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Three Interfaith Conferences in

Two Months

Thanks to

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“Praying With Our Feet,” Interfaith Religious Activists at the “Unite the Right Rally” in Charlottesville - 2017

https://www.christiancentury.org/article/faith-leaders-front-lines-charlottesville

August 2017

The Unite the Right rally on August 12, by some estimates the largest such demonstration in a decade, was held to oppose the Charlottesville city council’s decision to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from a city park, an action currently on hold because of a lawsuit.

Seth Wispelwey, an organizer of clergy efforts when white nationalists and neo-Nazis rallied in his hometown.

“White supremacy is woven into our country’s DNA,” he said in comments on the event gathered by the National Council of Churches. In efforts to counter racism, “the white church must help lead.”

An interfaith group of hundreds of clergy gathered alongside Black Lives Matter activists and other antiracist and antifascist groups resisting the white supremacist efforts. Churches also provided care for those harmed by the day’s violence, which included a man driving his car into the counterprotesters, killing one woman and injuring dozens.

We literally saved each other’s lives that day.

The night before, people of faith held a prayer service at St. Paul’s Memorial Episcopal Church across from the University of Virginia Rotunda. Traci D. Blackmon, a national officer of the United Church of Christ, was among those who spoke at the standing-room-only service. Unexpectedly, across the street white nationalists gathered for a torch-lit rally, with many raising their arms in the Nazi salute. “A mob was approaching the church,” she told MSNBC, and it was chanting the Nazi slogan “blood and soil,” as well as “white lives matter” and “Jews will not replace us.”

“We were shouted at, we were argued with, we were mocked,” he said. “We didn’t engage them at all.”

the purpose of clergy coming together was to show what love looks like and to “not allow hatred to have the last word,” she wrote in an email. “The message of faith leaders in Charlottesville was not about statues. It was about love. We understand that the removal of statues is merely a symbolic gesture unless we commit ourselves to the transformative work of eradicating racist statutes, revisionist history, and white supremacy in this land.”

Alan Zimmerman, president of Congregation Beth Israel, whose rabbis were among clergy demonstrating, wrote on ReformJudaism.org. “It was a horrific and bloody scene. Soon, we learned that Nazi websites had posted a call to burn our synagogue. . . . Fortunately, it was just talk—but we had already deemed such an attack within the realm of possibilities, taking the precautionary step of removing our Torahs, including a Holocaust scroll, from the premises.”

“As horrible and scary as everything was,” Woodson said, “what will stay with me for the rest of my life is so very many good people coming together.”

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Coming to CSU / Fort Collins in April…

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Interfaith Leadership Summit,

Chicago

August 4-6, 2023

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Founder of Interfaith America

President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships

Eboo Patel

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Simon Greer “Bridging the Gap”

Simon Greer is the Founder of Bridging The Gap and has been involved in social change work for the past 30 years including some of our country’s most divisive political movements and moments.

This work has included working as a community and union organizer in South Carolina in the 1990s, managing security at the turn of the century, global justice protests targeting institutions like the World Bank, engaging in a public battle and eventual reconciliation with Glenn Beck, and hosting a Courageous Conversations series with The Nantucket Project (which includes American Neighbor).

Greer’s work is characterized by deep listening, powerful storytelling, and a search for common good values. All of these are skills he trains leaders to deploy in their efforts to tackle the most pressing issues in our communities.

Trailer (4 minutes) for Bridging the Gap project - https://vimeo.com/796413999/185d8e3ea0

or

https://www.interfaithamerica.org/programs/bridging-the-gap/

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August 14-17

Chicago

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Parade of Faiths

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Sikh Lungar Lunch

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Reverend

Berry Behr

Interfaith Ambassador for

the Emissaries of Divine Light

Sunrise Ranch,

Loveland, Colorado

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June: HUGE Disappointment

“…While an incredibly important set of programs, there is just no university money that can be allocated to it this next academic year.

This work is welcome at the institution, but for the foreseeable future will only be financially supported by interested units at CSU or donor funds.”

Pivot

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CSU Multifaith Partners

Connecting CSU with Local Faith Communities

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Interfaith Engagement Interns

CSU Hillel & Lutheran Campus Ministry

Ruby Wienberg

& Anna Saathoff

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U.S. Projections of Belief Affiliation Trends

Source: Pew Research Trust 2022

Larimer County, CO = 35% religiously unaffiliated

Change is happening - graduates should be prepared - prioritizing religious/belief pluralism offers students professional and civic competencies that position them well to be society’s next leaders.

Christians accounted for about 90% of the population 50 years ago, but as of 2020 that figure had slumped to about 64%.

By 2045, we will be a majority minority nation

"If recent trends in switching [changing one's religious affiliation] hold, we projected that Christians could make up between 35% and 46% of the U.S. population in 2070," said Stephanie Kramer, the senior researcher who led the study.

https://www.npr.org/2022/09/17/1123508069/religion-christianity-muslim-atheist-agnostic-church-lds-pew

Larimer County, CO = 35% religiously unaffiliated -Public Religion Research Institute - https://www.prri.org/research/2020-census-of-american-religion/