. Go through details of any activities that need to happen before the next workshop. Ask if anyone has encountered any obstacles. If so, discuss together how to overcome them, including seeking additional help, if needed.
A CHORUS OF FAITHS: WORKSHOP 4:
STORY: WE ARE EACH OTHER'S BUSINESS
By Eboo Patel, Executive Director, Interfaith Youth Core. Used by permission.
I am an American Muslim. I believe in pluralism. In the Holy Quran, God tells us, ''I created you into diverse nations and tribes that you may come to know one another.'' I believe America is humanity's best opportunity to make God's wish that we come to know one another a reality.
In my office hangs Norman Rockwell's illustration "Freedom of Worship." A Muslim holding a Quran in his hands stands near a Catholic woman fingering her rosary. Other figures have their hands folded in prayer and their eyes filled with piety. They stand shoulder-to-shoulder facing the same direction, comfortable with the presence of one another and yet apart. It is a vivid depiction of a group living in peace with its diversity, yet not exploring it.
We live in a world where the forces that seek to divide us are strong. To overcome them, we must do more than simply stand next to one another in silence.
I attended high school in the western suburbs of Chicago. The group I ate lunch with included a Jew, a Mormon, a Hindu, a Catholic, and a Lutheran. We were all devout to a degree, but we almost never talked about religion. Somebody would announce at the table that they couldn't eat a certain kind of food, or any food at all, for a period of time. We all knew religion hovered behind this, but nobody ever offered any explanation deeper than ''my mom said,'' and nobody ever asked for one.
A few years after we graduated, my Jewish friend from the lunchroom reminded me of an experience we both wish had never happened. A group of thugs in our high school had taken to scrawling anti-Semitic slurs on classroom desks and shouting them in the hallway.
I did not confront them. I did not comfort my Jewish friend. Instead I averted my eyes from their bigotry, and I avoided my friend because I couldn't stand to face him.
My friend told me he feared coming to school those days, and he felt abandoned as he watched his close friends do nothing. Hearing him tell me of his suffering and my complicity is the single most humiliating experience of my life.
My friend needed more than my silent presence at the lunch table. I realize now that to believe in pluralism means I need the courage to act on it. Action is what separates a belief from an opinion. Beliefs are imprinted through actions.
In the words of the great American poet Gwendolyn Brooks: "We are each other's business; we are each other's harvest; we are each other's magnitude and bond."
I cannot go back in time and take away the suffering of my Jewish friend, but through action I can prevent it from happening to others.
A CHORUS OF FAITHS: WORKSHOP 4:
HANDOUT 1: RELIGIOUS LITERACY QUIZ
1. Which is the third largest religion (in number of adherents) in the world?
a. Atheism/Agnosticism
b. Judaism
c. Hinduism
d. Buddhism
2. True or False: Unitarian Universalism resulted from the merger of two religions — Unitarianism and Universalism — that were both more than 200 years olds.
3. Abraham is considered the founder of which religion?
a. Judaism
b. Christianity
c. Islam
d. all of the above
4. Which of these is NOT one of the Ten Commandments?
a. remember the Sabbath and keep it holy
b. do not use the name of the Lord in vain
c. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
d. honor thy mother and father
5. What famous act did David commit?
a. killing Goliath with a slingshot
b. killing Goliath with a bow and arrow
c. making wise decisions
d. possessing a coat of may colors
6 Jesus had how many disciples?
a. 10
b. 40
c. 6
d. 12
7. True or False: Catholics are Christians.
8. Which of these is NOT one of the five pillars of Islam?
a. make a pilgrimage to Mecca
b. pray five times a day
c. marry only another Muslim
d. give to the poor
9. Which is true about the Buddha?
a. he was born human but became a god
b. he was born royalty
c. he was born in Japan
d. he was born by a virgin
10. True or False: You cannot be a humanist and be religious.
11. What do Hindus worship?
a. cows
b. the Ganges river
c. the god, Brahman, in all its manifestations
d. all of the above
12. True or False: Jehovah Witnesses believe humans can become gods.
A CHORUS OF FAITHS: WORKSHOP 4:
HANDOUT 2: CONSIDERATIONS FOR CULTURAL BORROWING — QUESTIONS TO ASK (AND ANSWER)
Prepared by the 2003 UUA Cultural (Mis) Appropriations Ad Hoc Committee, Judith A. Frediani, chair. This document can also be found here on the website of the Unitarian Universalist Association.
This is a comprehensive set of questions to consider when potentially integrating culture specific practices into Unitarian Universalist worship and teaching.
Motivation
Goal
Context
Preparation
Relationship
Identity
Adaptation
Language
A CHORUS OF FAITHS: WORKSHOP 4:
HANDOUT 3: RELIGIOUS PREJUDICE SIMMERS
By Eboo Patel, originally published in USA Today. Used by permission.
"I hate pizza day at school," my nephew announced at my family's annual holiday dinner.
That sounded strange coming from a 14-year-old boy, so I asked for an explanation.
"Well, there's only two kinds—cheese and pepperoni. Once, when all the cheese pizza was gone, I ate only breadsticks for lunch and all the kids asked why I wasn't eating the pepperoni pizza. I told them it's because I'm Muslim and we don't eat pork. Big mistake."
On a typical day at his school in suburban Houston (ranked one of the top public schools in the country, academically), he's pushed around on the playground, called "terrorist" and "towel head" by bullies and fair-weather friends alike, and asked sneering questions such as "When are you coming to bomb my house?"
In fact, any time the word "bomb" comes up at all—in a lesson on a war in history, in a novel in literature class—kids start laughing and pointing at him.
It's a problem that's affecting his slang.
"Everybody's favorite phrase is 'That's the bomb.' You know, like 'That video game's the bomb.' But I can't say that because kids will make fun of me."
What's a parent to do?
"Do the teachers know this is going on?" I asked.
"Sure, they see it and they hear it. But they'd rather not get involved. Mostly, they just pretend that it's not there."
"I've told him I can come to his school and talk to the principal, the teachers, the kids, whoever," said his father, an immigrant from India who works as an engineer and moved to this particular suburb for the good schools and seeming openness to diversity.
My nephew reacted like I would have when I was 14—as if he'd rather be run over by a truck than have his father come to school to talk about what a great religion Islam is, suggest to the students that they stop teasing his son, and ask his teachers to pay a little more attention to the growing cancer of religious prejudice that's now infecting his son.
His dad sighed. "So we just accept that he's going to be a Muslim at home but not talk about it outside."
That's part of what the great African American scholar W.E.B. Du Bois famously called double-consciousness. He was referring to blacks in America, but like much of the best of African American social thought and literature, the concept applies equally to others, and I think it is particularly relevant for young Muslims today. Double-consciousness is not just being one thing at home and another thing outside. It's the added confusion and frustration of knowing that the thing you are at home is reviled by the outside world.
Extremists are going to continue their terrorist attempts. Islamophobes will no doubt happily point to each one and say, "That's the real Islam." Cable news can be counted on to carry the message of this unholy alliance. And while we can argue whether Muslim leaders are doing enough to combat extremism in the name of Islam, surely we can agree that American Muslim teenagers should not experience discrimination as a result of all this, and that schools should not blithely permit such prejudice to roam their hallways and visit their classrooms.
Schools have already made that decision when it comes to racial prejudice. When I asked my nephew whether racial slurs such as the N-word were ever used in his school, he looked horrified and said that, outside of hip-hop talk, he had hardly heard it. "If a student at your school used that word in the hallway and a teacher heard it, what would that teacher do?" I asked.
"The teacher would take that kid straight to the principal's office, and he'd get like a thousand years of detention."
Prejudice elsewhere
I'm glad that America has evolved to the point where racial prejudice is simply not tolerated, and I'm glad that schools have taken the lead. I'm wondering why religious prejudice isn't in that same category.
Earlier this year, a Gallup Center for Muslim Studies report found that more than 40 percent of Americans feel at least "a little" prejudice toward Muslims. Compare this with the 14-18 percent of Americans who feel the same about Christians, Jews, or Buddhists, and you'll see why my nephew feels that his school can be a hostile environment for Muslims.
And though the prejudice is considerably lower for other religious communities, this isn't something that just Muslims face. The 2008 presidential election revealed embarrassing amounts of prejudice directed at Mormons (Mitt Romney) and Pentecostals (Sarah Palin).
All Americans, religious or not, have a stake in advancing our country to a stage where religious prejudice is deemed unacceptable. It's part of what it means to be a good society.
One step in the right direction would be for schools to declare themselves "No Prejudice Zones," and for teachers and administrators to patrol religious insults with the same vigor that they do other slurs.
A CHORUS OF FAITHS: WORKSHOP 4:
HANDOUT 4: ANTI-BULLYING RESOURCES
Websites and online programs
Stop Bullying Now (at www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov/kids/default.aspx) website of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Committee for Children (at www.cfchildren.org/programs/str/overview/), creator of the "Second Step" (at www.cfchildren.org/programs/ssp/overview/) violence prevention program
Pacer Center's Teens Against Bullying (at www.pacerteensagainstbullying.org/)
National Crime Prevention Council's Anti-Cyberbullying Campaign (at www.ncpc.org/cyberbullying)
Books
Don't Pick on Me by Susan Eikov Green (Oakland, CA: Instant Help Books, 2010)
Living with Peer Pressure and Bullying by Thomas Paul Tarshis (New York: Checkmark Books, 2010)
Sticks and Stones: Teens Write About Bullying, Keith Hefner and Hope Vanderberg, eds. (New York: Youth Communication, 2009)
Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying by Sameer Hinduia and Justin W. Patchin (Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 2008)
Catalog of anti-bullying resources
Free Spirit Publishers (at www.freespirit.com/catalog/catalog_detail.cfm?CAT_ID=32)
A CHORUS OF FAITHS: WORKSHOP 4:
LEADER RESOURCE 1: RELIGIOUS LITERACY QUIZ ANSWERS
1. a. Atheism/Agnosticism
2. True.
3. d. all of the above
4. Which of these is NOT one of the Ten Commandments? c. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
5. What famous act did David commit? a. killing Goliath with a slingshot
6. Jesus had how many disciples? d. 12
7. True.
8. Which of these is NOT one of the five pillars of Islam? c. marry only another Muslim
9. Which is true about the Buddha: b. he was born royalty
10. False: You can be a humanist and be religious.
11. What do Hindus worship? c. the god, Brahman, in all its manifestations
12. False: Jehovah Witnesses do not believe humans can become gods.
A CHORUS OF FAITHS: WORKSHOP 4:
LEADER RESOURCE 2: BELIEF ASSIGNMENTS AND NAME TAGS
Activity created by Prerna Abbi. Used by permission.
Name Tag Stickers
Print a variety of these stickers for participants to wear for others to see. For some stickers, write the accompanying "identity" clearly where others can see it. For other stickers, write the "identity" on the back so no one but the wearer will know it.
Detailed Belief Cards
Print the following belief cards out for only participants to see, attaching each one to an appropriate "identity" sticker (I.e., Any "No green straws" card can go with an "identity" sticker that has a blue circles; any "Height is glory" card can go with a sticker that has a red diamond.
FIND OUT MORE
Explore the history of covenant in Unitarian Universalism by reading The Lay and Liberal Doctrine of the Church: The Spirit and the Promise of Our Covenant (at www.minnslectures.org/archive/wesley/wesley.htm), the 2000-2001 Minns Lecture by Alice Blair Wesley.
More information on Unitarian Universalists' commitment to avoid cultural misappropriation can be found here (at www.uua.org/leaders/idbm/multiculturalism/misappropriation/23371.shtml).
Read more of Eboo Patel's story in his book Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation (Boston: Beacon Press, 2008).
Safe Space Guidelines (at www.ifyc.org/system/files/Safe+Space+Guidelines.pdf) specifically for interfaith work are available from the Interfaith Youth Core (at www.ifyc.org).
Find more activities like that in Activity 3, Whose Story Is It? in Augusto Boal's book Games for Actors and Non-Actors (New York: Routledge, 2002). For a more theoretical understanding, read Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed (New York: Theater Communications Group, 1979).
Learn about a variety of religions and their practices in How to Be a Perfect Stranger: A Guide to Etiquette in Other People's Religious Ceremonies Vols. I and II, Arthur J. Madida and Stuart M. Matlins, eds. (Woodstock, VT: Skylight Paths Publishing, 1999).