CULTURAL EVENT FORM, SPRING 2020 (Date received: )

Your CODEname: Boots

Name of the Event: Why Interfaith?
Date and Time of the Event: 2/18/2020 6:30-8 pm
Length of the event: 1.5 hours
Would you have likely attended this event, even if not required/for a class assignment?
Yes Maybe No x
How far out of your cultural comfort zone was this event? (highlight answer)
Definitely outside of it Somewhat outside of it Not really outside of it Not at all outside of it

Brief summary of the event (1-2 paragraphs).

This event outlined the importance of interfaith perspectives and the ways in which

Loras has included interfaith as part of their mission. This was a chance for diverse perspectives

and stories to be showcased, which is exactly what interfaith is all about. Even though it is clear

that taking part in interfaith can be difficult it is also an important way to learn about others

and create a change in a world that can be ignorant to other’s experiences.

The event started with Stacia McDermott, Loras College’s director of spiritual life and

peace and justice, discussing Loras’ work with interfaith as well as demonstrating how involving

oneself in interfaith aligns with being Catholic. Loras has worked to associate and communicate

with the community in order to allow the Loras community to interact with many different

faiths and beliefs. Stacia explained that you can explore interfaith while still holding true to your

own faith identity. Interfaith also closely aligns with the Catholic values, so to participate in

interfaith conversations is not against the Catholic religion. Pope Francis also supports interfaith

and the importance of encountering people with love and open dialogue. Next we were able to
hear a unique perspective from Tania Tauseef on her work through interfaith and how it aligns

with her Islamic values. Tania highlighted the idea of coexisting and respecting each other’s

different religions and viewpoints. Her biggest struggle within interfaith work is dealing with

those who are ignorant of others view-points and that ignorance can breed fear and fear can

fuel hate. Yet, she is adamant that we can all make a choice against hate by opening our minds

and taking part in interfaith conversations to educate ourselves on others. The last speaker was

Neely Farren-Eller who spoke about her own journey to interfaith through narrative identity.

Neely explained that narrative identity is who we believe ourselves to be and is made up of our

experiences and stories. Her own narrative was that she grew up being told that those who

practiced other religions that were not hers were seen as “seeds of Satan”. This impacted her

so much that she felt fear to think, communicate, and realize that there was any other story

than what she had been taught. Yet, throughout her life she saw that she could identify with

and understand people from different backgrounds and this eventually led to her realizing the

story she had been told could be wrong. Her main point was that although some stories could

divide us others could help to bring us together by seeing where two people’s stories intersect

and how not only can our stories shape others but also others are shaped by ours if we allow it.

Reflection on the Event—your experience and learning (3-4 thoughtful paragraphs). In this
section you should be trying to make connections to class material. Do NOT resummarize the
event and do NOT focus on whether or not you liked the event.
One major course connection that I made while listening to the different perspectives

on interfaith, was the danger of a single story. As we talked about in class it is very detrimental

to only see something from one story without taking the time to look from diverse perspectives
and knowledge. This applied for each of the speakers in different ways and truly shows how

prevalent a single story can be. Firstly, Stacia spoke on how you can explore interfaith values

while still staying true to your own faith. I believe that sometimes people jump to the single-

story that when you believe a faith that you cannot agree or understand the similarities or

differences within other faiths. Sometimes it can be assumed that people who are strongly

religious can be zealous or not want to budge on their views or even experience views different

than their own. Stacia pointed out that being open to other views and faiths actually can align

with our faith’s values. The danger of a single story was also evident in Tania’s presentation

when she spoke on how ignorance can be a huge detriment to interfaith. Without education on

each other’s views and learning from different perspectives through conversations about

culture and religion, we can fall victim to ignorance which as Tania pointed out can end in hate.

From my own experience, I believe, that many people in the US jump to this single-story based

on ignorance when it comes to targeting certain cultures or religions as terrorists without

realizing that there are good and bad people in each culture and religion. It is incredibly

important to have an open dialogue with others and to educate one another so that we don’t

have a world that uses its ignorance to breed fear and then hate for others. Lastly, Neely shared

a clear example of how a single story had changed how she viewed others and the importance

of eradicating it by hearing stories from others and finding the commonalities you have. Neely

shared a personal story about how her parents and those within her religion had taught her

that her religion was superior and everyone from other religions were seen as evil. This single

story she had received on religion led her to be unwilling to learn about others or their

viewpoints which only fostered not only the single story she had been told, but also the in-
group she had been brought up in. After she had read stories and experiences from those who

her religion had considered evil, she realized that she could relate to them and understand

them and that led her to realize that the single-story she had been told was not true. Once she

was able to hear a plethora of stories from others she was able to lead a life away from that

religion and experience new stories of her own to share with others. All of these examples that

the speakers presented show how much a single story can affect our viewpoints and therefore

the importance of taking part in interfaith and experiencing many stories.

This event also showed the impact of how much an in-group can affect the way we see

an out-group and how interfaith attempts to correct that. In class, we discussed that when

viewing an outgroup, we see homogeneity without appreciating individualism, this can lead to

assumptions or stereotypes about the out-group even when it does not always apply. Interfaith

is about communicating and learning about different religions and taking part in this can lead us

to reanalyze the way we see an out-group. Once we are able to learn more about a religion or

culture we are able to see people more as individuals and appreciate the differences, as well as,

the similarities that we may have. In all of the stories presented by the speakers it was shown

that interfaith is all about going from an out-group to an in-group through communication and

sharing of religion. In Stacia’s speech about how Loras is taking part in interfaith practices

shows that a Catholic college is taking the time to learn from those of other religions outside of

Catholicism which demonstrates this idea of changing out-group to in-group. Tania’s

explanation on how her religion and culture are being attacked due to ignorance shows that

those who see Islam as an out-group are not taking the time to see them as individuals and find

similarities. When Neely shared her narrative identity we were able to see how despite being
told that those of different religions were the out-group she was able to see their similarities

and identify with them so that they were no longer seen as an out-group but as individuals that

she could understand. I believe that the main way we can fight the way our brain likes to

categorize is by being aware of who we determine are in our out-groups and then taking part in

an open dialogue where we can identify the similarities we have. After this event I am more

aware of just how important interfaith can be to diminish these prejudices and create

meaningful differences in the way we view people and their religions.

When Ms. Gleason came into our class to talk about HIV/AIDS, we discussed how people

are quick to blame culture for the outbreak of HIV/AIDS instead of looking at the full picture. I

think that we can almost look at religion in the same lens, there are many people who blame a

religion rather than looking at the real issue or the people who have caused it. Although this

was not directly discussed at the event by either of the speakers, I believe that it is an

important part of why interfaith can be hard and why stereotypes can be so strong within

religion. There are many times throughout history when certain religious groups were targets of

others and stereotypes or assumptions made about that religion was what often drives the

hatred. At the interfaith event, Tania said that perhaps “God tests us by making several nations

who all practice different religions.” Her point was to get past the ignorance or preconceived

notions we may hold for a religion or group since God has created us all. Often when we take an

example of a bad aspect of a religion or people who practice extremely we can create a

stereotype that all people in that religion act that way and then apply it to the whole. This also

could possibly lead to stereotype threat where we affect the way that these people are seen so

much that they decide to live that way. Just as we discussed with HIV/AIDS it is always
important to know all the facts and to not stereotype people as a quick fix to a problem or to

place blame.