Eboo Patel and the Interfaith Youth Core Visit Luther
The Opening Convocation at Luther College is always a wonderful event as the community welcomes new first-year and transfer students to the college. This year, the inspiring and empowering words of the speaker, Dr. Eboo Patel, challenged us work together for the “equal dignity and mutual loyalty” of all people. Patel is the founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core and author of Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation. The book was the assigned summer read for all first-year Paideia students. 
In Acts of Faith, Patel identifies “the faith divide” between religious extremists and religious pluralists as one of the biggest issues in the twenty-first century. Patel challenged students to be religious pluralists, “who hold that people believing in different creeds and belonging to different communities need to learn to live together”. Patel defined religious pluralism as “neither mere coexistence nor forced consensus. It is a form of proactive cooperation that affirms the identity of the constituent communities while emphasizing that the well-being of each and all depends on the health of the whole. It is the belief that the common good is best served when each community has a chance to make its unique contribution” (XV). Patel targets youth as interfaith leaders because he understands the passion and vigor that young people are willing to give to a cause.
The reading was suggested by Karishma Sushilkumar, a current student at Luther. Again this year, a grant from Luther’s Sense of Vocation program made it possible for faculty and staff to receive a free copy of the book so that they could be part of a larger campus conversation around the themes of the book. Additionally, a number of people from the broader Decorah community participated in the conversation by forming book study groups on Acts of Faith.
Patel’s visit to helped to launch the college’s 2009-2010 Interfaith Initiative. The initiative, a partnership between College Ministries and the Diversity Center, intends to support the Luther community members with opportunities to “deepen awareness of their personal faith journeys while also growing in their understanding and respect of diverse faith traditions”.
The Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) has been instrumental to the Interfaith Initiative. IFYC, based out of Chicago, encourages youth to build relationships with others from different religious traditions through shared values and cooperative service. Becca Hartman, a trainer from IFYC, accompanied Patel to Luther and offered a number of workshops and resources for faculty, students, and the general public concerning interfaith leadership and religious pluralism.
“Common Action for the Common Good,” a soup supper workshop was primarily targeted toward College Ministry and Diversity Center student leaders. Hartman provided participants with ways to integrate diverse interfaith dialogue into service activities. The workshop was followed by a “Question and Answer Session with Eboo Patel”. During this session, an assortment of students posed relevant, thought-provoking inquiries that demonstrated their deep analysis of Patel’s book, Acts of Faith. In his response, Patel identified the conflicts among religious extremists and advocated for students to be interfaith leaders, working for the “equal dignity and mutual loyalty” of all people. Patel also provided resources for administration, faculty, staff, and student leaders in an exploratory workshop called “Assessing Religious Pluralism on Your Campus”. A final workshop, “Religious Pluralism 101”encouraged attendees to “change the conversation about religion.”
Through active engagement with Dr. Eboo Patel and the Interfaith Youth Core, the Interfaith Initiative has helped Luther College Ministries to live out a core part of our vision statement to “embrace the creative tension of faith and learning.” Certainly, the acceptance of religious pluralism will not be free of challenges. Yet, Patel implores young people, including the students at Luther College, to resist religious bigotry and extremism by embracing pluralism and interfaith leadership.
