Quick take on religion
Differing faith traditions have caused conflict which has even led to torture and death, as this Sunday’s first reading reminds us. For a better way of trying to understand each other, some are borrowing a page from the speed-dating format. "Speedfaithing" . . .
Differing faith traditions have caused conflict which has even led to torture and death, as this Sunday’s first reading reminds us. For a better way of trying understand each other, some are borrowing a page from the popular speed-dating format of meeting a lot of people for a few minutes at a time. "Speedfaithing"—explaining your faith to the curious in 10 minutes—or speed-dating for religion, as it is described, is gaining interest among curious students on college campuses.
Dozens of students at the University of California Irvine raced from room to room one recent evening to listen to religious students (and two atheists) break down the core tenets of their belief system while on the clock; "Is it required to wear wraps on your head?" "What exactly do you do on a mission?" "Do you go to an atheist church?"
Before students began faith-shopping, organizers offered a little advice: Don't see it as an opportunity for debate. Just listen. And keep it short. "You obviously can't learn everything about a religion in 10 minutes and that's not the point," said Karina Hamilton, director of the Dalai Lama Scholars Program at UC Irvine.
Speedfaithing was developed by Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based nonprofit that promotes religious tolerance, as a way to help young people interact with members of diverse faiths. Since it began in 2005, similar events have been held at colleges across the country.
"In Orange County we have tremendous diversity," said Raid Faraj, diversity educator for the school's Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity. "We have members of almost every major religious faith you can think of. . . . This is an opportunity to create a safe environment for people to come together and ask questions."
Homily hint: Perhaps it is inevitable in the age of the instant message and short attention spans that reducing millennia of faith tradition to 10 minutes would become popular. On the other hand Jesus reminds us that our God is God of the living, and as long as people are gathered together the seed of faith can be planted in a moment or a word.
Dozens of students at the University of California Irvine raced from room to room one recent evening to listen to religious students (and two atheists) break down the core tenets of their belief system while on the clock; "Is it required to wear wraps on your head?" "What exactly do you do on a mission?" "Do you go to an atheist church?"
Before students began faith-shopping, organizers offered a little advice: Don't see it as an opportunity for debate. Just listen. And keep it short. "You obviously can't learn everything about a religion in 10 minutes and that's not the point," said Karina Hamilton, director of the Dalai Lama Scholars Program at UC Irvine.
Speedfaithing was developed by Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based nonprofit that promotes religious tolerance, as a way to help young people interact with members of diverse faiths. Since it began in 2005, similar events have been held at colleges across the country.
"In Orange County we have tremendous diversity," said Raid Faraj, diversity educator for the school's Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity. "We have members of almost every major religious faith you can think of. . . . This is an opportunity to create a safe environment for people to come together and ask questions."
Homily hint: Perhaps it is inevitable in the age of the instant message and short attention spans that reducing millennia of faith tradition to 10 minutes would become popular. On the other hand Jesus reminds us that our God is God of the living, and as long as people are gathered together the seed of faith can be planted in a moment or a word.
Source: An article by Paloma Esquivel for the Los Angeles Times