Set #3: Interfaith Dialogue Group
Interfaith groups and dialogues have become visible in recent years, in schools, colleges, places of work and in local communities. How would you go about organizing one? What would be the challenges to establishing such a group and what networks or resources would support such efforts? Begin your answer, please, with the historical and contextual issues regarding religious oppression. You can draw those patterns of oppression and discrimination from the Context and Voices section. After all, if you don’t know what the problems are, you can’t take a step towards improving the situation.
Edwards describes the conditions necessary if one wants to root such interfaith dialogue in social justice practice. What are those conditions? How would you frame your interfaith dialogues within a social justice orientation? Why would a social justice perspective be valuable in your interfaith dialogue group? How would it change dialogue and interactions within that group? What issues might it raise that might be ignored otherwise? What steps do you think could be taken to carry the effort further?
The Pluralism Project from Harvard University (www.pluralism.org/interfaith/ ) provide examples to compare with Edwards discussion. Paul Kivel offers additional resources on his website (http://paulkivel.com/about-paul/ ).
