Zack Tabor - Religious Communities in Cooperation--not just Dialogue

I think that when the class began, I had a rare perspective of interfaith interactions, at least as far as the class is concerned. I think that most of my colleagues joined the course with the community service as their primary focus, and that they expected the interfaith element to be means to that end. In many ways, they were right. I have had a sizeable amount of experience in interfaith work, however, and my experiences had always seemed to suggest something different. I had come to believe that interfaith dialogue always existed at worst as a sort of ‘conference of the religious,’ in which a diverse group of people talked across a room at each other in a very civil, yet disconnected way, and at most, in the ideal, a setting in which individuals of various religious backgrounds come together to really know each other and connect in meaningful ways, and then spread a sort of good faith and understanding outwards in their respective networks. I have had dozens of beautiful experiences such as this, and so I did not feel that a social justice or community action component necessarily had to be a part of an interfaith experience in order for it to work. In many ways, I was right, in that this class was very often a perfect embodiment of everything that I had hoped for on a personal, individual basis from interfaith dialogue.

However, the social action component that I had always recognized as valid, and always decided was extremely necessary to a functioning society, I had always written off or separated from interfaith group as something else. I saw interfaith as a means for understanding, and community service as a means for, well, serving the community. I had never made a real connection between the two—in part because most of my interfaith experience has dealt with student groups, and there has often been the lingering question as to how much impact a small student group could actually have—but also in part due to the fact that I didn’t see how service was necessarily a part of a functioning interfaith system. I don’t think I fully realized until this semester how important physical interaction and personal relationships are to interfaith experiences. I really discovered through this class how significantly shared time and experiences can bolster the comfortability, confidence and willingness to participate that are so essential to successful any kind of dialogue between various groups and individuals who have different opinions or backgrounds relating to the subject at hand. I have learned that community service is, if done in efficient, meaningful, impactful ways, the most effective tool in bringing together people of different perspectives and allowing them to foster relationships and understanding.

I have also gained a greater understanding and appreciation for the amount of dedication involved in really trying to make a difference. Not only do long term goals and impacts require countless hours and resources, they also require an extreme amount of wisdom and insight in terms of effectively planning how to combat social ills. And really, this is the reason that people of all kinds want to get involved in community service. People want to make a difference. I want to make a difference, but I hadn’t realized the distinction between varying types of service, such as immediate charity and long term social justice. I hadn’t realized the complexities of how these different types of service affect communities, as well as how they impact each other in the short and long term. I hadn’t realized that these difficulties often discourage, and eventually burn out those who look to make a difference, but get exhausted by the monumental scale and the endless nature of helping those in need, whether it be through direct, immediate, or indirect, long term methods.

But I personally am not discouraged, because this course has emphasized for me most of all that interfaith can work to bring together large groups of people from widely divergent walks of life in order to contend with these complex issues. Interfaith groups can draw from already existent networks and rely on the driving force of grass roots faith based movements. Interfaith, ideally, has the capability to represent all people in all communities, whether they come from religious traditions or not, and has the ability to build lasting relationships between these people in order accomplish goals and also simply for the sake of understanding and caring for one another. Yes interfaith functions promote for incredible dialogue and provide ample opportunities for individuals of all different backgrounds to understand one another, but I have discovered that they can also do much more. They can change society for the better in ways that other organizations cannot, because of the strong connections formed between diverse communities. This class has urged me to extend my interfaith experiences beyond the realms of dialogue and into the realm of action. Interfaith has the potential of benefitting our pluralistic society in long lasting and significant ways, and this class has inspired me to pursue this potential with as much dedication as I have previously dedicated and will continue to dedicate to interfaith dialogue as a means of understanding and acceptance amongst people of diverse religious backgrounds.