On a rainy Wednesday night in November, over thirty members of the Hamline community and guests all came together to share food, conversation, and stories. Along with my Steering Committee, I had been working on planning and publicizing this event for weeks. Now that the big night had finally come, I was nervous and exhilarated as I watched participants trickle in through the front doors of Manor Main. In my “What If?” t-shirt and plastered with loud, purple “What If?” stickers, I could only hope that the evening would inspire at least one or two people to ask, “What if?”
What if people of all faiths and traditions came together for social justice? What if people of all religious and philosophical backgrounds came together to change the world?
I asked myself, “Can we really get people to ask, ‘What if?’” I had no idea what a loud “YES!” I was going to witness that night!
[This video is a rough cut and does not feature all the clips of our guest speakers or small group discussions. Look out for more photos and videos soon!]
A short film, guest speakers, small group discussions, Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, Gandhi, our own traditions across time and space, our calling as members of a human community, the importance of providing interfaith sponsorship teams to help new families in Minnesota… all of these names and concepts finally came together in one beautiful, inspiring night.
All around me, I watched as people of all genders, racial and ethnic backgrounds, and religious traditions bent their heads together to talk, ask questions, listen, and learn. All around me, the conversation just kept coming.
“My family has a tradition of donating to charity at Christmastime – I bet that would be really helpful!” “He [Malcolm X] never let the racists be his teachers…”
“Gandhi worked based on a concise set of personal principles, and so he simply valued working with other people!”
“The prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him, is an interfaith hero to me and Muslims around the world.”
“I really want to get in on that interfaith sponsorship team idea!”
As our guest presenters shared their own stories, faith and ethical perspectives, and why they feel compelled to do interfaith work for change, I realized that we really were invoking the question, “What if?”
What if people of all faiths and traditions came together for change?
What if you did?
What could you offer?
Join us for our spring social action events as we develop interfaith collaboration for refugee resettlement and helping new families in Minnesota. Look out for our on-campus and off-campus events, especially in February. Together, this is our moment. Together, we can prove we are Better Together!
Many thanks to our guest presenters, Zafar Siddiqui, Meghan Paul-Cook, and Gail Anderson, our Better Together Steering Committee (Megan Dimond, Rola Alkatout, Mikaela Fisher, Saraya Boghani, Adam Zagoria-Moffet, Mikayla Zagoria-Moffet), our friends and partners (Bile Areys, Fatima Showkatian, Ryan Spies, the Wesley Center for Spirituality, Service, and Social Justice), and more!
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